Power of one
Still, Joni Mitchell retires from time to time, appalled by the iniquities of the music business and her own inability to overcome them
Femmes fatales
Though both the Proms performances of Elektra and Salome, and the Winslow Hall production of Lucia di Lammermoor get full marks
Independence blues
Plus: the Scots dialect shouldn’t put you off The Flouers o’Edinburgh at the Finborough Theatre that uses suspense and surprise reversals to great effect
Pride and prejudice
But will anyone shed a tear for the Welsh valleys, where a fifth of the working-age population is stuck on benefits?
Toenails and tadpoles
Plus: Alison Steadman spoofs a sex-mad insect and Ambridge is rocked by the arrival of a pregnant ex
Bridge
Unlike poker, there’s not much money to be made from bridge tournaments (consider yourself lucky if you win £40 in…
Sinking the field
Fabiano Caruana has dominated the Sinquefield Cup in St Louis in a way that almost defies belief. The Italo-American grandmaster,…
No. 331
White to play. This is from Caruana–Nakamura, Sinquefield Cup, St Louis 2014. Caruana could have registered an even greater performance…
Hidden benefits
In Competition No. 2864 you were invited to submit an imaginary feature from a newspaper’s health pages extolling the benefits…
2179: Cos
The unclued lights are of a specific kind. Additionally each is a legitimate inflected headword in Chambers. Elsewhere, ignore one…
to 2176: ,
The unclued lights are BUTTERFLIES (as is the ‘comma’ in the title). The pairs are 7/34A, 13/24, 33/6 and 35/25.…
The pound sterling doesn’t buy happiness
They're scared to praise British culture, so they talk money. It doesn't work
Just wait ‘til they get their hands on ebola
The Black Death and other forms of plague are already on Islamic terrorists’ shopping lists
Australian letters
Leave her alone Sir: I refer to the article “Shorten comes clean” by Rowan Dean on page vii of The…
