Life
Bridge
Playing rubber bridge the other afternoon for higher stakes than usual (£20 per hundred), I had a memorably miserable time.…
Grenke
The Grenke Chess Classic, played in Karlsruhe and Baden Baden, has been won by Fabiano Caruana, who also won the…
no. 504
White to play. This is a possible variation from Meier-Carlsen, Grenke 2018. Meier could have forced a win in this…
First and last
In Competition No. 3046 you were invited to supply a poem beginning with the last line of any well-known poem…
2357: Half a Drum
Unclued lights make five pairs with something in common. Across 1 Fragrant nuts announced (5) 4 Neat workers secure…
to 2354: Pioneering
Parts indicated in clues in italics must each BREAK NEW GROUND (1A 4A), creating entries at 6, 13, 26, 39…
Here’s what every incel needs: a sex robot
In a recent blogpost, an American economics professor called Robin Hanson asked why it is that income inequality is regarded…
Battle for Britain
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English cricket’s new tournament already looks doomed
Difficult to know quite what to make of The Hundred, which has the feel of being knocked up on the…
Dear Mary: A work colleague has a brain tumour — and his self pity is annoying me
Q. When buying a present for a friend, I would not dream of glugging from the bottle or helping myself…
It reeks of Alan Clark and the 1980s but all is forgiven for the food: Le Gavroche reviewed
Le Gavroche is named for ‘the urchin’ in Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables and lives in a basement on Upper Brook…
Terf wars and the ludicrous lexicon of feminist theory
Fiore de Henriquez, a sculptor, had a wonderfully high-windowed studio at the bottom of Cadogan Square, where I sometimes visited…
Fascism isn’t rising, but bien-pensant hysteria certainly is
Benito lives! The Blackshirts are here. Fascism is on the march — at least according to Madeleine Albright, secretary of…
Knife skills for eight-year-olds
Pig’s trotters. Lamb’s feet stuffed with their brains. Flayed wild rabbits, all sinew, muscle and eyeballs. Nude chickens with flopping…
Save me from middle managers dressed up as Spiderman
‘You’ve got your essay on your back, then?’ said the stable yard owner as I headed out with Darcy on…
The Grand National proved the naysayers wrong – again
When the photo finish confirmed that Tiger Roll and Davy Russell had held on to win the Grand National by…
Bridge
England had a narrow lead going into the second weekend of the Camrose, with the Irish National team and the…
Viennese Waltz
The Vienna variation of the Queen’s Gambit is notable for a line in which the pieces conduct an elaborate dance…
no. 503
Black to play. This position is from Bluebaum-Vitiugov, Grenke 2018. Can you spot Black’s amazing winning move? Answers to me…
Mind your language
In Competition No. 3045 you were invited to provide a poem about euphemisms. You avoided politics and sex (mostly),…
2356: Beetle
The unclued lights (one individually and five pairs) are of a kind. Across 1 German leader put stuff back…
to 2353: Too many
The unclued lights are (too many) TV COOKS, individually at 18, 21 and 28, and paired at 25/13, 27/1A, 30D/10…
Uganda is saving its gorillas – but there’s a human cost
I’m currently in Africa, about to go gorilla trekking in the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, a large primeval forest located in…
The Battle for Britain
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Could an Owl make video conferencing take off?
When I was ten, the two things we all expected to enjoy by 2020 were flying cars and videotelephony. What…
