Life
Dear Mary
Q. A year ago we sent out 150 save-the-date notices for our wedding this December. We are still going ahead,…
Lockdown sceptics are following the science
You probably haven’t heard of the Great Barrington Declaration. This is a petition started by three scientists on 4 October…
Memories of Perry
I had known Perry Worsthorne for several years before I went to work for him in 1986 (horrifying how time…
Are you guilty of ‘genteelism’?
‘Everyone’s been very kind to my husband and I,’ said someone behind me in a (spaced) queue. That is the…
The Covid challenge
The Covid problem lies as much in the delayed action of the virus as in the virus itself. Since symptoms…
The Battle for Britain
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The turf
Fortunately for me and the politicians we entertained over my years covering the darkest profession, Mrs Oakley didn’t do a…
Bridge
‘I have a wonderful hand to show you,’ Gunnar Hallberg exclaimed when I saw him last week. Gunnar is a…
Chess players on ice
We are what we do. Alas, in its zeal to suppress the virus, this government would have many people doing…
Puzzle no. 626
Rapport–Sprenger, Bundesliga, September 2020. The game continued 1 Bxc4 Rxc4 2 Bxe5+ f6 3 Bf4 Rxe4+ 4 Kf3 and was…
2479: Shielded
The unclued lights (one of two words and one hyphened) are of a kind, verifiable in Brewer. Across 10 United…
Solution to 2476: Playtime
The unclued lights form pairs of famous soloists and the instruments they play; 1A/19, 5/34, 23/8, 31/39, 43/16A. First prize…
Letter of the law
In Competition No. 3170, a challenge inspired by Shelley’s assertion that ‘poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world’, you…
Aussie Life & Language
Brendan Ward A re-run of Cathy Freeman’s heart-stopping 400 metre race at the Sydney Olympics in September 2000 recently animated…
Kiwi Life
Once upon a time here in New Zealand, when political dinosaurs still roamed the earth, Prime Minister Keith Holyoake startled…
Bridge
One of the things that makes bridge so endlessly fascinating is that it is forever changing and growing. At high…
High life
Gstaad Juliette Gréco’s recent death in her nineties brought back some melodramatic memories. In 1957 Gréco was one of France’s…
Low life
My French friend André speaks perfect English and is the kindest of men. After reading last week about my futile…
Real life
‘Please be aware there is now a Covid surcharge,’ I told the builder boyfriend one morning, as we discussed the…
Puzzle no. 625
Black to play. Khodashneli — Willow, European Online Youth Championship U18, September 2020. White has just advanced 40 g3-g4, and…
2478: Namesakes
Clockwise round the grid from 3 run three song titles (totalling 13 words) with 3D/16 (five words in all) giving…
In my end is my beginning
In Competition No. 3169 you were invited to submit a poem about autumn in which the last letter of each…
Solution to 2475: Poem VI
The poem was The Brook by Alfred Tennyson. The words were HERN (8A), LINGER (20), BRIMMING (32A), FLOW (40), TROUT…
A trout in the milk?
I can’t tell you why the Armenian grandmaster Tigran Petrosian was found guilty of cheating last month, because I don’t…
The Battle for Britain
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