Life
Dear Mary: Can I ask our hosts to look for my husband’s tooth in the flowerbed?
Q. My 74-year-old husband was having drinks in the garden of some young clients when he bit down on an…
Aussie Life
I read in the Australian last week that the Queensland parliament is considering criminalising stealthing. And no, that’s not a…
Language
A Speccie reader has alerted me to the use of an odd word ‘alum’ to refer to the graduates of…
Everything’s burned to a crisp – and the horses are suffering
Everything is well and truly burned to a crisp, and we are piling through hundreds of pounds of hay a…
Don’t bring me sunshine: a week in the Surrey hills
I’m staying for a week in an 1850s house in the Surrey hills that looks-wise might have been built for…
This year, Glorious Goodwood had it all
‘You’re being unfaithful,’ says the punter’s wife brandishing a note found in her husband’s suit pocket: ‘Dorothea 07440 521321.’ ‘No,…
How to poach peaches (and why you should)
I’ve never been very good at leaving things be. I tend to gild the lily. I may plan to do…
No. 714
Black to play. Smirnov – Duda, Chennai Olympiad 2022. With his next move, Duda forced a decisive gain of material.…
2564: Sea monster – solution
The unclued lights 11 SOLITARY, 8 POOR, 38 NASTY, 36 BRUTISH and 35 SHORT are descriptions of 1 THE LIFE…
Sun-drenched days and too much wine: my summer on Patmos
Patmos Judging by the news, the world is finally coming apart: Chinese lab escapee Covid is still going strong, monkeypox…
2567: Stop!
The unclued lights (including two pairs, one of which is three words, and one single light of three words) are…
Spectator competition winners: Government ministries you didn’t know existed
In Competition No. 3260, a challenge suggested by a reader, you were invited to reveal the existence of a hitherto…
Bridge | 6 August 2022
In the modern game, being green versus red (non-vul v. vul) is a licence to bid on tram tickets: passing…
A lucky escape
I chatted to a spectator after one of my games at the Sparkassen Chess Trophy in Dortmund. ‘A close shave…
Iceland’s scenery takes your breath away – but so do the prices
I’m writing this on the plane back from Iceland, a fact that fills me with relief. Not because I didn’t…
The case for theft-tanks
The Conservative party leadership contest is a milestone for diversity and inclusion. This time, we get to choose between someone…
Dear Mary: How do I tell my neighbours I’m too busy to stop for a chat?
Q. My parents are abroad for two months and as my flatmates in London are all, like me, working from…
Should you really pair Pimm’s with oysters?
Imagine a camel train, crossing the great desert. The remaining water is rancid; the beasts’ humps are shrunken. Death looms.…
What do ‘catcalls’ have to do with cats?
‘A law against catcalls?’ asked my husband sceptically. ‘What next, criminalising booing and hissing?’ He often gets the wrong end…
The Battle for Britain | 6 August 2022
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Aussie life
New US Ambassador Caroline Kennedy had them at her first media conference interjection: when the white, stale male journalist (the…
Language
It was Will Self (writing in The Speccie) who drew my attention to the new word ‘uberise.’ He says he…
Escaping the memory of Liz Truss: Noci reviewed
Sometimes this column has a guest reviewer: a dining companion. It was Liz Truss in late summer 2011, for the…
The etymological ingredients of ‘flageons’
‘Don’t you know the answer?’ asked my husband with mock surprise, throwing over to me from his armchair a copy…
Heavy is the head
On International Chess Day, 20 July, Magnus Carlsen announced that he will not defend his world championship title next year.…
