Life
Bridge | 13 March 2021
One benefit of lockdown is that there is much more time for reading. My personal favourite bridge book is Play…
Aussie Life
If you asked a roomful of Poms to list Winston Churchill’s greatest achievements, few would put ‘introducing the minimum wage’…
Aussie Language
The expression ‘unconscious bias’ is back in the headlines. First came the good news that Oxford’s Somerville college had rescinded…
Raymond Chandler and his contrarian cat Taki
Gstaad That’s all we needed in a great year: copyright has expired on The Great Gatsby. Some Fitzgerald wannabe has…
In defence of horse racing
Rugby has enough problems — from baffling rule changes to concussion — without the referees muddying the pitch even more.…
Dear Mary: How do I tell my neighbour she’s let herself go in lockdown?
Q. Recently an old acquaintance, notorious for never penning a ‘thank you’ note, emailed me telling me he was being…
Cornwall, but not as the locals know it: Stein’s at Home reviewed
The Stein’s at Home steak menu box (£65) says ‘Love from Cornwall’: it is not for people who live in…
The word ‘like’ is in crisis
‘Blame Kingsley Amis,’ said my husband, with the carelessness of one defying a man out of earshot. The blame, such…
The curse of semi-invisible road signs
‘We’re sorry your experience with us has not been a good one,’ said the press officer at Surrey Police. ‘You…
Bridge | 06 March 2021
This is a great time to be a young bridge player. When I took up the game in my twenties,…
Play from home
Is working from home the future of a productive society, or a fleeting aberration? Nobody knows yet, but a significant…
No. 643
White to play. Garcia Ramos–Maurizzi, -Barcelona 2021. Black has just played Kg8-h7, to attack White’s queen by unpinning the knight…
2493: Opposites - solution
‘I WANT TO BE ALONE’ (1A) and ‘COME UP AND SEE ME SOMETIME’ (49/27) were supposedly said by Greta GARBO…
2496: Depart Paddington
Clockwise round the grid from 3 run seven dramatis personae; unclued lights give anagrams of two more. The play’s title…
Spectator competition winners: the hell of a foreign holiday
In Competition No. 3188, a challenge designed to make us all feel better about the looming prospect of another enforced…
The conservative appeal of drug gangs
According to the Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick, the easing of lock-down will be accompanied by a rise in crime…
The Battle for Britain | 06 March 2021
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The beauty of French nurses
I was supine on the slab and a nurse was rigging me up via wires and tubes to machines and…
Ireland’s love affair with horse racing
With the Cheltenham Festival close, the quest for serious punting money intensifies. I had one potential contributor identified at Kempton…
Kiwi Life
For New Zealanders to be losing our democracy may be due to sheer carelessness, ignorance, or even stupidity, not to…
Kiwi Language
Nancy Pelosi succeeded in banning ‘mother’ from appearing in the paperwork of Congress. Now the ANU’s Gender Institute Handbook wants…
2495: Contrary
Four unclued lights of a kind, one of two words with an apostrophe, include the theme word. The remaining unclued…
Is it time to cancel Sophocles?
Gstaad The sun has returned, the snow is so-so, and exercise has replaced everything, including romance. What a way to…
Spectator competition winners: topical sea shanties
In Competition No. 3187 you were asked to provide a sea shanty on a topical theme. This challenge was an…
Dear Mary: How do we stop our friend letting herself in to our house?
Q. Our friend lives far away, but comes to stay at her country place nearby several times a year. Some…
