Life

2474: Love me do

12 September 2020 9:00 am

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?

12 September 2020 9:00 am

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

12 September 2020 9:00 am

Gstaad It snowed on the last two days of August up here, and why not? We’ve traded freedom of speech…

No. 621

12 September 2020 9:00 am

Black to play. Rios–Adams, Online Olympiad, August 2020. The White king is running short of squares. Which move did Adams…

Internet trouble

12 September 2020 9:00 am

It was as baffling to me as quantum entanglement. Every time the Algerian player on the Zoom call shared his…

2471: Inky solution

12 September 2020 9:00 am

The unclued lights can be preceded by BLACK. First prize Stephanie Reeve, Papworth Everard, CambridgeRunners-up Hilda Ball, Belfast; Peter Chapman,…

Aussie Life

5 September 2020 9:00 am

Peter Scammell There is no doubt that the corona virus pandemic is changing the way we live and think about…

Bridge | 5 September 2020

5 September 2020 9:00 am

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

5 September 2020 9:00 am

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

5 September 2020 9:00 am

We all have weeks when every win bet finishes second and every each-way comes home in fourth. You begin to…

2473: May

5 September 2020 9:00 am

The unclued lights (two of two words) are of a kind. Across 12 To make sense of Sun puzzle, many…

No. 620

5 September 2020 9:00 am

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

5 September 2020 9:00 am

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

5 September 2020 9:00 am

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

5 September 2020 9:00 am

Always the National Trust sticker. It feels like every time a car parks across the gateway to my horses’ field…

2470: Express route solution

5 September 2020 9:00 am

The unclued lights are places served by the Norwegian HURTIGRUTEN ferries from Bergen to Kirkenes. Tromsø (at 4D) overruns into…

Act of God

5 September 2020 9:00 am

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!

5 September 2020 9:00 am

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?

5 September 2020 9:00 am

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

5 September 2020 9:00 am

I spent Monday afternoon with The Wake Up Call, a new book by John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge that lambasts…

A perfect luncheon wine

5 September 2020 9:00 am

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

5 September 2020 9:00 am

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

5 September 2020 9:00 am

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Aussie Life & Language

29 August 2020 9:00 am

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

29 August 2020 9:00 am

There was only a handful of us arriving at Bristol on flight 6114 from Nice. Oscar and I had the…