The dark side of horse racing
Spotting Mark Grant’s name on an Ascot racecard, I remembered a dashing young mop-haired rider I first encountered some years…
Bridge
The year is drawing to a close and this is my last column before Christmas. May I wish you all…
Books of the year
The English Chess Federation has awarded its Book of the Year prize to Timman’s Titans: My World Chess Champions by…
Puzzle
White to play. This position is from Timman-Short, Tilburg 1990. Can you spot Timman’s classic finish? We regret that this…
Shipping lines
In Competition No. 3027 you were invited to submit a poem inspired by the Shipping Forecast. Life-saver, lullaby, poetic…
2339: Interesting
Cryptic indications in four clues are incomplete; in each case, the part not indicated is supplied by a 1D (two…
to 2336: IRRELEVANT
The action that results in 6, 10, 29D and 30 is HAIR-RAISING (7, defined by 5). RAISING A HARE (39)…
The subtle art of showing off at work
This has been an interesting year for me. Back in January, I took up a full-time job as director of…
Why Ben Stokes should be picked for Perth
And so to a cloudy, chilly Adelaide, more like London in October than Australia in the early days of high…
Mary solves your problems: What do you say when a screaming child is ruining your lunch?
Q. My wife and I were having lunch in our local bistro. A boy of about two was wandering around…
Henrietta: a casual restaurant with formal food for people wearing hats
Henrietta is a restaurant in a boutique hotel on Henrietta Street, Covent Garden, around the corner from the actors’ church…
Syndromes: they have made their escape from the medical world
‘You must have Tired Old Woman Syndrome,’ said my husband as I fell back into an armchair with a sigh…
Robin and Eric
Having been in a loving relationship for two months, Robin and Eric were hot to trot and tied the knot…
Twilight notes
Economic, political and diplomatic decline Australia under the Howard government was riding high, a nation almost uniquely debt-free, well governed,…
Australian notes
Compare and contrast So it’s coming up to a year since one Donald Trump was inaugurated as the 45th president…
Ben Canaider
As readers may be aware, December began in sunny Melbourne with a deluge of biblical proportions – or so Melburnians…
Teacher’s notes
School makes you smarter In the most popular TED talk of all time, Sir Ken Robinson makes the case that…
The unacceptable cost of renewables
Parts of Europe may be tearing themselves apart politically over the vast costs of adopting renewable energy, but Australian voters…
Flash in the pan
Last week an unlikely event took place: something interesting happened at the Arias. The Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards…
Bopping with Bippera
In 2012, as James Morrison was collecting his trumpet from the baggage carousel at Cairns airport, a fan approached to…
Red meds
In November’s Lancet, editor Dr Richard Horton has liberated his esteemed medical journal from the shackles of science by inviting…
Xu Zhen Eternity-Buddha in Nirvana
When state governments put money into cultural events they like them to be large and ‘exclusive’. Well, the Victorian Government…
Fame of Hall
Anne Watson’s book underlines the truth that in order to praise Jørn Utzon, whose architectural vision created the concept of…
Two-faced on Israel
Australia has stood against the more rotten and anti-Semitic resolutions of the United Nations. Now, however, it has distinguished itself…
