Life
Robot Wars
Twenty years ago, I was an avid fan of the cult TV programme Robot Wars. Teams of contestants would design…
to 2457: Beginning
Unclued lights suggested a section of the international radio communications alphabet: Bravo (VILLAIN: 6), Charlie (DIMWIT: 16), Delta (DEPOSIT: 19),…
Real life
We went on our first outing, to the beach at Littlehampton, but I’m not sure it was as stress-relieving as…
Puzzle no. 607
White to play, Stockfish–AllieStein, TCEC Season 16. Stockfish found a beautiful knockout blow in this game against a different neural…
Bridge
When did we change from being a nation of curtain-twitching old biddies into one of full-on super-snitches? First a retired…
Low life
Saturday night we ate outside next to the floodlit rock face. Four adult guests came puffing up the path and…
Herculean
In Competition No. 3150 you were invited to submit a sonnet describing one of the labours of Hercules. This challenge…
Hops and dreams
It is enough to drive a man to drink. The most glorious weather, so suitable for white Burgundy on a…
Small wonders
The Tesla Model 3 is an astounding achievement, but one thing baffles me: why do electric cars lack even the…
Scaffold
Whenever I turned on the news last weekend, my husband took to humming the March to the Scaffold from the…
High life
Gstaad Well, Theodora did not wait and I missed yet another grandchild’s birth (the prettiest little blue-eyed thing ever, even…
Dear Mary
Q. Please can you tell me the correct etiquette about signing the visitors book after you are married? Obviously you…
The puppy has won
Will the huge surge in demand for puppies and kittens during lockdown lead to a lot of abandoned pets when…
2459: 22 Down
Six unclued entries (three of three words, and one of two words) can be combined to make a quotation (in…
Swindlers’ art
A lost cause at the chessboard is hard to define, but, like obscenity, I know it when I see it.…
Solution to 2456: So American
Unclued lights are marches by John Philip SOUSA, as hinted by the title: 4/1A, 14/12, 20D, 33A/17, 37/29/26, and 41…
Puzzle no. 606
Tamas Fodor — Michael Adams, Hull 2018. White to play. One from the puzzles section of Smerdon’s book, which I…
The Battle for Britain
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Bridge
One of the drawbacks of online bridge is the lack of après-bridge fun — those spontaneous drinking sessions where we…
Real life
We arrived at the country store with only three minutes to closing time so our chances of scoring horse wormer…
The turf
Horseracing in Britain, which was suspended by coronavirus on 18 March, is due, as I write, to resume on Monday…
Low life
When I first came to this village, I was told that one of the bars was a ‘communist’ bar and…
Spick and span
I Hoovered on Saturday (or vacuumed as they say in newspapers eager to avoid using a trademark) while my husband…
Why aren’t liberals fighting for liberty?
It has become a commonplace among social psychologists that one of the characteristics that unites conservatives is our sensitivity to…
Bridge
Well, what can I say? I have been nowhere. Seen no one. Done nothing. Unless you count watching damaging amounts…
