Life
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…
Memories of Stellenbosch and South Africa’s finest wines
Lockdown provides time to think, and to reminisce. A South African friend, trapped in Amsterdam, phoned the other day. Had…
‘Espouse’ has become divorced from its meaning
What do people think espouse means? It looks fairly plain, since spouses are to have and to hold, or indeed…
The economics of learning languages
There is a kind of conversation which sounds intelligent, and which makes sense at first hearing, but which deeper thought…
Synthetic diamonds
Diamonds are forever, they say. Likewise, brilliant games of chess have an everlasting sparkle. I will never tire of replaying…
The secret code of the ruling class
I naively hoped that last year’s statement by the Equalities Minister explaining why unconscious bias training was being phased out…
Beware the hobby bobby
‘Anything you say may be given in evidence. Do you have anything to say?’ I looked at the baby-faced police…
2492: Little man - solution
The solution at 1 Across includes the theme-word PAUL which means ‘little’, hence the puzzle’s title. First prize Mike Leese,…
No. 642
Black to play. Warakomski-–Korobov, February 2021. White has a pin on the b-file and 1…Bxg2+ 2 Kxg2 Bc5 3 Rb7…
The Battle for Britain | 27 February 2021
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Bridge | 27 February 2021
The late, great Martin Hoffman always claimed he was the unluckiest player in the world. If he was playing rubber,…
Why I need to become a French citizen
After weeks of living in the 18th century, going everywhere on foot and encountering few other souls, I drove to…
