Dis-Con notes
Well done, Angus Six weeks ago I advised the prime minister to undertake a ministerial reshuffle. Three weeks ago I…
Euro notes
Two countries divided by a common pandemic In late 1970, British prime minister Ted Heath learnt that his Australian counterpart…
Dame Mary Gilmore working from home in 1952
She lived in a flat in Kings Cross, was a lifelong socialist, a regularly observant Presbyterian, a Dame of the…
All Renaissance men now
With unlimited information just a click away, everyone can pass as a polymath today, says Philip Hensher
Lessons in terror
Sweden is now properly celebrated as the Land that Called Coronavirus Correctly. But in the distant past, those with long…
Puzzle no. 604
Aronian–Vidit, Online Nations Cup, May 2020. Vidit has just captured axb3 en passant. Aronian’s next move revealed a powerful concept.…
Hogsflesh and herring
Wilhelm Nero Pilate Barbellion, real name Bruce Frederick Cummings, earned his living measuring the legs of lice in the Natural…
Beasties and besties
The music of the Beastie Boys was entirely an expression of their personalities, a chance to delightedly splurge out on…
Tricks and treats
Give thanks to the person who invented Venetian blinds, they say, or it would be curtains for us all. Curtains…
Delusions of destiny
One of the great mysteries of European history is how for the best part of 700 years a family who…
High life
Gstaad Hippocrates is known as the father of Western medicine and he discovered and named a disease known as ‘micropoulaki’…
Low life
France is divided into a red zone and a green zone. We’re green. Green for go. From this morning we…
Real life
If this lockdown doesn’t end soon we are all going to turn into hairy lefties. I have just cut the…
Lockdown may kill me
I have a new job, which is maintaining a website called Lockdown Sceptics (lockdownsceptics.org). It’s a compendium of evidence that…
Dear Mary
Q. For me the hallmark of a really close friend is someone with whom you feel comfortable enough to bring…
Wine to lock down
I was once invited to the Cheltenham races and found the experience underwhelming. Everything was too respectable: not nearly Hibernian…
Slow-burning masterpieces
It’s the perfect opportunity to crack open those classics of 19th-century fiction you’ve always been meaning to read, and I…
Giving insects a bad name
Heteropoda davidbowie is a species of huntsman spider. Though rare, it has been found in parts of Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia…
Letters
Jobs for all Sir: Charles Bazlington championed Universal Basic Income in last week’s magazine (Letters, 9 May). It is welcome…
