Life
Why won’t Chris Packham have a real debate on climate?
On Sunday, the BBC did something unusual. It invited Luke Johnson, a climate contrarian, to join a panel with Laura…
Dear Mary: how can I get restaurants to turn off loud music?
Q. My husband never wants to go out to lunch on a day when he could be gardening but he…
My Negroni-soaked lunch with Laurence Olivier
Breakfast is my preferred meal, in case you’re interested. I broke my fast this week with my walking laser-light of…
The Candidates
Dommaraju Gukesh triumphed in a thrilling final round at the Candidates Tournament in Toronto. The Indian talent, who is still…
Kiwi life
Softly, softly, catchee monkey – the alphabet community’s grab for our children Somewhat naively, a New Zealand commentator thinks there’s…
Language
The University of Chicago has what it calls a ‘Parrhesia Program for Public Discourse’ – aimed at teaching students to…
How Linzer torte stood the test of time
Linzer torte has quite the claim to fame: some assert that it’s the oldest cake in the world; others that…
‘Five stars, no notes’: Arlington reviewed
Arlington is named for the 1st Earl of Arlington and his street behind the Ritz Hotel. It used to be…
My (surprisingly) decent proposal
‘Like being chained to a lunatic.’ That’s how a man feels in relation to his libido. And the lunatic latches…
Manchester City are surely unstoppable
Well it was fun while it lasted, the closest three-way race for the Premier League in history, a title challenge…
Lefties don’t know anything about farming
The artists and hippies are re-wilding their land, which is to say doing nothing at all to it and watching…
Amol Rajan is right to change his ways on ‘aitch’
My husband thought it brave and manly of the BBC’s Amol Rajan to resolve publicly to change his pronunciation of…
2650: Detention for history
One of the unclued entries is responsible for a quotation that makes up the others (two of three words, one…
Even Orwell’s Thought Police didn’t go as far as Trudeau
You’d assume the reaction to the SNP’s new hate crime laws would make other authoritarian governments hesitate before introducing similar…
The magic of Aintree
However hard some people try to make it a business, jump racing remains a sport and the Grand National its…
Dear Mary: How do I choose who to sponsor for the London Marathon?
Q. For the past couple of years, many of my sons’ friends have been gamely running the London Marathon for…
Aussie life
It’s been a long time since the beer garden of the iconic Oaks Hotel in Sydney’s Neutral Bay lost all…
