Life
Team games
Ah teamwork! There’s no me in team, as David Brent used to observe sagely, but there are often plenty of…
Confidence boost
Eight people became millionaires last Saturday, collecting £1,342,599 each when the Scoop6 bet, which had been rolled over for 12…
High life
So the wedding of my little girl to Andy Bancroft Cooke went off without a hitch, a wonderful ceremony in…
Low life
Just when I was beginning to think I’d had enough, I was offered a free week in a caravan. I…
Real life
‘Ouch!’ said the ex-builder boyfriend. ‘I think something’s bitten me.’ And a few seconds after that, something bit me too.…
Long life
There is a kind of letter designed to bewilder, upset and possibly terrify its recipient, and this is the standard…
Wild life
In bed Safety measures — I’ve never been good at them, so inevitably I inhaled and got soaked by the…
Bridge
There’s no point in soft-soaping it: however long you’ve been playing bridge, however well you think you play, if you’ve…
Iron nerves
The game that clinched Magnus Carlsen’s victory in the Gashimov Memorial came, fittingly, in a last-round cliffhanger against his closest…
No. 315
White to play. This position is from Wojtaszek-Safarli, Gashimov ‘B’ Group 2014. The white pieces are very active and the…
Scottish question
In Competition No. 2848 you were invited to submit a poem commenting on Scottish independence in the style of William…
2163: Muscle
Six unclued lights (one hyphened) suggest words each differently formed from the same 13 22, which appears as a clued…
to 2160: 18 down
The unclued lights are all CHARACTERS (18D) in Plato’s dialogues, all but SOCRATES (1A) appearing in titles. In six cells,…
Americans can’t hack it
I was interested to read a story by Michael Wolff in USA Today saying that Graydon Carter may be about…
Battle for Britain
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When brave is better than good
Oskar Morgenstern grew up in Vienna, John von Neumann in Budapest. Clearly the same Austro-Hungarian intellectual spirit which gave rise…
Dear Mary
Q. My dear English husband has never mastered the knack of timing his interventions in conversation. He hesitates politely, and…
Port and daughters
Port, or Hermitage? This does not refer to personal consumption. I was trying to remember Meredith’s Egoist, in which one…
Basta
My chickens do not usually come home to roost so rapidly. Only a fortnight ago I wrote that ‘some people use…
Port and daughters
Port, or Hermitage? This does not refer to personal consumption. I was trying to remember Meredith’s Egoist, in which one…
When brave is better than good
Oskar Morgenstern grew up in Vienna, John von Neumann in Budapest. Clearly the same Austro-Hungarian intellectual spirit which gave rise…
Wild life
In bed Safety measures — I’ve never been good at them, so inevitably I inhaled and got soaked by the…
High life
Like the late Christopher Hitchens who only discovered his Jewish roots once he had moved to New York in the…
Low life
I couldn’t find the house so I called the number again. Instead of the man I’d spoken to previously, this…
Real life
Just when I thought I couldn’t possibly fight any more battles, a pink planning notice is pinned to the lamp…
