Open road
It seems all but impossible to convince government scientists of the wisdom of proceeding with the final lifting of Covid…
Trouble in store
What just happened? Some 15 months after the pandemic first struck, it’s still horribly unclear, which is perhaps why there…
Sex education
The publication of the new Cambridge Greek Lexicon reminded the comedian and classicist Natalie Haynes of her frustrations at school,…
Portrait of the Week
Home Freelance scientists urged the government not to end coronavirus regulations on 21 June, for fear of a third wave.…
Diary
Following my abrupt departure from Good Morning Britain after declining to apologise for disbelieving Meghan ‘Princess Pinocchio’ Markle, I’ve been…
Big Tech is turning into Big Brother
The Big Tech social media giants are having to rethink their policy of censoring anybody who suggests that Covid originated…
Barometer
Game, set, chat Japanese tennis player Naomi Osaka withdrew from the French Open after being fined $15,000 for failing to…
Hybrid chess
Chess was played by cable in the 19th century because… well, why not? And because everything old is new again,…
to 2506: Summer’s voice
The unclued lights are ferns: RUSTY-BACK (26/5A), WALL RUE (48/7A), MAIDENHAIR (1D/11), OSMUNDA (18), BIRD’S-NEST (20/45) and POLYPODY (24). PTERIDOMANIA…
Commercial gain
In Competition No. 3201, a contest inspired by Salman ‘naughty but nice’ Rushdie, you were invited to submit advertising copy…
Wild life
Kenya The evening before the assault on Addis Ababa, my guide Girmay and I ventured into a complex stuffed with…
2509: Current description
A six-word ‘current description’ (in ODQ) and the name of the author (three words) run clockwise round the perimeter starting…
The struggle to contain China
The theory that the pandemic began with a leak from a research laboratory in Wuhan is rapidly gaining currency. Since…
Puzzle No. 656
Black to play. Vocaturo–Gokerkan, May 2021. After a long defence, White’s last move 101 Nf1-e3 was a decisive error. Which…
Bridge
It’s hard to think of anything more expensive at the bridge table than doubling the opponents and then watching them…
Low life
The porter rolled me off the trolley and on to the bed, wished me a good day and departed. My…
Real life
‘You’ll come back when you’re in enough pain,’ said the osteopath as I walked out of his door. That was…
What the Prime Misfit got right
Should the name of Dominic Cummings ever make it into the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, there’s one Cummings phrase…
Haut topic
It seemed a suitable topic for a bank holiday. We were discussing Haut-Brion, a bank-breaking wine. There is a question…
High life
New York The acerbic writer Gore Vidal was once asked which period of history he would choose to have lived…
