Life
Dear Mary: How can I stop friends asking to stay in my holiday cottage?
Q. My beloved wife has been studying Chinese metaphysics for 18 months. Our house and garden have been badly neglected…
The poetry behind ‘leather and prunella’
‘Oh, yes,’ said my husband, enthusiastically, ‘a loathsome disease. The tongue goes black and dry.’ He was referring to an…
In defence of footballers taking the knee
Before the television presenter Guto Harri took the knee live on air — which cost him his job at GB…
Bridge | 24 July 2021
Bridge is a game you can never fully master, which is why it’s so endlessly stimulating. No sooner have you…
No. 663
White to play. A variation from Grandelius – Xiong, Fide World Cup, Sochi 2021. With an accurate queen check,White can…
2516: Such childish vocabulary
The nouns from the first sentence of a book (in the ODQ) appear as unclued lights — apart from two.…
Solution to 2513: Golden anniversary
The announcement reads: ‘Fifty years ago, on July the third, Jac’s first crossword in this series was published.’ The shaded…
Kasparov’s tailspin
In a game between top players, the opening moves signify not only the battleground they have embraced, but also the…
A very annoying guide to the Somme battlefields
We arranged to meet the second, more expensive, guide of our Somme battlefield visit at the Thiepval Memorial visitor centre…
Jockeys suffer online abuse just like footballers
At least England’s defeat in the European Cup final has spared us the sight of Boris Johnson, who can scent…
In praise of Patmos
Patmos I’m in Patmos with four grandchildren, two children, and a wife. I know, I know, it sounds very lower–middle-class…
Spectator competition winners: W.S. Gilbert’s guide to wedded bliss
In Competition No. 3208, you were invited to submit a recipe for marital bliss on behalf of an author of…
I enjoy making a nuisance of myself for a good cause
The scaffolding pole across the public footpath led to a farcical conversation with the local council. I had been walking…
Aussie Life
When I switched on my TV last Sunday I was not at all surprised to see a three-star Australian general…
Aussie Language
‘Gain of function’ is a chilling new expression—well, new to most of us—that has entered our language as a result…
Lock-picking
In his autobiographical book Surely You’re Joking, Mr Feynman! the late American physicist Richard Feynman described how he amused himself…
2515: Paragon
Unclued lights (including three of two words and two pairs) suggest various versions of a name given by a pair…
No. 662
White to play and mate in two. Composed by Sam Loyd, Sunny South, 1885. Nearly all Black’s legal moves can…
Spectator competition winners: Donald Trump writes a political thriller
In Competition No. 3207, you were invited to supply an extract from a thriller, written by a well-known politician, that…
The Battle for Britain | 17 July 2021
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Football’s never coming home
I failed a moral test last weekend. A friend offered me a free ticket to the Euro 2020 final and…
Dear Mary: How do I avoid hugging at a funeral?
Q. I have been double-vaccinated but am especially at risk and, since I know of at least four double-vaccinated people…
2512: Impertinence - solution
CHERRY, NETTLE, SMOKE, PLUM-PUDDING, BEES, EGG, SUNBEAM and WIND are the perimetric answers to riddles posed by NUTKIN in The…
The CV trick that guarantees you an interview
Sometimes the opposite of a good idea is, as Niels Bohr said, another good idea. But the converse is also…
The ding-dong over being ‘pinged’
‘Ping, ping, ping went the bell,’ sang my husband, making his eyes wide and jigging in his best imitation of…
