Life
Why are artlessly ambiguous headlines called ‘crash blossoms’?
‘Hospitals named after sandwiches kill five,’ ran a headline in the Times in June. When it was tweeted by the…
![Angourie Rice, who stars in Bruce Beresford’s 2018 film Ladies in Black [Photo by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images]](https://www.spectator.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/26Octhighlife.jpg?w=410&h=275&crop=1)
The most uplifting film ever made
New York Should art mirror the world as it is, or does an artist fail the public if the…
![Friedrich Nietzche [Photo: Roger-Viollet/Shutterstock]](https://www.spectator.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/26Octlowlife.jpg?w=410&h=275&crop=1)
The divine comedy of Friedrich Nietzsche
I’ve come back to the empty house for the second time in the six weeks since my mother died. The…
![[Photo: Alasdair Thomson]](https://www.spectator.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/26Octreallife.jpg?w=410&h=275&crop=1)
Was our nut-infested plane a death trap?
‘This is your captain speaking, welcome aboard this flight to London Gatwick. As there is a passenger on our flight…
Bridge
A couple of weeks ago two of the most prestigious events in the bridge nutter’s diary took place on the…
Great sacrifices
Impelled by his engineer’s mindset, the former world champion Mikhail Botvinnik wrote a short essay to answer a simple question:…
no. 577
Black to play. From Stepanov–Romanovsky, Lenin-grad 1926. Stepanov resigned two moves earlier, seeing that he would soon lose his queen.…
Going concern
In Competition No. 3121 you were invited to submit a song entitled ‘50 Ways to Leave the White House’. …
2431: Pride of place
The unclued lights (two of two words) be paired and are linked by an anagram of the four letters in…
to 2428: Tracks to the Isles
The unclued lights are stations along the Inverness to Kyle of Lochalsh train line, the pairs being 8/9 and 29/39.…
![Jordan Peterson [Getty Images]](https://www.spectator.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Toby_Young_4.jpg?w=410&h=275&crop=1)
The Intellectual Dark Web is more liberal than you’d think
In February last year, Spectator Life ran an article by Douglas Murray on the arrival of a new group of…
The Battle for Britain
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Plumbers always have the best restaurant recommendations
Whenever I use the security lane at an airport, I enjoy watching people retrieving their bags and metallic items when…
Dear Mary: Do I have a moral duty to allow Brexit chat at supper parties?
Q. I’ve been having friends to supper for many decades. Although I say it myself, these gatherings have often been…
The finest champagnes do not age
The other night, I dreamt about Brexit. Awakening to the oppression of an urgent task, it took me a few…
Surd
Lewis Carroll, in his Phantasmagoria, and Other Poems (1869), constructed a poem that yielded a double acrostic, with the first…
Why Simone de Beauvoir is my kind of woman
New York A strange thing happened to me here in the Bagel last week. Having read the recent review…
The truth behind those Airbnb snaps
Catriona and I had agreed that a terrace for smoking, eating, drinking and painting was a necessity rather than a…
In the middle of our holiday came the phone call I was dreading
Just before Tara left us, the old chestnut mare used to enjoy standing at the bottom gate watching the sun…
Bridge
I’m just back from Beijing, where I’ve been playing in the Hua Yuan Cup, an invitational tournament for the eight…
Atmospheric pressures
‘Poor indoor air quality hampers cognitive performance significantly’, concluded a recent study in the IZA (Institute of Labour Economics). Of…
No. 576
White to play, Black to win. Shirov-Caruana from the Isle of Man. Caruana threatens 53… d1=Q 54.Qxd1 Qxb2 mate. Shirov…
Back space
In Competition No. 3120 you were invited to submit a poem reflecting on the Apollo 11 moon landing written in…
2430: Petite traveller
19 October marks a milestone (hinted at by 19/26/20) for a person whose real forenames are given by 1A (three…
to 2427: In other words
The unclued lights are all constructed (as opposed to natural) languages, also known as conlangs. First prize Magdalena Deptula,…
