Life
That’s chemistry
In Competition No. 3059 you were invited to supply a poem inspired by the periodic table. The writer and chemist…
2370: Problem XII
Fans of classic 12 will know that where ‘Q’ = ‘the number of’: Q26 x Q1D x (Q34 + [Q36D/5A…
to 2367: When pigs fly
The quotation ‘NEVER (1A), NEVER (35), NEVER (41), NEVER (7), NEVER (32)!’ is from King Lear (V.iii.310). Lear was the…
Joining the Twitchfork mob is not the answer
This summer has seen yet another group of thought criminals being mobbed on social media. Some of them are the…
The battle for Britain
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There is nothing that makes you more anxious than being rich
H.L. Mencken once said that a rich man is anyone who earns more than his wife’s sister’s husband. The anthropologist…
Dear Mary: Help! My husband won’t wash his hands after going to the loo
Q. My husband doesn’t wash his hands after spending a penny and he doesn’t wash his hands after ‘spending tuppence’,…
The pleasures of mindful drinking
When I was at school, some time before the last ice age, the final day of term was a quasi-holiday.…
Signage
My husband, in company with a similarly superannuated medic on the unfamiliar London Underground, was bidden at Baker Street to…
The books and novelists I have read
Reading is the best antidote to debauchery I know of, and I’ve been hitting the books lately. History mostly. Once…
At 62, I’m looking for a hole in a rock
Towering above this medieval French village is dun-coloured cliff of volcanic rock, dramatically floodlit at night, topped by two ancient…
Stefano is a tonic, and I love him
Stefano came back to paint the front of the house. I have never been so pleased to see his red…
Wild life
Maasai Mara Last night the hyenas made off with our fudge cake. We are camped with a group of…
Bridge
It’s hard to explain to non-bridge players just how all-consuming this game is. For those of us who move in…
Fiend from Hull
This year’s British Championship commences today in Hull. Among a powerful field, which includes Michael Adams and defending champion Gawain…
no. 516
Black to play. This position is from Brown-Adams, British Championship, Bournemouth 2016. Black has various ways to force mate but…
Tourist misinformation
In Competition No. 3058 you were invited to supply snippets of mischievously/sadistically misleading advice for foreign tourists visiting Britain, or…
2369: Prodigious
Each of ten clues contains a misprinted letter in the definition part. Corrections of misprints spell a word which can…
to 2366: The square
THE RUSSIA HOUSE, TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY and A MURDER OF QUALITY are novels by JOHN (41) LE CARRÉ, whose…
War and monsters: my new favourite author
If you’re looking for a good beach read this summer, look no further. A few weeks ago I was reading…
The battle for Britain
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A friendly purr from a fallible Tiger Woods
So in the end it was a fallible Tiger that won all hearts at the Open, not the glowering, red-shirted…
Dear Mary: How can we make an ungrateful relative acknowledge a £500 cheque?
Q. My wife’s much younger sister is lazy and impossible. She forgets birthdays, is invariably late, lets people down and…
The parking is better than the food: Nando’s reviewed
Nando’s, c. 1987, is a restaurant in the Great North Leisure Park, Finchley, N12, off the North Circular, which is my…
Mind your language: County lines
We are suddenly all expected to know that county lines are to do with the selling of illegal drugs in…
