Life
New heights
For anyone who knows or cares about rock climbing — a minority sport if ever there was one, albeit pretty…
Going for Gold
Irish racing guru Ted Walsh was asked at the start of Gold Cup day if retiring champion jockey Tony McCoy…
Where Alcibiades once walked, amateur tax spies are trying to entrap poor pistachio-sellers
Athens I am walking on a wide pedestrian road beneath the Acropolis within 200 meters of the remaining Themistoclean wall…
Lunch with Max Beerbohm’s brother’s grandson
It’s a silly, chippy complex, I know, but I often feel, on the rare occasions that I am induced to…
A lot of animal lovers go on about how great it is to rescue a horse from the racing industry
All was going suspiciously well with the thoroughbred. I suppose it had to be the calm before the storm. I…
It’s a pointless waste of time for David Cameron to resurrect the hunting debate
Of all the election promises politicians make in the run-up to a general election the one most certain to remain…
Bridge
Why do men always yell at the television or keep up a running commentary while watching sport? My husband does…
Bright blues
The boat race for the brain, as it has become known, took place at the Royal Automobile Club, Pall Mall,…
No. 353
Black to play. This is from James-Sugden, -Cambridge 1972, as featured last week. It’s a win by the Cambridge player…
Acrostic
In Competition No. 2888 you were invited to submit a poem in the style of a well-known poet, the first…
2202: Problem XI
Seven unclued lights (one hyphened) are 23: 7A + 17 + 40 + 5 + 6 + 31 = 36.…
To 2199: TV Comedy
The unclued lights can be arranged to give: ‘I decided to sell my Hoover … well, it was just collecting…
Could my son Charlie become a Premier League footballer?
My son Charlie was scouted by QPR last week. I say ‘scouted’, but that’s not quite accurate since he’s only…
Battle for Britain
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How to make Ukip supporters love green policies
Few people know this, but hidden within the FedEx logo, between the E and the x, there is a small…
Dear Mary: When is it all right not to bring something to a dinner party?
Q. A wonderful and generous woman invites me, on a regular basis, to dinner parties at her house. What is…
A dog to remember (and the wine he inspired)
Meeting to taste wine, we started by talking about dogs. Roy Hattersley is good on the subject, which ought to…
Are you negatively impacted by business-speak? It’s time to escalate
Maureen Finucane of Richmond, Surrey, wonders whether there is any branch of public service not infected by Orwellian Newspeak. In…
Bright blues
The boat race for the brain, as it has become known, took place at the Royal Automobile Club, Pall Mall,…
From puppy to Pinot
Meeting to taste wine, we started by talking about dogs. Roy Hattersley is good on the subject, which ought to…
Is that Green or red?
Few people know this, but hidden within the FedEx logo, between the E and the x, there is a small…
Old age is not for sissies
The secret of eternal youth, according to Alice Roosevelt Longworth, is arrested development, and the penny dropped last week. The…
Mahler’s Fifth is the perfect soundtrack to a tooth extraction
Frantic chewing of sugar-coated nicotine gum had caused my left lower molar to go irretrievably rotten, and the dentist finally…
My life in ailments
My request to see my medical notes was granted in the end. I honestly don’t know why I wanted to…
I’ve been sacked more times than I can exactly remember. It teaches you nothing
The Oldie magazine — of which, until otherwise advised, I appear to be the editor — runs an occasional article…
