Life
Pretty food with a side order of pollution: 28-50 reviewed
You cannot have cars and dining tables in the same dreamscape: it doesn’t work, unless you think carbon monoxide is…
Shakespeare didn’t need to know the difference between ‘its’ and ‘it’s’
An item on the BBC news site didn’t mean what it said: ‘The latest move is part of a wider…
Thoughts on a foreign clash of the English titans
Thank heavens the Champions League final is being played in Portugal, now Turkey’s off the menu (sorry). It will certainly…
Our confusing voting system has cost me £25
Some 114,201 ballots were rejected in the first round of the London mayoral election, approximately 5 per cent of the…
The Battle for Britain | 15 May 2021
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My Twelve to Follow on the Flat
Combing through race recordings to try to find some fun horses for Spectator readers this summer, I have been struck…
Bridge | 15 May 2021
I’m not surprised so many scientific studies have shown that bridge staves off dementia: the game provides a constant workout…
What’s it worth?
The rule of thumb for weighing up piece exchanges says that pawns are worth one, knights and bishops three, rooks…
No. 653
White to play, Jones–Dominguez, New in Chess Classic, April 2021. Gawain Jones was hoping that his rook and pawn would…
Spectator competition winners: Enid Blyton explains economics to children
In Competition No. 3198, you were invited to supply an extract from a children’s book that is designed to explain…
Why Mick Jagger is an insult to rock
New York Orthodox Easter Sunday came late in May this year, and I spent it at an old friend’s Fifth…
The myriad signatures of a canine pissoir
Sally (la Sal, the Salster) is part whippet, part Labrador and part dormouse. She is 16 years old, stone deaf,…
2506: Summer’s voice
Ten unclued lights (including four pairs) are of a kind. Ignore two hyphens and an apostrophe. What could have induced…
2503: Applery - solution
The traditional county towns were Chester (misprinted as CHEATER: 27), Durham (DERHAM: 21), Derby (DERRY: 32), Lewes (LENES: 36), Reading…
Our local councillors who’ve lost their seats must be sighing with relief
An angry text exchange between me and a former Tory councillor after she lost her seat has got me thinking.…
Aussie Life
As a child I had a version of OCD called Just Right syndrome. This doesn’t mean I lived entirely on…
Aussie Language
Brauer College in Warrnambool, Victoria made the news for having required all the boys at an assembly to ‘stand up…
The Battle for Britain | 8 May 2021
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Bridge | 8 May 2021
The Lady Milne is the annual Women’s Championship between the home countries (and Ireland) and is most often a two-horse…
Spectator competition winners: poems on the death of Prince Philip
In Competition No. 3197, you were invited to supply a poem to mark the death of Prince Philip. I wondered…
Dear Mary: How do I cope with colleagues’ bad habits now I’m back in the office?
Q. I am placed in a social dilemma due to a proposed visit on the last weekend of June by…
Why do hygienists self-sabotage?
‘You’re meant to be having your dental appointment now!’ barked the receptionist, bringing my lie-in to an abrupt end. Very…
We Lumas have the weight of the world on our shoulders
In the introduction to an anthology of his jazz record reviews, the poet Philip Larkin imagines his readers. They’re not…
The shifting language of shame
As his tweed jacket flapped open to one side of his stomach, my husband stood up unsteadily and arched his…
My post-lockdown resolution: drink more Alsace
Freedom approaches. Should we be humming ‘Va, Pensiero’ or ‘O Welche Lust’ — perhaps both. Thinking of Fidelioreminds me of…
