Life
2474: Love me do
31 3 worked for the 43 of 21. The 43 of 34 got him for 24 35 and sent him…
Spectator competition winners: Would you give Anne Boleyn a job?
In Competition No. 3165 you were invited to supply a job reference for a well-known public figure, past or present,…
Trump should take lessons in lying from Joe Biden
Gstaad It snowed on the last two days of August up here, and why not? We’ve traded freedom of speech…
No. 621
Black to play. Rios–Adams, Online Olympiad, August 2020. The White king is running short of squares. Which move did Adams…
Internet trouble
It was as baffling to me as quantum entanglement. Every time the Algerian player on the Zoom call shared his…
2471: Inky solution
The unclued lights can be preceded by BLACK. First prize Stephanie Reeve, Papworth Everard, CambridgeRunners-up Hilda Ball, Belfast; Peter Chapman,…
Aussie Life
Peter Scammell There is no doubt that the corona virus pandemic is changing the way we live and think about…
Bridge | 5 September 2020
A major pandemic has been sweeping through the bridge world since the game went online — and it’s called cheating.…
The A272 is a relic of the golden age of motoring
In France I own a dented old Mercedes and in England a dented old Mitsubishi Carina. The Mercedes is parked…
Racing can’t survive without crowds
We all have weeks when every win bet finishes second and every each-way comes home in fourth. You begin to…
2473: May
The unclued lights (two of two words) are of a kind. Across 12 To make sense of Sun puzzle, many…
No. 620
White to play. Zaibi–Napoleao, Online Olympiad, August 2020. White has just sacrificed the rook on a1. He concluded the attack…
Spectator competition winners: patchwork poetry
In Competition No. 3164 you were invited to submit a poem in which each line comes from a different well-known…
Bob Geldof is an unconventional Zoom host
Gstaad I experienced my first Zoom conference last week, and didn’t think much of it. As the great Yogi Berra…
Beware cars with National Trust stickers
Always the National Trust sticker. It feels like every time a car parks across the gateway to my horses’ field…
2470: Express route solution
The unclued lights are places served by the Norwegian HURTIGRUTEN ferries from Bergen to Kirkenes. Tromsø (at 4D) overruns into…
Act of God
Man plans, God laughs. Fide, the international federation, organised an Online Olympiad, with 163 teams taking part. We got a…
Remote workers of the world, unite!
A few nights ago on Twitter, I quipped that I was planning to launch a trade union for remote workers.…
Dear Mary: How can we be sure our host gives us clean sheets?
Q. Some friends persist on displaying our email addresses in large address lists when sending out round robins to all…
The best leader we never had
I spent Monday afternoon with The Wake Up Call, a new book by John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge that lambasts…
A perfect luncheon wine
I suspect, though this may be romanticising, that if a French lorry driver with hitherto suppressed culinary tastes won France’s…
The hijacking of the Scots language
A teenager in North Carolina has been revealed as the creator of a fifth or even a half of the…
The Battle for Britain | 5 September 2020
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Aussie Life & Language
Tina Faulk There are very few ‘happy ending’ stories in the cruel history of slavery. This may just be one…
How to seduce a Border Force officer
There was only a handful of us arriving at Bristol on flight 6114 from Nice. Oscar and I had the…