Life
2125: Nil desperandum
‘1/5/28’ (five words in total) is part of a quotation in ODQ and suggests how to find the common element…
Solution to 2122: Theme and Variations
The theme word is GRAVES: 19, 34 and 40 are famous cemeteries; 17, 28 and 39 are wines from SW…
The myths of the English countryside
One of the great things about spending the summer holidays in England is that it gives you an opportunity to…
Speculation season
It’s been a long, hot, soccerless holiday. There has been football about — the women’s European Championship, for example, and…
Dave
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Dear Mary
Q. My mainly male colleagues and I were happy to learn that an attractive young woman would be joining the…
World shaking
Shake Shack is a hamburger restaurant in Covent Garden market. It came from New York and it is as needy…
Fracking
‘Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a frack,’ replied my husband unwittily when I asked how he’d feel if shale…
World shaking
Shake Shack is a hamburger restaurant in Covent Garden market. It came from New York and it is as needy…
Speculation season
It’s been a long, hot, soccerless holiday. There has been football about — the women’s European Championship, for example, and…
High life
Gstaad One possesses youth, talent, fame, even beauty, the other none of the above except arrogance, physical repulsiveness and…
Low life
I haven’t been out for three weeks and I’m up for a big night. To prove it I’m wearing my…
Real life
‘Benvenuti alla Small Cluster Band!’ And about time, too. We had been sitting in the Castello in Castellabate for half…
Long life
When we bought the farmhouse in Tuscany, where I am now, more than 40 years ago, there were only two…
The turf
A fresh new breeze is wafting through British racing. Led by the enthusiastic Sheikh Fahad Al Thani, the Qatar ruling…
Bridge
I haven’t played rubber bridge for a few years now (the demands of young children), but recently I’ve been hearing…
Il miglior fabbro
Lothar Schmid, chess grandmaster, the world’s greatest collector of chess books and the only arbiter trusted by Bobby Fischer, died…
no. 277
White to play. This position is from Keene-Eley, Whitby 1964. White’s next move won at once. What did he play?…
The new black
In Competition 2808 you were invited to invent a new addition to the genre that already includes Tartan Noir and…
2124: Pack
Seven unclued lights are words that may be regarded as 13 18. The remaining unclued light supplies the material with…
Solution to 2121: Take Care
All the unclued lights mean ‘Goodbye’. First prize Alan Donovan, Croydon, Surrey Runners-up Mary Varela, Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex; Geoffrey…
Britain is now a socialist utopia
Scarcely a day passes, it seems, without another book landing with a thud on my desk that bemoans the rise…
Dave
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Why the NHS is like a kitten
Of all the strange behaviours of the rich, owning horses long struck me as the most bizarre. A horse, when…
Dear Mary
Q. I very recently attended my son’s black-tie leavers’ ball at his school on one of the hottest evenings of…
