Life
My hairdresser cured my depression
I walked to the salon in fiery sunshine. Gorgeous, zaftig Elody was wearing a short satin dressing gown of silver…
What should you charge for a virtual conference?
From time to time, every industry must adapt to some inconvenient technological advance. Suddenly, some part of what you offer…
The protestors have brought down the lockdown
I wasn’t surprised to see that a woman whose father died at a care home in Bicester in April has…
Dear Mary: How do I greet friends without hugs or handshakes?
Q. Now we are instructed to mingle again, I’m sure I’m not alone in being surprised to find an awkwardness…
There were horses loose in a Public Sex Environment
The two horses looked like they had never seen anything like it. They had wound up in a dark car…
The Battle for Britain | 13 June 2020
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2458: Bardicarum solution
The unclued lights Across are Shakespearean LORDS and the Down ones are LADIES. (The plant ‘lords and ladies’ is an…
Horse-racing has made a triumphant return
Horse racing, it turns out, wasn’t the first sport back in post-lockdown action: that distinction went to pigeon racing when…
Where did ‘taking a knee’ come from?
That sympathetic physician, Sir Thomas Browne, thought himself austere in conversation. ‘Yet, at my devotion,’ he confessed in Religio Medici…
Famous writers get to grips with DIY
In Competition No. 3151 you were invited to imagine famous authors reflecting on their struggles with DIY. Highlights in a…
2460: Sleaze
The same word appears as seven headwords in Chambers. Unclued lights (including two pairs and one of three words, one…
Why is YouTube so afraid of free speech?
On Sunday, the hosts of Trigger–nometry, a YouTube show, posted an interview they’d done with Peter Hitchens. They labelled it…
Repulsive, depraved and oddly political: Monster Munch crisps reviewed
Now that I have considered Monster Munch I decide to eat one mindfully. I put it in my mouth, and…
The intense pleasures of lockdown
I used to live in Mogadishu for months at a time, cooped up in compounds behind fortified walls. Venturing on…
I went to hell and back to meet my new granddaughter
Wolfsegg, Austria I have finally understood what’s wrong with the modern world: motorways. These dehumanising slabs of asphalt covering our…
The £39.99 gadget that will transform how you work at home
Hours of googling have left me unable to find the essay on domestic horticulture, written by a Victorian aristocrat, which…
The French have made a hash of the hashtag
‘So my poor wife rose by five o’clock in the morning, before day, and went to market and bought fowls…
Dear Mary: is it OK to drop by to see a friend’s garden during the pandemic?
Q. I own a small, somewhat shabby and antiquated but well-located flat in central London which I have been happy…
The Battle for Britain | 6 June 2020
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Robot Wars
Twenty years ago, I was an avid fan of the cult TV programme Robot Wars. Teams of contestants would design…
2457: Beginning solution
Unclued lights suggested a section of the international radio communications alphabet: Bravo (VILLAIN: 6), Charlie (DIMWIT: 16), Delta (DEPOSIT: 19),…
Our first outing to the beach was ruined by angry two-metre-ites
We went on our first outing, to the beach at Littlehampton, but I’m not sure it was as stress-relieving as…
No. 607
White to play, Stockfish–AllieStein, TCEC Season 16. Stockfish found a beautiful knockout blow in this game against a different neural…
Bridge | 6 June 2020
When did we change from being a nation of curtain-twitching old biddies into one of full-on super-snitches? First a retired…
An 11-year-old’s birthday party was hijacked by Brexit
Saturday night we ate outside next to the floodlit rock face. Four adult guests came puffing up the path and…
