Life
I’ve finally been offended by a joke
I went to the O2 on Sunday night to see the comedians Dave Chappelle and Chris Rock. Chappelle, who survived…
What Soho House has got right: Electric Diner reviewed
Electric Diner is from the Soho House group, which has done terrible things to private clubs, luckless farmhouses, domestic interior…
The cereal ambiguity of ‘corn’
‘Wha, wha?’ said my husband in a slack-jawed way, throwing over a copy of the Guardian, as though it was…
The Battle for Britain | 10 September 2022
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Bridge | 10 September 2022
When was the last time you made a doubled slam – a slam that could and should have been defeated…
I’m a one-woman man
Gstaad There’s a fin de saison feeling around here, but the restaurants are still full and the sons of the…
Chess speaks for itself
‘Plug the fucking laptop in!’ Hans Niemann, the lively 19-year-old from the US, was left fuming – understandably – after…
When the bone pain gets bad, my inner NCO keeps me in check
In Frederic Manning’s classic Great War novel, The Middle Parts of Fortune, the shattered battalion shambles out of the line…
No. 719
White to play. Cornette-Feller, French Champion-ship, August 2022. Black has just played 13…h7-h6. How did White capitalise on this mistake?…
Spectator competition winners: Ebenezer Scrooge asks for a loan
In Competition No. 3265, you were invited to submit a letter to a friend asking for a loan as it…
2572: Blown up
Around the perimeter, beginning at square 1, is a line of poetry (seven words, in ODQ) followed by the title…
2569: Anadad - solution
The quotation was ‘I WAS BORN TO SPEAK ALL MIRTH AND NO MATTER’ from Much Ado About Nothing (II.i.321) by…
Dear Mary: Was I wrong to tell my friend’s boyfriend he was snoring?
Q. I have had an email inviting me to an old girls’ reunion, class of 1976. The organiser suggested we…
How science became politicised
Here’s a paradox. Over the past two-and-a-half years, a cadre of senior politicians and their ‘expert’ advisers across the world…
The Conservative case for remote working
Some years ago, an Australian neurologist was in the habit of walking barefoot across his lawn. This being Australia, the…
Match of the half-century
They called it the Match of the Century. A full 50 years has passed since Bobby Fischer defeated Boris Spassky…
The Battle for Britain | 3 September 2022
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A toast to the field marshals
August may not be the cruellest month but it is often the most dangerous one. Now that it is over,…
The changing language of ‘mental health’
It is easy to laugh at young people asking for sympathy because ‘I’ve got mental health’. I think I heard…
2568: Next door... - solution
The unclued lights were characters in Neighbours, paired at 12/19, 14/20, 16/19 and 32/20. First prize Peter Taylor-Mansfield, Worcester Runners-up…
Goodwood was glorious but it highlighted the range of problems facing the sport
Irish trainer John F. O’Neill owes the stalls handlers at Goodwood a good drink or two. In Ireland this season…
Spectator competition winners: surreptitious sonnets
In Competition No. 3264, you were invited to submit a poem in response to the following journal entry by Wallace…
No. 718
White to play and win. Composed by Alexey Troitsky, Novoye Vremya, 1895. Trapping Black’s queen looks unimaginable on such an…
How to make a true apple strudel
It’s possible that, like me, your first encounter with the Grande Dame of the Austrian pastry world, the apfelstrudel, was…
2571: 10”
The unclued lights (one of two words) are of a kind. Across 1 Bringing down plane that was used…
