Life
Why Elon Musk shouldn’t be kicked out of the Royal Society
In a notorious interview in the Sunday Times in 2007, the Nobel Prize-winning geneticist James Watson said, among other things,…
Dear Mary: How do I avoid my friend’s gropey partner?
Q. I have a dear friend who is in a newish relationship. The partner – whom I hardly know –…
Aussie life
Let me be absolutely clear: when I referred to the next president of Australia’s most important military ally and economic…
Language
Speccie reader Doug writes to ask about ‘mansplaining’. This comes from the same feminist language cauldron as ‘toxic masculinity’ (meaning…
Is being ‘infamous’ a bad thing?
John Prescott, so Dominic Sandbrook observed last week, ‘infamously exchanged punches with a protestor in full view of the cameras’.…
Dear Mary: How do I stop my neighbour sending WhatsApp messages IN CAPITALS?
Q. My husband has a stressful job and needs to quietly decompress at the end of the week. This is…
At 61, it’s official: I’m ‘young old’
I read with some disappointment recently that the Encyclopaedia Britannica considers 61 – the age I am now – to…
Ideal for winter: The Dover reviewed
For British people, America is an idea brought by cinema, and The Dover, the New York Italian bar and restaurant…
Who says Test cricket is boring?
Under a dark sapphire sky, tearing across grass as green as a lick of new paint, Mitchell Starc raced in…
The World Championship
The World Championship match between Ding Liren and Dommaraju Gukesh is now underway in Singapore. The $2.5 million prize fund will…
The Parties of the Year: my verdict
As the editor’s brief for this column is ‘Fomo-inducing’, I must push the boat out for my debut and am…
My picks for Cheltenham and the Twelve
With farmers outraged, the nation’s biggest employers warning the Budget will bring increased prices and lost jobs and growth out…
The complicated etiquette of the empty train seat
The empty train seat looked inviting, and all three of us stared at it, then looked away, not daring to…
The glamour of the scallop
There is a gentle irony to the dish coquilles St Jacques: a decadent, rich preparation of one of our most…
Aussie life
Were you to pop down to the shops and buy a Wagon Wheel these days, chances are you’ll be disappointed.…
