We still have Paris
The second leg of this year’s Grand Tour was contested in Paris, almost immediately after Leuven. For Paris, Anish Giri…
no. 513
White to play. This is from Nakamura-Kramnik, Paris Blitz 2018. The third victim of Nakamura’s hypnotism was Vladimir Kramnik who,…
Question time
In Competition No. 3055 you were invited to take a well-known figure on the world stage, living or dead, and…
2366: The square
Three items (one consisting of three words, and two consisting of four words each) read clockwise round the perimeter. Part…
to 2363: Case ending
In Henry VI part II, Dick says to Cade: ‘The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers’, thus…
In the crazy world of identity politics, facts don’t matter
According to a poll of 538 experts on women’s issues, the United States is one of the ten most dangerous…
It doesn’t matter how hard you work – just how busy you look
The behavioural scientist Dan Ariely once found himself chatting to a locksmith with a curious problem. The better he became…
Dear Mary: How does a Wimbledon ball girl deal with a disgusting player?
Q. I’ve accepted an invitation to stay in a small house party in France. My host hasn’t mentioned who else…
London’s perfect Paris brasserie
We order some French things better in London — often, admittedly, with French help. A grenouille friend recently took me…
Ideation, from suicide to management speak
‘Suicide!’ yelled my husband, while performing an inappropriate mime of a hangman’s noose. That was his reply when I asked…
My civilisation is better than yours
Am I the only one who finds the Ramsay Western civilisation controversy unedifying? As I read the warring op-eds I…
Adjudication in advance
What is going on with the top judges in Britain? They sure seem hell bent on travelling as quickly as…
Dis-con notes
Are they blind? It is seven months since my last Dis-Con Notes (‘No More Shilly-Shallying’, 2/12/17). Meanwhile the Liberal party…
Simon Collins
Some years ago, as a judge on one of adland’s more obscure international awards panels, I had to assess the…
Latham’s law
Every parent knows the problem. An errant child who is always telling lies, whether it’s ‘I didn’t take them’, ‘I…
Did Granny jump, or was she pushed?
Dr Henry Marsh, British neurosurgeon, was displeased when the UK Parliament rejected euthanasia three years ago. The good doctor said,…
Cultural pronunciation
When I lived in Sweden, I would watch football with my Swedish mate Rob and struggle with some of the…
Renewables becalmed
As Australia’s electricity grids strain to cope with demand and government efforts to foist yet more renewable energy on them,…
Don’t call me Madam
‘Respect women’ shouts a giant hoarding sponsored by Victoria’s wastrel Labor government (the one that squandered $300 million on not…
Ben Jacks
A concert in the schedule of the Sydney Symphony recently caught my eye: Mozart’s Horn Concerto No. 3 and his…
Judge for yourself
An 82 year old American judge, Justice Anthony Kennedy, announces his retirement and the country is in uproar. It’s a…
It’s coming back…
In 2013, the Australian people thought they’d tossed the pernicious carbon tax out for good. And with it, the job-destroying,…
Their ABC “the most trusted news source”? Here’s a theory
It was Abraham Lincoln who said, ‘You can fool some of the people all of the time and all of…
Leave the high life of Canberra? Decentralisation push exposes bureaucratic hypocrisy
For just over a century, the public service has been building capital city monoliths to centralise power, decision-making and policy…
