Life
Klopp’s childlike enthusiasm – and incalculable savviness
Where were we? Oh yes, Liverpool were running away with the Premier League and a mere three months later have…
How two children vanished for a week en route from Africa to London
As we all know by now, the pandemic distorts time like a concertina. Life before March is a world that…
It’s time for lockdown lovers to accept that the fun is over
My friend turned up wearing a snorkelling mask, beneath which she had tied a bandana around her mouth. On her…
How not to run a literary festival
Gstaad A friend of mine who lives here wants to start a literary festival and asked me if I had…
We’re facing a tsunami of censorship
It’s open season on mavericks and dissenters at the moment. If you publicly challenge any of the sacred nostrums of…
No. 611
White to play. From the ridiculous to the sublime. According to the ‘Chess Notes’ website, a game won by Edward…
2464: Topsy-turvy
14 which is unclued below, but is clued elsewhere, has to be divided into three components (one a Spanish…
2461: Hot off? solution
The unclued lights include the name of a British daily newspaper; 3/26A, 9/35, 12, 24, 28/31D and 34/21. First…
Poems about picnics
In Competition No. 3155 you were invited to supply a poem entitled ‘The Picnic’. This challenge was prompted by a…
Twitch pageant
Chess has much in common with video games — not least, the eager disdain of uninformed critics. An 1859 article…
Aussie Life
Everyone wants to get high and have sex while saving money. So says P. J. O’Rourke, the political satirist who…
Two bottles to help eradicate cabin fever
The virus is in retreat, the lock-down is crumbling, the sherbet dispensaries will shortly reopen and there is a second…
Who watches the broadcast watchdog?
At the beginning of April, I became so frustrated by the supine coverage of the government’s response to the coronavirus…
The inappropriate history of ‘ventriloquising’
‘What! No one told me,’ my husband shouted when I explained that the Hebdomadal Council at Oxford no longer existed…
What if Oxford PPE graduates on TV were made to wear pink conical hats?
You can’t discuss racial inequality without using the N-word. And you can’t debate social justice without adding the C-word and…
The Battle for Britain | 27 June 2020
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The abominable selfishness of the Surrey middle classes
‘Have you met the man who keeps his horses in this field?’ said one silver-haired lady to the other, as…
Royal Ascot was a triumph – even without the cheers and the hats
Royal Ascot it wasn’t: for the first time in her 68-year reign, thanks to Covid-19, the Queen was not there.…
Bridge | 27 June 2020
I’m not a great fan of online bridge but I must admit, lockdown has provided a real opportunity for players…
Dear Mary: How can I stop predatory kisses at social gatherings?
Q. How can one politely stop predatory kissers? I am (or was) an affectionate and demonstrative person but I don’t…
‘Merrie sing Rishi!’: variations on ‘Sumer is icumen in’
In Competition No. 3154 you were invited to supply your own variations on the medieval round ‘Sumer is icumen in’.…
2460: Sleaze solution
The word is TACK. In the order of the headwords in Chambers, except for the fifth, their meanings are indicated…
What angry young French men want
Chatting on the café terrace with my new friends Didier and Emile made me aware that certain political ideas, which…
The mob mentality of the elite
Gstaad I thought of Nietzsche while the mayhem and destruction of monuments was going on. Decadent bourgeois society was in…
Clutch fun
‘May the best scoring system win!’ is hardly a sentiment to stoke the passions. In the 2011 referendum, the alternative…
