Life
Disloyal toast: this is the worst cabinet vintage ever
Drink and democracy have one important point in common: an ambivalent relationship with discord. They can mitigate it. They can…
To avoid knowing the distasteful origin of ‘scumbag’, look away now
President Vladimir Putin of Russia remarked of Sergei Skripal, whom his agents tried to kill, ‘He’s simply a scumbag.’ Scumbag…
If Jeremy Corbyn gets in, then I’m out
To London for much too brief a visit: a marriage, lunch with Commodore Tim Hoare, and a look-see for a…
The English-Scottish gender divide
Once the house move was completed, Catriona’s oldest and best Scottish friends, two of them, came to stay for a…
I am a prisoner of Norton AntiVirus
Two and a half hours after my tech guy began trying to uninstall Norton, he had purple smoke coming out…
I saw my future in the entrails of a butchered sheep
Laikipia, Kenya The Turkana cowhands are on Facebook and they spend a lot of time on their cell phones,…
Bridge
I’ve just arrived in Orlando, where the 15th World Bridge Series is taking place. I’m here for the second event…
Role model
World champion Magnus Carlsen is not competing in the Batumi Olympiad (of which more next week). Doubtless he is conserving…
no. 526
White to play. This position is from Giron-Altaya, Batumi Olympiad 2018. Can you spot White’s classic winning combination? Answers to…
Back-to-front sonnet
In Competition No. 3068 you were invited to provide a sonnet in reverse, using as your model Rupert Brooke’s ‘Sonnet…
2379: Shocking
Eight headwords in Chambers consist of the same word. Unclued lights (including two trios and one doing double duty) give…
to 2376: Somewhere XI
On 15 September, Costa Rica, bordered by PANAMA (31) and NICARAGUA (5), and whose capital is SAN JOSÉ (40/10), celebrated…
Alexa, who is Toby Young?
My oldest friend Sean Langan came to lunch last Sunday and, rather disappointingly, he seemed more interested in playing with…
The Battle for Britain
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Teamwork? It’s not the American way, even in the Ryder cup
For a nation which gave us a brilliant TV show called Band of Brothers, the Americans find it hard to…
Dear Mary: what do you say to neighbours who find you in your nightdress?
Q. I recently gave a jolly dinner for eight friends (some old, some rather famous), all home cooking, ending with…
Can my inner feminist cope with another restaurant named after a prostitute? Cora Pearl reviewed
Cora Pearl is the new, and second, restaurant from the people who made Kitty Fisher’s in Shepherd Market, Mayfair. Kitty…
Was everyone a psychopath before 1909?
My husband is enjoying Do No Harm, the arresting memoir of the brain surgeon Henry Marsh who was on Desert…
I’m an equal of Socrates and Wittgenstein — and if anyone disputes it they can go to hell
The grandest view of Gstaad and the surrounding Saanen valley bar none — and that includes the vista from my…
450 bottles of red? What more could I want from a neighbour
I have a friend here in this French village to which we moved just over a week ago. He is…
Why mutilate a perfectly good pronoun?
‘I’m just going to pop yourself on hold,’ said the girl from the online shopping firm who was trying to…
The joy of a rainy Newbury
Mill Reef, who won the Derby, the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, the Eclipse and the King George by far…
Batumi Olympiad
The Chess Olympiad for national teams is now underway in Batumi, Georgia. Over 200 teams are competing and the lavish…
no. 525
White to play. This position is from Rogers-Milos, Manila Olympiad 1992. How can White do better than recapturing on c3?…
Holiday hell
In Competition No. 3067 you were invited to provide a tale of travel misery on behalf of a well-known traveller…
