Life
Herculean sonnets
In Competition No. 3150 you were invited to submit a sonnet describing one of the labours of Hercules. This challenge…
Bitter memories: my craving for a pint
It is enough to drive a man to drink. The most glorious weather, so suitable for white Burgundy on a…
The stupidity of the ‘spare bedroom’
The Tesla Model 3 is an astounding achievement, but one thing baffles me: why do electric cars lack even the…
What’s the difference between ‘scaffold’ and ‘scaffolding’?
Whenever I turned on the news last weekend, my husband took to humming the March to the Scaffold from the…
I’ve made up for missing all my children’s and grandchildren’s births
Gstaad Well, Theodora did not wait and I missed yet another grandchild’s birth (the prettiest little blue-eyed thing ever, even…
Dear Mary: What is the etiquette about watching graphic sex scenes as a family?
Q. Please can you tell me the correct etiquette about signing the visitors book after you are married? Obviously you…
Unfortunately our new puppy is not just for lockdown
Will the huge surge in demand for puppies and kittens during lockdown lead to a lot of abandoned pets when…
2459: 22 Down
Six unclued entries (three of three words, and one of two words) can be combined to make a quotation (in…
Swindlers’ art
A lost cause at the chessboard is hard to define, but, like obscenity, I know it when I see it.…
2456: So American solution
Unclued lights are marches by John Philip SOUSA, as hinted by the title: 4/1A, 14/12, 20D, 33A/17, 37/29/26, and 41…
No. 606
Tamas Fodor — Michael Adams, Hull 2018. White to play. One from the puzzles section of Smerdon’s book, which I…
The Battle for Britain | 30 May 2020
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Bridge | 30 May 2020
One of the drawbacks of online bridge is the lack of après-bridge fun — those spontaneous drinking sessions where we…
All I want to do is de-worm my horse
We arrived at the country store with only three minutes to closing time so our chances of scoring horse wormer…
Racing needs us as much as we need it
Horseracing in Britain, which was suspended by coronavirus on 18 March, is due, as I write, to resume on Monday…
We have a communist bar and a fascist bar. If only I could remember which is which
When I first came to this village, I was told that one of the bars was a ‘communist’ bar and…
The link between spick and span, spanking and spoon
I Hoovered on Saturday (or vacuumed as they say in newspapers eager to avoid using a trademark) while my husband…
Liberal fears are contagious
It has become a commonplace among social psychologists that one of the characteristics that unites conservatives is our sensitivity to…
Bridge | 23 May 2020
Well, what can I say? I have been nowhere. Seen no one. Done nothing. Unless you count watching damaging amounts…
2458: Bardicarum
The unclued Across lights are of a kind, as are the associated Down ones. Across 1 Friendship revealed by American…
Rules for a deconfinement dinner party
The most visible local landmark is a solitary two-headed Jurassic mountain called Le Bessillon, six miles long and 800 metres…
Dear Mary: What Zoom background will impress my boss?
Q. My goddaughter was getting married in July but due to Covid-19 this has been postponed. I had already chosen…
No. 605
White mates in two moves against any defence (composed by Walter Pulitzer). Steinitz admitted he could not crack this within…
The horror of socially distanced restaurants
What does a critic do when her genre collapses? Mostly I panic. I speak to restaurateurs who believe that without…
What no one tells you about owning a horse
When people ask me what I did during lockdown, I would like to give an inspiring answer, apart from growing…
