Bridge
Last Friday, merrily on my way to Young Chelsea (still the best IMPs duplicate in town), I couldn’t know that…
Mental sport
Sporting commentators frequently resort to chess metaphors to convey the flavour of a particular contest. In the case of football, chess tends…
no. 515
Black to play. This is from Carlsen-Polgar, Mexico 2012. Judit had been struggling in this game but when Carlsen slipped…
Net effect
In Competition No. 3057 you were invited to submit a short story entitled ‘The day the internet died’. Phyllis…
2368: Cobbled together
The unclued lights (two of two words, and the rest paired) are of a kind. Across 1 Book with…
to 2365: Beds
GARDEN (at 46 Across) reveals the theme. Paired solutions are ‘gardens’ in ‘countries’; 8/10, 32/1D, 33/28+29, 12/36, 37/34, 38/2, and…
Teen Vogue and the rebirth of Radical Chic
Are we witnessing the rebirth of Radical Chic? That was the term coined by Tom Wolfe in his 1970 essay…
When it comes to new technology, we’re all Luddites at heart
When I saw my first jogger in Wales in the early 1970s, I assumed he was running away from the…
Dear Mary: My friend always has food around his mouth. How can I help him?
Q. A dear friend of my husband, a shy bachelor, is an acquired taste. Once you acquire it you are…
Tradition and terroir: the new reign in Spain is producing great results
The Kingdom of Spain always sends outstanding ambassadors to the Court of St James, none more so than the appropriately…
‘Living with’ is now a thing – usually followed by something nasty like Alzheimer’s
I’m not at all sure about the formula a person living with, followed by something unwelcome, such as Alzheimer’s disease,…
Australian letters
Russian meddling Sir: Please help me out here: just what, exactly, did the Russians do, and/or try to do to…
Where have all the engineers gone?
When the Chifley Government, in 1948, decided to implement a scheme to harness the waters of the Snowy Mountains and…
Cast members of An Ideal Husband
He was already skating on thin ice when Oscar Wilde opened his newest play at the Haymarket Theatre on 3…
Brown study
One of the more obvious features of left-leaning luvvies is that they are all stupid. They simply cannot think straight,…
A golden century
Lord Carrington, who died last week in his hundredth year, witnessed and shaped much of the international politics of the…
Dancing to terror’s tune
If when you woke on the morning of Sunday 15 July, you made the error of watching the ABC television…
The Treaty of Spring Street
History in the old sense of events and names isn’t much taught in our schools any more, such history as…
Austro-Hungarian diary
One of the great pleasures of spending time in Budapest is admiring the city’s restoration. Despite war, communism and 1956,…
Simon Collins
Like most Australian men I am horrified by reports which attest to the ubiquity of violence against our womenfolk. But…
The bully boys and girls have gone too far
On both sides of the Tasman, too many of our MPs haven’t listened to the brilliant black American academic, Thomas…
Global brand Julia
‘Trailing clouds of glory’ is so apt for Julia Gillard AC’s post-prime ministerial career. This month the apolitical.co blog for…
Paradiski lost
Once again, Western civilisation is under mortal threat. This time it comes from a deepening schism between the rank-and-file and…
King Coal’s reign not over yet
When it comes to power generation, only two things matter. One, ensuring a sufficient and reliable supply of electricity to…
