Life
We are experiencing an unusually high volume of bureaucracy
I have a hunch why people in late middle age are abandoning the workforce: their jobs, as they once knew…
2608: Support – solution
Reading the title as ‘backup’, unclued answers VOLTE-FACE, RETREAT, SPIN, TURN, COUNTER, BACKTRACK, WITHDRAWAL, ROTATE, RETIREMENT and RECOIL had to…
Young’s First Law of free speech
I’ve always been envious of journalists who give their names to ‘laws’, as in O’Sullivan’s First Law: ‘All organisations that…
Spectator competition winners: sonnets on sonnets
In Competition No. 3305, you were invited to submit a sonnet entitled ‘Sonnet On Famous And Familiar Sonnets’. The germ…
No. 758
White to play and win. Composed by Josef Hasek, 1929. One plausible try is 1 Kc5 but 1…f5! prepares to…
The hell of speed chess
Somewhere in hell, there is a cavernous hall filled with row upon row of people playing online speed chess. Their…
Frankie gets his last Royal Ascot hurrah – in spades
We all wanted Frankie to have a last Royal Ascot hurrah. In the end he got four, including a ninth…
Canine manners have gone to the dogs
‘Do you want me to put my dog on the lead?’ shouted the woman on her phone, as she came…
The changing face of the Eternal City
Rome To the Eternal City for the saddest of occasions, the funeral of the mother of Taki, 17, and Maria,…
Kiwi life
They closed the schools for several days recently in the small New Zealand town of Opotiki. A gang leader had…
Language
A Speccie reader has asked me for the origin of the expression ‘mumbo jumbo’ – and there turns out to…
Great discoveries
David Hodge is the 2023 British Chess Solving champion, after winning the Winton British Chess Solving Championship in Nottingham last…
Cobb salad: a bright idea for summer suppers
They do salads differently in America. Caesar salad, Waldorf salad, even their egg salads and potato salads: they’re big, they’re…
As good as pub food gets: The Red Lion, East Chisenbury, reviewed
The Red Lion, East Chisenbury, is in the Pewsey Vale on the edge of Salisbury Plain. Wiltshire’s strangeness surpasses even…
Why we all need an Ollie Robinson
It’s a long way from Edgbaston to Karachi, but that’s where my thoughts were turning after Australia’s last-gasp victory in…
