Life
America is no longer the Land of the Free and Home of the Brave
New York The fact that a sailor on leave cannot whistle at a pretty girl’s legs is scientific proof that…
Aussie life
After that tweet by Mark Latham, thousands of column words, outraged tweets and statements by MPs quickly followed. I can’t…
Language
This year is the centenary of Vegemite. The classic Australian spread first hit the shelves of local grocery stores in…
Serious about its whimsy: Sessions Arts Club reviewed
The Sessions Arts Club is a restaurant inside the Old Session House in Clerkenwell, a pale George III building where…
Football’s growing shame
It would take a brave man to pick a fight with Roy Keane, and nobody could quarrel with his view…
2597: A Couple – solution
The couple were VICTORIA (23, 36, 37, 45) and ALBERT (2, 9, 17, 20, 46). 7 was the link. First…
2600: Pulling power
The unclued entries share a definition. Elsewhere, ignore an accent. Across 1 Chap primarily revered among classic characters (5) 12 Barrow…
How to mobilise the police
I wasn’t surprised to hear that six police officers raided a pub in Essex after a customer complained about the…
Chess pie: how to make the flakiest pastry
Chess pie was, in one sense, new to me when I started learning about it a few months ago. I’d…
Spectator competition winners: odes to unglamorous vegetables
In Competition No. 3294, you were invited to provide the first 16 lines of an ode to a turnip or…
How Moscow can pervert the course of Africa’s future
On the lengthy train ride to Kyiv I read my Plokhy as we trundled through seas of mud, passing villages…
How to outsmart a mouse
‘Mr Mouse’s days of fine dining are over,’ said the builder boyfriend as he put the finishing touches to his…
Aussie life
Australia’s greatest footy rivalries used to be strictly intra-code affairs – obvious examples being league’s State of Origin, union’s Bledisloe,…
Language
Our esteemed editor has drawn my attention to the word ‘ecocide’. It was employed by the Greens Party’s treasury spokesman…
In praise of Bellamy’s
Of all London districts, there is no more charming name than Mayfair. It makes one think of pretty shepherdesses, giggling…
