Life
What ‘Budget’ and ‘bilge’ have in common
The Budget (which the revolutionary fiscal act last week was technically not) is directly connected with bilge and with one…
Dear Mary: How do I get out of a friend’s bad birthday party?
Q. I shall be spending more time in the company of newer acquaintances in the West Country and would appreciate…
I’m on Andrew Doyle’s side – for now
I’ve agreed to interview the author and journalist Andrew Doyle about his new book at the Conservative party conference –…
2572: Blown up - Solution
As suggested by the quotation by John Donne around the perimeter, the other unclued lights were all kinds of trumpets.…
The sweet satisfaction of a burnt Cambridge cream
If a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, then a Trinity or Cambridge burnt cream must taste…
The Generation game.
The latest flashpoint in the Carlsen-Niemann saga took place in the sixth round of the preliminaries at the Julius Baer…
The Battle for Britain | 1 October 2022
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Why the dry martini is the finest cocktail of all
We were discussing bourbon and whether American whiskey could ever rival Scotch. I recalled the first time I ever tried…
Aussie life
As I sit in my study at the end of the day listening to the heavy rain and wondering when…
Language
European and Indian languages seem to be related in the very distant past. Linguists are able, for example, to trace…
The Battle for Britain | 24 September 2022
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No. 721
White to play and mate in two moves. Composed by Carl Schlechter, Allgemeine Sport-Zeitung, 1908. What is White’s first move?…
Fine food in a sinister Weimar wine cellar: Bardo St James’s Restaurant reviewed
Bardo St James’s Restaurant – a name which reads like a map – is a vast new Italian restaurant in…
Is there any limit to what Erling Haaland can do?
Don’t bother watching those gazillion-dollar TV prequels to The Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones. Who needs gratuitous…
Royal’s success
The London Mindsports Centre in Hammersmith opened its doors in 2021, after it was converted from a Salvation Army building.…
When did mourners stop crying and start ‘welling up’?
‘We got a gusher!’ exclaimed my husband in his idea of the accent of a Texan oil prospector. Normally, I’m…
2574: A Chinese
The unclued Across lights (including a pair) are of a kind and the unclued Down lights can be preceded by…
2571: 10” - solution
The TEN unclued lights are Scottish islands – or ‘INCHES’. First prize Mrs F.A. Bull, Canterbury Runners-up Susan Hay, Wolverhampton;…
Spectator competition winners: songs from the corporate songbooks of Google and Amazon
In Competition No. 3267, you were invited to supply a song from the songbook of one of today’s corporate giants.…
Dear Mary: is it OK for guests to steal pears at Glyndebourne?
Q. We have been invited to a small but formal dinner in the presence of someone who has been a…
Bridge | 24 September 2022
Wroclaw, in Poland, played host to the Open World Championships in August this year. The Open Teams, the first event…
I just can’t face one more argument with anyone, ever again
The cyclist was on the wrong side of the road coming towards me head-on. It was a winding country lane…
The man-eating leopard of Laikipia
Laikipia Plateau, Kenya Until only a few years ago, the constellations blazed across the sky above the farm at night…
My three-night retreat with the nuns
We were four round the little table in the nunnery kitchen: a 90-year-old German lady and her man; a nun…
In defence of privilege
Privilege at birth displeases wannabe types, and the subject came up rather a lot last week, especially in the Land…
