Life
The bump in the night that changed my mind about pygmies
Music of the Forest on Radio 4 last week was a profile of the anthropologist Colin Turnbull, 1924–1994, who achieved…
Maybe I should become a Slovakian health tourist
‘Let me get this straight,’ I said, looking my Slovakian friend in the eye. ‘You are going to go back…
What my chickens need is a dog
Of the nine chickens I used to keep here in Northamptonshire only one survived the summer, and it was the…
Bridge
Unlike poker, there’s not much money to be made from bridge tournaments (consider yourself lucky if you win £40 in…
Sinking the field
Fabiano Caruana has dominated the Sinquefield Cup in St Louis in a way that almost defies belief. The Italo-American grandmaster,…
No. 331
White to play. This is from Caruana–Nakamura, Sinquefield Cup, St Louis 2014. Caruana could have registered an even greater performance…
Hidden benefits
In Competition No. 2864 you were invited to submit an imaginary feature from a newspaper’s health pages extolling the benefits…
2179: Cos
The unclued lights are of a specific kind. Additionally each is a legitimate inflected headword in Chambers. Elsewhere, ignore one…
to 2176: ,
The unclued lights are BUTTERFLIES (as is the ‘comma’ in the title). The pairs are 7/34A, 13/24, 33/6 and 35/25.…
When the Welsh go it alone, blame me
Oh dear. I think I may have inadvertently contributed to the dissolution of Great Britain. I’m not claiming sole responsibility.…
Battle for Britain
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Why is nationalism OK when prefixed by the word ‘Scottish’ but not ‘British?’
My second favourite religious joke is an old Jewish joke (which I read in the Harvard Review, so I assume…
Dear Mary: Is it rude to answer my child's call when I'm already on the phone?
Q. My problem is that an older friend, with whom I enjoy lengthy telephone chats, becomes furious when my call…
The Society of Odd Bottles and the Sisterhood of the Black Pudding
The Honourable Society of Odd Bottles has been mentioned in this column before. I can report that the membership is…
Knee-jerkers vs knee-tremblers
A little joke by Paddy, Lord Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon, turned upon something to be shunned. Conservative ministers, he said, had…
Three sisterhoods
The Honourable Society of Odd Bottles has been mentioned in this column before. I can report that the membership is…
The pound sterling doesn’t buy happiness
My second favourite religious joke is an old Jewish joke (which I read in the Harvard Review, so I assume…
Come back Aristotle Onassis – all is forgiven
Back in the very early Sixties there was an uninhabited islet off the west coast of Greece by the name…
An undergraduate anorak at 32
When I was 32, tired at last, for the moment anyway, of seizing the day, I stopped drinking and gave…
These days, when men wolf-whistle at me, I thank them
Incredible as it seems to me now, there was a time when a wolf whistle was annoying. A man would…
The war on e-cigarettes is enough to make me give up giving up
I have been, on and off, a lifelong smoker; but I gave up in January 2009 on the day of…
The making of a racing realist
One of the greatest parliamentary sketch-writers of all time, Norman Shrapnel, made a point of never socialising with the politicians…
Bridge
One person who lets out a whoop of delight when I am on holiday is my saintly partner, Artur Malinowski.…
Gifted and talented
Despite occasional evidence to the contrary, I have persisted in the belief that the ability to play chess well indicates…
No. 330
White to play. This position is from Polgar-Bareev, Moscow 1996. Neither king is entirely happy and in such situations having…
