Life
No idea
In Competition No. 2964 you were invited to suggest a really bad idea for one, or several, of the following:…
Dear Mary
Q. We recently stayed for a Saturday night with an old friend and were warned before we arrived that my…
Grouse rules
The autumn bank holiday is like the five-minute bell at the opera. The shades of the prison house loom. All…
High life
I have a question for you, dear readers: is it me, or is there no newspaper or network in America…
Long life
There is no cherished assumption that now goes unchallenged. The latest one is that country air is good for you.…
Long life
There is no cherished assumption that now goes unchallenged. The latest one is that country air is good for you.…
Low life
Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir This morning I was woken just before daylight by the clear ‘ting’ of a meditation…
Low life
Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir This morning I was woken just before daylight by the clear ‘ting’ of a meditation…
Doric
I’d seen The Gruffalo in Latin, so I was delighted when Veronica showed me a version her daughter had been…
Real life
What is happening to estate agents? Or let me put it another way. If the professional classes thought they were…
Is Keith Vaz a psychopath?
What’s wrong with you?’ That was the question an American broadcaster asked Anthony Weiner when his New York City mayoral…
Is Keith Vaz a psychopath?
What’s wrong with you?’ That was the question an American broadcaster asked Anthony Weiner when his New York City mayoral…
Watch out for Chesterton’s fences
There exists in such a case a certain institution or law; let us say, for the sake of simplicity, a…
Bridge
There are three reasons why I never make ‘psychic’ bids. First, because I’m a wimp. Second, because I often play…
2276: Iron Man
Definitions in ten clues contain a misprint; corrections spell out a theme word. Unclued lights are four pairs of words…
Low life
A new footpath from the village down to the beach opened earlier this year to a great fanfare. It was…
Bridge
By the time you read this, I will have (hopefully) played my first hand of bridge in five weeks. No…
Club cricketers: Zimbabwe needs you
Make sure you tell everybody about Zimbabwe,’ said the lady at our block of flats in suburban Harare as we…
Long life
Americans want a president with the steadiest possible finger on the nuclear button, which is why they worry about the…
No. 424
White to play. This is from Palucha-Skettos, Bhubaneswar 2016. Here White destroyed the black position with a typical tactical thrust.…
Real legs and fake people
The Soho Hotel is an actors’ hotel. They come for press junkets and interviews that reveal nothing because there is…
High life
Just about this time of year, 42 years ago, Dunhill’s of London, the famed tobacconist, had a bold idea. Its…
Real life
‘Oh no, I can’t bear it,’ said the builder boyfriend when I told him I wanted to look at one…
Old-fashioned values
Bookmaking’s image has changed. Alongside the arrival of the betting exchanges, the evolution of the big names like Hills, Coral,…
Queen’s Gambit rejected
One of the most reliable methods of frustrating chess computers is to play 1 d4 but then avoid the well-trodden…
