Life
Why can no one find the eye hospital?
‘Where’s the eye hospital?’ shouted pretty much everyone standing outside a building signposted eye hospital in Irish. ‘An tAonad Oftailmeolaiochta’…
My Egyptian mau pyramid scheme
Dante’s Beach, Ravenna Was it chance or destiny, I wonder, that caused the eldest of our six children, Caterina, to…
American salads are weird – but an egg salad is perfect
The Americans are weird about salad. I’m sorry, but somebody had to say it. Really, their use of the word…
Spectator Competition: August society
In Competition 3363 you were invited to write a poem about holidaymakers from a local’s perspective. Thanks to Paul Freeman…
Hans Niemann against the World
For the irrepressible Hans Niemann, August is no time to chill. The 21-year-old American grandmaster began the month by defeating his…
Aussie life
O wad some pow’r the giftie gie us, To see oursels as ithers see us! said Robbie Burns. And nobody…
Language
There are times when I am tempted to think that English, in general terms, is richer and more colourful than…
The healing power of wine
What goes best with a broken rib? The answer, I think, is any drink you enjoy that will not make…
Will Starmer make the Online Safety Act even worse?
Good God, there’s a lot of guff being talked about the Online Safety Act. This was a piece of legislation…
The myth about electric car owners
Every time I write about electric cars, there is an explosion of hostile comments online in which readers angrily denounce…
Dear Mary: how can I deter the creep at my pub quiz?
Q. I have been pitched into a social dilemma regarding Glyndebourne, which I live near to but don’t go to…
Immateriality – or irrelevance?
In The Importance of Being Earnest Jack Worthing was given his surname by Mr Thomas Cardew, who happened to have…
Spectator Competition: As they prefer it
In Competition 3362 you were invited to submit a passage from Shakespeare as rewritten by the sensitivity reader. The entries were…
The ‘Clooney effect’ hasn’t touched my corner of Provence
Provence My eldest daughter’s husband is from Como. In the early 2000s George Clooney caused a stir in the town…
Is beekeeping left-wing?
‘Zip my head in,’ he said, after climbing into a white jumpsuit with a mesh helmet. It was a beekeeper’s…
Grandmaster Royal
The British Championships, which concluded in Hull earlier this month, saw a notable achievement for 15-year-old Shreyas Royal, whose stellar…
Language
A Speccie reader has been in touch to complain about the use of the expressions ‘wind farm’ and ‘solar farm’.…
