Life
Consequences
In Competition No. 2892 you were invited to submit an irregular quatrain in which you bring together two people from…
2206: Landslip
Four of the unclued lights (one of two words) and an unclued pair are of a kind, and can become…
To 2203: Peeping toms
The theme is CATS; the unclued Across lights are breeds of cats and unclued Down lights and TOPCAT (which had…
Is this election a Champions League game? Or Millwall vs Brighton?
I’ve been trying to think of a good football analogy to describe the battle between the two main parties as…
Battle for Britain
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Why plane crashes are getting weirder – and if we’re lucky, other problems will too
In the late 1980s, the parks service in the United States were concerned about the deterioration of the stonework on…
Dear Mary: How can I keep my retiring husband out of the house?
Q. For ten years, I have made a reasonable freelance income working from home. During this time my husband has…
The triumph of Guatemalan rum (and a disaster for a Guatemalan ambassador)
For many years, the Central American republic of Guatemala had a grievance against the United Kingdom. It claimed sovereignty over…
Nick Clegg’s public-school insult
Married to a public-school man (I almost said boy) for many a long year, I can’t bring myself to disqualify…
Battle for Britain
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Polymath
I learn from The Problemist, the organ of the British Chess Problem Society, that the polymath Dr Jacob Bronowski also…
No. 357
Black to play. This is from Cochrane-Staunton, London 1842. How did Staunton exploit his menacing build up of pieces on…
Consequences
In Competition No. 2892 you were invited to submit an irregular quatrain in which you bring together two people from…
Dear Mary
Q. For ten years, I have made a reasonable freelance income working from home. During this time my husband has…
A rum encounter
For many years, the Central American republic of Guatemala had a grievance against the United Kingdom. It claimed sovereignty over…
High life
Ah, spring! The spring of our frostbitten age. At the Polish Club in London, a wonderful place studded with portraits…
Pious
Married to a public-school man (I almost said boy) for many a long year, I can’t bring myself to disqualify…
Miliband vs Millwall
I’ve been trying to think of a good football analogy to describe the battle between the two main parties as…
Miliband vs Millwall
I’ve been trying to think of a good football analogy to describe the battle between the two main parties as…
Why plane crashes are getting weirder
In the late 1980s, the parks service in the United States were concerned about the deterioration of the stonework on…
Even a perfect opera such as Don Giovanni improves with a good red
End of season is always bittersweet, the melting snows a bit like autumn leaves. But the days are longer and…
One day the Condor and the Eagle will fly wing-tip to wing-tip
The pub was disappointingly empty, so I took my first pint of the evening upstairs, where some sort of New…
Farewell, Cobham — oh flat, boring, lovely Cobham; hello, Dorking
Farewell then, Cobham. You were the place I ran to when the metropolis became too much, and urban life overwhelmed…
The fox that killed my chickens depressed me more than 250,000 tsunami deaths
It is hard to know how a tragedy is going to move a person who is not directly affected by…
Who will fund a prize for the true fighter pilots of the Turf?
After listening to a violinist’s justification of his playing, Dr Samuel Johnson responded tartly: ‘Difficult do you call it, Sir?…
