Australian notes
As I was driving home on Saturday after a busy day, I realised that everything I had done that day,…
A peculiar backwards mutation
It’s not hard to sympathise with Christopher Allen’s recent column in the Review section of the Australian decrying the juxtaposition…
Aussie life
Of the 101 Australian military personnel who have been awarded the Victoria Cross, our highest honour for bravery, most lie…
Language
Here it is! I have finally found one word that will describe the Liberal party in its present state— ‘agathokakological’.…
Supporting Ms Deves
At this election, Australians not only get to decide who governs the nation – Liberals or Labor –but they could…
Trumpian lullaby
Trump is said to be a gift for bad satirists and a problem for good ones. He dominates Mike Bartlett’s…
What is possible
There are lessons in chess that cannot be learned from a book. One lands, from time to time, in a…
Solution to 2549: Obscurity
PALE FIRE is a novel by Vladimir NABOKOV (18). Synonyms of words in the novel’s title are 7, 15A, and…
Don’t frighten the horses
Chivalry – written by and starring Sarah Solemani and Steve Coogan – is a comedy drama about post-#MeToo Hollywood life.…
Chess puzzle
Black to play. Sukandar-Niemann, Reykjavik Open 2022. In this preposterous position, Black found a quick forced mate. What did he…
Memo to Elon Musk: Tesla matters more for civilisation than Twitter
I spent Easter agonising over whether to throw the considerable weight of this column behind Elon Musk’s maverick $43 billion…
Letters
Soft ground Sir: We have heard much over the years from the overseas aid lobby about the value of soft…
French connection
In Competition No. 3245, you were asked to take a passage from a classic of French literature and recast it…
2552: 😀
Eight unclued entries comprise four pairs whose thematic ordering is provided by 3, 31, 37 and 41. Across 1…
Portrait of the week
Home Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, told the House of Commons that it did not occur to him that the…
The long haul
The first few weeks of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine went so badly that it was tempting to see the withdrawal…
Thrills, frills and folderols
A clever, original exhibition at the Wallace Collection has Laura Freeman twirling her way through the West End
Pot head
Richard Batterham died last September at the age of 85. He had worked in his pottery in the village of…
Hitchhiking
When I first saw Vitaly I thought he was drunk. I was standing outside a petrol station near Fulda, in…
Reasons not to be cheerful
Mid-term unpopularity is a given in British politics. Veterans from the Thatcher era like to joke that a government that…
Rebel yell
Ordinarily, if a podcast purports to be revelatory, you can assume it is anything but. There’s a glut of programmes…
