Financial Times Magazine - 09.08.2026.pdf

《乌克兰已死，终于安息》作者：法布里斯·德普雷

作为一篇新闻报道，这绝对是卓越的。 LEWIS FROM LEWES（通过 FT.COM）

这篇文章真正地强调了战争带来的代价。我们只是在一次又一次地重复同样的事情。非常悲哀。 LONK STONE（通过 FT.COM）

最近一次导弹袭击后，Sky News 报道了一位基辅居民的话，这足以说明一切：“扎娜·迈丹斯基（Zhanna Maidansk）的亲属住在与利迪亚同一区域的一栋部分被毁的建筑中，她说：‘我想告诉这个如此恐惧普京的世界，不要害怕他。他必须被阻止。’” GONEWALKABOUT（通过 FT.COM）

《奶酪大使》作者：科尔·雷诺兹

世界其他地方最不需要的就是进口美国的“零食文化”。此外，文中没有提到美国使用牛生长激素来人为增加牛奶产量，这损害了奶牛，而且很可能也损害了人类（尽管美国食品药品监督管理局 FDA 对此显然完全不以为意）。 NY / LONDON ECONOMIST（通过 FT.COM）

许多美国奶酪制造商本质上是在窃取欧洲的知识产权。美国确实能做出好奶酪，那么为什么他们没有信心用一个自己的名字来营销，比如“威斯康星顶级”，而不是试图骑在帕马森奶酪的肩膀上？ TIMOTHY（通过 FT.COM）

《第一次模因战争》作者：伊莱恩·摩尔

很失望在关于模因的文章里没发现任何模因。 IANTMOTHERSBOYFRIEND（通过 FT.COM）

这种国家治理的“科学化”成功让人想起那句关于我们在政治中经常“自食其果”的老话。它还表明，尽管在过去的 80 年里，人类状况据称有所进化和改善，但我们身上很多东西依然没有改变。而糟糕的是，大部分“很多”似乎全都是坏东西。 OLD SCHOOL CANUCK - RENEWED（通过 FT.COM）

《水果烈酒：味道的色彩》作者：戴夫·布鲁姆

我在疫情的黑暗日子里发现了 Capreolus 的水果白兰地（eaux-de-vie）， 8月1日 16个青少年无法挽回的故事 从那时起，我就一直轮换着喝几款不同的瓶装酒。直截了当地说，它们是完美的晚宴收尾烈酒——香气浓郁而不甜腻，风味十足且不过分张扬，酒精感锐利却不灼口。我很高兴这位显然是在倾注心血的酿酒师能够获得对其作品的认可。是的，它们很贵，我理解一瓶酒的价格对于一次盲目尝试来说可能太高了。但正如文章所言，制作时的用心确实体现了出来。请务必尝试一款。如果有机会，我推荐覆盆子口味。 MATTHIAS123（通过 FT.COM）

评论：《OUDH 1722》作者：杰伊·雷纳

听起来太绝了！杰伊的文字功底让这个坚定的素食主义者在读到对羊肉的描述时也垂涎三尺。全方位的魔力。 JANE E YUS（通过 FT.COM）

一件沾满肉汁的衬衫是对一家餐厅最高的赞美。 ACADEMICALS（通过 FT.COM）

如何在度假厨房中生存

作者：尼格拉·劳森 (Nigella Lawson)

太棒了，这篇关于租赁厨房“自助餐饮”冒险的游记如此有趣。带上一个好用的磨刀石，并准备好尝试不同的做法。直到我们在海德拉岛一个寒冷的风车里被咖啡奶泡机吸引之前，我们从未用过它。现在我们每天都在用。还有谁知道可以用木勺柄来开葡萄酒瓶（毫无疑问，有些人早就在学习这个了）？或者把一升冻结的矿泉水扔在石地板上是快速获得碎冰的方法？这里有更深刻的教训，而不仅仅是关于意面锅的！ BLUESQUIRREL VIA FT.COM

想要投稿 请在我们的在线文章下评论或发送电子邮件至 magazineletters@ft.com。请提供白天的联系电话和详细地址（不予公布）。信件可能会经过编辑。

不出所料，我真的不明白深受喜爱的尼格拉提到的那些设备到底是什么。但是，就像在她的众多电视系列节目中看到她使用的一系列洁净的勺子、筛子和各种装置一样，去探索这些毫无疑问将是一种乐趣。 ISLAND-DWELLER VIA FT.COM

4 FT WEEKEND MAGAZINE

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与 MR MARVIS 的完美裤装一起每天尽情玩乐，从 The Techwools 等新品到 The Longs、The Five-pockets 和 The Jeans 等经典款。永恒的设计，葡萄牙制造。搭配我们的衬衫、 Polo 衫或 T 恤来完善你的造型。立即在 mrmarvis.co.uk 购物或访问我们位于伦敦 King's Road 52 号的旗舰店。

B Carmine 在 bcorp.com 了解更多信息

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August 每个季节都有一栋度假屋 August 在欧洲最令人向往的地点策划卓越的度假屋。业主不再是在单一地点选择一栋房屋，而是享有一组位于标志性环境中的五栋独特住宅。每处房产都经过深思熟虑的策划，每一个细节都得到细心管理。从收购、翻新到持续管理，一切都为您处理好，减轻房产所有权的负担，让您只需抵达即可享受轻松的生活。 @august.collections

探索我们的系列

目录 介绍 Hexwords，一种对经典游戏的创新 P32

智力

UNDERCOVER ECONOMIST（卧底经济学家）

游戏的吸引力

作者：蒂姆·哈福德 (TIM HARFORD) 插图：阿尔贝托·米兰达 (ALBERTO MIRANDA)

在我的书橱里，有一个放在办公桌触手不及之处的小黑盒，里面存放着我少数几件珍视的财产之一：一套由其共同创作者——艺术家兼音乐家布莱恩·伊诺 (Brian Eno) 签名的“斜向策略”(Oblique Strategies) 卡片。这些卡片每张都带有简短的指令，旨在为创意工作者提供启发。有些很实用：“列出所有你可能做的事情的详尽清单，然后做清单上的最后一件事。”有些则像谜语：“一条线有两面。”有些则注定会让大多数专业音乐家感到恼火：“交换乐器角色。”这些提示旨在触发乐队成员之间有益的对话，提醒制作人那些他们可能遗忘的选项或视角，最重要的是，强迫熟练的艺术家放弃他们舒适的陈词滥调，寻找一种新方法。我在 2016 年出版的《混乱》(Messy) 一书中赞扬了这些卡片，并解释了为什么它们以及相关的干扰是对解决问题如此强大的刺激。

那么奇怪的是，我几乎从不使用它们。在这种不情愿的情绪上，我并非孤身一人。当伊诺说服大卫·鲍伊 (David Bowie) 在录制其著名的柏林三部曲专辑——《Low》、《"Heroes"》和《Lodger》时采用这些卡片时，AUGUST 8 2026 7 --- 智力 与他合作的音乐家们并不总是欣赏这种干预。卡洛斯·阿拉莫 (Carlos Alomar) 作为世界上最伟大的吉他手之一，发现自己在录制曲目《Boys Keep Swinging》时在打鼓。（“交换乐器角色”。）阿拉莫后来反思道：“我的意思是，有些起作用了，有些没有……它确实让我摆脱了对我当时所做之事的沮丧感，完全从另一个不同的角度来看待它，虽然我不喜欢那个角度，但当我回来时，我的状态焕然一新。”诗人西蒙·阿米蒂奇 (Simon Armitage) 将这些卡片描述为“就像你在要求大脑中的血液向另一个方向流动”，这听起来并不像是一种舒适的体验。

但世界上充满了促使人们产生解决问题反应的不舒适障碍。我最喜欢的一个例子是 2014 年伦敦地铁工人的罢工，这次罢工中断了 48 小时的行程——并促使数万名通勤者在发现自己一直以来通勤方式错误后，改变了他们的出行习惯。2009 年的一项实验室实验探讨了尴尬的团队互动所产生的影响：研究人员给小团队 20 分钟时间来解决一个多项选择的谋杀谜题。（你也可以在第 18 页解决谋杀谜题。）在某些情况下，小组由来自同一大学姐妹会的四个人组成；在其他情况下，三名姐妹会好友加入了一名陌生人，导致了令人恼火的社交摩擦。研究人员发现，有陌生人的团队在解决问题方面做得好得多，但对任务的享受程度较低，且更容易认为自己失败了。简而言之：尴尬的小组表现更好，但认为自己表现更差。

从引发焦虑的社交场合到交通混乱，再到随机抽取的迷思，我们可以将这些解决问题的提示称为“理想的干扰”。问题在于，虽然它们可能是理想的，但很少有人渴望它们。很少有人喜欢地铁罢工，或者与陌生人进行尴尬的闲聊——也许这解释了为什么我书橱里的“斜向策略”卡组很少被触碰。

这就把我们带到了游戏的话题。根据哲学家伯纳德·苏茨 (Bernard Suits) 的定义，游戏是“克服不必要障碍的自愿尝试”。（关于苏茨的更多内容，请参阅第 14 页的论文。）这个定义与上述这些“理想干扰”之间的对比非常鲜明。当你的常规路线被封锁时，寻找一条更好的上班路线并不是游戏——而是一种克服不可避免障碍的不情愿尝试。与一个你从未见过且没有明显共同语言的人在讨论中尴尬地尝试解决问题也是如此。至于“斜向策略”，如果这是你的创意项目且你的

一副卡牌，但如果你是一个勤奋的音乐家，而鲍伊和伊诺不断强迫你参与他们愚蠢的实验，这种体验不太可能让人感到有趣。那么，这里缺失的要素是游戏吗？有充分的理由相信，游戏可以激励我们以原本会抵触的方式去挑战自我。一项对实验证据的调查得出结论，通过诸如“积分、等级、奖励、排行榜、叙事和团队”等游戏化手段，可以提升身体活动量，任何被计步器和健身手表吸引的人对此都并不陌生。讽刺的是，游戏化只是对真正游戏的脆弱模仿。一款优秀的游戏能促使我们实现令人惊- 叹的专注力，掌握复杂的信息，或爆发式地付出体力，让我们气喘吁吁（或者，一旦到了某个年龄，我们会后悔没有热身）。我自己的游戏活动包括不仅学习规则，还学习一系列令人眼花缭乱的桌面游戏中的最佳策略，并克服我的羞怯和内向，参与长时间的角色扮演游戏环节——而这些环节本质上就是高强度的社交互动。很少有人会喜欢伦敦地铁罢工，或者与伪装成陌生人的对方进行尴尬的闲聊。（关于角色扮演的更多内容，请阅读第 22 页的专题报道。）我甚至尝试过做倒立，尽管我可以向你保证，用两只脚站立要容易得多。如果没有游戏的吸引力，所有这些不必要的奋斗都不会发生。许多艺术追求也是如此。如果你想捕捉一个人的神韵，你可以掏出智能手机拍张照片，或者请他们坐好，由你来素描或绘画。毫无疑问，手机相机是更简单的选择，但正如作家兼创意大师 Austin Kleon 所宣称的，“一个好的爱好应该看起来有点累人”。因此，人们很容易主张在更多的事情中拥抱游戏的精神。如果我们把去上班的不同可能路线当成游戏，我们就无需等待地铁罢工来发现一条更快捷或更愉快的行程。与陌生人合作很困难，这也许就是为什么如此多的破冰练习实际上是游戏。如果我能将《斜向策略》卡组视为一种游戏，而非一个反复无常的制造困难的引擎，我可能会更频繁地享受它带来的奇特馈赠。但我们要小心。“玩游戏是人类的天性，”伟大的桌面游戏设计师 Klaus Teuber 在近 20 年前告诉我，并补充道，“这是一种从日常琐事中逃离的方式。”在工作中保持趣味性有很多好处，但同时也存在将我们的乐趣变成苦差事的风险。毕竟，如果一个游戏承载了更广泛的目的，那么它就有不再有趣的风险。而一个没有乐趣的游戏，就称不上是一个真正的游戏。PT

部门报告，来自鲜为人知的 FT RIJRFAUX

保龄球 # 伟大之缘

根据美国保龄球协会（United States Bowling Congress）的数据，每年美国人会投出数万场经过认证的、满分 300 分的十瓶保龄球赛。但历史上仅有 43 组经过认证的“900 系列”（即连续三场满分赛）。一名叫作比尔·方（Bill Fong）的德克萨斯州人本可以在 2010 年将自己的名字列入该名单，但遗憾的是，他在最后一投中，最后一个球瓶——900 号球瓶——虽然摇晃但并未倒下。在球瓶未倒的那一刻，“陌生人们纷纷跪倒在地。每个人都感到难以呼吸。” 来源：D MAGAZINE, USBC

高尔夫 # 糟糕的洞口

2000 年，高尔夫球手乔·戴利（Joe Daley）在 PGA 巡回赛资格赛（Q-school）第四轮的第 17 号果岭上，精准地将一个短推球推入了洞中。然而，球从洞口的正中心弹起，又回到了果岭上。“噢我的天，那是什么？”电视解说员说道。戴利难以置信地将帽子扔在地上。他仅以一杆之差未能获得职业球员资格卡，从此再也没能回到巡回赛。 来源：GOLF DIGEST

棒球 # 棒球史上最糟糕的判罚？

在美职棒（Major League Baseball）历史上近 25 万场比赛中，仅出现过 24 场完美比赛（即对方 27 名击球手无一人安全上垒）。2010 年，底特律老虎队投手阿曼多·加拉拉加（Armando Galarraga）连续让 26 名克利夫兰印第安人队球员出局，随后杰森·唐纳德（Jason Donald）击出一个轻微的内野右侧滚地球并向一垒冲刺。裁判判定唐纳德安全上垒。这一判罚显然是错误的。加拉拉加原谅了裁判，并表示：“没有人是完美的。” 来源：ESPN, WIKIPEDIA

上周主题：分形 8 FT WEEKEND MAGAZINE --- RANDOX HEALTH

用几分钟，换取多年。

通过简单的血液检测，了解您的前列腺状况。

Randox Health 旨在通过简化并加快检测流程，鼓励更多男性了解自己的 PSA，并在适当情况下提供更灵敏的后续检测。从 7 月 1 日至 8 月 18 日，我们为前 5,000 人提供一项仅需 10 分钟、费用为 £33 的简单血液检测。如果您的 PSA 结果升高，我们将为后续检测提供补贴，高级 PSA 检测费用为 £38。这项灵敏度更高的检测可提供极其宝贵的附加信息，用于评估前列腺癌风险。

英国和爱尔兰 50+ 个网点 £33 PSA 检测 10 分钟预约 48 小时出结果 7 月 1 日 - 8 月 18 日 在线预约 RANDOXHEALTH.COM 欢迎直接到店 无需全科医生（GP）转诊

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Intellect 画廊

史蒂夫·沙皮罗 (STEVE SCHAPIRO)

作者：乔什·卢斯蒂格 (JOSH LUSTIG)

你可以闻到空气中弥漫的烟草味，甚至能品尝到它。如果你曾吹过号，可能还能品尝到从史蒂夫·沙皮罗的照片中散发出的那种酸涩的铜管味，或是温暖且带有木质感的簧片味。沙皮罗 1934 年出生于布鲁克林，是 2万 世纪下半叶美国最伟大的记录者之一，在社会剧烈变革时期曾为《生活》(Life)、《展望》(Look) 和《时代》(Time) 等杂志工作。他与詹姆斯·鲍德温和罗伯特·肯尼迪共同创作了具有开创性的摄影散文和书籍，并将职业生涯致力于记录国家在反抗种族主义和争取公民自由方面的斗争：从 1965 年的塞尔玛至蒙哥马利大游行，到 2020 年的 Black Lives Matter 抗议活动。沙皮罗于 2022 年去世。

在获得《生活》杂志的重大机会之前，沙皮罗在 1961 年和 1962 年的大部分时间里都在记录纽约的爵士乐场景。几十年后， 81 岁的沙皮罗与妻子和儿子一起，开始筛选他在这一时期拍摄的 20,000 多张照片。从上城哈莱姆区的阿波罗剧院到下城格林威治村的 Village Vanguard 俱乐部，沙皮罗拍摄了当时所有的巨匠，以及一些后来成为巨匠的人物。他身材矮小——身高 5 英尺 3 英寸，非常适合融入背景，像墙上的苍蝇一样悄无声息。但他也有一种令人卸下防备的快活天性，人们喜欢在他身边。西德·加尼斯 (Sid Ganis) 是一位在沙皮罗职业生涯后期与其合作的朋友兼电影制片人，他说：“史蒂夫是个快乐的人。他的笑声是我听过的所有人中最疯狂的。他笑起来的时候，全身都会颤抖。”

这种幽默感在他和拍摄对象之间产生共鸣。在近期出版的这部作品《爵士》(Jazz) 的序言中，伟大的桑尼·罗林斯 (Sonny Rollins) 写道：“埃尔文·琼斯 (Elvin Jones) 在微笑。我不记得见过保罗·钱伯斯 (Paul Chambers) 微笑的照片，但他在那里。保罗·钱伯斯在微笑。”这打破了爵士乐手作为严肃、痛苦的艺术家，以及他们是天赋和成瘾之牺牲品的刻板印象。

“多微笑，不要太纠结于你的设备，”沙皮罗在《爵士》中说道，“我总是尝试与我合作的对象处于同一个波段上。”

沙皮罗并非爵士乐痴迷者。也许他选择记录这个场景是因为他看到了某种代表性。爵士乐作为 20 世纪唯一真正的艺术形式，包含了一种关于社会变革的能量和信息。在那些小号、萨克斯管、键盘和贝斯线条中，有一种紧迫感，一种召唤，是沙皮罗无法忽视的。

《爵士》由 ACC Art Books 出版，网址：accartbooks.com

比尔·埃文斯 (BILL EVANS) 和 弗雷迪·哈巴德 (FREDDIE HUBBARD)，纽约，1962 10

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桑尼·雷德 (SONNY RED)、罗尼·马修斯 (RONNIE MATHEWS) 和 克利福德·乔丹 (CLIFFORD JORDAN)，纽约，1961

8 2026 11

游戏专刊 (THE GAME ISSUE)

在这个夏季特刊中，我们邀请了我们最喜爱的谜题专家和游戏设计师，贡献一系列可以独自或与家人一起玩的趣味内容。

答案请参阅第 56 页。

微型纵横字谜 第 121 号

由 SLEUTH 出题

8 个线索： - 2 个简单题 - 2 个常识题 - 2 个隐晦题 - 2 个易位构词题

横向

1 失败的一家建立机构 (7) 5 使困惑 (7) 6 易北河上的德国港口城市 (7) 7 执行救援 (7)

纵向

1 大卫 _ 七 和 《搏击俱乐部》电影导演 (7) 2 匿名的 (7) 3 利奥的到期款 (7) 4 歌手 (7)

在 ft.com / crosswordapp 访问过去 30 天的 FT 纵横字谜 —— 包括隐晦题、博学者题、周末题和周日谜题。

单词圆环 第 121 号

你能组成多少个单词，且必须使用中心字母加上两个或更多其他字母？任何字母的使用次数不得超过其在圆环中出现的次数。有一个单词使用了全部九个字母。

评分标准： 良好 - 25 优秀 - 35 惊人 - 45

二进制谜题 NO 121

在每个空格中填入 0 或 1，使得每行和每列中两种数字的数量相等。在任何行或列中，相同数字连续出现不得超过两次。

0 / 1

0 / 1 1 / 0 / 1 / 0 1 / 0 0 / 1 / 0 / 1 1 / 0 / 1 / 0 | | | | | | | | 1 | | 1 / 0

SOLUTIONS FOR ISSUE DATE AUGUST 1

迷你纵横字谜 No 120

二进制谜题 No 120

单词圆圈 No 120 COPE, COPIES, COPIES, COPIES, CORE, CORES, CORES

FT WEEKEND MAGAZINE BANY PUZZLE MEDIA LTD

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纵横字谜 NO 805

由 ALDHELM 出题

横向线索较为直接，而纵向线索为隐晦谜题。

ACROSS

• 1 不恰当的，不体面的 (8)
• 6 流行语，座右铭 (6)
• 9 一条培根 (6)
• 10 使震惊，使惊愕 (7)
• 11 足内反肢体畸形 (4, 4)
• 12 授权 (6)
• 13 橄榄球阵型 (5)
• 15 居住在被水环绕之地的人 (8)
• 17 会面 (8)
• 19 社会阶层 (5)
• 21 抛弃在船外的碎片 (6)
• 23 仁慈，慷慨 (8)
• 25 氢的放射性同位素 (7)
• 26 许多 (6)
• 27 插头，栓子 (6)
• 28 抚慰，缓解 (8) 纵横字谜 No 804

DOWN

• 2 疾病的慢性状态，少了一个病弱的人 (7)
• 3 本科生，她向上寻求药物治疗 (5)
• 4 一位曾经的演艺人员 (9)
• 5 呼唤狗，狂野的红骡和灵长类动物 (4-6, 5)
• 6 陈述的开头，被视为经过编辑以供听证，例如 (5)
• 7 弄翻一个锡罐并破坏艺术家的材料 (3, 6)
• 8 一位主教古怪地热爱原谅 (7)
• 14 对他的改革充满热情是很可爱的 (9)
• 16 遗憾地，所有人缓慢行进，最终带着泪水 (9)
• 18 舞蹈记录支撑着活泼的音符 (3-4)
• 20 绑定版本的底部以防止散页 (7)
• 22 潮湿的轻雾环绕海洋表面 (5)
• 24 某种规模的古怪英国湖泊 (5)

A ROUND ON THE LINKS

作者：JAMES WALTON

这里所有的答案都以某种方式相关联。一旦你发现了这种联系，初次未能解答的题目将会变得更容易。

• 1 在 Frank Giles 和 John Witherow 之间，《星期日泰晤士报》（The Sunday Times）的编辑是谁？
• 2 古埃及法老权力的双重象征——正如在图坦卡蒙的棺木上交叉出现的那样——一个是连枷，另一个是……什么？
• 3 约翰·班扬（John Bunyan）的《天路历程》（The Pilgrim's Progress）中哪个沼泽已成为表示抑郁状态的短语？
• 4 前喜剧搭档 Hale and Pace 的名字分别是什么？
• 5 在 20 世纪 60 和 70 年代的热门单曲标题中，哪个词出现在 "Sun"、"Plane" 和 "Roses" 之前？
• 6 哪家鞋业公司于 1875 年在莱斯特成立，并以其三位创始董事的名字命名？
• 7 华兹华斯关于法国大革命的这行诗中缺失了哪个词："Bliss was it in that — to be alive"？
• 8 英国语音报时服务的长期昵称是什么？
• 9 在圣经中，哪位以色列国王在扫罗和所罗门之间？
• 10 哪个名称既可以指伦敦的一个自治市，也可以指原油的主要基准价格？

THE PICTURE ROUND

作者：JAMES WALTON 这些图片加起来是谁或什么？

= ?

答案在第 36 页 AUGUST 8 2026 13 Essay

你的快乐行动

为什么游戏是充实生活的核心。作者：C·蒂·阮

在当代哲学中，最光彩地古怪的文本之一便是伯纳德·苏茨（Bernard Suits）的《蚱蜢》（The Grasshopper）。还记得蚂蚁与蚱蜢的寓言吗？蚂蚁在整个夏天辛勤工作，而蚱蜢则整日懒散，最终被饿死。在传统版本中，蚂蚁是英雄——是不懈的勤奋者——而蚱蜢则是关于懒惰之危的教训。苏茨颠覆了这个故事。在他的书中，蚱蜢才是英雄；他是“游戏”的化身。

《蚱蜢》以模仿柏拉图的《克里同》（Crito）开篇，后者讲述的是苏格拉底在被处决前最后几天的故事。在柏拉图的对话录中，苏格拉底被判死刑，正在等待执行。他的学生们来看望他，恳求他逃走，但他拒绝了。他宁愿为自己对正义的坚守而死，也不愿成为懦夫。苏茨的书同样是一部对话录，它以蚱蜢在弟子们的簇拥下被活活饿死开始。弟子们恳求蚱蜢让他们喂食，但他拒绝了。他宁愿为自己对闲暇和游戏的坚守而死，也不愿强迫他的弟子们变成蚂蚁。

这本书在 1978 年出版时最初被忽视了，大概是因为其不寻常的主题和欢快的风格。但它慢慢赢得了一批热烈的追随者。苏茨在书中的大部分篇幅都在尝试为“游戏”这一概念提供一个严谨的哲学定义，而最终，这变成了关于生命意义的探讨。而且，这本书以我多年教授哲学以来所知的，最令人愉悦且最离经叛道的论点之一收尾。

苏茨说，想象一个乌托邦——某个未来的天堂，在那里技术已经解决了我们所有的实际问题。我们拥有完美的医疗、无限的能源和无穷的资源。我们会如何利用时间？苏茨说，我们会玩游戏，否则我们会被无聊地折磨疯。如果在乌托邦中我们唯一做的事情就是玩游戏，那么游戏就一定是生命的意义。

当我感到兴致勃勃时，我会把《蚱蜢》的片段偷偷加入到我的“哲学导论”课程中。学生们的反应截然不同。有些人对此充满热情，因为这证明了他们内心深处关于真正重要之事的直觉。另一些学生则将其视为愚蠢的巅峰。在他们看来，这是一个为了赞美一种完全不严肃的生活而提出的不严肃论点。

但苏茨是非常严肃地对待它的。这本书是在论证游戏的中心地位。对他而言，游戏不仅仅是工作这道主菜的配菜。游戏是充实生活的核心。

在底层逻辑上，苏茨的论点骨子里是亚里士多德式的。对于亚里士多德来说，一个美好的生活——一个真正有意义的生活——不在于创造或积累物质，也不在于达成某种结果，而在于“做”这个过程本身，在于充分发挥人类能力的丰富实践。（苏茨除了其他身份外，还是滑铁卢大学的一位亚里士多德学者，且是一名狂热的亚里士多德粉丝。）

苏茨在最简单的人类活动中发现了亚里士多德观点的最深刻启示：玩游戏。苏茨给出了他的定义并为其辩护。他说，玩游戏就是自愿承担不必要的障碍，从而使克服这些障碍的奋斗成为可能。

因此，玩游戏就是故意地追求低效率。当你跑马拉松时，你试图到达空间中的某个特定地点，但你避开了到达那里最高效的方式。你不上地铁，不打车，也不骑自行车。你强迫自己奔跑，并试图尽可能快地奔跑。

这意味着，对于苏茨来说，这种“奋斗”必须是真实价值的核心部分。你所关心的不能仅仅是结果本身。你不能只关心到达那个空间点。否则，你只需选择最高效的路径。但如果你坐地铁去了，那么这不算数——至少在马拉松跑步这场游戏中是不算数的。

游戏塑造了一种特定的做事方式。足球告诉你不能用手，于是你学会了如何用双脚获得尽可能多的优雅与掌控。攀岩告诉你向上爬，但禁止使用标准的人类工具。没有梯子，没有直升机，没有抓钩。相反，你致力于平衡、身体的精准度以及细腻的动作。当我第一次阅读《 Suits 》时，我也在学习飞钓。我搬到了犹他州，想在山中度过更多时间。我需要某种结构来真正地与大山“互动”。我可以徒步走到那个清澈的高山湖泊，试图沉浸在美景之中，但凭借我那不安分的头脑，大约10分钟后我就会感到厌倦并分心。飞钓改变了这一点。在水中专注地搜寻鳟鱼。寻找它们阴影般的身形。观察水流中的细微之处，比如湍急的快水如何跌入稍慢且更深的水域，那里很可能是鳟鱼潜伏的地方。观察昆虫。观察它们的大小，弄清楚鳟鱼在吃什么，以及在水中的哪个位置进食。然后用一只你希望是亲手绑制的假昆虫来模拟那种虫子。飞钓极其愚蠢。它是捕捉鱼类最笨的方法。为了上帝之名，用网，或者也许用一些炸药，或者至少在钩子上挂点饵料，效率会高得多。但飞钓强迫你采用晦涩且低效的方法。对于我最喜欢的飞钓形式来说尤其如此：向一条可见地在进食的鳟鱼投掷一只干蝇。你拿一个人工合成物——一点羽毛和皮毛，绑在钩子上——并在正确的时刻将其细腻地落在正确的位置，使其看起来像停在水面上的昆虫。如果你做得恰到好处，一条鳟鱼会浮上来，将其从水面吸走。这难得离谱。如果你想要一条鱼，几乎任何其他方法都更容易。（见鬼，如果你只是想要一条鱼来吃，你直接在市场买一条就行了。）但那样就不算数。当你飞钓时，你不仅仅是想要一条鱼。你在玩一场游戏：你希望通过一种特定的、困难且迷人的技巧来获得那条鱼。游戏让我们直面困难挣扎本身的价值。如果生活中唯一重要的是纯粹的结果——产品、金钱、可提取的商品——如果人类的行为仅仅是实现某些独立目标的手段，那么玩游戏将完全是不理性的。或者你可以这样想：游戏很重要，而那种完全致力于结果和可提取产品的心态，则错过了人类生活的中心。要理解游戏，请区分两件事：游戏的“目标”（goal）和你玩游戏的“目的”（purpose）。目标是你在游戏内部追求的东西；目的是你为什么玩它。我的哲学导师芭芭拉·赫尔曼（Barbara Herman）这样描述：当你邀请朋友来打牌时，目标是赢，但目的是 14 FT WEEKEND MAGAZINE --- 插画由 FEMKE DE JONG 绘制 获得乐趣。你必须尝试赢才能获得乐趣，但赢并不是重点。并非我们所有人都以这种方式对待游戏。对于某些人来说，目标和目的是统一的。他们只想赢，仅此而已。把这些人称为“成就型玩家”。奥运跑者希望通过跑步赢得马拉松——但他们确实在意于赢得比赛。但对于其他人来说，目标和目的分开了。我们尝试赢，是因为我们对挣扎感兴趣，而我们真正在意的是挣扎本身。称我们为“奋斗型玩家”。如果我们尝试了但输了，只要这次尝试是美丽的，那就没关系。在平凡的现实生活中，我们为了目的而采取手段。在奋斗型的游戏中，我们为了手段而追求目的。生活的意义是什么？是制造东西吗？还是采取困难的行动，思考深刻的思想，权衡微妙的决定？是拥有的一堆东西——还是这些东西仅仅是为了支撑我们对有趣行动的追求？

我在许多严肃的研究环境中讨论过游戏和玩耍。大多数严肃的成年人——即便是在研究“玩耍”的人——通常都急于证明玩耍实际上在秘密地为成年人的正事提供帮助。他们急于展示玩耍如何促进未来的生产力。国际象棋教授逻辑，足球教授团队协作，Minecraft 培养未来的工程师。或者，至少玩耍是有用的，因为它能让你放松并恢复精力，从而让你重新振作并回到工作中。苏茨（Suits）则提出了不同的观点。他认为玩耍本身就是目的，而我们工作是为了生存，以便能够玩耍。

在一个阳光明媚、白雪皑皑的冬日，我沿着一条河行走，寻找跃起的鳟鱼，这时我遇到了一个弯腰的家伙，那是另一位在寒冷日子里出没的飞钓者，他正对着自己的飞钓盒发脾气。他愤怒地低声自语，散发出阴郁的气息。“真是个出门的好日子，”我说，“你怎么样？”“糟糕透了，”他说，“我今天才钓到五条鱼。我落后了。我还没达到我应该达到的进度。”他看起来绝望且痛苦。

人们很容易说他做错了。但游戏太复杂，不能如此简单地概括。即使对于追求成就的玩家来说，玩耍也不全是美好的时光。对于攀岩者、国际象棋选手或《黑暗之魂》这类超高难度视频游戏的玩家来说，挫败感、愤怒和绝望正是其意义的一部分。一次次失败，变得精疲力竭且暴躁，然后（有时）迎来一个成功的辉煌时刻。这些都是这种弧线中的关键组成部分。

当我开始学习飞钓时，我完全没想到有一天我会疯狂到在隆冬时节出门，气温在冰点左右徘徊，靴子踩破雪壳，沿着雪坡滑下潜入河中，身上裹着防水涉水裤和两层保暖内衣，只为了尝试钓几条鱼。对我而言，冬季飞钓的一半意义在于接近痛苦。在这种条件下，勉强才能维持一个活着且能活动的人类状态。而且通常情况下，鱼非常少。但这也让我感到强烈的生命力。我通常被关在室内好几周——阅读、打扫、评分、育儿——而河边一个阳光灿烂的冬日是极其明亮的。你小心翼翼地对待每一个动作，每一个微小的行为，只为了在一年中最糟糕的日子里钓鱼，而那时如果你能钓到一条鱼就算运气好。如果你真的钓到了，你会立即把它放掉。

我的直觉告诉我，那个喃喃自语的男人并不在这样一个戏剧性的弧线中。我的直觉告诉我，他认为自己必须钓到很多鱼，如果没完成配额，就说明出了问题。我的直觉告诉我，他从始至终都感到痛苦。我猜测他将工作心态带入了生命中极少数他真正可以自由玩耍的片段里。

AUGUST 8 2026 15

“工作”与“玩耍”之间有什么区别？

我们可能会认为玩耍总是轻盈、简单且有趣的——但当你开始思考我们在玩耍时是多么投入时，问题就变得棘手了。我一直试图像个勤勉的小哲学家那样，为“玩耍”找一个有用的定义。我在文献中找到了一些候选定义，但没有一个能完全让我满意。每一个似乎只捕捉到了整体的不同部分。

其中一个来自女性主义哲学家玛丽亚·卢戈内斯（Maria Lugones）。她说，“玩耍”就是穿梭在不同的规则世界之间——在文化、职业世界、社会角色之间轻松且轻盈地跨越。她说，具有玩心就是愿意尝试这些规则，但不将其视为神圣不可侵犯。对于卢戈内斯来说，玩心的反面类似于教条主义。

另一个定义来自伯纳德·苏茨（Bernard Suits）。他说，游戏是将通常用于工具性目的的资源，重新定向到自目的性活动中。“工具性资源”是指你通常为了获得有用之物而投入的东西——如物质财富、技能或精力。而“自目的性活动”是一个来自亚里士多德的术语，意指那些因其自身而具有价值的活动。你可能会利用跑步的精力——这种精力曾被用于狩猎、逃生或旅行——而现在只是在城市里绕大圈跑步，因为这感觉很好。或者你可能会利用一项技能，比如捕鱼，这项技能曾被用于维持生计。突然间，你重新定向了这项技能。你这样做纯粹是为了其中的乐趣。而这在一定程度上改变了你执行的方式。突然之间，你不必采取最高效的路径，因为你的生命和饥饿并不取决于你的成功。你正在进行游戏。也许这种游戏需要你投入更多——思考、敏感度、复杂的动作——才能达到同样的结果。你这样做纯粹是为了其中的乐趣。而这在一定程度上改变了你执行的方式。你尝试纯粹是为了尝试。你调整动作的目的不再是为了生产力，而是为了快乐。可以用这样的话来重新表述苏茨的定义：游戏是为了好玩而浪费资源。但同时：其核心在于，在深层意义上，这并非浪费。真正被浪费的人生，是像蚂蚁一样辛苦工作、囤积物资，却从未利用它们来支持快乐的游戏。而真正浪费人性，则是如此强迫人们高效工作、制造更多东西，以至于没有人有时间去游戏。让我尝试将这两个定义融合在一起。“工作”与“游戏”的区别不在于难度、痛苦或实用性。你可以把制作陶器、织围巾或打理花园作为游戏。工作与游戏之间真正的区别在于，你做这件事的原因，以及你对“在做什么”以及“为何而做”所拥有的控制权。我的建议是：所谓“工作”，是指为了创造由外部因素设定的结果而进行的活动。当你工作时，你在制造这个世界要求你制造的东西。也许你在采集食物，因为生物本能告诉你必须进食。也许你在赚钱，因为世界告诉你需要钱来购买食物、住所和药品。也许你在制造产品，因为世界需要你提供特定的东西——木板，或者一次去机场的接送。但“游戏”则不同。你依然有目标和挣扎，但目标由你决定。当我是一名攀岩者时，我最初接受的是攀岩界一个既定的目标：攀登最困难的岩壁。这在很长一段时间内都有效。这个目标帮助我在平衡中找到敏感度和细致，在动作中找到快乐。但几年后，追求难度的过程不再具有意义或满足感。于是我切换了目标：我开始尝试以最优雅的方式攀登，使用最流畅且最精简的动作组合。在游戏中，你选择目标，因为它们能带给你想要的行动方式和参与感。如果你不喜欢某个游戏，你可以更换游戏。你可以改变规则，可以改变目标。你可以把它设定得极其困难，以至于你可能会输。你可以改变计分方式，因为分数并不是关键。你自身快乐的行动才是关键。PT C·蒂·阮（C Thi Nguyen）是犹他大学的哲学教授。他的最新著作《得分》（The Score）由企鹅出版社出版 PADELSMITH

这是板式网球（padel）。绝不妥协。PADELSMITH.CO.UK

16 FT WEEKEND MAGAZINE --- 文字作者：詹姆斯·沃尔顿（JAMES WALTON）

夏季问答 打算去哪里度假？ 玩法 在每组问题中，答案的首字母将拼出一个度假目的地 # 第一轮 1 哪部 2004 年的电影设定在虚构的 KVWN 电视台？ 2 “我们都身处阴沟，但我们中有些人正仰望着星空”出自奥斯卡·王尔德的哪部剧作？ 3 2010 年代的哪部剧集获得的 Primetime Emmy Awards 奖项数量在所有剧集中最多？ 4 谁的小说《怀尔德费尔大厅的房客》中塑造了一个部分基于其兄弟布兰威尔的暴力酒鬼形象？ 5 哪位政党领袖是格雷特雅茅斯（Great Yarmouth）的国会议员？ 6 美泉宫位于哪个欧洲城市？ 7 微软在 2015 年推出了哪个浏览器来取代 Internet Explorer？ # 第二轮 1 非洲的最北端位于哪个国家？ 2 哪个美国州在 1896 年加入联邦？ 3 哪位英格兰足球队主教练曾 104 次代表荷兰国家队出场？ 4 乔治·奥威尔在《通往威根码头之路》中的这段话如何结尾：“如果说有一种人让我感到自愧不如，那就是……” 5 谁是唯一一位曾任德国总理的前东德公民？ 6 哪家公司在 1997 年起步于 DVD 租赁服务？ 7 Ed Balls 的妻子是哪位政府部长？ # 第三轮 1 《芝加哥》是最近一部获得奥斯卡最佳影片奖的电影音乐剧。在此之前的 1960 年代哪部音乐剧最后一次获奖？ 2 萨斯基亚·范·奥伦堡是哪位画家的妻子，她有时还为他担任模特？ 3 泰勒·斯威夫特最近的一张专辑名为《The...》什么？ 4 莎士比亚剧作标题中出现的唯一一座首都城市是哪个？ 5 2004 年 1 月推出了两本男性杂志：《Zoo》和另一本什么？ 6 谁是罗马神话中的狩猎女神？ 7 在人体解剖学中，这个层级序列接下来的内容是什么：细胞，组织，...？ # 第四轮 1 五大湖中唯一完全位于美国境内的是哪个？ 2 在有史以来维持原班人马时间最长的摇滚乐队中，贝斯手是谁？ 3 最后一位保守党财政大臣是谁？ 4 哪款由 Morland 在 1979 年首次酿造的啤酒有一个由三个单词组成的鸟类名称？ 5 威尔第的哪部歌剧改编自维克多·雨果的剧作《国王在娱乐》？ 6 西蒙·阿米蒂奇接替谁成为了桂冠诗人？ 7 1896 年《纽约太阳报》首次使用了哪个带有贬义的两个单词的词组来称呼人身伤害律师？ # 第五轮 1 中美洲最大的国家是哪个？ 2 谁是唯一获得诺贝尔文学奖的美国剧作家？ 3 哪个队伍赢得了前两届男子板球世界杯？ 4 蒙特利尔是加拿大哪个省最大的城市？ 5 1850 年一部小说中的反派在威克菲尔德先生手下担任职员，他是谁？ 6 哪位女演员是 Queen 乐队 Brian May 的妻子？ 7 “我在动物园”是出现在什么平台上的第一段内容？ 答案 8 2026 17 --- Murdoku™ # 杀手网格 ## * 一些花朵，且在* 一棵树旁边 ETHAN 他坐在椅子上 FABIAN 他在池塘里。他在 Ethan 的北边 VICKY 受害者 她与凶手单独在一起 * 旁边 = 在同一个房间内，左、右、上或下的一格（非对角线） 犯罪现场

凶手是 关键点 可以占用 不可占用 © 2018 MANUEL GARAND, MURDERMYSTERYPLIZZLES.COM 18 FT WEEKEND MAGAZINE --- 作者：MANUEL GARAND 插画：CLARA SAN MILLÁN

玩法

要找出凶手，请通过将嫌疑人和受害者安置在犯罪现场，确定他们在谋杀发生时的准确位置。凶手与受害者单独在同一个房间内。

破案步骤 每个人都位于不同的行和列 如果 A 在这里... ...那么这些单元格中不能有任何人 受害者只能在这里 找出所有人的位置以发现受害者 在受害者房间里的人就是凶手。 在这里，B 是凶手

图书馆

难度：困难

嫌疑人

ALMA

她在阅览室

BLANCHE

她在植物旁边

CIARA

她在小说区或档案室

DAMIEN

他与某人在走廊里单独在一起

EDITH

她在地毯上

FELICIA

她恰好在 Damien 北边的一行

GIDEON

他在盒子旁边*

HELGA

她是唯一坐在椅子上的人

VISHAL

受害者

他与凶手单独在一起

犯罪现场

凶手是

图例

可以占用 不可占用

2026年8月8日 19

巨型纵横字谜

国情

在解完这个庄重的、美式风格的纵横字谜（是的，采用美式拼写）后，你将拥有解决一个庞大奖励谜题所需的所有碎片。请注意，这些碎片在网格中可能非常紧凑。奖励谜题的答案可能是对“现状如何？”这个问题的简短回答。

20 FT WEEKEND MAGAZINE

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作者：OLIVER ROEDER

横向

1 像红狼之于灰狼 7 _ rap 13 蓝带（Blue Ribbon）酿酒商 18 真正起步 19 品牌名称在日语中意为“精美”的手表 20 四次世界杯冠军但过去三次未能出线 21 Def Jam 和 Rocafella 22 烧烤场所 23 许多政治家的形容词 24 Hertz 的竞争对手 25 Lyft 的竞争对手 27 曾经的西梅干 29 完全拆除 30 以 Bat, Iron, Super 结尾 31 以“歌唱吧，女神”开头 32 蛇笛师驯服的蛇 33 与大蒜相关的蔬菜 34 不接受拒绝 36 将于 8月12日 再次发生的星象现象 38 最近签下梅西的组织 39 黑色星期五的吸引力 40 “_ 你下地狱去吧，离开这个世界”：理查德三世 41 “找到了！” 44 “在森林中”的小家伙 45 名称包含所有五个元音的树 49 Citi Field 之前的 Mets 主场 50 祝酒时经常拿着的东西 51 总统年度国情咨文：缩写 52 _ NewsHour 53 曾经的新闻播报员 55 Ish 57 揭露（诗意表达） 58 两位诺贝尔奖得主的姓氏，物理学的 Victor Francis 和生理学的 Walter Rudolf 59 有时隐藏在画作背后的东西 60 幻想村，是“跃马旅店”的所在地 61 允许 63 臂骨 64 痛苦与狂喜时发出的声音 65 获得普利策奖的《纽约客》评论家 Hilton 66 更具批判性和刻薄 67 重叠时，为啦啦队设备 68 纪念，如建立雕像 72 法律术语中的“免费” 76 农场的声音 77 可编辑的文章 78 《海鸥》和《野鸭》 79 “无论是雪 _ 雨 _ 热 _ 黑夜的阴郁...” 80 Google 地图建议：缩写 81 相机设置 82 葡萄酒：前缀 83 以火山命名的美国保险巨头 84 “傻鹅！” 86 史蒂夫·布塞米在《水库狗》中的角色 88 传教者的场所 90 盯着球的人？ 91 曾经做过 92 诱惑 93 发表了约 1,500 篇论文的数学家 Paul 94 从飞机上跳下 95 无人认领

纵向 1 管状肉类 2 穿越沙漠的游行 3 美国数量最多的鸟类，约有 4 亿 只 4 折断木棍 5 对某些美国新居民而言的潜艇 6 结果 7 听起来很震惊 8 邻近的 9 “走开！” 10 他们被困在雪中 11 它们可能包含一个小文件夹、打印机和放大镜 12 消除任何疑虑 13 例如比萨 14 美国最繁忙机场的代码 15 形象受损（非正式） 16 肮脏的人 17 曾获 NBA 年度最佳新秀的埃文斯 26 倾斜 28 黑客工具 31 例如曼哈顿 32 纳特·金和艾希莉 33 代替 35 “也就是说……” 36 砍击与刺击的击剑项目 37 精神 / 烈酒 39 可能是棕色 41 “这样就足够了！” 42 “祈祷好运！” 43 忍者神龟的家 44 据说无知 45 疼痛区域 46 玻璃制造？ 47 “现代戏剧之父” 48 顶起物和纺纱机 额外谜题：现状如何？ 50 精密木工工具 51 迄今为止 54 其辣度以警报衡量的菜肴 55 狮群？ 56 关系初期不宜过早提及的风险之举 59 操场上的斜坡 62 曾经的德国首都 63 准备好打包的，如手提箱 64 农场的声音 66 黑鹰、杰鹰和海鹰直升机的制造商 67 强行分开，如使用撬棍 68 阴郁的 69 两者之一 70 富有的 71 实验室试纸 72 提前思考 73 第一个罢工的人？ 74 “好粗鲁！” 75 行为像埃斯希内斯 78 高品质茶叶 81 不必要的兴奋 82 晾晒 / 播送 83 音域跨越 F3 到 F5 85 第一名奖牌 87 独裁者阿明 89 一种在游戏中需要大喊游戏名称的卡牌游戏

AUGUST 8 2026 21 ---

22 FT WEEKEND NAGAZINE ---

AUGUST 8 2026 # 这个 # 他们

陪伴。接纳。逃避。蜂蜜酒。以及战斗。为什么有 4,000 人在 A10 公路旁的一片原野上装扮成角色并进行“现场角色扮演”

作者：汤姆·法伯 (Tom Faber) 摄影：亨利·基谢莱夫斯基 (Henri Kisielewski)

---

2

亲爱的妹妹：

我相信你的治疗进展顺利。在我离开之前，医生向我保证，虽然他无法根除这种疾病，但他的新方法至少能减轻你的痛苦。经过两周的艰苦旅途，我已抵达宏伟的安维尔（Anvil）营地，并在我们的高卫（Highguard）同胞中找到了温暖的家……

明天，我将开始寻找可能有助于治愈你病痛的信息。但首先，我必须休息了……

你深爱的哥哥， 阿克图鲁斯 (Arcturus)

周五下午 6 点，世界被“开启”了。帐篷已准备就绪，篝火蓄势待燃。所有现代生活的痕迹都被隐藏了起来。近 4,000 人为他们的服装做了最后的修饰，从英国各地乃至海外赶来参加《帝国》（Empire）——这是一个设定在幻想世界中的现场角色扮演（Larp）活动。在接下来的三天里，他们将化身为自己创造的虚构角色。

在剑桥郡 A10 公路旁的一片原野上，他们将共同治理一个帝国。他们会辩论法律、参与战斗、经营生意、坠入爱河，并为死者哀悼。然后，在周日，他们会收拾行囊返回家中。

《帝国》是目前英国规模最大的现场角色扮演（Larp）活动。它也是英国唯一一个在自有永久场地运行的此类活动，该场地是一片 180 英亩的农田，新业主希望这里能成为这项爱好的国家级之家。

我是一名资深玩家和奇幻迷，但此前从未以虚构角色的身份生活过。这个想法听起来令人畏惧。但在听闻《帝国》的宏大规模后，我想亲自感受这种魔力。

为了参与游戏，我需要一个角色。我创造了阿克图鲁斯，一个来自祭司之国高卫、正在学习魔法的初学者。在游戏的 10 个国家中做出选择——每个国家都有其独特的性格和装束，例如乌里森（Urizen）那些冷漠的、身着蓝色长袍的巫师，以及粗鲁的、戴着乳胶面具的帝国兽人——这是在这里最重要的决定，因为你将与同胞共度大量时间，并与他们并肩作战。

《帝国》的原创故事灵感来自流行的奇幻媒体，尤其是那些倾向于残酷现实主义和道德模糊性，而非简单的善恶故事的作品。活动的叙事设定是：一年四次，这 10 个国家向帝国首都安维尔派遣使团，参加决定世界未来的会议和活动。

剧情进展被记录在一个庞大的在线维基（wiki）中，其篇幅是《圣经》的 10 倍。其中一页详细列出了在主题上不合适的紧身胸衣款式，另一页则讲述了马匹灭绝的悲伤故事。

阿克图鲁斯为什么来到这座城市？我决定让他有一个住在故乡村庄的病妹妹，而他来此是为了寻找治疗方法。这将给我一个以角色身份在城市中游荡的理由，以及四处打听和询问的借口。

这座首都坐落在的一片平坦的草地上，在现实世界中，这里在近两个世纪的时间里一直被用作赛马场。

非角色区域设有玩家帐篷、食品摊位，以及销售奇幻服装、盔甲和由乳胶与泡沫制成的细节惊人的武器的商店。这里还设有“上帝”（God），即通用运营台（General Operations Desk），负责处理行政事务。

在角色区域内，从服装到帐篷的所有物品都必须符合奇幻设定。当游戏处于激活状态时——周五晚上、周六几乎全天以及周日的大部分时间——我被要求表现得像阿克图鲁斯，而不是汤姆。没有手机，不能脱离角色，不能讨论现实世界。

周五晚上，我周围帐篷里的人们突然地走出，显得目标明确。高卫军（Highguard）是一群虔诚的宗教人士，在附近的礼拜堂里，一名祭司正向一小群人讲述我们国家本季度的雄心壮志。我穿着一件旅行时买的长袍，戴着一个用风暴灰色布料自制的兜帽。对于初学者来说，这套服装不算糟糕，但与我营地里那些令人惊叹的装扮相比就相形见绌了：高级定制的战斗修女、身着奢华青色长袍的巫师，还有佩戴着像鱼鳞、树皮或角一样的人造肢体配件的玩家。

我漫步走到这座城市喧闹的中心。那里有一个用于政治会议的元老院，还有一个用于魔法仪式的大石圈。在军事委员会，大约十来个人正在讨论复杂的幻想国家治理问题；观众席上的 100 多人正全神贯注地倾听。《帝国》是一款关于政治的游戏，你可以通过立法、军事、宗教、魔法或经济手段来追求权力。你可以通过交易游戏内的资源和货币致富，其经济体系之复杂，以至于分析师能够准确预测秘银（mithril）和风暴玉（tempest jade）的价格波动。

我走进图书馆。两名玩家正在翻阅关于轮回以及前任女皇外交策略的书籍。当那位看起来像在那里工作了几个世纪的严肃图书管理员转身离开时，两人兴奋地凑到由多产作家 TG Shagworde 撰写的幻想色情文学集前。

虽然《帝国》是一款游戏，但这里没有最终的胜利或失败，也没有简单的英雄或反派。相反，交织在一起的故事线同时展开，由《帝国》的剧情团队与玩家共同协作塑造。你是自己故事中的主角，而在其他参与者的故事中，你可能会成为配角，甚至是主要反派。该活动的创作者将其称为“《权力的游戏》遇见《街道冠冕》（Coronation Street）”。

你也可以抛开政治，成为一名面包师、吟游诗人或工匠。你可以像许多人那样决定，在排满的官僚义务日程中奔波，或者在篝火旁喝着蜂蜜酒，唱着祖先的歌曲，以此度过你的幻想周末。

阿克图鲁斯（Arcturus）面对的无限可能性令我兴奋，但作为安维尔（Anvil）的新来者，我感到很迷茫。如果在电子游戏中，现在应该有人给我发布任务，一个发光的箭头会引导我穿过地貌前往下一个目标。但在《帝国》中，没有人告诉我该去哪里或做什么。阿克图鲁斯感到不知所措，汤姆也是。

我决定让阿克图鲁斯在第一个晚上探索这座大城市的奇迹。夜晚，安维尔变得生机勃勃。随着篝火点燃，我从酒馆走到格斗场，在烛光下喝着麦芽酒，并结识了一个一直威胁要偷我钱的厚脸皮兽人。

幻想世界的现金是金属硬币，面值为环（rings）、冠（crowns）和王座（thrones）。它们是“实物代表”（phys-reps），即游戏中物品的物理呈现，比如代表魔法资源的卡片或瓶子，代表附魔物品的丝带，甚至还有名为黑莲花（black lotus）、鹅语（goosewhisper）和界根（realmsroot）的游戏内精神药物。

并非所有人都参与其中。咖啡摊的一名法师认为，“靠假药嗨到失去理智有点尴尬”。

我在第一天晚上 10 点左右遇到了游戏内药物，当时我正与一名在非角色扮演（out-of-character）奶昔摊工作的女性聊天。她对现场角色扮演（Larp）一窍不通，但为了寻找派对而冒险进入了这个幻想世界。一名游戏内的药贩出现了。

“你想买一些改变意识的物质吗？”他丝滑地问道。

我的奶昔朋友直接撕破了虚构的面纱：“你有氯胺酮（ketamine）吗？”

在短暂的眨眼恍惚之后，那位 Larp 药贩低声说他从未听说过这种东西，然后匆匆溜走了。

到午夜时分，阿克图鲁斯（Arcturus）发现自己身处纳瓦尔（Navarr）之国，围坐在篝火旁，周围的参与者们在扮演吟游诗人。许多歌曲是关于玩家角色及其在《帝国》（Empire）13年历史中所立功勋的。其中一首是激昂的合唱曲：“尽管敌军逼近 / 我们绝不畏惧这些野兽 / 在西墙之上 / 我们为自由而战 / 在西墙之上 / 我们是英雄。”我大声回应道：“一心，一志，一刻，一呼。”我在人群中绕着篝火起舞，在清澈的夜空下将我的声音融入到喧闹的人群之中。

里昂·特纳（Leon Turner）是一名《帝国》的资深玩家，他曾在现实生活中苦苦寻找一群志同道合的朋友。他回忆起一段与我相似的经历。“我当时和所有人一起围在火边唱歌，看着每个人都如此投入在这个世界里，投入在吟游诗人的音乐中，我内心涌起一阵情感，”他说，“在那一刻我开始流泪。就像我的大脑在告诉我：‘你到家了。这些人就是你的同类。’”

3 姐妹，我在安维尔（Anvil）的第一晚几乎彻夜未眠！帐篷外如此嘈杂，灯光与阴影在帆布上欢快地跳跃，令我无法入眠……今天我计划进一步了解安维尔的人民，并寻找关于这座城市医疗专家的信息。你的，阿克图鲁斯

是在联盟之国（NATION OF THE LEAGUE），我遇到了珀尔·康斯坦斯（Pearl Constance）。她来自林肯（Lincoln），今年63岁，这是她第七次参加活动。她的巨大帐篷里挂满了色彩斑斓的织物，每个平面上都摆放着银杯和闪烁的蜡烛。她带着羞涩的微笑，戴着圆眼镜，灰色的头发被实用地盘成发髻，她将自己描述为“一个非常、非常普通的人”，曾担任过助教和剧院服装师，有着一份“不起眼的职业”。她喜欢阅读奇幻小说，但除了在20世纪80年代短暂接触过《龙与地下城》（D&D）外，并不太热衷于玩游戏。

24 FT WEEKEND MAGAZINE ---

是她的女儿邀请康斯坦斯参加《帝国》的。“我们下了面包车，说实话，我想：‘我到底干了什么？我身处一片巨大的、尘土飞扬的原野，周围是一堆破旧的钟形帐篷。我女儿说的那种魔力在哪儿？’”但随着时间推移，她逐渐适应了。“随着篝火升起，小型戏剧上演，酒吧开业，夜晚变得越来越神奇，”康斯坦斯说，“我开始感觉到自己身在别处。当我上床睡觉时，周围的声音极其震撼。我躺在那里，感觉整个世界都在聊天和唱歌。我本该因为难以入睡而感到恼火，但我唯一能想到的是，能有这么多人在此时此地享受生活、喝酒、进行创作、讲述故事、像成年人一样玩耍，真是太美好了。”

从帐篷外，我们听到了“快乐寒鸦卡特尔”（Jolly Jackdaw Cartel）喧闹的聊天声，尽管其中许多人的年龄还不到她的一半，但这个团体接纳了康斯坦斯。在现实世界中，“寒鸦”们会通过群聊关心康斯坦斯。

康斯坦斯还通过扮演她的角色——埃斯梅·比阿特丽克斯·德·霍尔伯格（Esme Beatrix de Holberg）来了解自己，她形容这个角色“有点淘气”。德·霍尔伯格获得了一个帝国职位，担任犬舍管理员，派遣（虚构的）猎犬去狩猎和捕捉老鼠。“埃斯梅比我更有自信，”康斯坦斯笑着说，“在现实生活中，我花很多时间照顾别人。在这里，我不这么做。埃斯梅只管做她自己的事，所以这是一种从现实生活中的解脱。”

为了这篇文章，我采访了30名《帝国》的玩家，康斯坦斯的经历很普遍。许多人将角色扮演视为尝试改变性格、练习变得更自信、更直率、更沉稳的机会。我遇到的一位玩家在脱离角色时看起来是胆怯的缩影，姿态佝偻，说话声音几乎听不见。但在角色中，她昂首挺胸，身披庄严的长袍，展现出一种与其在游戏政治体系中强大地位相匹配的威严形象。

角色扮演的行为在本质上具有某种包容性。例如，在《帝国》中，神经多样性人士、残障人士、性别非传统者或 LGBTQ 群体的存在感明显较高。我经常听到关于自闭症、多动症（ADHD）和强迫症（OCD）的提及，并看到许多助行杖和电动代步车。甚至有一场专门为使用电动代步车的人举办的骑马比武锦标赛，吸引了大批热情的观众。为了让这种协作式虚构能够运作，你必须接受每个人所声称的身份。否则，整个体系就会崩溃。这就是现场角色扮演（Larp）的社会契约。伊恩·罗珀（Ian Roper）是一位资深志愿者，担任现场电力团队负责人并负责无障碍工作，他表示：“这是一个你不仅可以做自己，还可以成为你想成为的人的地方——无论是一个身披闪亮盔甲的骑士，还是一个性别流动、多边恋的抄写员。”

周六，我潜入后台，探索《帝国》的内部运作。这款游戏由一家名为 Profound Decisions 的公司运营，该公司拥有 7 名全职员工和一支由 450 多名志愿者组成的团队，他们通过无线电保持联系。他们的许多操作是在“怪物帐篷”周围进行的，那是一个存放武器、盔甲和服装的巨大顶篷。一大堆怪物零件包括恶魔角

上图：Boots，他的父亲是一名帝国兽人，与一位家庭朋友在一起 “肾上腺素会激增。你身处战场，300 名兽人正向你压来。你的身体不会反应说‘没问题’，而是会反应‘恐慌！’ ” AUGUST 8 2026 25 ---

从左上角顺时针方向：在《帝国》地图上追踪前往安维尔（Anvil）的路线；一名佩戴镀金条饰品的访客；安维尔的一个角色内邮局；一名访客在草丛中发现了某些东西 “‘神圣的野猪，’我说，‘我想献祭。’我举起护身符。‘那是什么？’他低吼道。我不知道那是什么” 面具和巨大的蟹钳，塑料筐上写着“兽人面具 x50，请反面翻转”。在附近一个被改造为现场办公室的集装箱里，我找到了这次活动的幕后主脑马修·彭宁顿（Matthew Pennington）。他没有穿幻想风格的服装，而是穿着一件深色抓绒上衣和实用的登山靴。

现年 54 岁的彭宁顿在普雷斯顿长大，在对桌面角色扮演游戏产生兴趣后，于 1995 年发现了现场角色扮演。几年之内，他就运营起了一个小型本地 Larp 俱乐部。2004 年，他辞去了计算机程序员的工作，全职运营 ，首先是运营了九年的 Maelstrom，在巅峰时期吸引了约 1,000 名玩家。虽然 涵盖了从恐怖、科幻到现实政治场景等多种类型，但彭宁顿专注于奇幻类。他花了三年时间创建《帝国》，并在 2013 年举办了首次活动。他称其为“该爱好领域中的巨兽”。

自 20 世纪 70 年代诞生以来的大部分时间里，当 在主流文化中被提及时，往往是嘲讽的对象。这或许是因为它要求人们表现出明显的“不酷”——装扮起来，改变嗓音，在游戏中表现得认真且脆弱。“这很容易被嘲笑，我们是一群在玩过家家的成年人，”彭宁顿说。“我去某些地方，人们会问：‘你是做什么工作的？’ 我内心会有一种下沉的感觉……我会说‘我运营活动’，心里想着，‘别再问了，请千万别再问了。’”

但人们对奇幻事物的态度已经改变。“”这个词甚至进入了 Z 世代的俚语，在 TikTok 上随处可见，被用作“假装做某事”的简写。

彭宁顿希望 Profound Decisions 的新永久基地能让这项爱好变得更加触手可及。这块土地是他一个 25 年梦想的结晶。在经历了多次挫折后，他终于在这个旧的障碍赛马场中找到了一块合适的土地。他成立了一家公司并出售股份，筹集了 240 万英镑（240万英镑）用于购买该地块，并将其命名为 Steeplechase LRP 中心。 《帝国》社区对此投资热情高涨，其中一名成员个人出资 10 万英镑（£10万,000）。现场角色扮演（Larping）偶尔需要你忽略那些破坏沉浸感的时刻，比如在亮蓝色传送门旁抽电子烟的兽人、化粪池卡车的轰鸣声，或是祭司在祝福时从头上掉下来的角。但其核心原则是，每个人的对真实感的投入都会增强其他所有人的沉浸感。彭宁顿认为，开发该场地将极大地提升沉浸潜力。“我们应该拥有精美的时代建筑：宏伟的城堡、法师塔、酒馆，以及拥有巨大阶梯议事厅的元老院大楼。”他还想要“足够宽敞的舒适厕所，让你穿着盔甲也能进去”。那天现场还有另一位重要人物，夏洛特·凯恩（Charlotte Cane），她是伊利和东剑桥郡的自由民主党国会议员。她从一名参加 Larp 的工作人员那里听说了《帝国》。看到兽人和法师在她的选区里走来走去是否很奇怪？“我们都有在别人看来可能很奇怪的爱好，但只要我们享受其中，这就是最重要的，不是吗？”

姐妹，姐妹，今天，我为我们伟大的海高格（Highguard）国家奔赴战场。 26 FT WEEKEND MAGAZINE --- 我与兄弟们在礼拜堂前集结，我们排成阵型向哨兵之门进发……当我到达前线时，看到邪恶的德鲁杰（Druj）兽人在战场上集结，我的心中充满了恐惧……幸好，我只受了轻伤，并在医院接受了治疗。在那里，我遇到了一群勇敢的医者，他们或许知道如何治愈你的疾病！…… 你久经沙场的兄弟，阿克图鲁斯（Arcturus）

有些人喜欢《帝国》是因为其中的政治。其他人则享受逃避现实、社交，或是服装、工艺和歌曲带来的创意可能性。然而，我遇到的最普遍的痴迷是对战斗的热爱。整个周末会有两场大规模战斗，每场在单一战场上有约 1,500 名战斗人员。每天，一半的国家以自身身份作战，另一半则装扮成邪恶的兽人扮演反派。你使用道具武器和盔甲战斗，但每次击打都要收力，使其几乎没有冲击力。你的角色拥有生命值和法力值，你必须在整个过程中不断重新计算，这给动作戏增加了一层心算难度，我觉得很难掌握。该系统基于信任：当你失去所有生命值时，你必须承认，此时你被判定为倒地。你有三分钟的时间被复活，否则你的角色将永久死亡。

阿克图鲁斯在战斗中并没有表现出色。我觉得这种体验时而枯燥，时而惊恐——也许真正的战争就是如此。由于我的角色比较“脆”，盔甲少且生命值低，我留在持有盾牌的战士前线之后，打算用我学到的攻击法术支持他们。但我并不确定具体该如何扮演这些法术，而且面对数十个巨大的兽人尖叫着、挥舞着武器向你冲来，这种事实确实令人恐惧，让我措手不及。在长达一小时的战斗中，我大部分时间都在犹豫地向敌人靠近，然后胆怯地逃跑，一次都没有击中目标。作为一名治疗者，我也证明了自己令人失望。当受伤的战友寻求帮助时，我太紧张了，不敢说我知道治疗法术，因为我不确定应该如何施法。所以我只是让他们跛行而过，去寻找更胜任的人。

接着，有什么东西击中了我的腿。我低头一看，是一个泡沫尖端的投射物；我的膝盖中了一箭。一名法师为我治疗，我仔细观察了他施法的过程。之后，我鼓起勇气向一名受伤的士兵提供治疗服务。我在他的伤口周围模糊地挥了挥手，含糊地嘟囔着一些关于“治疗能力”的话。他看着我，我在他的眼神中看到了怜悯。但他痊愈了，并跳回战场。我决定，或许阿克图鲁斯（Arcturus）应该是个和平主义者。我想知道，既然这一切都是虚构的，为什么我在战场上会感到如此恐惧。我正在经历现场角色扮演者（Larper）所称的“渗漏”（bleed）。彭宁顿解释道：“你会在这里产生大量的情绪。你是在伪装，但你的大脑依然在感受这些情绪。你的身体不知道这些不是真实的。你会感到压力。肾上腺素会激增。当你身处战斗中，有 300 个兽人向你压过来时，你的身体不会说‘噢，没关系’，而是会说‘恐慌！’”。如果我们在游戏中的感受渗漏到现实的心中，那么我们如何区分角色扮演者与角色本身？我听过一个故事，一位父亲参加了他 19 岁儿子的 Larp 葬礼，他的儿子在游戏中是一名在战斗中阵亡的陆军将军。这位父亲被情绪彻底淹没，以至于不得不离开活动并休假数月。而他的儿子在现实生活中完好无损。

62 岁的罗兹·霍顿（Roz Horton）已经参与 Larp 接近 40 年了。她成为了《帝国》的第一任女皇。在现实生活中，霍顿在英格兰银行担任韧性经理，她称这个机构是“一个成为 玩家的绝佳场所”。由于她是现场权力最高的人，统治着数千人，她对“渗漏”的体验十分独特。“我以前每次活动后都得请两天假，”她告诉我，“因为如果我走进英格兰银行的任何一次会议，我会坐在桌首，像个老板一样主持那场会议。”

在《帝国》中，大多数 玩家会建立一个由家人和朋友组成的游戏内团体，让这个世界感觉像家一样。而对于其他人来说，关系则从游戏中渗漏到了现实。我遇到了一些在 中结识挚友的人，还有一些在游戏中找到了浪漫伴侣，他们在以角色身份约会之后，将关系带入了现实生活。来自新森林（New Forest）的 48 岁校长玛丽安·威尔伯福斯（Marianne Wilberforce）表示，她从 中学到了有助于她开展自闭症和 ADHD 儿童相关工作的技能。其中包括她在《帝国》战场上磨练出的非语言沟通技巧。“我想，如果我之前没有成为一名 玩家，我可能不会成为一名这么优秀的校长，”她说。她将学校的几名员工带入了《帝国》，反过来又雇佣了三名她在 中结识的人在学校工作，其中包括她目前的美术老师。威尔伯福斯带着她 16 岁的孩子卢卡（Luka）参加《帝国》，卢卡在 环境中长大。起初他们扮演母子，但如今卢卡扮演一个无关的角色，且主要对战斗感兴趣。

我还遇到了许多一起 的家庭。《帝国》为年轻玩家设有任务，并有一个名为“学院”（The Academy）的专属儿童区。当我访问时，年幼的孩子们在制作工艺品和服装，而一群年长的孩子则在对着一名看起来处于绝对劣势的志愿者练习战斗。帮助建立“学院”的青年工作者兼戏剧从业者汤姆·弗朗西斯（Tom Francis）表示，孩子们是游戏至关重要的一部分。“很多成年 玩家发现很难关闭他们的‘非角色’大脑，”他说，“但孩子们没有忘记如何玩耍。他们如此好学、好奇、富有创造力，如此擅长跳入那个世界。儿童的存在让《帝国》的世界变得完整。”

在我于《帝国》度过的最后一个夜晚，我已经体验了这个 的多样性，但我仍然没有进行过一场持续的角色扮演戏份。我大多时候是一个观察者而非参与者，我太在意那些自己不了解的背景设定，并担心自己可能会搞砸别人的游戏。

周六深夜，阿克图鲁斯（Arcturus）与两名同伴坐在一家热闹的酒馆里。在完成了当天的差事后，我们开始在酒吧间穿梭，品尝各个国家的酒吧。我用一个金属长杯喝了一杯美味的甜苹果酒。法师们匆匆从我们身边经过，前往夜市。其他人则一边漫步，一边讨论他们见过的关于某种叫作“曼提考尔”（Manticore）的生物的史诗级战斗。工匠和吟游诗人正在推销他们的商品。接着，“布雷加斯兰之野猪”（Boar of Bregasland）出现了。它看起来像出自某部民俗恐怖电影：一个巨大的柳条编织的野猪像将一个人藏在其中，周围环绕着随从和音乐家。我被告知，只要提供祭品，野猪就会给予祝福。我的朋友鼓励我也给野猪献点东西，并将一枚护身符塞到我手中。我犹豫地走了过去。在小提琴手演奏的忧郁音乐中，我走向那个高大的身影，感觉自己进入了一个通往另一个世界的气泡，在那里，这件事是严肃且真实的。我咽了口唾沫。“神圣的野猪，”我结结巴巴地说，“我想向您献祭。”我举起了护身符。一阵长久的沉默。是我做错什么了吗？最终，野猪低吼道：“这究竟是什么？”糟糕。我不知道那是什么。我该怎么演？“我对这类魔法之物并不了解，毕竟我只是个新手，但我的同伴，一位来自海格卫（Highguard）的神圣祭司告诉我，这枚神圣的护身符能给携带它的人带来统一。”我觉得这样说还可以，但我感到很不安。又是一次长久的停顿。野猪俯下身，向一名随从低声说了些什么。“野猪很满意，”随从用尖细的声音告诉我，“他将祝福你以及你的农场，愿来年的收成丰盈。”我不确定自己是否有农场需要祝福，但看来我应对得还算得体。想到自己为这个巨大的虚构世界贡献了一小部分，我感到一阵欣快感。我地想象着，如果能扮演宏大的剧情线，经历戏剧性的揭秘、激烈的争端和严重的后果，那将是多么令人满足。我快步跑回篝火旁同伴身边，又点了一轮酒。我们看着这个幻想世界缓缓流转——这座活生生的城市，正由数千名玩家的想象力、努力和激情实时创造。这个仅出现几天的临时宇宙，让你能来这里成为任何你想成为的人。我关于阿克图鲁斯的故事，只是其织锦中的一根纤细丝线。但如果没有每一根独立的丝线，就根本不会有如此瑰丽的织锦。

✂ 最亲爱的姐姐： 昨晚，我和新朋友们最后一次游览了这座城市。我必须承认，离开这里我会感到难过……我很遗憾还没有为你找到治疗方法，但我相信我已经获得了强有力的线索，等我回去后可以继续跟进……但现在，我累了，准备回到村庄，陪陪你，休息一下。明天早上，我就启程回家。 你的哥哥，比以前睿智了一点， 阿克图鲁斯

汤姆·法伯（Tom Faber）是一名自由记者，也是《金融时报》的游戏评论员，常驻伦敦。

2026年8月8日 27

Hexwords

Hex 是一款经典的策略棋盘游戏。它由丹麦博学家皮特·海因（Piet Hein）在 20 世纪 40 年代发明，随后由以《美丽心灵》闻名的普林斯顿游戏理论家、诺贝尔奖得主约翰·纳什（John Nash）独立重新发明。据称，他是受到了浴室地板上瓷砖的启发。其规则很简单：在六边形网格上，玩家轮流放置棋子以占据空间，试图构建一条横跨棋盘的链条，并阻断对手的链条。然而，其策略在数学上非常深奥。Hex 与国际象棋以及许多其他深奥的游戏一样，一直是 AI 研究的活跃试验场。早在 20 世纪 50 年代，信息论之父克劳德·香农（Claude Shannon）就制造了一台能击败人类的电子机器——它被命名为 Hox（发音同 "hoax"）。在这个版本的 Hex 中，我们将棋子替换为单词。准备好一支蓝色标记笔、一支红色标记笔、一本字典和一个朋友。你可以在提供的两个网格上玩两次。

玩法

在对手之前通过拼写单词连接你的两侧。一名玩家（使用蓝色）连接顶部到底部；另一名玩家（使用红色）连接左侧到右侧。掷硬币决定谁先开始。轮流涂色一组相邻的六边形（任何方向），使其拼成一个有效的单词（长度不限）。组成单词即可占据这些瓷砖。通过寻找长单词、封锁对手路线并把握关键占据时机来战胜对手。在这个简单的例子中，蓝色首先占据单词 WORD。红色接着占据 THE。蓝色占据 DOG。红色占据 IF。蓝色占据 CAT。蓝色连接了他的两侧，获胜。

占据领土通过拼写单词 创建一条横跨棋盘的路径以获胜

这里是一些在大棋盘上完成的示例游戏

蓝色获胜 红色获胜 平局

32 FT WEEKEND MAGAZINE

作者：OLIVER ROEDER

AUGUST 8 2026 33

数字与字母

数独

玩法 1 每个行、列以及 9x9 网格内的每个方格都需要包含数字 1-9 2 行、列或 3x3 方格中不得重复任何数字。

3 使用排除法。在下面的示例中，蓝色圆圈标出的列中缺失数字 1, 5 和 6。数字 1 必须放在底部的方格中，因为上面的两个 3x3 方格中都已经有一个 1 了。

1 简单

2 简单

3 中等

4 中等

5 困难

6 困难

34 FT WEEKEND MAGAZINE 作者：GUY HASLAM

填字游戏

四重奏 四个答案共享一个主题，但没有提示。解题者必须发现它们是什么以及共同的主题是什么。

横向

1 动机 (6) 7 德比赛马场 (5) 8 矿石 (3) 10 主题 (5) 11 狗的约束具 (5) 14 肥沃的沙漠地带 (5) 15 分裂，分开 (5) 17 不舒服 (3) 18 生气，恼怒 (5) 19 主题 (6)

纵向

1 精确副本 (8) 2 印度茶叶种植区 (5) 3 内布拉斯加州人口最多的城市 (5) 4 且不 (3) 5 评论员 (6) 6 反对，与之斗争 (8) 9 主题 (6) 12 主题 (5) 13 奥斯卡奖 (5) 16 生病的树 (3)

1 IN 3 每个提示由三个单词组成，但其中只有一个是正确答案，具体取决于它如何与周围的答案匹配。

横向

1 Loosely • Messily • Larceny 4 Desks • Disco • Dusty 7 Dimples • Puzzles • Linctus 8 Fleet • Cheat • Knelt 9 Enigma • Eureka • Eczema 12 Macaroon • Macaroni • Mechanic 15 Hyacinth • Anathema • Anaconda 17 Malice • Milieu • Mildew 18 Split • Silly • Spent 21 Sharply • Shadowy • Spatial 22 Infer • Offer • Idler 23 Tearful • Therein • Doorman

纵向

1 Laureate • Vertebra • Listeria 2 Triage • Switch • Stingy 3 Doll • Duly • Yolk 4 Dust • Bask • Desk 5 Saveloy • Several • Science 6 Gnat • Oast • Gist 10 Amend • Amply • Atone 11 Scram • Gleam • Scrum 13 Illusion • Suburban • Industry 14 Mastiff • Mallard • Bailiff 16 Glower • Elixir • Flawed 18 Slit • Swot • Semi 19 Tier • Tsar • Tear 20 Fate • Raft • Daub

数字 所有答案均为整数，且网格中没有重复的答案。

横向

1 10 纵向 – 8 横向 4 最大的两位数质数 6 21 横向 + 7 7 平方数 8 阿金库尔战役的年份 11 12 横向 + 2 12 古罗马数字 CX 13 3 x 21 横向 15 第一位数字 + 第二位数字 = 第三位数字 17 美国紧急电话号码 20 2 21 的一半 21 回文数

1 平方数

2 12 横向 – 15 3 法国的 six cent onze 4 直角的度数 5 三分之七十 (Three score and ten) 7 21 横向 – 1 9 8 横向的字母异位词 10 维多利亚女王去世的年份 12 12 1 + 5 14 5 x 12 15 15 二进制中的 11000 16 16 1 + 15 18 安迪·伯纳姆 (Andy Burnham) 的门牌号 19 一个英式橄榄球队的球员人数

8 2026 35

答案

本周测验 P13 球场上的关联 关联点是《办公室》（英国版） 1 Andrew Neil 2 Crook 3 Slough of Despond 4 Gareth and Norman 5 Paper 6 Freeman, Hardy and Willis 7 Dawn 8 TIM 9 David 10 Brent 图片环节 Edna Everage + Aidan O'Brien = Edna O'Brien

文字 P17 夏季测验 第一轮 - 阿尔加维 (ALGARVE) 主播（《朗·勃艮第的传奇》） 温德米尔夫人的扇子 权力的游戏 安妮·勃朗特 鲁珀特·洛（Restore Britain） 维也纳 边缘 第二轮 - 托斯卡纳 (TUSCANY) 突尼斯 犹他州 萨里娜·维格曼 煤矿工 安格拉·默克尔 Netflix 伊薇特·库珀 第三轮 - 奥兰多 (ORLANDO) 《奥利弗！》 伦勃朗 舞女的一生 雅典（《提蒙》） 坚果 戴安娜 管风琴 第四轮 - 马略卡 (MAJORCA) 密歇根州 亚当·克莱顿 (U2) 杰里米·亨特 老斑点母鸡 (Old Speckled Hen) 弄臣 卡罗尔·安·达菲 骗保者 (Ambulance chaser) 第五轮 - 纽基 (NEWQUAY) 尼加拉瓜 尤金·奥尼尔 西印度群岛 魁北克 尤里亚·希普（《大卫·科波菲尔》） 安妮塔·多布森 YouTube

MURDOKU P18 / 19 杀手网格 野餐 - 只有一个方格可以让 D 既在某些花朵旁边又在树旁边，这将 D 隔离在最后一列的花园中。封锁她的整行和整列 - 这将 B 隔离在凉亭中唯一剩下的椅子上。因为 E 在 F 的南方，所以他不能在顶行。这将 E 隔离在最后一张剩下的椅子上。- 这将 F 隔离在池塘中最后一个且在 E 北方的方格中，从而将 A 隔离在最后一个野餐垫方格中。这将 C 隔离在野餐区最后一个方格中。这让 V 只能与 B 在一起。布鲁诺是凶手！

图书馆 - D 与某人在走廊里。因为他们不能在同一行，其中一人必须在第 6 行唯一的走廊方格中：第 6 行，第 4 列。封锁第 6 行和第 4 列的其余部分。- 根据 H 的线索，B 不能坐在椅子上。这将 B 隔离在没有椅子的植物旁最后一个方格中：第 9 行，第 9 列。这将 A 隔离在阅览室中没有椅子的最后一个方格中，从而将 H 隔离在最后一张椅子上。- 这将 E 隔离在最后一块地毯方格中。D 和与 D 在走廊里的人必须在第 4 列和第 5 列，顺序不限。没有其他人可以占据这两列。封锁第 4 列和第 5 列的其余部分。这将 C 隔离在档案室最后一个方格中，从而将 G 隔离在盒子旁最后一个方格中。- F 只能通过在第 5 行来处于 D 北方的一行。这将 D 和 F 隔离，因此 V 在最后一个方格中。V 与 G 在一起。基甸是凶手！

超级交叉字谜 P20 / 21 国家状态 奖励谜题：事态如何？ 答案：OK

36 FT WEEKEND MAGAZINE

文字 P29

密码解密

1 那些剥夺他人自由的人，自己也不配拥有自由；在公正上帝的统治下，他们无法长期保有自由。——亚伯拉罕·林肯

2 自由绝不会由压迫者自愿给予；它必须由被压迫者去争取。——马丁·路德·金

3 英雄是指那些理解随自由而来的责任的人。——鲍勃·迪伦

4 自由就是告诉人们他们不想听的话的权利。——乔治·奥威尔

5 因为最终，自由是一场个人且孤独的战斗；人们直面今日的恐惧，是为了让明日之人能够参与其中。——爱丽丝·沃克

体育迷 P30 / 31

营地代数

解决这个谜题首先需要找到著名数列中的项。获胜的国际象棋走法是 8b4，结合选手的姓名，这暗示了第四个“忙碌海狸”数，即 107。篮球队的得分分别为 80 和 127 分，正如“bit by bit”所提示的，它们在二进制中分别是 1010000 和 1111111。从 Aces（1s）和 Ciphers（0s）选手中提取相应的首字母，读作“third perfect”，即第三个完全数，也就是 496。最后，计算棒球比赛中每局的得分，并提取 Aces 和 Ciphers 选手中相应的首字母，得出“tenth prime”，即第 10 个质数，也就是 29。这三个数字——107, 496 和 29——是长方体奖杯的尺寸。计算从一个角到相对角的最短距离是一个算术问题——这是著名的“蜘蛛与苍蝇”问题的变体。这个最短距离的平方是 264.512。最后，将这些数字（“namely”）索引到营地的名称中，你会发现吉祥物是一只 ALPACA（羊驼）。

数字 P34

个性化设计，可持续对齐

探索我们的英国展示屋，开启打造您梦想之家的旅程。london@huf-haus.com 01932 586 550

内页 cremolato 食谱 —— 夏季最冰爽、最酷的甜点 P42

食欲

饮品

给葡萄酒爱好者的干苹果酒

作者：亚当·威尔斯 (ADAM WELLS) 插画：德博拉·什皮尔曼 (DEBORA SZPILMAN)

随着烈日持续曝晒，我的思绪更容易飘向一杯冰冷、优雅且清爽的饮品——最理想的状态是在花园里啜饮，无需处理任何琐事。尽管这个夏天我会喝不少发酵葡萄汁（我的正职是在一家葡萄酒分销商工作），但我的杯中更多时候装的是干苹果酒 (dry cider) 或梨酒 (perry)。

首先，这是一个关于偏好的坦白。尽管我的架子和酒瓶架上堆满了各种风格和品种的甜味苹果酒，但出于诸多原因，我的心，以及更确切地说，我的味蕾，真正倾心的是干苹果酒。在我自己的小型家庭苹果酒厂里，我即将开始酿造第三个年份的这款风格（请放心，这里推荐的酒瓶中没有我自己的作品）。

然而，我倾向于认为，“干” (dry) 这个词在关于苹果酒或梨酒的讨论中，所引起的恐惧感超过了它应有的程度。我经常听到它被错误地用作“单宁感强”、“酸度高”，以及偶尔用作“醋酸味”的同义词。当然，市面上确实有很多辛辣且单宁感强的苹果酒——稍后会详细讨论——但“干”的意思与在葡萄酒中完全一样：即果汁经过发酵

AUGUST 8 2026 39

食欲

亚当推荐

夏季精选干苹果酒

除非另有说明，所有产品均为 750ml 瓶装。星号（*）表示静止苹果酒（still ciders）和梨酒（perries）。所有选品均为干型（dry），品质卓越且适合夏季饮用。

• Ross-on-Wye, Raison d'Être 2019 Herefordshire (7.9%) £12（或 12 瓶 £129.60）SHOP.ROSSCIDER.COM
• *Little Pomona, Sum of the Parts Act 3 NV Herefordshire (7%) £20 LITTLEPOMONA.COM
• Chapel Sider, Paddock Orchard 2023 Lincolnshire (6.8%) £13.50 THECATIN THE GLASS CO.UK
• Find & Foster, Pet Project 2025 Devon (6.5%) £17（或 3 瓶 £50）THE FINE CIDER COMPANY
• Artistraw, Flock 2023, Herefordshire (6.5%) £18 ARTISTRAW.CO.UK
• *Rull Orchard, Discovery Foxwhelp, Devon (6.3%) £9 RULLORCIARD.CO.UK
• Chalkdown, Méthode Traditionnelle 2021 Hampshire (8.3%) £19.50 CHALKDOWNWINE.COM
• Kertelreiter, Gewürzluiken 2021 Schefflenz (Germany) (7.1%) £17.95 THECATIN THE GLASS CO.UK
• *Oliver's, Eskimo Eyes Perry 2024 Herefordshire (6%) £11 OLIVERSCIDER AND PERRY.CO.UK
• Cwm Maddoc, Cornish Giant & Foxwhelp Blend 2021 Herefordshire (5.2%) £4.50 (500ML 瓶装) THECATIN THE GLASS CO.UK
• Naughton, Le Clos 2020 Fife (8.3%) £45 THE FINE CIDER COMPANY
• Charnwood, Perry No.1 2024 Leicestershire (6%) £14.95 THECATIN THE GLASS CO.UK

直到所有的糖分都被转化为酒精。很简单。

干苹果酒的风格最能复制一杯冰镇葡萄酒所带来的愉悦感和多样性。它清新、复杂、纯净，且根据酿造方法和品种的不同，能与各种不同的食物产生绝佳的搭配。它拥有丰富的风味，虽然有时与白葡萄酒、桃红葡萄酒和橙色葡萄酒的特质相近，但在大多数情况下，它占据着一个独立的世界。干苹果酒绝非人们通常认为的那样单一，它的涵盖范围不仅包括从静止型（still）到自然起泡（pét nat）再到完整传统法（full traditional method）的一系列风格，更重要的是，它涵盖了广泛的苹果品种，其风味从令人兴奋的青柠和醋栗，到成熟柔软的热带水果和核果，再到浓郁的橙子果酱和辛辣的香料。

毕竟，仅在英国，我们就种植了 2,500 多个苹果品种，其中数百个品种就像酿酒葡萄一样，是专门为酿造这种饮品而筛选和培育的。这是一个极其宽广的调色盘。Ross-on-Wye 苹果酒与梨酒公司的第四代酿酒师 Albert Johnson 种植了其中约 200 个品种，并且几乎将所有品种分别发酵成干苹果酒，以充分展现其独特特性。

他告诉我：“苹果酒的一大特权在于，我们的原材料是代代相传的独特栽培品种，因为它们具有极佳的酿酒品质。这些独特的苹果品种在发酵后，能创造出具有个性、深度和易饮性的酒精饮料。”

我请他举几个他珍视的品种及其风味示例：“Brown Snout 具有蜂蜜般、带有柠檬香气的柔软单宁；Foxwhelp 具有草莓的香气和诱人的酸度；Winnal's Longdon 梨则具有清爽的、类似青柠的活力。”

“餐厅是时候认真对待这个类别了”

在收获季节走进果园，这种品种的广泛性是无法忽视的。Foxwhelp 带着猩红的条纹；Kingston Black 是深沉的紫色；微小且苍白的 White Jersey 只有乒乓球大小；绝美的 Winnal's Longdon 一侧泛红，另一侧则是柔和的黄绿色。这是一幅等待开启的、触手可及的风味织锦。

“当发酵至干型时，这些风味最能得到表达，也最具个性，因为此时水果糖分的缓冲被移除，该品种特性的纯粹本质被完全揭露，”Johnson 说，“这时，一个品种的精髓才能被识别和体验。”

正是这种潜在风味的广度以及与如此多品种打交道的机会，说服了詹姆斯和已故的苏珊娜·福布斯离开葡萄酒行业的职业，买下一片果园并开始酿造西打酒。如今，他们的西打酒坊 Little Pomona 被誉为全国最顶尖的酒坊之一，而詹姆斯则被认为是将葡萄酒酿造的情怀与实践引入卓越西打酒及梨酒（perries）工艺的领军人物。从静止的、干型的单品种装瓶酒，到充满活力的自然起泡酒（pét nats），再到经过长期酒渣陈酿的传统法装瓶酒，他们的产品系列对于好奇西打酒的葡萄酒爱好者来说具有极强的吸引力。“干型西打酒是最具挑战性且最值得酿造的，”詹姆斯说道，“在没有糖分掩盖的情况下，干型西打酒完全地暴露在审视之下，因此它们的所有环节都必须正确，才能以一种平衡、有趣且令人愉悦的方式表达出水果和果园的特质。一些干型西打酒酿造者忘记了这一点，导致酿出的酒相当难喝，但更多的人在工艺中表现得熟练且周到，创-

第一口啜饮

什么是“全果汁”苹果酒（Cider）或梨酒（Perry）？

在英国法律中，标注为“苹果酒（cider）”或“梨酒（perry）”的饮料仅需含有最低 35% 的苹果汁或梨汁，且全部可以来自浓缩汁。其余 65% 可以由水、糖或长长的一串其他添加剂组成。英国酒吧或超市中销售的大多数商业苹果酒在不同程度上都利用了这一较低的最低要求。它们制造出的饮料可能令人感到清爽——且确实很受欢迎——但含汁量低，且通常来自浓缩汁。这些饮料经过强制碳酸化，因此在大规模生产时更便宜、更简单、更快捷，而且得益于浓缩汁的使用，全年都可以生产。

而遍布全球（在许多你意想不到的地方）的精品苹果酒和梨酒，则是用 100% 的新鲜压榨果汁酿造的。这类苹果酒采用与优质葡萄酒相同的工艺和细心，选用特定的苹果和梨品种，每年只能在收获季节酿造一次。在我的网站 cider-review.com 上，有超过 1,500 种此类苹果酒的评论和文章。在英国，全果汁苹果酒和梨酒从未像现在这样容易找到，但它们仍然比主流品牌难以觅踪，且很少在超市中出现。优秀的在线零售商包括 corkandcrown.co.uk 和 thefinecider.company；而全果汁苹果酒和梨酒的最佳选择则在 thecatintheglass.co.uk。

40 FT WEEKEND MAGAZINE --- 酿造出无需依赖糖分支撑的绝美饮品。”他补充道：“我喜欢干型苹果酒的另一点是它与食物的契合度，通常在葡萄酒难以应对的菜肴中表现出色：例如热辣食物、番茄、鸡蛋以及素食。”

随着英国的苹果酒酿造商寻求在品味引领者中巩固这种饮品的地位，食物搭配，尤其是进入餐厅菜单，至关重要。由 Felix Nash 领导的 The Fine Cider Company 在将国内一些顶尖苹果酒引入高评价餐厅（包括 The Fat Duck 和 St John）的菜单方面发挥了主导作用，而他在泰特现代美术馆（Tate Modern）举办的年度伦敦苹果酒沙龙（London Cider Salon）已成为饮品行业的固定项目。

在苏格兰，香槟专家 Peter Crawford 看到他以 Naughton Cider 品牌酿造的传统法苹果酒出现在 Restaurant Fine、Cardinal、Haar 和 Glenturret Lalique 等餐厅的酒单上，仅举四例。

“餐厅们是时候认真对待这个类别了，”James 说，“在英国，现在是成为干型苹果酒饮用者的最佳时机，消费者对精品苹果酒的认可和欣赏每天都在增长。”

在 Hornchurch 拥有并经营 The Hop Inn 的 Alison Taffs 亲身体会到了这种对精品干型苹果酒日益增长的欣赏，她的酒吧曾获得真实艾尔运动（Campaign for Real Ale）的年度苹果酒与梨酒酒吧奖以及众多其他奖项。

“我们正在按杯供应一款清爽且复杂的布雷本（Braeburn）苹果酒。它就列在按杯供应的白葡萄酒旁边，对于 Picpoul 葡萄酒的饮用者来说，仅 8% 的酒精体积比（ABV）非常有吸引力，”她说，“另一个简单的替代方案是用一杯传统法苹果酒代替 Prosecco 或 Crémant；750ml 的优质苹果酒可以替代风格相似且酒精含量较低的葡萄酒。对于喜爱明亮、清新葡萄酒的人来说，梨酒是一个极佳的选择。”

全果汁、精心酿造的干型苹果酒有如此多方式能吸引像我这样痴迷葡萄酒的人。由特定选定品种发酵而成的果实饮品，反映了生长它们的土地与植物、滋养它们的年份，以及将这些元素凝聚成统一表达的酿造者。这是工艺与心血的饮品，或许还得到了单宁和酸度的支撑，使其在细心陈年之后获得回报。这是优雅且复杂的饮品；你可以单独啜饮，也可以与各种食物搭配。

但最主要的是，在一年中的这个时节——尽管我会直到最后一刻都坚持认为，西德尔酒（cider）在每个季节都有其适合的风格——干型西德尔酒在漫长且惬意的下午或夜晚啜饮，简直是极佳的选择，而且不会像某些酒那样，留下令人腻烦的糖分残留在牙齿上。与高级葡萄酒相比，优质干型西德尔酒的酒精含量（ABV）和价格都要低得多，在这一季剩下的时间里，你的杯中确实应该盛满它。亚当·威尔斯（Adam Wells）是一位西德尔酒作家，也是 cider-review.com 的创始人。詹西斯·罗宾逊（Jancis Robinson）目前不在岗。评论

Keller, Whitstable

作者：杰伊·雷纳 (JAY RAYNER) 插画：丹尼尔·埃格纽斯 (DANIEL EGNEUS)

对于我们这些对午餐有着过度浓厚兴趣的人来说，对一顿绝佳餐厅大餐的期待本身就是快乐的一部分。在就餐前的几天里，我们会用手机翻开菜单，试图解码其中的语言——那些关于焦香与烘烤、浸煮与点缀以及焦糖化的冗长描述。我们想象这些词汇可能描述的菜肴。我们推演前菜-主菜-甜点的各种组合。我们成为了一个更快乐的、未来的自己。

就位于惠特斯塔布尔（Whitstable）的 Keller 餐厅而言，这种令人手心出汗的期待感可以被推向一个新的阶段。这家餐厅是由坎特伯雷附近米其林星级餐厅 Fordwich Arms 的团队打造的新项目。主厨丹·史密斯（Dan Smith）和侍酒师埃利奥特·阿什顿-科尼格（Elliott Ashton-Konig）通过社交媒体，实时记录了他们这个“新宝贝”的孕育与诞生过程。

位于海港街（Harbour Street）的前熟食店被清空。吧台后面铺上了漂亮的翡翠绿瓷砖，墙壁和天花板被刷成了迷人的桃色。一面墙安装了酒柜，厨房里则安置了一台木炭烤炉。而作为一个真正的、无可救药的餐厅痴迷者，我全程关注了这一切。

阿什顿-科尼格后来告诉我，餐厅的名字和装饰借鉴了他的德国血统，室内设计旨在呈现一个啤酒窖（bierkeller）的风格。如果真是这样，那这绝对是一个相当高级的啤酒窖。直到临近开业，他们才终于公布了菜单。而那同样是对食欲的一次深刻挑逗。

AUGUST 8 2026 41

Appetites FIND IT

KELLER

28 Harbour Street Whitstable CT5 1AH 01227 638458 kellerwhitstable.co.uk

小吃与小盘菜 £3–£16 主菜与分享盘 £20–£47.50（每人） 甜点 £12–£15

这家店拥有几个符合其“轻松社区葡萄酒吧”设定元素。这里有配米醋调味汁（mignonette）的当地生蚝，因为在惠特斯塔布尔（Whitstable）开餐厅如果不提供这个，简直不可思议。这里还有酪乳炸鸡，因为现在的潜规则是，任何小盘菜菜单都必须把某种禽类扔进深油炸锅里。撇开讽刺不谈，这炸鸡确实很棒。它呈沙黄色，外壳酥脆且起伏，配以精准调制的蒜味蛋黄酱——能品出主料的味道，又不会让你担心稍后呼吸时会让周围的人退避三舍。

然而，深入研究菜单就会很快发现，虽然你可以只是进来喝杯英国起泡酒、吃两盘小菜，但那样就太浪费机会了。这些菜肴经过深思熟虑，更像是“高级定制”而非“成衣”。例如，另一种光亮肥美的生蚝选项，配有少许覆盆子醋和一抹克制的、浓稠且带有烟熏味的木炭奶油，看起来就像马蒂斯剪纸作品中的一个细节。打发的鳕鱼籽感觉像是那款奶油的“兄弟”。它是橡木熏制的，配有清脆的萝卜和金黄且尚有余温的木薯脆片。这类浓稠的打发酱汁、慕斯和调味品是这里的巨大优势。

以所有神圣且具有法式风格之名，千万不要错过多芬马铃薯（pommes dauphine）。它们是金黄色、轻盈的深炸土豆泥条，配有一团傲然挺立的深绿色莳萝乳液。这种食物让你一边拿起一边交谈，直到你的注意力从聊天中转移，完全集中在眼前的盘子里。

这里也有肉类菜肴。一份点缀着酸黄瓜的鞑靼牛肉，顶部覆盖着针一样细的土豆丝，虽然在辛辣冲击力上略显不足，但足够有趣。一串切成方块的牛小排，淋上它专属的香草酱，口感浓郁有力。他们还可以为你烤制一份供分享的干式熟成肋眼牛排。

但真正的强项在于鱼类菜肴，对于一家背靠海堤和卵石滩的餐厅来说，这是理所当然的。一份火候完美的海鲈鱼片铺在慢炖茴香之上，周围环绕着一道奶油般的味美思（vermouth）酱汁护城河，点缀着如宝石般的绿色香草油。肥美的贻贝在炸培根卷的陪伴下被蒸开，堆在厚厚的酸面包吐司上，吐司吸收了宛如池塘般浓郁的白黄油（beurre-blanc）风格海鲜汤。这是一道周日晚餐菜肴，只不过穿上了天鹅绒织锦拖鞋。

然而，最能揭示其真面目、体现由 Ollie Clifford-Cox 领导的厨房之专业程度的，是一道所谓的“龙虾沙拉”。它确实是沙拉，就像劳力士蚝式（Rolex Oyster）不仅仅是用来报时，迈巴赫不仅仅是代步车一样。粉红色的螯肉块 resting 在酸甜的番茄蛋黄酱上，配有闪亮的白醋栗和柑橘瓣，以及其他一些点缀。这是顶级海鲜在最佳状态下的呈现。它美极了。

与此同时，正如你对一家由热情侍酒师领导的餐厅所期待的那样，这里的葡萄酒选择既有深度又具性价比，认真对待了肯特郡的葡萄园。在工作日的午餐时间，年长的当地人填满了餐桌，显示出一种迅速得到回报的喜爱。这是一个高水准之作。

我第一次去惠特斯塔布尔（Whitstable）是在 20 世纪 90 年代初，当时我去报道演员彼得·库欣（Peter Cushing）的葬礼。这位锤子电影公司（Hammer horror films）的明星长期居住在惠特斯塔布尔，整个小镇的人都参加了他的葬礼，队伍由佩戴羽饰的黑马引领。随后，他的棺材被悄悄移走。原来他的家人不希望他的坟墓成为恐怖片粉丝的朝圣地，因此将他移至他处安葬。那是一次很棒的报道经历，期间我爱上了惠特斯塔布尔那些迷人且略显破旧的小巷。我甚至在岛墙（Island Wall）发现了一栋漂亮的房子，当时仅需五位数，现在则值六位数的高价。但我没有买。我无法忍受成为一个闯入者；一个该死的 DFL 或“来自伦敦的人”（down-from-London）。尽管如此，从那时起，我一直渴望能有正当理由再次前往惠特斯塔布尔享受海边的一天。这就是为什么我如此热切地期待 Keller 的开业。这也是为什么我如此密切地关注它的诞生。它确实没有让人失望。FT jay.rayner@ft.com 摄影：ANDY SEWELL • 造型：GEORGIA RUDD 42 FT WEEKEND MAGAZINE --- 食谱俱乐部（RECIPE CLUB）

一款清爽简单的樱桃冰点，顶层覆以奶油

对于一个自6月以来一直有望打破历史最高气温记录的夏天，我带来了一个好消息：本季最简单且最诱人的甜点。Cremolato 比意式冰淇淋（gelato）更轻盈，但比传统的意式冰沙（granita）更浓郁、更稠密，是由水、糖以及水果或坚果混合而成的。这款樱桃 Cremolato 的食谱来自 Bocca di Lupo 的主厨兼老板 Jacob Kenedy，他最近将其加入了他在索霍区（Soho）经营的 Gelupo 冰淇淋店的菜单中。“我第一次在罗马的 La Casa Del Cremolato 接触到 Cremolato 并深深爱上了它，”他说。“那里的 Mario de Angelis 用一种独特的方式制作，其中点缀着果块，我们也效仿了这种做法。”它几乎不需要什么功夫：只需搅拌、冷冻，然后用叉子将混合物刮松成冰晶即可。将其舀入碗中（如果是晚餐派对，可用冰镇的香槟杯），顶上覆盖一层打发奶油，然后享受你那惊人的投资回报率。“它绝对充满了风味和质感，”Kenedy 说，“就像在吃‘加强版’的水果。”

Niki Blasina

饮品

Kenedy 建议搭配 Moscato d'Asti 甜白起泡酒：“它带有微妙的甜味，令人愉悦，且非常适合搭配冰冷之物。”

替代方案

无花果也是一个美味的选择：取 400g 成熟无花果，去掉皮（尽可能在果肉上保留白瓤），切成 1cm 的块状。不要用搅拌机，将大约一半的果肉与糖、盐和柠檬汁捣碎。搅拌入水和剩余的水果。

提示

若要调整打发奶油的分量，每 100ml 奶油使用 10g 糖。

JACOB KENEDY 的樱桃 CREMOLATO

分量：4-6 人份

CREMOLATO 原料 - 400g 樱桃（或 360g 冷冻樱桃） - 250ml 水 - 80g 糖 - 少量柠檬汁 - 1 撮盐

打发奶油顶层原料 - 300ml 打发奶油 - 30g 糖

1 洗净樱桃，去梗、去核并对半切开。 2 将一半的樱桃与水、糖、柠檬汁和盐一起搅拌。 3 将剩余的樱桃加入液体中，转移至一个小塑料或陶瓷容器中，铺成约 1.5-3cm 厚的一层。冷冻至少 4 小时或过夜。 4 将冷冻的樱桃混合块在冰箱冷藏室中放置最多 1 小时使其软化，然后用叉子刮，使其变成一种带有果块的蓬松刨冰。 5 如果不立即食用，请将樱桃混合物放回冷冻室，然后在食用前约 20-30 分钟，将 Cremolato 放入冷藏室软化（食用时应呈半融化的冰沙状）。 6 与此同时，将奶油与糖一起打发至出现软峰，制作奶油顶层。 7 将 Cremolato 舀入冰镇玻璃杯中，顶上点缀几团打发奶油，即可享用。

下周 —— 顶尖主厨分享他们的炎热天气必备食谱 AUGUST 8 2026 43

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FT 周末节 (FT Weekend Festival)

体验《金融时报》周末报纸的生动呈现，活动环节包括：

加入 Angela Hartnett、Richard Corrigan、Jeremy King 和 Marina O'Loughlin 的行列，就如何让外出就餐更加愉快展开热烈讨论，涵盖从美食与款待到打造难忘餐点的艺术。由 FT Globetrotter 副编辑 Niki Blasina 主持。

在 Alan Livsey 的实用课程中，学习如何规划遗产税、养老金以及财富传承，探讨如何充分利用 £32.5万,000 的免税额度。

我们如何解决 Z 世代的财务问题？从学生贷款和不断上涨的生活成本，到投资和住房所有权，FT 的 Claer Barrett 将与 Tolani、Abi Foster、Brian Byrnes、Michael Taylor 和 Oliver Gardner 一起，探讨年轻人面临的最大财务挑战以及能够产生影响的实用步骤。

是什么成就了一家伟大的英国酒吧？Public House Group 的联合创始人 James Gummer 和 Phil Winser 将探讨使酒吧成为英国生活基石的传统、款待和社区感。从永恒的经典到现代的社区酒吧，探索是什么让这一深受喜爱的机构保持繁荣。

2026年9月5日

伦敦 Kenwood House 及在线参与

加入我们 ft.com / festival

首席合作伙伴 美国银行 (BANK OF AMERICA)

官方目的地合作伙伴 Canada, naturally.

香槟合作伙伴

节日合作伙伴 bacqd CLINIQUE LA PRAIRIE GROVE Pearson Wealth Management Sotheby's VINTAGE ACQUISITIONS

节日之友

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节日参展商 BAILEY ROBINSON JTOEN Kevin Anderson KEWPIE Locate mizkan. NH Foods Niwaki. travelwise

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食欲 (Appetites)

食物游戏 (FOOD GAMES)

玩转你的食物

虚拟厨房中的激烈竞争

作者：Francesca Carington

在我大约 13 岁的时候，我痴迷于《模拟人生 2》（The Sims 2）。这款 2000 年代早期的生活模拟游戏让玩家引导他们的模拟市民从出生走向死亡，建立关系并执行镜像现实生活的日常任务。它的吸引力很简单：我拥有权力，能让我那些卡通般的小角色做任何我这个书呆子内心渴望的事情——对我来说，那就是烹饪。我的模拟市民举办晚餐派对，成为名厨，把煎锅点燃，做出圆滚滚的肉丸以及我闻所未闻的菜肴，比如法式焗龙虾（lobster thermidor）。我喜欢放大观察那些食物，它们有着奇怪的角度和扭曲的阴影，就像有人打印了一张“肉”的特写，然后把它剪成了猪排的形状。我对此欲罢不能。这曾是一场短暂的狂热，但并非因为缺乏投入：有一天我不小心踩到了游戏光盘，它碎了。那是我最后一次玩电脑游戏——直到去年，我接触到了《煮糊了》（Overcooked）。由于这款游戏容易引发争吵，一些玩家将其称为“离婚厨房”。这是一个疯狂的多人餐厅模拟游戏，你和你的游戏伙伴扮演圆滚滚的动物线厨，试图在时间耗尽前完成尽可能多的订单。我立刻被吸引住了。它将我在《模拟人生》中喜欢的一切浓缩成了一款完美且疯狂的游戏：那些原色的菜肴，在像素化中显得格外美味；发现并精通一道新菜肴的成就感；最重要的是，烹饪的劳作感。

食物至少从 20 世纪 80 年代起就出现在电子游戏中，当时吃豆人（Pac-Man）首次在迷宫中大快朵颐。马里奥有他的神奇蘑菇，《汉堡时间》（BurgerTime）有它那邪恶的酸黄瓜。《糖果传奇》（Candy Crush）则完全由食物组成。2006 年，任天堂 DS 的烹饪模拟游戏《料理妈妈》（Cooking Mama）成为了该类游戏的首批热门作品之一。从那时起，我们看到了像《Venba》这样具有叙事性的烹饪游戏，讲述一名女性通过母亲的旧食谱重新找回她的泰米尔根源；也有更粗糙的品牌联动，比如《地狱厨房：游戏版》（Hell's Kitchen: The Game），或者杰米·奥利弗（Jamie Oliver）的《煮糊了 2》（OVERCOOKED 2），又名“离婚厨房：在煮什么”（AKA DIVORCE KITCHEN What's Cooking）。在某些游戏中，角色烹饪的食物甚至看起来像真的一样，比如在《最终幻想 XV》（Final Fantasy XV）中，金黄且凹凸不平的炸肉排挂在盘子上，炖菜表面闪烁着油脂的光泽。

但我更喜欢电子游戏中的食物看起来有些粗糙。我想要球形的汉堡，以及在《模拟人生 2》派对上像铀玻璃一样发光的阿拉斯加之冰（baked Alaska）。我想要像生指甲一样红的虾，以及覆盖着褐色块状物的稻草黄色面条。在《煮糊了》及其续作《煮糊了 2》中，菜肴具有一种静态的 2D 怪异感，我觉得相当迷人；它们暗示了食物的概念，让你自己去想象其余的部分。前提是食材得能被分辨出来；我一直以为《煮糊了 2》里的面条是玉米棒。我至今仍不确定一块面团究竟是土豆还是鸡蛋。

互联网上充满了玩家尝试复刻电子游戏中喜爱菜肴的记录，从《模拟人生》的法式吐司到《塞尔达传说》中具有恢复功能的“红色药水”。从某种意义上说，这些是粉丝创造力的表达，但它们似乎也是对烹饪游戏核心中那种奇怪张力的回应。在现实生活中，烹饪的奖励通常是食用；而在《煮糊了》中，在承载厨房的热气球坠地之前，将一个鸡肉披萨通过出餐口甩出去的奖励，是制作下一个披萨。这就是烹饪类电子游戏给消费者带来的颠覆性承诺：通常能产生实物的劳动将不再产生任何实物——而你却会乐在其中。

《Overcooked》（煮糊了）系列游戏主要以荒诞著称——其目标是击败主要反派“永恒饥饿者”（Ever Peckish），那是一个手臂是意大利面、由一群“不面包”（unbread）僵尸组成的肉丸怪物。但在玩弄这种为了劳动而劳动的快感时，我认为游戏中那些矮胖的小厨师们或许正蹒跚地探索着某种关于工艺的哲学。当他们切菜、煎炸并四处抛掷生食材时，他们轻轻地引导玩家意识到，创造某物的过程所带来的快乐可能与最终结果一样多。这些游戏的客观存在本身就有一种甜蜜的肯定感，因为它们将切蔬菜这样平凡的事情视为值得娱乐的主题。反过来，它们也提醒我，在现实生活中，流畅地切开一根西葫芦，或者完美地翻转一份意式烘蛋，以及看着沙拉酱或意面酱在眼前乳化的魔力，都能带来满足感。它们提醒我，烹饪行为本身有时能给我带来如此巨大的愉悦，以至于当我把菜装盘时，我甚至已经不觉得饿了。它们教会我，厨房工作也可以是一种游戏——一种在现实生活中要有趣得多的游戏。AUGUST 8 2026 45 --- WHAT FRESH HELL

AI 能改善我的育儿方式吗？由罗伯特·什里姆斯利（Robert Shrimsley）解答工作、生活与家庭的困境

插图：卢卡斯·瓦雷拉（LUCAS VARELA）

萨姆·奥特曼（Sam Altman）正处于为人父母的早期阶段，所以我们大概应该对他宽容一些。这位 OpenAI 的首席执行官兼 ChatGPT 的领军人物仍在学习如何与有史以来最原始、最伟大的大语言模型打交道：年幼的孩子。他 18 个月大的儿子目前可能只掌握了几个单词，但从现在起，其发育速度将令人惊叹。几个月后，他就能准确地告诉萨姆，他可以将炖苹果塞到哪里去。

这几乎就是奥特曼在社交媒体上发布一条赞美“ChatGPT 的酷用处”的周末帖子后所得到的回应。这个令人兴奋的想法是什么？萨姆说，将你的家庭日历连接起来并解释孩子的兴趣，那么每天早晨开车去学校的路上，ChatGPT 就可以创建一段播客，讲述“孩子下午的足球赛或即将到来的生日、一些新闻等等”。

自然地，萨姆因为这个“有帮助”的建议而被嘲讽。“或者你也可以试着跟你的孩子说话”是一个相当标准的回复。当然，萨姆当时只是在为他的产品做推广，并没有完全考虑周全。他还没有达到父亲身份的那个发育阶段，尽管进步是指数级的。不过话说回来，在他的世界里，为什么还会有人亲自开车送孩子去学校？只要把他们塞进自动驾驶汽车，剩下的交给“机器人爸爸”（RoboDad）就行了。

我必须说，作为一个每天早晨步行送孩子去学校的家长，我非常珍惜那段时间，并且将其延长到了孩子们不再希望父亲陪伴的程度。认为你可以懒惰地将故事时间或对话交给某个 AI 模型的想法简直太疯狂了。相信我，萨姆，当这些时光逝去时，正是这些时刻让你怀念。与孩子交谈并教他们如何对话，是其中最美好的部分。

当然，我们都经历过只想获得一点喘息空间的时刻。我承认，在我最焦虑的时刻，我可能会让孩子坐在“婴儿莫扎特”DVD 前，从而为自己赢得 50 分钟的时间。那是名为“婴儿爱因斯坦”（Baby Einstein）系列的一部分，专门为了减轻那些因把孩子扔在电视机前而感到愧疚的父母的心理负担，因为它暗示你实际上是在提高他们的脑力，而不仅仅是为了给自己换来一杯安静的茶。各种视频——《婴儿巴赫》、《婴儿贝多芬》、《婴儿后街男孩》（好吧，也许没有这个）——将刺激性的图案与伟大的音乐相结合，以激发孩子的内在天才。读者们，我不确定这是否奏效。

因此，我可以共情任何家长为了退回到自己的书房、花园或精神世界而短暂休息的想法。但在这个特定案例中令人不安的是，那个认为这是“酷用处”的人的心态。AI 的许多公开宣传，当你剥离其外壳后，其核心都是“你不再需要为此操心了”。无论是研究、数据分析、编程、医学突破，还是监督国家的核威慑。而现在，你甚至不需要操心育儿了。让埃隆·马斯克的 Grok 来教你的孩子礼貌。OpenAI 可以陪他们做作业。希望 AI 能很快通过攻克母乳喂养和分娩，让我们获得完整的奥尔德斯·赫胥黎式体验。然后我们就可以整天坐在家里刷《西部世界》。

去年，奥特曼在一次访谈节目中说：“我无法想象在没有 ChatGPT 的情况下，如何摸索养育新生儿的方法。”

好吧，萨姆，我能告诉你什么呢？我们挺过来了。

我毫不怀疑，AI 在育儿方面会有许多真正有用的帮助，比如管理孩子的约玩日程、监控社交媒体使用情况等等。然而，让我担忧的是——而且这早已超出了育儿的范畴——其开发过程中的很大一部分似乎掌握在这样一群人手中：他们将核心使命视为将人类排除在画面之外，认为没有了人的世界，人类文明会变得更好。同样有可能的是，那些引领 AI 竞赛的人，怎么说呢，是那些觉得与机器交流比与孩子交流更容易的人。但为了他孩子的缘故，我希望萨姆能意识到，ChatGPT 的酷用法不应该是想方设法将父母从孩子的成长过程中剔除。在某种程度上，这可能只是一个愚蠢的错误，一次不加过滤的亢奋之举。尽管如此，如果未来不是掌握在那些把《美丽新世界》当成育儿手册的人手中，我对未来会更有信心。

FT 电子邮件 ROBERT - MAGAZINELETTERS@FT.COM 46 FT WEEKEND MAGAZINE ---

SOAS-Alphawood # 亚洲艺术 项目

针对亚洲艺术的基于实物的研究，提供线下及在线课程。拥有进入大英博物馆和维多利亚与阿尔伯特博物馆储备馆的卓越权限。 现提供： - 亚洲艺术硕士 (MA) - 亚洲艺术研究生文凭 (Postgraduate Diploma) - 亚洲艺术研究生证书 (Postgraduate Certificate) - 专业短期课程

联系我们：asianart@soas.ac.uk 了解更多：www.AsianArtProgramme.com SOAS 伦敦大学亚非学院 与* 大英博物馆 合作

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百达翡丽 (PATEK PHILIPPE) 日内瓦 开启您的传承

百达翡丽展览邀请函

计时码表。万年历 型号 5270P

MICHAEL SPIERS 诚挚邀请您莅临 2026 百达翡丽系列展览，地点位于其位于康沃尔郡特鲁罗 Lemon Street 82-83 号的展厅。 2026年8月10日（周一）至8月15日（周六）

如需安排私人预约，请通过 PATEK@MICHAELSPIERS.CO.UK 联系 MICHAEL SPIERS。

MICHAEL SPIERS 82-83 Lemon Street, Truro, Cornwall - 电话：01872 272264 www.michaelspiers.co.uk

AUGUST 8 2026

FT Weekend Magazine

The games issue

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For the people who like a long drive at the end of their commute.

Strutt & Parker

Land and property. Since 1885.

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FT Weekend Magazine

AUGUST 8 2026

PAGE 22. WARRIORS PREPARE FOR BATTLE DURING A LARPING WEEKEND

Departments

Intellect

7 Tim Harford

What have games ever done for us?

8 Departments

Reports from FT bureaux

10 Gallery

Steve Schapiro on

New York's '60s jazz scene

Appetites

39 Adam Wells

The case for cider

41 Jay Rayner

Keller, Whitstable

42 Recipe Club

Cherry cremolato

45 The pixelated kitchen

Player One gets cooking

Plus

46 Robert Shrimsley

Can AI improve

my parenting?

The games issue

Features

12

Games

All the usual stuff

14

How to win at life

Joy through play

By C Thi Nguyen

17

Summer quiz

A holiday edition

18

Murdoku

Nail the killers

20

Giant crossword

Made in the USA

22

Wizard fun

Let's go Larping

By Tom Faber

29

Cryptograms

Identify the quotations

30

Sports puzzle

Welcome to Camp Algebra

32

Hexwords

Claim the grid

34

Sudoku

Box clever

35

Crosswords

Ups and downs

36

Solutions

MARGINALIA by NADINE REDLICH

ON THE COVER

ILLUSTRATION by PETRA PÉTERFFY

FT Weekend Magazine issue number 1,188 • FT.com/magazine • @FTMag

Printed by Routa Media Group in Belgium and published by The Financial Times Ltd, Bracken House, 1 Friday Street, London EC4M 9BT. ©The Financial Times Ltd 2026. No part of this magazine may be reproduced in any form without the prior express permission of the publisher. Publishing Dorota Gwilliam - Global Director, Luxury & Weekend Portfolio - dorota.gwilliam@ft.com Issue: Petz - Commercial sales & product manager - www.petz@ft.com Production Mark Froby - Advertising production - mark.froby@ft.com/magazine@ft.com

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Letters

THE RECANTINGS

by Matthew Bremner

Matthew Bremner's piece on lives lost due to police misconduct and judicial incomprehension might have mentioned parallels closer to home, such as the story of Paddy Joe Hill, told in his own Forever Lost, Forever Gone, featuring the Birmingham police and magistrates; or indeed the misfortunes of Osgur Brearnach, Nicky Kelly and Brian McNally, jailed in Ireland for many years for a robbery in which they had no part. These and other notorious miscarriages of justice should be part of the training syllabus for police and for lawyers, so that we may learn something from past mistakes. CIAN OHEGEARTAIGH, DUBLIN, IRELAND

Excellent article and a timely reminder that the "land of the free" has the biggest prison population in the world. YEARS OF LEAD ARE COMING VIA FT.COM

At the time of this story, I was living 25 minutes from Winston-Salem. The story was in the news for weeks. There was a murder, there were confessions, the case was solved, the police were the "good guys". To relive this farce is painful. Young people's lives were ruined. Compensation? How could there ever be any? Utterly shameful. TRYON VIA FT.COM

American "justice" is, like everything else in the US, about money and power. Those "detectives" used methods to extract a "confession" that would get the case slung out in any European court of law, and as the district attorney is an elected official, who campaigns on "being hard on criminals", his/her conviction rate is all that matters. Thanks, but you can shove this kind of investigation and the evidence-gathering, management and presentation as practised by US law enforcers into the exhibit labelled "How to ensure you lock up as many innocent people as possible". PATRICKGC46

UKRAINE'S DEAD, AT PEACE AT LAST

by Fabrice Deprez

As a piece of journalism, this is absolutely excellent. LEWIS FROM LEWES VIA FT.COM

This article really hammers home the human cost of war. We just do it over and over again. Very sad. LONK STONE VIA FT.COM

This quote from a Kyiv resident, as reported by Sky News after a recent missile attack, says it all:

"Zhanna Maidansk, whose relatives lived in a partially destroyed building in the same district as Lidia, said: 'I want to ask the world, which is so afraid of Putin, not to be afraid of him. He has to be stopped.'" GONEWALKABOUT VIA FT.COM

AMBASSADORS OF CHEESE

by Cole Reynolds

The last thing the rest of the world needs is to import American "snacking culture". Also, no mention of the use in the US of bovine growth hormone to artificially increase milk yields, to the detriment of the cows and most likely people (though the FDA is obviously totally sanguine about the whole thing) NY/LONDON ECONOMIST VIA FT.COM

A lot of US cheesemakers are essentially thieving European IP. They do make good cheese in the US, so why don't they have the confidence to market it under a name all of its own, say, "Wisconsin Superior", instead of trying to ride on the back of parmesan? TIMOTHY VIA FT.COM

THE FIRST MEME WAR

by Elaine Moore

Disappointed to not find any memes in the article about memes. IANTMOTHERSBOYFRIEND VIA FT.COM

The success of this "en5%17ific@tion" of statecraft brings to mind the old adage about how "we" often get what we deserve in politics. It also suggests that, for all of the alleged evolution and improvement of the human condition over the past 80 years, much about us remains unchanged. And too bad most of that "much" seems to be all the bad stuff. OLD SCHOOL CANUCK - RENEWED VIA FT.COM

FRUIT SPIRITS: THE COLOUR OF TASTE

by Dave Broom

I discovered Capreolus eaux-de-vie during the dark days of the pandemic

AUGUST 1 THE STORY SIX TEENS COULDN'T TAKE BACK

and have had a couple of different bottles rotating through ever since. They are, put bluntly, perfect end-of-evening spirits - aromatic without being cloying, flavoursome without ever overstaying their welcome, sharp in alcohol without burning. I am delighted the distiller, who is so clearly engaged in a labour of love, is receiving recognition for his work. Yes, they are expensive and I understand the cost of a bottle may be too great for a leap in the dark. But, as the article suggests, the care with which they are made really comes through. Do try one. I recommend the raspberry, if you get the chance. MATTHIAS123 VIA FT.COM

REVIEW: OUDH 1722

by Jay Rayner

Sounds divine! Jay's way with words makes this committed vegetarian salivate at the description of lamb. Wizardry on all levels. JANE E YUS VIA FT.COM

A gravy-stained shirt is the highest compliment a restaurant can be given. ACADEMICALS VIA FT.COM

HOW TO SURVIVE

A HOLIDAY KITCHEN by Nigella Lawson

Bravo for such an entertaining travelogue on rental kitchen "self-catering" adventures. Bring a good knife sharpener and be prepared to do things differently. We never used coffee frothers until we were seduced by one in a chilly windmill in Hydra. Now we use them daily. And who knew you can use a wooden spoon handle to uncork a wine bottle (no doubt some people learnt this earlier)? Or that dropping a frozen litre of mineral water on a stone floor is a fast fix for crushed ice? There are larger lessons here, and not just about the pasta pan! BLUESQUIRREL VIA FT.COM

TO CONTRIBUTE Comment on our articles online or email magazineletters@ft.com. Please include a daytime telephone number and full address (not for publication). Letters may be edited.

True to form, I really don't understand what any of the equipment mentioned by the beloved Nigella actually is. But, as when watching the array of immaculate spoons, sieves and assorted devices she deploys in her many TV series, it will no doubt be a joy to find out. ISLAND-DWELLER VIA FT.COM

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INSIDE Introducing Hexwords, a twist on a classic P32

Intellect

UNDERCOVER ECONOMIST

The pull of the game

by TIM HARFORD

ILLUSTRATION by ALBERTO MIRANDA

IN A SMALL BLACK BOX, IN A CUPBOARD JUST OUT OF reach of my desk, I keep one of my few treasured possessions: a set of Oblique Strategies cards, signed by their co-creator, the artist and musician Brian Eno. The cards, each carrying a brief instruction, are a prompt for creative people.

Some are practical: "Make an exhaustive list of everything you might do and do the last thing on the list." Some are gnomic: "A line has two sides." Some are guaranteed to annoy most professional musicians: "Change instrument roles."

The prompts are aimed at triggering useful conversations between members of a band, reminding producers of options or perspectives they may have forgotten and, above all, forcing skilled artists to abandon their comfortable clichés and find a new approach. My 2016 book, Messy, praises the cards and explains why they, and related annoyances, are such powerful stimuli to solve problems. Strange, then, that I almost never use them.

I'm not alone in that reluctance. When Eno persuaded David Bowie to embrace the cards while recording his celebrated Berlin trilogy of albums, Low, "Heroes" and Lodger,

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Intellect

the musicians working with him did not always appreciate the intervention.

Carlos Alomar, one of the world's great guitarists, found himself playing the drums for the track "Boys Keep Swinging". ("Change instrument roles".) Alomar later reflected, "I mean, some of it worked, some of it didn't... it did make me leave my frustration at what I was doing and totally look at it from another different point of view and although I didn't like the point of view, when I came back, I was fresh."

The poet Simon Armitage described the cards "as if you're asking the blood in your brain to flow in another direction", which does not sound like a comfortable experience. But the world is full of uncomfortable obstacles that prompt a problem-solving response.

A favourite example of mine is the 2014 strike by workers on the London Underground, which disrupted journeys for 48 hours - and prompted tens of thousands of commuters to change their travel habits after discovering that they had been commuting wrong.

A 2009 laboratory experiment explored the impact of awkward team interactions: the researchers gave small teams 20 minutes to solve a multiple-choice murder mys-

tery problem. (You can solve murder mysteries too, on page 18.) In some cases, the groups consisted of four people from the same college sorority; in others, three sorority buddies were joined by a stranger, leading to annoying social friction. The researchers found that the teams with the stranger did a much better job at solving the problem, but enjoyed the task

less and were more likely to believe they had failed. In short: the awkward group did better but believed they did worse.

From anxiety-provoking social situations to travel chaos to randomly drawn mystifications, we might call these problem-solving prompts "desirable disruptions". The trouble is that while they may be desirable, they are rarely desired. Few people relish a Tube strike, or the awkwardness of small talk with a stranger - and perhaps that explains why the Oblique Strategies deck in my cupboard is rarely touched.

Which brings us to the topic of games, which, according to the philosopher Bernard Suits, are "the voluntary attempt to overcome unnecessary obstacles". (For more on Suits, see the essay on page 14.) The contrast between that definition and these desirable disruptions is striking.

Finding a better route to work when your usual one is blocked is no game - it's a reluctant attempt to overcome inevitable obstacles. So is the awkward attempt to solve a problem in discussion with someone you've never met and with whom you have no obvious common ground. As for the Oblique Strategies, they might be something close to a game if it's your creative project and your

deck of cards, but if you're a hard-working musician and Bowie and Eno keep forcing you to participate in their stupid experiment, the experience is unlikely to feel playful.

Are games the missing ingredient here? There is plenty of reason to believe that games can motivate us to push ourselves in ways we would otherwise resist. One survey of the experimental evidence concludes that physical activity can be boosted by gamifications such as "points, levels, rewards, leaderboards, narratives and teams", a finding that will be familiar to anyone who has been drawn in by step trackers and fitness watches. The irony is that gamification is a brittle imitation of an actual game.

A GOOD GAME CAN PUSH US TO REMARK- able feats of concentration, the mastery of complex information or bursts of physical effort that leave us gasping (or, once we reach a certain age, regretting our lack of warm-up). My own gaming activities include learning not only the rules but also some of the best tactics for a bewildering series of boardgames, and pushing through my shyness and introversion to play in long role-playing game sessions that are nothing more than intense social interactions

Few people relish a Tube strike, or the awkwardness of small talk with a stranger

in disguise. (For more on role-playing, read the feature on page 22.) I've even been trying to do handstands, although I can assure you that standing on two feet is easier. None of this needless striving would be happening without the pull of the game.

The same is true of many artistic pursuits. If you want to capture someone's likeness, you could pull out a smartphone and snap a photograph, or you could ask them to sit while you draw or paint. There's no doubt that the phone camera is the easier option, but as the writer and creative guru Austin Kleon declares, "a good hobby should look a little exhausting".

It is tempting, then, to argue for embracing the spirit of play in more of what we do. If we played with different possible routes to work, we wouldn't need to wait for a Tube strike to discover a swifter or more pleasant itinerary. Working with strangers is hard, which may be why so many ice-breaker exercises are actually games. And if I could treat the Oblique Strategies deck as more of a game than a capricious engine of difficulty, I might enjoy its strange gifts more often.

But let's be careful. "It's part of mankind to play games," the great boardgame designer Klaus Teuber told me nearly 20 years ago, adding, "It's an escape from the everyday grind." There is much to be said for playfulness at work, but there is also a risk of turning our pleasures into chores. After all, if a game takes on a broader purpose then it risks no longer being fun. And a game that is no fun isn't much of a game. PT

DEPARTMENTS

REPORTS from LESSER-KNOWN FT RIJRFAUX

BOWLING

On the edge of greatness

Every year Americans roll tens of thousands of sanctioned, perfect 300-pin games of tenpin bowling, according to the United States Bowling Congress. But there have only ever been 43 sanctioned "900 series" of three consecutive perfect games. A Texan called Bill Fong would have added his name to that list in 2010 but for the fact that the last pin on his last throw, pin number 900, wobbled but did not fall down. Upon the not-falling, "Strangers fell to their knees. It was hard for anyone to breathe."

SOURCE: D MAGAZINE, USBC

GOLF

Holey hell

In 2000, the golfer Joe Daley precisely rolled a short putt into the hole on the 17th green during the fourth round of the PGA Tour's qualifying tournament, or Q-school. The ball bounced out of the dead centre of the cup and back on to the green. "Oh my, what was that?" said the television announcer. Daley threw his cap to the ground in disbelief. He missed earning his professional card by a single stroke and never made it back on tour.

SOURCE: GOLF DIGEST

BASEBALL

Baseball's baddest call?

In the nearly quarter of a million games played in Major League Baseball history, there have been only 24 perfect games, in which none of the opposing team's 27 batters reached base safely. In 2010, Detroit Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga retired 26 Cleveland Indians in a row before Jason Donald hit a soft ground ball to the right side of the infield and sprinted toward first base. Donald was called safe. The call was obviously incorrect. Galarraga forgave the umpire, saying, "Nobody's perfect."

SOURCE: ESPN, WIKIPEDIA

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Intellect

GALLERY

STEVE SCHAPIRO

by JOSH LUSTIG

You can smell the cigarette smoke hanging in the air. Taste it even. And if you've ever blown a horn, you can probably also taste the acidic brassiness, or the warm, nutty reediness that seem to emanate from Steve Schapiro's photographs.

Born in Brooklyn in 1934, Schapiro was one of the great chroniclers of the US in the second half of the 20th century, working for the likes of Life, Look and Time magazines during a period of great social change. He made seminal photo essays and books with James Baldwin and Robert Kennedy, whilst dedicating his working life to documenting his country's struggles against racism and for civil liberties: from the Selma to Montgomery march in 1965 to the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020. Schapiro died in 2022.

Before he got his big break at Life, Schapiro spent the best part of 1961 and 1962 documenting New York's jazz scene. Decades later, at the age of 81, together with his wife and son, Schapiro sat down to sift through more than 20,000 images that he made during this period. From uptown at Harlem's Apollo Theater to downtown at Greenwich Village's Village Vanguard, Schapiro photographed all the greats of that time, and some who would go on to become greats.

He was small - 5ft 3in, perfect for blending into the background, being a fly on the wall. But he also had a disarming joviality that people liked being around. Sid Ganis, a friend and film producer who worked with Schapiro later in his career, said, "Steve was a jolly man. He had the craziest laugh of anyone I've heard, ever. When he laughed, his whole body shook." This humour bounced between him and his subjects. In the introduction to Jazz, the recent publication of this work, the great Sonny Rollins says: "Elvin Jones is smiling. And I don't think I've ever seen a photo of Paul Chambers smiling, but there he is. Paul Chambers is smiling." It goes against the stereotype of jazz musicians as serious, tortured artists, victims of their talent and their addictions. "Smile a lot and don't get too involved with your equipment," Schapiro says in Jazz. "I always try to be on the wavelength with the subject I am working with."

Schapiro was no jazz obsessive. Maybe he chose to document the scene because he saw something representative. Jazz, the one true art form of the 20th century, contained an energy and a message that was all about social change. In those trumpets, saxophones, keys and bass lines, there was an urgency, a call, that Schapiro couldn't ignore.

"Jazz" is published by ACC Art Books, accartbooks.com

BILL EVANS AND FREDDIE HUBBARD, NEW YORK, 1962

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SONNY RED, RONNIE MATHEWS AND CLIFFORD JORDAN, NEW YORK, 1961

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THE GAME ISSUE

For this summer special, we've called on our favourite puzzlers and game designers to contribute a wide range of delights that can be played alone or with the family

For solutions, see page 56

MINI CROSSWORD

NO 121 SET BY SLEUTH

8 clues:

• 2 straightforward
• 2 general knowledge
• 2 cryptic
• 2 anagrams

ACROSS

1 Fail one establishing institution (7) 5 Bewilder (7) 6 German port city on the River Elbe (7) 7 Carries out rescues (7)

DOWN

1 David _ Seven and Fight Club film director (7) 2 Anonymous (7) 3 Leo's due (7) 4 Singers (7)

Access FT crosswords from the past 30 days - Cryptic, Polymath, Weekend and Sunday Puzzles - on ft.com/crosswordapp

WORD CIRCLE

NO 121

How many words can you form that use the centre letter plus two or more of the other letters? No letter may be used more times than it appears within the circle. There is one word that uses all nine letters.

SCORING

GOOD - 25

GREAT - 35

AMAZING - 45

BINARY PUZZLE

NO 121

Place 0 or 1 in every empty square so there is an equal number of each digit in every row and column. In any row or column, there must be no more than two of the same digit in succession.

0	0	1		1
					0	1	1
1		0		0	1	0
0			0	1	1
		1	1	0			0
	0	1	0		1		1
0	1	0
			1		1	0	0

SOLUTIONS

FOR ISSUE DATE AUGUST 1

Mini Crossword No 120

Binary Puzzle No 120

Word circle No 120

COPE, COPIES, COPIES, COPIES, CORE, CORES, CORES, CORES, CORES, CORES, CORES, CORES, CORES, CORES, CORES, CORES, CORES, CORES, CORES, CORES, CORES, CORES, CORES, CORES, CORES, CORES, CORES, CORES, CORES, CORES, CORES, CORES, CORES, CORES, CORES, CORES, CORES, CORES, CORES

FT WEEKEND MAGAZINE

BANY PUZZLE MEDIA LTD

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THE CROSSWORD

NO 805 SET BY ALDHELM

The Across clues are straightforward, while the Down clues are cryptic.

ACROSS

• 1 Inappropriate, unseemly (8)
• 6 Catchphrase, motto (6)
• 9 Strip of bacon (6)
• 10 Astound, dumbfound (7)
• 11 Talipes limb deformity (4, 4)
• 12 Empower (6)
• 13 Rugby formation (5)
• 15 Inhabitant of a place surrounded by water (8)
• 17 Meet (8)
• 19 Social class (5)
• 21 Detritus thrown overboard (6)
• 23 Benevolence, generosity (8)
• 25 Radioactive isotope of hydrogen (7)
• 26 Many (6)
• 27 Plug, peg (6)
• 28 Soothed, alleviated (8)

Crossword No 804

DOWN

• 2 Disease's chronic condition with one less poorly (7)
• 3 Undergraduate with her go up for drug treatment (5)
• 4 A one-time entertainer (9)
• 5 Call dog, wild red mule and primate (4-6, 5)
• 6 Beginning of statement seen to be edited for hearing, for example (5)
• 7 Upset a tin and spoil artist's material (3, 6)
• 8 A bishop oddly loves to forgive (7)
• 14 Enthusing about his reforms is lovely (9)
• 16 Sadly all march slowly, finally, with tears (9)
• 18 Dance record supports lively notes (3-4)
• 20 Bind bottom of edition stopping loose leaves (7)
• 22 Damp light fog around ocean's surface (5)
• 24 Weird English lake of some size (5)

A ROUND ON THE LINKS

BY JAMES WALTON

All the answers here are linked in some way. Once you've spotted the connection, any you didn't know the first time around should become easier.

• 1 Who was the editor of The Sunday Times between Frank Giles and John Witherow?
• 2 The twin symbols of pharaonic authority in Ancient Egypt – as found crossed over Tutankhamun's ches: on his coffin – were a flail and a... what?
• 3 Which bog in John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress has become a phrase meaning a state of depression?
• 4 What are the first names of the former comedy double act Hale and Pace?

• 5 What word precedes "Sun", "Plane" and "Roses" in the titles of hit singles of the 1960s and '70s?

• 6 Which shoe company was founded in Leicester in 1875 and named after three of its original directors?

• 7 What word is missing from this line of Wordsworth's about the French Revolution: "Bliss was it in that — to be alive"?
• 8 What's the longstanding nickname of the speaking clock service in the UK?
• 9 In the Bible, which King of Israel came between Saul and Solomon?
• 10 What name can refer to a London borough or the primary benchmark price for crude oil?

THE PICTURE ROUND

BY JAMES WALTON

Who or what do these pictures add up to?

+

= ?

Answers on page 36

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Essay

Your joyous action

Why play is at the core of a meaningful life. By C Thi Nguyen

O

ne of the most gloriously oddball texts in contemporary philosophy is Bernard Suits' The Grasshopper. Remember the parable of the ant and the grasshopper, where the ant works all summer and the grass-

hopper lazes about and eventually starves? In the traditional version, the ant is the hero - the ceaseless hard worker - and the grasshopper is the object lesson in the perils of laziness. Suits flips the story. In his book, the grasshopper is the hero; he is the embodiment of play.

The Grasshopper begins as a parody of Plato's Crito, the story of Socrates' last days before execution. In Plato's dialogue, Socrates has been condemned to death and waits for execution. His students visit him, begging for him to escape, but he refuses. He would rather die for his commitment to justice than be a coward. Suits' book is also a dialogue, which begins with the grasshopper dying of starvation, surrounded by his disciples. They beg the grasshopper to let them feed him, but he refuses. He would rather die for his commitment to idleness and play than force his disciples to become ants.

The book was initially ignored when it was published in 1978, probably because of its unconventional topic and joyous style. But it has slowly gained an ardent following. Suits spends most of the book attempting to provide a rigorous philosophical definition of the concept of "a game", which turns out, in the end, to be about the meaning of life. And it ends with one of the most delightfully unhinged arguments I know of, in all my years of teaching philosophy.

Imagine, says Suits, utopia - some future paradise where technology has solved all our practical problems. We have perfect medicine, unlimited energy and boundless resources. What would we do with our time? We would play games, says Suits, or we would be bored out of our minds. And if playing games is all we do in utopia, then games must be the meaning of life.

I sneak bits of The Grasshopper into my Introduction to Philosophy classes when I'm feeling feisty. The students are wildly divided. Some of them love it passionately. It justifies, to them, their deepest instincts about what truly matters.

Other students despise it as the peak of stupidity. It seems, to them, an unserious argument in praise of a thoroughly unserious life.

But Suits meant it very seriously. The book is an argument for the centrality of play. For him, play is not just a side dish for the main meal of work. Play is at the core of a meaningful life.

Underneath the hood, Suits' argument is Aristotle to its bones. For Aristotle, a good life - a truly meaningful life - lay not in the creation or accumulation of stuff or the achievement of outcomes, but in the process of doing itself, in the rich exercise of our full human capacities. (Suits was, among other things, an Aristotle scholar at the University of Waterloo and a fervent Aristotle fanboy.)

Suits found the deepest illumination of Aristotle's point in the simplest human activity: playing games. Suits provides, and defends, his definition. To play a game, he says, is to voluntarily take on unnecessary obstacles to make possible the struggle to overcome them.

To play a game, therefore, is to be inefficient on purpose. When you run a marathon, you are trying to get to a particular spot in space, but you avoid the most efficient ways to get there. You do not take a subway or a taxi or a bicycle. You force yourself to run, and you try to run as quickly as possible.

Which means, for Suits, that the struggle must be an essential part of the true value. What you care about can't just be the bare outcome by itself. You can't just care about being at that spot in space. Otherwise you'd just take the most efficient path. But if you took the subway then it doesn't count - not for the game of marathon-running, anyway.

Games sculpt a particular way of doing things. Football tells you not to use your hands, so you learn how much grace and control you can get out of your feet. Rock climbing tells you to go up, but forbids the standard human tools. No ladders, no helicopters, no grappling hooks. You are devoted instead to balance, bodily precision and delicate movement.

WHILE I WAS READING SUITS FOR THE FIRST time, I was also learning to fly fish. I had moved to Utah and wanted to spend more time in the mountains. I needed some structure to really engage with the mountains. I could hike up to that

clear, high mountain lake and attempt to soak in the beauty but, with my unruly mind, after about 10 minutes I'd get bored and check out.

Fly fishing changed that. Search the water, intensely, for trout. Look for their shadowy forms. Look for subtleties in the water, where the rushing fast water drops away into slightly slower, deeper water, where the trout are likely hiding. Look at the bugs. Look at their size, figure out what the trout are eating and where in the water they're eating it. And then match that bug with a fake insect that you hopefully tied yourself.

Fly fishing is wildly stupid. It is the dumbest way to catch a fish. Much more efficient would be a net or maybe some dynamite or at least some bait on a hook, for God's sake. But fly fishing forces you to adopt arcane and inefficient methods. This is especially true for my favourite form of fly fishing: casting a dry fly to a visibly feeding trout. You take an artificial concoction - a bit of feathers and fur, tied to a hook - and drop it delicately in the right place, at the right moment, to look like the insects sitting on the water. If you do it just right, a trout rises up and sips it off the surface.

It is stupidly hard. If you want a fish, almost any other method is easier. (Hell, if all you want is a fish to eat, you can just buy one at the market.) But that wouldn't count. When you fly fish, you don't just want a fish. You are playing a game: you want to get that fish by a specific, difficult and fascinating technique.

Games rub our faces in the value of difficult struggles, for their own sakes. If all that mattered in life was the bare outcome - the product, the money, the extractable good - if human action was just a means to some independent ends, then playing games would be utterly irrational.

Or you could think: games are important, and the mindset wholly devoted to outcomes and extractable products has missed out on the centre of human life.

TO UNDERSTAND GAMES, DISTINGUISH between two things: the goal of a game and your purpose for playing it. The goal is what you pursue inside the game; the purpose is why you played it. My philosophy mentor, Barbara Herman, put it this way: when you invite your friends over to play cards, the goal is to win, but the purpose is

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ILLUSTRATION by FEMKE DE JONG

to have fun. You have to try to win to have fun, but winning isn't the point.

Not all of us approach games in this way. For some people, the goal and purpose are one. They want to win, period. Call those people achievement players. The Olympic runner wants to win the marathon by running it - but they do truly care about winning it.

But for other people, goal and purpose come apart. We try to win because we are interested in the struggle, and it is the struggle itself that we truly care about. Call us striving players. It's all right if we try and we lose, if the attempt was beautiful. In ordinary, practical life, we take the means for the sake of the ends. In striving play, we take the ends for the sake of the means.

What is the point of life? Is it to make stuff? Or is it to take difficult actions, think rich thoughts, weigh subtle decisions? Is it having a pile of stuff - or does the stuff just support our quest for interesting action?

I've spent a lot of time in serious research environments talking about games and play. Most serious adults - even people who research play - are usually anxious to show how play is actually, secretly, useful for actual adult stuff. They are anxious to show how play encourages some

future productivity. Chess teaches logic, football teaches teamwork, Minecraft builds future engineers. Or, at the very least, play is useful because it relaxes and restores you, so you can renew your vigour and get back to work.

Suits argues something different. He argues that play itself is the point, and that we work in order to survive so that we might play.

ONE BRIGHT, SNOWY WINTER DAY, I WAS walking along a river, looking for rising trout, when I ran into a bent-over dude, another fly angler, out on that cold day, fuming into his fly box. He muttered angrily to himself, radiating gloom.

"What a great day to be out," I said. "How you doing?"

"Terrible," he said. "I've only caught five fish today. I'm behind. I'm just not where I need to be." He seemed desperate and miserable.

It's tempting to say he was doing it wrong. But games are too complicated to make it so simple. Even for striving players, play isn't all good times. For rock climbers, chess players or players of ultra-difficult video games such as Dark Souls, the frustration, rage and despair are part of the point. Failing and failing again, getting exhausted and grouchy, and then (sometimes) having a glo-

rious moment of pulling it off. These are crucial components of the arc.

When I started fly fishing, I had no idea that I would someday become maniac enough to go out in the middle of winter, with the temperature hovering around freezing, punching through the snow crust in my boots, and sliding down the snowy banks to slip into the river, bundled in waterproof waders and two layers of thermal underwear, all to try to catch some fish. Half the point of winter fly fishing, for me, is the closeness to misery. It's just barely possible to remain a live and moving human being in these conditions. And there are, usually, very few fish.

But it also makes me feel intensely alive. I've usually been cooped inside for weeks - reading, cleaning, grading, parenting - and a sunny winter day on the river is gloriously bright. You take care with every movement, every small action, all to fish on the worst days of the year, when you might be lucky to catch one fish. And if you do, you will immediately let it go.

My gut says the muttering man wasn't in this dramatic arc. My gut says he thought he had to catch a lot of fish, that something had gone wrong if he didn't make his quota. My gut says he was miserable, all the way down. I'd guess he had

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imported the work mindset into the tiny bit of his life where he was actually free to play.

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN "WORK" and "play"? We might think play is always light, easy and fun - but it gets thorny when you start to think about how intense we are when we play.

I've been trying to figure out, like a good little philosopher, a useful definition of "play". I have some candidates from the literature, but none of them completely satisfies me. Each seems to capture a different part of the whole.

One is from the feminist philosopher Maria Lugones. She says that to "play" is to slip between different rule-worlds - to cross between cultures, professional worlds, social roles, easily and lightly. To be playful is, she says, to be willing to try on the rules, but not to hold them sacredly. The opposite of playfulness, for Lugones, is something like dogmatism.

Another definition is from Bernard Suits. Play, he says, is redirecting usually instrumental resources to autotelic activity. An "instrumental resource" is something - material goods, skills, energy - that you normally deploy to get something useful. And "autotelic activity" is a term from Aristotle. It means activity that's valuable for its own sake.

You might take your energy to run - once used to hunt, escape or travel - and just run in a

big circle around the city because it feels good. Or you might take a skill like, say, catching fish, once used to feed yourself. Suddenly you redirect that skill. You do it for the sheer joy of doing it. And that changes, a little bit, how you do it. Suddenly you don't have to take the most efficient path, because your life and your hunger do not depend on your success. You are playing. Maybe this play requires more of you - thinking, sensitivity, elaborate movement - to get the same end.

You do it for the sheer joy of doing it. And that changes, a little bit, how you do it

You're trying for the sake of trying. And you tune the action not for productivity but for joy.

Rephrase Suits' definition this way: play is wasting resources for fun. But also: the whole point is that, deep down, it's not a waste. A truly wasted life would be one spent working hard, stockpiling goods like the ant and never using them to support joyous play.

And to truly waste humanity would be to push people so hard to work productively, to make more stuff, to the point where nobody had time to play.

Let me try my own fusion of these two definitions. "Work" isn't distinguished from "play" by difficulty, suffering or practicality. You can make pottery, knit scarves or grow a garden as play. The true difference between work and play is the reason you have, and the control you have, over what it is you're doing and why.

Here's my suggestion: to "work" is to perform

activities to create outcomes that are set by something external. When you work, you are making what the world tells you to make. Maybe you're gathering food, because biology tells you you have to eat. Maybe you're earning money, because the world says you need money to buy food and shelter and medicine. Maybe you're making products, because the world wants something specific from you - planks of wood, a ride to the airport.

But "play" is different. You still have goals and struggles, but your goals are up to you.

When I was a rock climber, I started by accepting a given goal of rock climbing: to climb the most difficult climbs. This worked for a long time. The goal helped me find sensitivity and care in my balance, and joy in my movement. But after a few years, the difficulty quest stopped being meaningful or satisfying. So I switched goals: I started trying to climb most elegantly, with the most graceful and minimal set of movements.

With games you choose the goals because they give you the kind of action you want, the kind of involvement you want. If you don't like a game, you can switch games. You can change the rules, you can change the goals. You can make it so hard that you probably will lose. You can change the points, because the points aren't what matters. Your own joyous action is. PT

C Thi Nguyen is philosophy professor at the University of Utah. His latest book, "The Score", is published by Penguin

PADELSMITH

This is padel. Uncompromised. PADELSMITH.CO.UK

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Words

by JAMES WALTON

Summer quiz

Going anywhere nice?

HOW TO PLAY

In each set of questions, the first letters of the answers spell out a holiday destination

Round One

1 Which 2004 film is set at the fictional TV station KVWN? 2 "We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars" is a line from which Oscar Wilde play? 3 Which show of the 2010s has won the most Primetime Emmy Awards of any drama series? 4 Whose novel The Tenant of Wildfell Hall features a violent drunkard partly based on her brother Branwell? 5 Which party leader is the MP for Great Yarmouth? 6 Schönbrunn Palace is in which European city? 7 Which browser did Microsoft introduce in 2015 to replace Internet Explorer?

Round Two

1 The most northerly point of Africa is in which country? 2 Which US state joined the union in 1896? 3 Which England football manager was capped 104 times for the Netherlands? 4 What completes this quotation by George Orwell from The Road to Wigan Pier: "If there is one type of man to whom I do feel myself inferior, it is a..." 5 Who's the only former citizen of East Germany to have served as German chancellor? 6 Which company began as a DVD rental service in 1997? 7 Ed Balls is married to which government minister?

Round Three

1 Chicago is the most recent film musical to win the Oscar for Best Picture. Which 1960s musical was the last to win it before that? 2 Saskia van Uylenburgh was the wife of which painter, for whom she sometimes modelled? 3 Taylor Swift's most recent album is called The... what? 4 What's the only capital city to feature in the title of a play by Shakespeare? 5 Two lads' mags were launched in January 2004: Zoo - and which other? 6 Who was the Roman goddess of hunting? 7 In human anatomy, what comes next in this hierarchical sequence: cell, tissue, ...?

Round Four

1 What's the only one of the Great Lakes entirely within the US? 2 Who's the bass guitarist in the longest-running rock band ever to have kept its original line-up? 3 Who was the last Conservative chancellor of the exchequer? 4 Which beer, first brewed by Morland in 1979, has a three-word avian name? 5 Which Verdi opera is based on Victor Hugo's play Le roi s'amuse? 6 Who did Simon Armitage succeed as poet laureate? 7 The first known use of which pejorative two-word term for a personal injury lawyer was in The New York Sun in 1896?

Round Five

1 What's the largest country in Central America? 2 Who's the only American playwright to have won the Nobel Prize in Literature? 3 Which team won the first two men's cricket world cups? 4 Montreal is the biggest city in which Canadian province? 5 Which baddie in a novel of 1850 works as a clerk to Mr Wickfield? 6 Which actress is married to Queen's Brian May? 7 "Me at the zoo" was the first thing ever to appear on what?

ANSWERS

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Murdoku™

Killer Grids

The Picnic

DIFFICULTY EASY

SUSPECTS

AVERY

She was on a picnic blanket

BRUNO

He was sitting in a chair in the gazebo

CHRISTIAN

He was in the picnic area

DAPHNE

She was beside some flowers and beside a tree

ETHAN

He was sitting in a chair

FABIAN

He was in the pond. He was north of Ethan

VICKY

The victim

She was alone with the murderer

• Beside = One square to the left, right, above or below (not diagonal) in the same room

CRIME SCENE

THE MURDERER IS

KEY

CAN BE OCCUPIED

CANNOT BE OCCUPIED

© 2018 MANUEL GARAND, MURDERMYSTERYPLIZZLES.COM

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by MANUEL GARAND

ILLUSTRATION by CLARA SAN MILLÁN

HOW TO PLAY

To identify the murderer, find out exactly where the suspects and the victim were at the time of the murder by placing them on the crime scene. The killer was alone in a room with the victim.

SOLVING THE CASE

Everyone was in a different row and column

If A is here...

...then no one can be in these cells

The victim can only be here

Find everyone's position to discover the victim

Whoever is in the victim's room is the murderer. Here, B is the murderer

The Library

DIFFICULTY HARD

SUSPECTS

ALMA

She was in the reading room

BLANCHE

She was beside a plant

CIARA

She was in the fiction area or in the archives

DAMIEN

He was alone with someone in the hallway

EDITH

She was on a rug

FELICIA

She was exactly one row north of Damien

GIDEON

He was beside* a box

HELGA

She was the only person sitting in a chair

VISHAL

The victim

He was alone with the murderer

CRIME SCENE

THE MURDERER IS

KEY

CAN BE OCCUPIED

CANNOT BE OCCUPIED

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Giant crossword

State of the nation

After solving this stately, American-style crossword (yes, with American-style spellings), you will have all the pieces you need to solve an expansive bonus puzzle. Note that these pieces may be a tight fit in the grid. The bonus puzzle's solution might be a short answer to the question, "How is the state of things?"

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by OLIVER ROEDER

ACROSS

1 Like the red wolf vis-à-vis the grey wolf

7 _ rap

13 Blue Ribbon brewer

18 Really get going

19 Wristwatches whose brand name is Japanese for "exquisite"

20 Four-time World Cup winners that failed to qualify for the past three

21 Def Jam and Rocafella

22 Barbecue locales

23 Adjective for many a statesman

24 Hertz competitor

25 Lyft competitor

27 Prunes, once

29 Completely demolish

30 Ending with Bat, Iron, Super

31 It begins, "Sing, O goddess"

32 Snake charmer's charmed snake

33 Vegetable related to garlic

34 Won't take no for an answer

36 Celestial phenomenon that will next occur on August 12

38 Org that recently got Messi

39 Black Friday attractions

40 "_ thee to hell for shame, and leave this world": Richard III

41 "Eureka!"

44 Little ones "in the woods"

45 Tree with a name that has all five vowels

49 Mets' home before Citi Field

50 They're often held when toasting

51 President's annual address to Congress: Abbr

52 _ NewsHour

53 Newscaster, once

55 Ish

57 Uncover, poetically

58 Surname of two Nobel Prize winners, Victor Francis in physics and Walter Rudolf in physiology

59 They're sometimes hidden behind paintings

60 Fantasy village home to The Prancing Pony inn

61 Allows

63 Arm bones

64 Sounds made in agony and ecstasy

65 Pulitzer-winning New Yorker critic Hilton

66 More critical and unkind

67 When doubled, cheerleading equipment

68 Honors, as with a statue

72 Legalese for "free"

76 Farm sound

77 Editable articles

78 The Seagull and The Wild Duck

79 "Neither snow _ rain _ heat _ gloom of night..."

80 Google Maps suggestion: Abbr

81 Camera setting

82 Wine: Prefix

83 US insurance giant named for a volcano

84 "Silly goose!"

86 Steve Buscemi's role in Reservoir Dogs

88 Place for a preacher

90 Ones with their eyes on the ball?

91 Did, at one time

92 Lure

93 Mathematician Paul who published some 1,500 papers

94 Leap from an aircraft

95 Unclaimed

DOWN

1 Tubular meat

2 Parade through the desert

3 The most populous birds in the US, with some 400 million individuals

4 Breaking sticks

5 Sub, for some new US residents

6 Outcomes

7 Was audibly shocked

8 Proximate

9 "Scram!"

10 They're stuck in the snow

11 They might feature a tiny folder, printer and magnifying glass

12 Rid of any doubts

13 Pizzas, eg

14 Code of the busiest airport in the US

15 Tarnished image, informally

16 Sordid sorts

17 Onetime NBA Rookie of the Year Evans

26 Slant

28 Hackers' tools

31 Manhattan, eg

32 Nat King and Ashley

33 Stead

35 "That is to say..."

36 Cutting and thrusting fencing discipline

37 Spirits

39 Browns, maybe

41 "That's quite enough!"

42 "Fingers crossed!"

43 Home to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

44 Ignorance, it's said

45 Painful areas

46 Glass creation?

47 "The father of modern drama"

48 Jacks and jennies

BONUS PUZZLE: HOW IS THE STATE OF THINGS?

50 Precision woodworking tools

51 As yet

54 Dish whose spiciness is measured in alarms

55 Prides of lions?

56 Risky thing to drop early in a relationship

59 Playground inclines

62 German capital, once

63 Ready to pack, as a suitcase

64 Farm sounds

66 Maker of the helicopters Black Hawk, Jayhawk and Seahawk

67 Force apart, as with a crowbar

68 Gloomy

69 One or the other

70 Wealthy

71 Laboratory paper

72 Think ahead

73 The first to go on strike?

74 "How rude!"

75 Acts like Aeschines

78 High-quality tea

81 Needless excitement

82 Airing

83 Vocal range spanning F3 to F5

85 First-place medalla

87 Dictator Amin

89 Card game in which the name of the game is shouted

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AUGUST 8 2026

THIS

THEM

JNIVERSH

Companionship. Acceptance. Escapism. Mead. And battles. Why 4,000 people dress up and 'Larp' in a field off the A10 By Tom Faber Photography by Henri Kisielewski

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2

Dear Sister, I trust your treatment is going well. Before I left, the physick assured me that, while he can't eradicate the disease, his new method should at least relieve your pain. After two weeks of hard travel, I have reached the magnificent encampments of Anvil and found a welcoming home among our fellow Highguard... Tomorrow I will begin my search for information that might help cure your malady. But first, I must sleep... Your loving brother, Arcturus

AT 6PM ON FRIDAY, THE WORLD SWITCHED on. The tents were prepared, the fires ready to be lit. All signs of modernity were tucked out of sight. Nearly 4,000 people had put the finishing touches to their costumes and travelled from across the UK and beyond to reach Empire, a live-action role play event set in a fantasy world where, over three days, they would become fictional charac- ters of their own creation. Together, in a field in Cambridgeshire off the A10, they would govern an empire. They would debate laws, fight battles, run businesses, fall in love and grieve their dead. Then on Sunday they'd pack up and return home.

Empire is by far the largest live-action role play - Larp - event in the country. It is also the only such British event to run on its own perma- nent site, a 180-acre stretch of farmland that its new owners hope will be a national home for the hobby. I'm a seasoned gamer and fantasy fan, but had never lived as a fictional character before. The idea sounded intimidating. But after hear- ing about the epic scale of Empire, I wanted to feel the magic for myself.

To play, I needed a character. I invented Arc- turus, a novice studying magic from the priestly nation of Highguard. Choosing from the game's 10 nations, each with its characteristic person- ality and dress - the aloof, blue-robed wizards of Urizen; the brusque, latex-masked Imperial Orcs - is your most important decision here, as you spend much time with your countrymen and march into battle at their side.

Empire's original fiction is inspired by popu- lar fantasy media, particularly those that favour gritty realism and moral ambiguity over simplistic stories of good and evil. The narrative setting of the event is that, four times a year, the 10 nations send embassies to the imperial capital of Anvil, for meetings and events that will determine the world's future. Plot developments are recorded in a sprawling online wiki, which is 10 times the length of the Bible. One page details styles of the- matically inappropriate corsets, another tells the sad story of why horses went extinct.

Why had Arcturus come to the city? I decided that he had a sick sister back home in his village, and he'd come in search of a cure. That would give me a reason to roam the city in-character and an excuse to poke my nose about and ask questions.

The capital stood in a flat patch of grass- land that had served for almost two centuries in the real world as a horse-racing course. Out-of-

character areas contained players' tents, food stalls and shops selling fantasy clothing, armour and impressively detailed weapons made of latex and foam. It also hosted God, or the General Operations Desk, which dealt with administra- tive tasks. Everything in the in-character area, from costume to tents, had to be appropriate to the fantasy setting. When the game was active - Friday evening, nearly all of Saturday and much of Sunday - I was expected to behave as Arctu- rus, not Tom. No phones, no breaking character, no conversation about the real world.

On Friday evening, people emerged from tents around mine suddenly filled with purpose. The Highguard are a religious lot, and at the nearby chapel a priest was talking to a small crowd about our nation's ambitions for this season. I was dressed in a robe that I bought while travelling and a cowl I fashioned from a piece of storm-grey cloth. It was not a terrible costume for a beginner, but paled in comparison to the outrageously impressive get-ups in my camp; haute couture battle-nuns, wizards in luxurious teal robes, players wearing prosthet- ics that resembled fish scales, tree bark or horns.

I wandered down to the buzzing heart of the city. There was a senate for political meetings and a stone circle used for magical rituals. At the military council, about a dozen people discussed complex matters of fantasy statecraft; more than 100 in the audience listened raptly. Empire is a game of politics, and you may pursue power via legislative, military, religious, magical or eco- nomic means. You can get rich trading in-game resources and currency, leveraging an economy sophisticated enough that analysts have accu- rately forecasted the shifting prices of mithril and tempest jade.

I walked into the library. Two players were riffling through books about reincarnation and the diplomatic tactics of the previous Empress. When the solemn librarian, who looked at it he had worked there for centuries, turned his back, the pair lurched giddily over to the collection of fantasy smut written by the prolific TG Shagworde.

While Empire is a game, there's no ultimate victory or defeat here, no simple heroes or vil- lains. Instead, interweaving storylines spin out simultaneously, collaboratively fashioned between Empire's plot team and the players themselves. You are the main character in your own story, and might become a secondary character, or even the lead antagonist, in the stories of other attendees. The event's creator calls it "Game of Thrones meets Coronation Street".

You could also forget politics and become a baker, a bard or an artisan. You can decide, as many did, to fill your fantasy weekend dashing among a stacked calendar of bureaucratic obli- gations, or drinking mead around the fire and singing the songs of your ancestors. The fizz- ing possibilities for Arcturus excited me, but as a fresh arrival to Anvil, I felt lost. In a video game, somebody would have been giving me a quest right now. A glowing arrow would lead me across the landscape to my next objective. But in Empire, nobody told me where to go or what to do. Arcturus felt overwhelmed. So did Tom.

I decided that Arcturus would spend his first night exploring the wonders of the big city. At night, Anvil came alive. As the fires were lit, I walked from taverns to fighting pits, drank ale by candlelight and befriended a cheeky orc who

kept threatening to steal my money. Fantasy cash came as metal coins in the denominations of rings, crowns and thrones. They are "phys-reps", physical representations of objects in the game, like cards or bottles for magical resources, ribbons that denote charmed items, and even in-game psychoactive drugs, with names like black lotus, goosewhisper and realmsroot. Not everyone partook. A mage at a coffee stand reckoned that "getting off your tits on fake drugs is kind of cringe".

I encountered in-game drugs around 10pm on the first day, as I chatted to a woman working the out-of-character smoothie stand. She knew nothing about Larp, but had ventured into the fantasy world in search of a party. An in-game drug dealer appeared.

"Do you want to buy any mind-altering sub- stances?" he asked silkily.

My smoothie friend crashed through the veil of fiction. "Have you got any ketamine?"

After a moment of blinking dissociation, the Larp dealer murmured that he had never heard of such a thing, and scuttled away.

By midnight, Arcturus found himself in the nation of Navarr, sitting around a campfire where attendees played bard. Many of the songs were written about player-characters and their deeds across Empire's 13-year history. This one was a rousing singalong. "And though our foe draws near/ We'll show these beasts no fear/On the west wall/ We're fighting free/On the west wall/Heroes we." I roared in response, "One beat, one heart, one time, one call." I danced around the campfire with the crowd, adding my voice to the throng's under the clear night sky.

Leon Turner, an Empire regular, had strug- gled to find a solid group of friends back home. He recalled a similar experience to mine. "I was sitting around the fire with all these people singing, and I was flooded by emotion looking at everyone just engaged in this world, engaged in the bard's music," he said. "I started to cry in that moment. It was like my brain said, 'You are home. These are your people.'"

3

Sister,

My first night in Anvil I barely slept a wink! There is so much noise outside my tent, with lights and shadows dancing so merrily upon the canvas, that slumber would not come... Today I plan to learn more about the people of Anvil, and find information about the medical specialists of the city. Yours, Arcturus

IT WAS IN THE NATION OF THE LEAGUE that I met Pearl Constance, a 63-year-old from Lin- coln attending her seventh event. Her large tent was draped in colourful fabrics, with silver gob- lets and glowing candles on every surface. With a shy smile, round glasses and grey hair pulled back in a practical bun, she described herself as "just a very, very normal person" who has had "an unassuming career" as a teaching assistant and a theatre costumier. She enjoys reading fantasy books but, besides a brief flirtation with D&D in the 1980s, had never been much for playing games.

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It was her daughter who invited Constance to Empire. "We got out of the van and, to be honest, I thought, 'What the hell have I done? I'm in a big, dusty field with a load of scrappy bell tents. Where's this magic my daughter talked about?'"

But as the day wore on, she warmed to it. "The evening just becomes more and more magical as campfires are set up, little plays are happening, bars are open," Constance said. "I started feeling that I was somewhere else. When I went to bed, the noise was phenomenal. I lay there and felt as if the whole world was chattering and singing. I should have been annoyed that it was difficult to get to sleep, but all I could think was that it's so lovely to have all these people here enjoying themselves, having a drink, doing something creative, telling a story, playing as adults."

From outside the tent we heard the rowdy chatter of the Jolly Jackdaw Cartel, a group who have adopted Constance, despite many being less than half her age. In the real world, the Jackdaws check in on Constance over group chat.

Constance also learnt about herself by playing her character, Esme Beatrix de Holberg, whom she described as "a bit naughty". De Holberg had attained an imperial position as Custodian of the Kennels, dispatching the (imaginary) hounds to hunt and catch rats. "Esme has more confidence than me," Constance said, laughing. "In real life, I spend a lot of time looking after other people. Here, I don't. Esme just gets on with her own things, so it's a freedom from real life."

I interviewed 30 players of Empire for this article, and Constance's experience was common. Many regarded role play as an opportunity to experiment with their personality, to practise being more confident, more forthright, more self-possessed. One player I met looked the epitome of timidity out of character, with a hunched posture and a near-inaudible speaking voice. In character, she stood tall, swathed in majestic robes, cutting an imperious figure befitting her powerful role in the game's political system.

There's something fundamentally inclusive in the act of role play. There was, for instance, a noticeably large presence at Empire of people who were neurodivergent, disabled, gender-non-conforming or LGBTQ. I regularly heard references to autism, ADHD and OCD, and saw many walking sticks and mobility scooters. There was a jousting tournament for people in mobility scooters, which drew an eager crowd.

In order for this collaborative fiction to function, you have to accept everybody for who they say they are. Otherwise the whole thing falls apart. It's the social contract of Larp. Ian Roper, a longtime volunteer who is head of the electrical site team and works across accessibility, said, "This is a place where you can not just be yourself, but you can be who you want to be - whether that's a knight in shining armour or a genderfluid, polyamorous scribe."

ON SATURDAY I SLIPPED BACKSTAGE TO explore the inner workings of Empire. The game is run by a company called Profound Decisions, which counts seven full-time employees and a team of more than 450 volunteers, who were connected via radio. Many of their operations were carried out around the Monster Tent, a vast marquee housing weapons, armour and clothing. A large pile of monster parts included demonic horned

ABOVE: BOOTS, WHOSE FATHER IS AN IMPERIAL ORC, WITH A FAMILY FRIEND

'ADRENALINE WILL FLOW. YOU'RE IN A BATTLE AND 300 ORCS ARE BEARING DOWN ON YOU. YOUR BODY DOESN'T GO, FINE. IT GOES, PANIC!'

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CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: TRACING THE ROUTE TO ANVIL ON A MAP OF EMPIRE; A VISITOR WITH GILDED BAR ORNAMENTS; ONE OF ANVIL'S IN-CHARACTER POST OFFICES; A VISITOR FINDS SOMETHING IN THE GRASS

'HOLY BOAR,' I SAID, 'I WOULD LIKE TO MAKE AN OFFERING.' I HELD UP THE AMULET. 'WHAT IS IT?' HE GROWLED. I DIDN'T KNOW WHAT IT WAS

masks and giant crab claws, and plastic crates bore the text, "ORC MASKS x50, TURN INSIDE OUT".

In a nearby shipping container converted into a field office, I found the mastermind behind the event, Matthew Pennington. Rather than fantasy dress, he wore a dark fleece top and practical hiking boots. Pennington, aged 54, grew up in Preston and discovered live role play in 1995, following from his interest in tabletop role playing games. Within a few years he was running a small local Larp club. In 2004, he left his job as a computer programmer to run Larps full time, starting with Maelstrom, which he ran for nine years, drawing about 1,000 players at its peak. While Larping spans genres from horror to sci-fi to real-life political scenarios, Pennington focuses on fantasy. He spent three years creating Empire, and ran the first event in 2013. He called it "the behemoth in the hobby".

For much of its existence since it started in the 1970s, when Larping was mentioned in mainstream culture, it was the subject of mockery. Perhaps this was because it asks people to act visibly "uncool" - to dress up, put on a voice, be earnest and vulnerable in their play. "It's easy to ridicule, we're grown adults playing make-believe," Pennington said. "I would go places and people would be like, 'What do you do for a job?' I would just have this sinking feeling inside... I'd say 'I run events' and I'd be thinking, 'Don't ask any more, please don't ask any more.'" But attitudes towards fantasy have changed. The word "Larp" has even entered Gen-Z slang and can be found all over TikTok, used as shorthand to mean "pretend to do something".

Pennington hopes that Profound Decisions' new permanent home will make the hobby even more accessible. The plot of land was the culmination of a 25-year dream. After many false starts, he finally found a suitable tract in this old point-to-point horse-racing course. He founded a company and sold its shares to raise the £2.4mn to purchase it, and called it Steeplechase LRP Centre. The Empire community invested eagerly, with one member personally contributing £100,000.

Larping occasionally demands you ignore moments that break the immersion, like the orc vaping by the bright-blue portaloe, the rumble of the septic-tank lorry or the priest's horns that fall off his head during a blessing. But a core principle is that each person's dedication to realism enhances the immersion for everyone else. Pennington believes that developing the site will turbo-charge the immersive potential. "We should have beautiful period structures: glorious castles, a wizard's tower, taverns and a senate building with great tiered chambers." He also wants "nice toilets wide enough that you can get inside wearing your armour".

There was another important person in the field that day, Charlotte Cane, the Liberal Democrat MP for Ely and East Cambridgeshire. She had heard about Empire from one of her staff, who attends the Larp. Was it strange to see orcs and wizards walking around her constituency? "We all have hobbies that might look strange in other people's eyes, but if we enjoy them, that's the important thing, isn't it?"

Sister,

Sister,

Today, I marched into battle for our great nation of Highguard.

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I mustered with my brethren in front of the chapel, and we marched in formation to the Sentinel Gate... When I reached the frontlines, my heart filled with fear to see the wicked Druj orcs amassed on the battlefield... Thankfully, I suffered only a flesh wound, and was treated as the hospital. There I met a brave band of physicks who might know how to cure your disease!... Your battle-hardened brother, Arcturus

SOME PEOPLE LIKE EMPIRE FOR THE politics. Others enjoy the escapism, the socialising or the creative possibilities of costume, craft and song. However, the most common obsession I encountered was a love of the battles.

There are two large-scale battles across the weekend, each with about 1,500 combatants on a single field. Each day, half the nations fight as themselves, and the other half dress up as evil orcs to play the baddies. You fight with prop weapons and armour, but you pull each blow so that it lands with virtually no force. Your character has health and mana points that you have to recalculate throughout, adding a layer of mental maths to the action that I found tricky to master. The system is based on trust: you admit when you've lost all your health points, at which point you are downed. You have three minutes to be revived before your character permanently dies.

Arcturus did not distinguish himself in combat. I found the experience alternately boring and frightening - which is perhaps what real war is like. Since my character was "squishy", with little armour or health points, I stayed behind our frontline of fighters, who had shields, intending to support them with offensive spells I had learnt. But I wasn't sure exactly how to role play those spells, and was thrown by the fact that dozens of large orcs running at you, screaming and brandishing weapons, is genuinely terrifying. I spent most of the hour of battle hesitantly darting close to enemies before chickening out and running away, never landing a single hit.

I also proved disappointing as a healer. When injured comrades sought assistance, I was too nervous to say I knew a healing spell, because I wasn't sure how I was supposed to cast it. So I just let them limp past to find someone more competent.

Then something hit my leg. I looked down to see a foam-tipped projectile; I had taken an arrow to the knee. A mage healed me, and I carefully observed him casting his spell. Afterwards, I plucked up the courage to offer my own healing services to an injured soldier. I waved my hand vaguely around his wound and mumbled something about "healing powers". He looked at me, and in his eyes I saw pity. But he was healed, and leapt back into the fray. Perhaps, I resolved, Arcturus would be a pacifist.

I wondered why I felt such fear on the battlefield, given that it was all make-believe. I was experiencing something that Larpers call "bleed". Pennington explained, "You're going to have a load of emotions here. You're pretending, but you're still feeling those emotions in your brain. Your body doesn't know that they aren't real. You will get stressed. Adrenaline will flow. You're in the

battle and 300 orcs are bearing down on you. Your body doesn't go, 'Oh this is fine.' It goes, 'Panic!'"

If our in-game feelings bleed into our real hearts, then how can we know the Larper from the Larp? I heard the story of a father who had attended the Larp funeral of his own son, aged 19, an army general who was killed in battle. The father was so overcome by emotion that he had to leave the event and take several months off. His son, in real life, was perfectly fine.

Roz Horton, aged 62, has been Larping for almost 40 years. She became Empire's first Empress. In real life, Horton worked as a resilience manager at the Bank of England, an institution she calls "a great place to be a Larper". Since she was the most powerful person on site, ruling over thousands of people, her experience of bleed was unique. "I used to have to take two days off after every event," she told me, "because if I walked into any Bank of England meeting, I would sit down at the head of the table and I would chair that meeting like a boss."

Most Larpers at Empire build an in-game group of family and friends that make the world feel like home. For others, the relationships bleed out of the game. I met people who met their best friends Larping, and others who found their romantic partners in the game, dating in-character before taking their relationship into real life.

Marianne Wilberforce, a 48-year-old head teacher from the New Forest, said she has learnt skills from Larping that have helped in her work around children with autism and ADHD. These include her non-verbal communication skills, honed on Empire's battlefield. "I don't think I would be as good a head teacher if I had not first been a Larper," she said. She has brought several members of staff from her school into Empire, and in turn hired three people she met Larping to work in her school, including her current art teacher.

Wilberforce attends Empire with her 16-year-old, Luka, who grew up Larping. Originally they role played mother and child, but these days Luka plays an unrelated character and is mostly interested in combat. I met many other families Larping together. Empire has quests for young players and a dedicated children's area called The Academy. When I visited, younger kids made crafts and costumes while an older group practised combat against a volunteer who looked desperately outnumbered.

Tom Francis, a youth worker and theatre practitioner who helped set up The Academy, said that kids are a vital part of the game. "A lot of grown Larpers find it hard to switch off their out-of-character brain," he said, "but kids haven't forgotten how to play. They are so inquisitive, curious, creative, so good at leaping into the world. The presence of children makes the world of Empire complete."

BY MY FINAL NIGHT AT EMPIRE, I HAD sampled this Larp's variety, but I had still not performed a scene of sustained role play. I had mostly been an observer rather than a participant, too aware of all the lore I did not know, and anxious that I might mess up somebody else's game.

Late on Saturday evening, Arcturus was sitting with two companions at a busy tavern. Having finished our errands for the day, we set out on a pub crawl to sample each nation's bars. I drank a delicious sweet cider from a metal flagon. Mages hurried past us to the Night Market. Others strolled

by discussing the epic fight they had seen involving something called a Manticore. Artisans and bards plied their wares. And then the Boar of Bregasland arrived.

It looked like something from a folk horror movie. A huge wicker effigy of a boar hid a person inside, surrounded by attendants and musicians. I was told that the boar would provide blessings in exchange for offerings. My friend encouraged me to give something to the boar, and pressed an amulet into my hand.

I hesitantly walked over. Approaching the towering figure, as a violinist played mournful music, I felt like I had entered a bubble into another world, where this matter was serious and real. I gulped.

"Holy boar," I stammered, "I would like to make an offering to you." I held up the amulet.

There was a long silence. Had I done something wrong?

Eventually, the boar growled, "What is it, precisely?"

Crap. I didn't know what it was. How should I play this? "I don't know much about such magical things, novice that I am, but my companion, a sacred priest of Highguard, told me that this holy amulet will bring unity to those who carry it."

It sounded OK to me, but I felt vulnerable. Another long pause. The boar leaned down and whispered something to an attendant.

"The boar is pleased," the attendant told me in a reedy voice. "He will bless you and your farms for the coming harvest."

I wasn't sure if I had any farms to bless, but it seemed I'd played the situation adequately. I felt a rush of euphoria at having contributed some small piece to this enormous fiction. I imagined how gratifying it would feel to role play grand arcs of plot, with dramatic revelations, bitter disputes and serious consequences.

I scampered back to my companions in the warmth of the campfire, and ordered another round. We watched the fantasy world roll by, this living city, being created in real time by the imagination, effort and passion of thousands of players. This temporary universe, which appeared for just a few days, where you can come and be whoever you like. My story of Arcturus was just one thin strand in its tapestry. But without each individual thread, there would be no marvelous tapestry at all.

✂

Dearest Sister,

Yesterday evening, I visited the city one last time with my new friends. I must admit I shall be sad to leave this place... I regret that I have not yet found you a cure, but I believe I have obtained strong leads which I can follow up when I return... But now, I am tired, and ready to come back to the village, spend time with you, and rest. Tomorrow morning, I set off for home. Your brother, a little wiser than before, Arcturus

Tom Faber is a freelance journalist and the FT's gaming critic, based in London

AUGUST 8 2026

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Words

by GUY HAS.AM

Cryptograms

HOW TO PLAY

These five quotations have been put into code where each letter of the alphabet has been replaced by another throughout – the code is different for each of the five. However, all five quotations have a common theme and have one significant word in common. See if you can decode them. Here's a hint to get you started: 1 T=H, 2 S=O, 3 T=A, 4 D=O, 5 D=W.

1 F T J M Y R T J A Y I W G H Y Y A J U F J J F T Y H M A Y M Y H E Y O F I J F G J H F T Y U M Y S E Y M ; N I A D I A Y H F T Y H D S Y J G N C D M F L J A . V N I I J F S J I L H Y F N O I O F .

2 R G I I U S H V N M I T I G T S Y A M B F G V Y P L V T I M D P B E I S O O G I N N S G ; V B H A N B D I U I H F M U I U D P B E I S O O G I N N I U .

3 T I U E F A B B F D U F W U M I F H W R U E B N T W R B N I U E U B S F W B A L A C A N O N I T N Y F D U B M A N I I A B P E U U R F D .

4 M O T T Y D H G N S W T O G I W S S D S T P P E T D E P T R W F S S W T A Y D L D S R F L S S D W T F O .

5 M V Y P U A O L L U K . M Y L L K V T P Z H W L Y Z V U H S H U K S V U L S F I H A A S L ; H U K V U L M H J L Z K V D U M L H Y Z V M A V K H F Z V A O H A A O V Z L V M A V T V Y Y V D T P N O A I L L U N H N L K .

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Sports puzzle

Camp Algebra

Camp Algebra held a competition in which campers were split into two teams: the Aces and the Ciphers. Various members of these teams competed in a triathlon of chess, basketball and baseball. The results are shown. To commemorate the event, the camp counsellors designed a cuboidal trophy with dimensions that cleverly related to the results of the three events. Then, being Camp Algebra after all, they computed the square of the shortest path along the trophy's surface from one corner to the opposite corner. After decoding that number, namely, what camp mascot did they carve into the trophy?

COMPETITION 1

Chess

Occupatus, playing as white for the Aces, had Castor, playing as black for the Ciphers, on the ropes. But the industrious Castor clearly gave a dam. With what next move did Castor turn the tables?

Move	Occupatus White	Castor Black
1	d4	e5
2	dxe5	Nc6
3	Nf3	Qe7
4	Bf4	Qb4
5	Bd2	Qxb2
6	Nc3	f6
7	Rb1	Qa3
8	Nd5	Rb8
9	Nxc7	Kd8
10	Nd5	Qxa2
11	Nc3	Qa3
12	Nb5	Qc5
13	exf6	gxf5
14	c3	a6
15	Nbd4	Qc4
16	Qc2	Nxd4
17	Nxd4	d5
18	Nf5	Bxf5
19	Qxf5	h6
20	Bf4	Qxc3
21	Bd2	Qd4
22	Bf4	a5
23	Bxb8	a4
24	Rd1	?

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by ZACH WISSNER-GROSS

ILLUSTRATION by AVALON NUOVO

CAMP MASCOT

COMPETITION 2

Basketball

The Aces crushed the Ciphers in the second competition. While the box score showed all the players' names in order, it neglected to tally the two teams' scores bit by bit.

Name	Minutes	Rebounds	Assists	Steals	Blocks	Field goals	3-point field goals	Free throws
Smith, Zero	38	5	2	1	0	5-9	2-4	1-2
Taylor, Nil	36	4	3	1	1	4-8	2-3	2-3
Allen, Void	35	6	1	2	0	4-9	1-3	3-5
Harris, Off	34	3	4	1	0	4-7	1-2	2-2
Ingram, Null	34	7	2	0	1	4-6	1-2	2-4
Robinson, Nought	34	5	3	1	0	4-7	2-4	1-2
Davis, Nada	29	4	2	2	0	3-6	1-2	3-4

Name	Minutes	Rebounds	Assists	Steals	Blocks	Field goals	3-point field goals	Free throws
Parker, Unity	36	6	4	2	1	8-14	2-4	2-2
Edwards, Solo	35	5	6	1	0	7-12	3-5	2-3
Roberts, Singleton	35	7	3	1	1	7-11	1-3	3-3
Foster, Primo	34	4	5	2	0	6-10	2-4	3-5
Ellis, Uno	34	3	7	2	1	6-9	2-3	4-4
Carter, Tally	34	8	2	1	2	6-10	3-5	3-4
Thompson, O'Neal	32	5	4	3	0	6-10	4-4	1-1

COMPETITION 3

Baseball

In the final event, the Aces narrowly defeated the Ciphers, 5-4. But whatever did the scoreboard look like? Surely both line-ups had something to say about that.

Top 1st	Top 2nd	Top 3rd	Top 4th	Top 5th	Top 6th	Top 7th	Top 8th	Top 9th
Johnson single	Evans double	Harris strikeout	Wilson ground out	Martinez triple	Wilson strikeout	Harris strikeout	Wilson fly out	Martinez triple
Davis strikeout	Nelson fly out	Johnson home run	Evans double	Harris strikeout	Evans double	Johnson home run	Evans strikeout	Harris double
Turner fly out	Thompson strikeout	Davis fly out	Nelson strikeout	Johnson double	Nelson double	Davis fly out	Nelson single	Johnson strikeout
Wilson ground out	Martinez ground out	Turner ground out	Thompson fly out	Davis fly out	Thompson fly out	Turner ground out	Thompson ground out	Davis fly out
				Turner ground out	Martinez ground out			Turner ground out

Bottom 1st	Bottom 2nd	Bottom 3rd	Bottom 4th	Bottom 5th	Bottom 6th	Bottom 7th	Bottom 8th	Bottom 9th
Parker single	Ingram walk	Robinson double	Lee strikeout	Garcia walk	Lee double	Robinson strikeout	Lee home run	Garcia single
Garcia strikeout	Miller walk	Clark strikeout	Walker ground out	Robinson strikeout	Walker strikeout	Clark fly out	Walker strikeout	Robinson strikeout
Robinson fly out	Lee walk	Ingram fly out	Edwards home run	Clark single	Edwards single	Ingram home run	Edwards fly out	Clark fly out
Clark ground out	Walker walk	Miller ground out	Parker fly out	Ingram strikeout	Parker fly out	Miller fly out	Parker ground out	Ingram ground out
	Edwards strikeout			Miller ground out	Garcia ground out
	Parker strikeout
	Garcia ground out

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Board game

Hexwords

Hex is a classic strategy board game. It was invented in the 1940s by a Danish polymath called Piet Hein, and then independently re-invented by the Princeton game theorist and Nobel winner John Nash of A Beautiful Mind fame. He was supposedly inspired by tiles on a bathroom floor.

Its rules are simple. On a hexagonal grid, players take turns placing stones to claim spaces, trying to build a chain that spans the board – and blocks their opponent's chain. Its strategies, however, are mathematically deep.

Hex, like chess and many other deep games, has been an active testbed for AI research. As early as the 1950s, Claude Shannon, the father of information theory, built an electrified machine that could beat a human – it was called Hox (pronounced "hoax").

In this version of Hex, we replace the stones with words. Grab a blue marker, a red marker, a dictionary and a friend. You can play twice on the two grids provided.

HOW TO PLAY

Connect your sides before your opponent does by spelling words. One player (using blue) connects top to bottom; the other (using red) connects left to right. Flip a coin to pick who goes first.

Take turns colouring a string of adjacent hexes (in any direction) that spell a valid word (of any length). Forming a word claims those tiles. Outmanoeuvre your opponent by finding long words, blocking their routes and timing key claims.

In this simple example, Blue starts by claiming the word WORD. Red then claims THE. Blue claims DOG. Red claims IF. Blue claims CAT. Blue has connected his sides, and wins.

Claim territory by spelling words

Create a path across the board to win

Here are some sample completed games on a larger board

Blue wins

Red wins

Draw

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by OLIVER ROEDER

AUGUST 8 2026

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Numbers & Letters

Sudoku

HOW TO PLAY

1 Each row, column and square within the 9x9 grid needs to contain the numbers 1-9 2 Don't repeat any numbers in a row, column or 3x3 square.

3 Use a process of elimination. In the example below, numbers 1, 5 and 6 are missing from the column circled in blue. The 1 must go in the bottom square as there is already a 1 in both of the 3x3 squares above.

1 EASY

2 EASY

3 MEDIUM

4 MEDIUM

5 HARD

6 HARD

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by GUY HASLAM

Crosswords

FOURFOLD Four answers share a THEME but are unclued. Solvers must discover what they are and what the common THEME is.

ACROSS

1 Motive (6) 7 Derby racecourse (5) 8 Mineral rock (3) 10 THEME (5) 11 Dog's restraint (5) 14 Fertile desert spot (5) 15 Split, divided (5) 17 Be unwell (3) 18 Cross, annoyed (5) 19 THEME (6)

DOWN

1 Exact copies (8) 2 Indian tea-growing region (5) 3 Most populous city in Nebraska (5) 4 And not (3) 5 Reviewer (6) 6 Opposed, fought against (8) 9 THEME (6) 12 THEME (5) 13 Academy Award (5) 16 Diseased tree (3)

1 IN 3 Each clue consists of three words, but only one of them is the correct answer, depending on how it fits with the answers around it.

ACROSS

1 Loosely • Messily • Larceny 4 Desks • Disco • Dusty 7 Dimples • Puzzles • Linctus 8 Fleet • Cheat • Knelt 9 Enigma • Eureka • Eczema 12 Macaroon • Macaroni • Mechanic 15 Hyacinth • Anathema • Anaconda 17 Malice • Milieu • Mildew 18 Split • Silly • Spent 21 Sharply • Shadowy • Spatial 22 Infer • Offer • Idler 23 Tearful • Therein • Doorman

DOWN

1 Laureate • Vertebra • Listeria 2 Triage • Switch • Stingy 3 Doll • Duly • Yolk 4 Dust • Bask • Desk 5 Saveloy • Several • Science 6 Gnat • Oast • Gist 10 Amend • Amply • Atone 11 Scram • Gleam • Scrum 13 Illusion • Suburban • Industry 14 Mastiff • Mallard • Bailiff 16 Glower • Elixir • Flawed 18 Slit • Swot • Semi 19 Tier • Tsar • Tear 20 Fate • Raft • Daub

NUMBERS All the answers are whole numbers and no answer is repeated in the grid.

ACROSS

1 10 Down – 8 Across 4 Largest two-digit prime number 6 21 Across + 7 Down 7 Square number 8 Year of the Battle of Agincourt 11 12 Across + 2 Down 12 Ancient Rome's CX 13 3 x 21 Across 15 First digit + second digit = third digit 17 US emergency telephone number 20 Half of 2 Down 21 Palindromic number

DOWN

1 Square number 2 12 Across – 15 Down 3 France's six cent onze 4 Degrees in a right angle 5 Three score and ten 7 21 Across – 1 Down 9 Anagram of 8 Across 10 Year of Queen Victoria's death 12 1 Down + 5 Down 14 5 x 12 Down 15 Number that's 11000 in binary 16 1 Down + 15 Down 18 Andy Burnham's house number 19 Players in a Rugby Union team

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Solutions

THIS WEEK'S QUIZ P13

A round on the links

The link was The Office (UK version)

1 Andrew Neil 2 Crook 3 Slough of Despond 4 Gareth and Norman 5 Paper 6 Freeman, Hardy and Willis 7 Dawn 8 TIM 9 David 10 Brent

The picture round

Edna Everage + Aidan O'Brien

= Edna O'Brien

WORDS P17

Summer quiz

Round One - ALGARVE

Anchorman (The Legend of Ron Burgundy)

Lady Windermere's Fan

Game of Thrones

Anne Brontë

Rupert Lowe (Restore Britain)

Vienna

Edge

Round Two - TUSCANY

Tunisia

Utah

Sarina Wiegman

Coal-miner

Angela Merkel

Netflix

Yvette Cooper

Round Three - ORLANDO

Oliver!

Rembrandt

Life of a Showgirl

Athens (Timon of)

Nuts

Diana

Organ

Round Four - MAJORCA

Michigan

Adam Clayton (U2)

Jeremy Hunt

Old Speckled Hen

Rigoletto

Carol Ann Duffy

Ambulance chaser

Round Five - NEWQUAY

Nicaragua

Eugene O'Neill

West Indies

Quebec

Uriah Heep (David

Copperfield)

Anita Dobson

YouTube

MURDOKU P18/19

Killer grids

The picnic

• There is only one square where D can be beside some flowers and beside a tree, this isolates D in the garden in the last column. Block her entire row and column

• This isolates B on the only chair remaining in the gazebo. Because E is south of F he cannot be in the top row. This isolates E in the last remaining chair.

• This isolates F in the last square in the pond that's also north of E, which isolates A on the last picnic blanket square. This isolates C in the last square in the picnic area. This leaves V alone with B. BRUNO IS THE MURDERER!

The library

• D is with someone in the hallway. Because they cannot be in the same row, either one must be in row 6, in the only hallway square: row 6, column 4. Block the rest of row 6 and column 4.
• B cannot be sitting in a chair per H's clue. This isolates B in the last square beside a plant without a chair: row 9, column 9. This isolates A in the last square in the reading room without a chair, which isolates H in the last chair.
• This isolates E on the last carpet

square. D and the person with D in the hallway must be in column 4 and column 5, in any order. No one else can occupy these two columns. Block the rest of columns 4 and column 5. This isolates C in the last square in the archives, which isolates G in the last square beside a box. - F can only be one row north of D by being in row 5. This isolates D and F, so V is in the last square. V was alone with G. GIDEON IS THE MURDERER!

SUPER X-WORD P20/21

State of the nation

BONUS PUZZLE: HOW IS THE STATE OF THINGS? ANSWER: OK

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WORDS P29

Cryptograms

1 Those who deny FREEDOM to others deserve it not for themselves; and under the rule of a just God, cannot long retain it. Abraham Lincoln 2 FREEDOM is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. Martin Luther King, Jr 3 A hero is someone who understands the responsibility that comes with his FREEDOM. Bob Dylan 4 FREEDOM is the right to tell people what they do not want to hear. George Orwell 5 For in the end, FREEDOM is a personal and lonely battle; and one faces down fears of today so that those of tomorrow might be engaged. Alice Walker

SPORTS BUFFLE P30/31

Camp algebra

Solving this puzzle involves first finding entries in famous number sequences. The winning chess move is 8b4, which, alongside the players' names, suggests the fourth "busy beaver" number, or 107. The basketball teams scored 80 and 127 points, respectively, which, as hinted by "bit by bit", are 1010000 and 1111111 in binary. Taking the corresponding first letters from the Aces (1s) and Ciphers (0s) players reads "third perfect", or the third perfect number, or 496. And finally, working out the inning-by-inning scoring in baseball, and taking the corresponding first letters of the Aces and Ciphers players, gives "tenth prime", or the 10th prime number, or 29.

These three numbers – 107, 496 and 29 – are the dimensions of the cuboidal trophy. Finding the shortest distance from one corner to its opposite is a matter of arithmetic – this is a variation of the famous spider and fly problem. The square of this shortest distance is 264.512. Finally, indexing those digits ("namely") into the name of the camp, you find that the mascot is an ALPACA.

NUMBERS P34

Sudoku

9	2	7	8	5	1	4	3	6
8	6	5	3	4	2	7	9	1
3	1	4	7	9	6	2	5	8
7	9	8	5	3	4	1	6	2
1	5	2	6	8	7	3	4	9
6	4	3	2	1	9	8	7	5
4	7	1	9	2	5	6	8	3
2	8	9	4	6	3	5	1	7
5	3	6	1	7	8	9	2	4

1	5	9	7	2	6	3	8	4
3	2	4	1	5	8	7	9	6
7	6	8	3	9	4	5	1	2
9	7	3	2	4	5	1	6	8
8	1	2	6	7	3	4	5	9
5	4	6	9	8	1	2	3	7
4	9	5	8	1	7	6	2	3
2	3	1	4	6	9	8	7	5
6	8	7	5	3	2	9	4	1

6	2	3	8	9	7	4	1	5
1	7	5	4	6	2	8	3	9
4	8	9	5	1	3	2	7	6
7	5	2	9	4	1	6	8	3
9	6	1	3	2	8	7	5	4
3	4	8	6	7	5	1	9	2
2	9	7	1	3	4	5	6	8
5	3	4	7	8	6	9	2	1
8	1	6	2	5	9	3	4	7

3	6	5	4	7	8	9	2	1
4	2	1	6	9	5	7	8	3
8	7	9	3	2	1	5	4	6
6	9	2	1	5	4	8	3	7
1	5	4	7	8	3	6	9	2
7	8	3	9	6	2	1	5	4
5	3	6	2	1	9	4	7	8
9	4	7	8	3	6	2	1	5
2	1	8	5	4	7	3	6	9

4	1	6	2	9	3	5	7	8
8	7	9	1	4	5	2	6	3
2	5	3	8	6	7	9	1	4
7	4	5	6	3	9	1	8	2
3	6	1	4	2	8	7	9	5
9	8	2	7	5	1	3	4	6
1	2	7	3	8	6	4	5	9
5	3	8	9	1	4	6	2	7
6	9	4	5	7	2	8	3	1

3	5	1	8	7	9	4	2	6
7	9	8	4	6	2	1	5	3
2	4	6	3	5	1	8	9	7
9	7	4	6	2	3	5	8	1
6	2	5	9	1	8	3	7	4
8	1	3	7	4	5	2	6	9
4	8	7	2	3	6	9	1	5
5	6	2	1	9	4	7	3	8
1	3	9	5	8	7	6	4	2

NUMBERS & LETTERS P35

Crosswords

The four themed answers are European capitals: PARIS, MADRID, BERLIN and SOFIA.

FOURFOLD

R	E	A	S	O	N	C	R
E	P	S	O	M	O	R	E
P	B	S	P	A	R	I	S
L	E	A	S	H	O	T	I
I	R	M	O	A	S	I	S
C	L	E	F	T	C	C	T
A	I	L	I	R	A	T	E
S	N	M	A	D	R	I	D

1 IN 3

L	O	O	S	E	L	Y	D	I	S	C	O
I			T			O	E		A		A
S		D	I	M	P	L	E	S		V	S
T			N			K	K	N	E	L	T
E	N	I	G	M	A		S		L
R			Y		M	A	C	A	R	O	N
I		B			E		R		Y		L
A	N	A	C	O	N	D	A		G		L
		I			D		M	I	L	I	E
S	P	L	I	T		R			O		S
E		I		S	H	A	D	O	W	Y
M		F		A		F			E		O
I	N	F	E	R		T	H	E	R	E	I

NUMBERS

4	8	6				9	7
9	6	1			4	0	0
		1	4	1	5
			1	9	6
		1	1	0
		1	5	1	5
2	7	9			9	1	1
4	3				5	0	5

AUGUST 8 2026

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INSIDE A recipe for cremolato — summer's coldest and coolest sweet treat P42

Appetites

DRINKS

Dry cider for wine lovers

by ADAM WELLS

ILLUSTRATION by DEBORA SZPILMAN

AS THE SUN CONTINUES TO BEAR DOWN, MY MIND SLIPS all the more readily to a glass of something cold, elegant and refreshing - ideally sipped in the garden with nothing else to do. Although I'll drink my fair share of fermented grape juice this summer (my day job is working for a wine distributor), more often than not my glass will be charged with a dry cider or perry.

A confession of bias, first of all. For all that my shelves and bottle racks groan with sweeter ciders in every style and variety, it is dry cider - for so many reasons - where my heart and, more pertinently, my palate, truly lies. It is even the style I am about to start a third vintage making myself at my small family cidery (don't worry, none of the bottle recommendations included here feature my own handiwork).

Yet "dry", I have tended to find, is a word that strikes more fear in discussions of cider or perry than it should. Often I hear it used erroneously as a synonym for "tannic", "acidic" and, occasionally, "acetic". Certainly there are plenty of sharp and tannic ciders around - more on those later - but "dry" simply means the same as it does in wine: juice fermented

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Appetites

ADAM RECOMMENDS

FINE DRY

CIDERS FOR SUMMER

All are served in 750ml bottles unless otherwise stated. Asterisks denote still ciders and perries. All are dry, outstanding and chosen for their summer suitability.

• Ross-on-Wye, Raison d'Être 2019 Herefordshire (7.9%) £12 (OR £129.60 FOR 12) SHOP.ROSSCIDER.COM
• *Little Pomona, Sum of the Parts Act 3 NV Herefordshire (7%) £20 LITTLEPOMONA.COM
• Chapel Sider, Paddock Orchard 2023 Lincolnshire (6.8%) £13.50 THECATIN THE GLASS CO.UK
• Find & Foster, Pet Project 2025 Devon (6.5%) £17 (OR £50 FOR 3) THE FINE CIDER COMPANY
• Artistraw, Flock 2023, Herefordshire (6.5%) £18 ARTISTRAW.CO.UK
• *Rull Orchard, Discovery Foxwhelp, Devon (6.3%) £9 RULLORCIARD.CO.UK
• Chalkdown, Méthode Traditionnelle 2021 Hampshire (8.3%) £19.50 CHALKDOWNWINE.COM
• Kertelreiter, Gewürzluiken 2021 Schefflenz (Germany) (7.1%) £17.95 THECATIN THE GLASS CO.UK
• *Oliver's, Eskimo Eyes Perry 2024 Herefordshire (6%) £11 OLIVERSCIDER AND PERRY.CO.UK
• Cwm Maddoc, Cornish Giant & Foxwhelp Blend 2021 Herefordshire (5.2%) £4.50 (500ML BOTTLE) THECATIN THE GLASS CO.UK
• Naughton, Le Clos 2020 Fife (8.3%) £45 THE FINE CIDER COMPANY
• Charnwood, Perry No.1 2024 Leicestershire (6%) £14.95 THECATIN THE GLASS CO.UK

until all the sugar has been converted to alcohol. Simple.

Dry cider is the style that most nearly replicates the joy and versatility of a chilled glass of wine. Refreshing, complex, cleansing and, depending on method and variety, extraordinary with an array of different food. It does so with an abundance of flavours that, while they sometimes touch fingertips with white, pink and orange wines, for the most part occupy a universe of their own. Far from the monolith it can often be treated as, dry cider casts its umbrella not only over a range of styles - from still to pét nat to full traditional method - but, more significantly, over a spectrum of apple varieties whose flavours range from thrilling limes and gooseberries to ripe, soft tropical and stone fruits, rich orange marmalade and crackling spice.

After all, in the UK alone we grow more than 2,500 varieties of apple, hundreds of which have been selected and bred specifically, like wine grapes, for the making of this drink. That's a broad paint-palette to draw from. Albert Johnson, fourth-generation cidermaker at Ross-on-Wye Cider and Perry Company, grows around 200 of those varieties, and ferments almost all of them individually into dry cider, to fully express their unique characteristics.

"One of cider's great privileges is that our raw materials are unique cultivars that have been passed down generation after generation, because of their exquisite qualities for cidermaking," he tells me. "Distinct varieties of apple that, when fermented, create an alcoholic drink with character, depth and drinkability."

I ask him to name some examples of varieties he prizes, along with their flavours: "Brown Snout for its honeyed, lemon-scented soft tannins, Foxwhelp for its strawberry aromatics and tantalising acidity, Winnal's Longdon pears for their refreshing, lime-like zing."

'It's high time restaurants took this category seriously'

Walk through an orchard at harvest time and that breadth of variety is inescapable. Foxwhelps streaked with scarlet. Kingston Blacks a deep rumble of purple. Tiny, pallid White Jerseys the size of ping pong balls; gorgeous Winnal's Long-dons blushing red one side, soft green-yellow the other. A palpable tapestry of flavours to unlock.

"These flavours are at their most expressive and most individual when fermented to dry, when the cushion of fruit sugars is removed, and the pure nature of that variety's characteristics is totally exposed," Johnson says. "This is when the essence of a variety can be identified and experienced."

It was that breadth of potential flavour and the opportunity to work with so many varieties that convinced James and the late Susanna Forbes to leave careers in the wine industry, buy an orchard and make cider. Today their cidery, Little Pomona, is hailed as one of the finest in the country, with James considered a leader in bringing winemaking sentiments and practices to the crafting of extraordinary ciders and perries. From still, dry single-variety bottlings to vibrant pét nats and long lees-aged traditional method bottles, their range is a lightning rod to the cider-curious wine lover.

"Dry ciders are the most challenging and rewarding to make," says James. "Without a veneer of sugar, dry ciders are quite exposed, therefore everything about them must be right for them to express the fruit and orchard in a balanced, interesting and enjoyable way. Some dry cider makers forget that, which leads to some quite challenging drinks, but many more are skilled and thoughtful in their processes, cre-

FIRST SIP

WHAT DO WE MEAN BY 'FULL-JUICE' CIDER OR PERRY?

Legally, in the UK, a drink labelled "cider" or "perry" need only contain a minimum of 35 per cent apple or pear juice, all of which can be from concentrate. The remaining 65 per cent can be made up of water, sugar or a long list of other additives.

Most of the commercial ciders sold in pubs or supermarkets in the UK take advantage, to a greater or lesser extent, of this low minimum requirement. They make drinks that can be refreshing - and are certainly popular - but

which contain a low amount of juice, generally from concentrate. They're force-carbonated and are therefore cheaper, easier and quicker to produce at scale and - thanks to the use of concentrate - can be made all year round.

Fine ciders and perries, which exist all over the world (in many places you might not expect), are those which are made with 100 per cent fresh-pressed juice. Ciders made with the craft and care of good wines, from specifically selected apple and

pear varieties, can only be made once a year at harvest time. On my website, cider-review.com, there are reviews of and articles on over 1,500 such ciders.

Full-juice cider and perry have never been easier to find in the UK but remain far more elusive than mainstream brands and are seldom seen in supermarkets. Excellent online retailers include corkandcrown.co.uk and thefinecider.company; the best selection of full-juice ciders and perries is at thecatintheglass.co.uk.

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ating beautiful drinks without the crutch of sugar." He adds: "Another thing I like about dry cider is its affinity with food, often with dishes where wine struggles: hot, spicy food, tomato, eggs, vegetarian, for example."

Food pairing and, perhaps especially, a place in restaurants, is critical as the UK's cidermakers look to cement the drink among tastemakers. The Fine Cider Company, led by Felix Nash, has taken a lead role in bringing some of the country's best cider to the menus of highly rated restaurants, including The Fat Duck and St John, while the annual London Cider Salon he runs at Tate Modern has become a drinks-industry fixture. In Scotland, champagne expert Peter Crawford sees the traditional method cider he makes under his Naughton Cider brand on lists at Restaurant Fine, Cardinal, Haar and Glenturret Lalique, to name but four.

"It's high time restaurants took this category seriously," James says. "There has never been a better time to be a dry cider drinker in the UK and the recognition and appreciation for fine ciders among consumers is growing every day."

Alison Taffs, who owns and runs The Hop Inn in Hornchurch, winner of the Campaign for Real Ale's Cider and Perry Pub of the Year and numerous awards besides, sees that growing appreciation for fine dry cider first hand. "We are pouring a crisp and complex Braeburn apple cider by the glass. It's just listed alongside the white wine by the glass and appeals to Picpoul drinkers at only 8 per cent ABV," she says. "Another easy swap is a flute of traditional method cider for Prosecco or Crémant; 750ml bottles of quality cider swap in for wines with similar styles and lower alcohol. Perry is a great option for the lover of bright, fresh wines."

There are so many ways full-juice, thoughtfully made dry cider can appeal to wine obsessives like me. Fermented fruit drinks from particular, selected varieties, reflective of the place and plants that grow them, the vintage that nurtures them and the maker who brings those strands together in a coherent expression. Drinks of craft and care, buttressed perhaps by the tannin and acidity that rewards careful ageing. Drinks of elegance and complexity; drinks you can sip on their own or pair with all manner of foods.

But mainly, at this time of year - though I will repeat to my last breath that cider has styles for all seasons - dry cider is simply delicious to sip through a long, indulgent afternoon or evening, without the sometimes cloying remembrance of sugar clinging to your teeth. With far lower ABVs and price tags than fine wine, great dry cider really ought to be in your glass for whatever time is left in the season.

Adam Wells is a cider writer and founder of cider-review.com. Jancis Robinson is away

REVIEW

Keller, Whitstable

by JAY RAYNER

ILLUSTRATION by DANIEL EGNEUS

For those of us with an overly developed interest in our lunch, the anticipation of a great restaurant meal becomes part of the joy. In the days before sitting down, we thumb open the menu on our phone and attempt to decode the language - the litany of charred and roasted, of poached and dressed and caramelised. We imagine the dishes it might describe. We run through permutations of starter-main-dessert. We are a happier, future version of ourselves.

In the case of Keller in Whitstable, a new venture from the crew behind the Michelin-starred Fordwich Arms near Canterbury, it was possible to take the sweaty-palmed business of anticipation a

stage further. Chef Dan Smith and sommelier Elliott Ashton-Konig recorded the gestation and birth of their new baby in real time, via social media. The former deli on Harbour Street was stripped out. Handsome jade green tiling went in behind the bar, and the walls and ceiling were painted a fetching shade of peach. A wine store was fitted to one wall, and a charcoal-fired oven was installed in the kitchen. And like a true, certifiable restaurant-perv, I watched it all. The name and the decor, Ashton-Konig later tells me, draw on his German heritage, with the interior meant to represent a bierkeller. If so, it's quite a fancy one.

Only late in the day did they finally reveal a menu. That too was a profound appetite fluffer.

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Appetites

FIND IT

KELLER

28 Harbour Street

Whitstable CT5 1AH

01227 638458

kellerwhitstable.co.uk

Snacks and small plates £3–£16

Mains and sharing plates £20–£47.50 (per person)

Desserts £12–£15

It boasted a few elements that kept to the narrative of the relaxed neighbourhood wine bar. There were local oysters with mignonette, because you can't open a restaurant in Whitstable without offering a few of those. There was buttermilk fried chicken, because right now it's the law that any small-plates menu must involve chucking some bird in the deep-fat fryer. Snark aside, it's great fried chicken. It's sandy-coloured and crusty and undulating and comes with a finely calibrated garlic mayonnaise - one that tastes of its star ingredient without making you fear people will flinch when you later breathe upon them.

Dig deeper into the menu, however, and it quickly becomes clear that, while you could just pop in for a glass of English fizz and a couple of small plates, it would be an opportunity missed. Thought has gone into these dishes, which are more bespoke than ready-to-wear. There is, for example, another glossy, fat oyster option, which comes with a hit of raspberry vinegar and a controlled scribble of thick, smoky charcoal-infused cream, like it's a detail from a Matisse cut-out. The whipped cod's roe feels like a sibling to that cream. It is oak-smoked and arrives with both the crunch of radish and golden, still warm tapioca crackers. Thick, whipped sauces, mousses and condiments like this are a huge strength here. In the name of all that is holy and French-coded, do not miss the pommes dauphine. They are golden, airy fingers of the lightest deep-fried mashed potato, accompanied by a proud turban of a deep-green dill emulsion. It is food you pick up and talk over until your attention drifts from the chat, solely to the plate in front of you.

THERE ARE MEAT DISHES. A CORNI-chon-studded steak tartare comes topped with needle-thin matchstick potatoes and, while a little lacking in the slap of piquancy, it's diverting enough. A squared-off skewer of short rib, under its own scribble of herby sauce, is a big beefy hit. They will grill you a dry-aged rib of beef to share. But the real strength is the fishy dishes, as is to be expected of a restaurant with the sea wall and the shingle beach at its back. A perfectly cooked tranche of

sea bass arrives on a mess of slow-cooked fennel, surrounded by a creamy moat of vermouth sauce, dotted with jewels of green herb oil. Chubby mussels, steamed open with curls of fried bacon, are stacked on a thick wedge of sourdough toast, which soaks up its own veritable pond of a beurre-blanc-style seafood broth. It's a Sunday supper dish, only in velvet brocade slippers.

However, the dish that gives the game away, the one that points up the seriousness of the kitchen here, led by Ollie Clifford-Cox, is a so-called lobster salad, which is a salad, much as a Rolex Oyster is just something by which to tell the time and a Maybach is a runabout. Rosy hunks of claw meat rest on a sweet-sour tomato mayonnaise with shiny white currants and segments of citrus, and a little more besides. It is the very best seafood shown up to its best advantage. It's beautiful. Alongside all of this, as you would expect of a dining room led by an enthusiastic sommelier, comes a wine offering of depth and value that takes the Kentish vineyards seriously. On a weekday lunchtime, older locals fill the tables, showing quickly reciprocated love. It's a class act.

I first went to Whitstable in the early 1990s to report on the burial of actor Peter Cushing. The star of Hammer horror films was a longtime Whitstable resident, and the whole town turned out for his funeral, led by black horses wearing feathered plumes. After, his coffin was spirited away. It transpired that his family didn't want his grave to become a place of pilgrimage for horror fans, and so had taken him to be buried elsewhere. It was a great reporting gig during which I fell in love with Whitstable's charmingly ragged lanes. I even found a lovely house on Island Wall for a mere five figures, which would be worth a fat six now. But I didn't do it. I couldn't bear the thought of being an interloper; a damn DFL or down-from-London. Still, ever since, I've hungered for good reasons for another Whitstable day by the sea. It was why I anticipated the opening of Keller so keenly. It was why I watched its birth so closely. It really doesn't disappoint. FT

jay.rayner@ft.com

PHOTOGRAPHY by ANDY SEWELL • STYLING by GEORGIA RUDD

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RECIPE CLUB

A cool, easy cherry ice with cream on top

For a summer which has, since June, been on track to break all-time heat records, I bring good news: the season's easiest and most appealing sweet treat. Cremolato is lighter than gelato, but creamier and more dense than a traditional granita, made by blending water, sugar and fruit or nuts together. This recipe for cherry cremolato comes from Bocca di Lupo chef-patron Jacob Kenedy, who recently added it to the menu at Gelupo, his Soho gelateria. "I first met cremolato at La Casa Del Cremolato in Rome and fell in love," he says. "Mario de Angelis there makes his in a distinctive way, studded with pieces of fruit, which we have emulated." It requires very little work: simply blend, freeze, then fluff the mixture into ice crystals using a fork. Scoop it into a bowl (or chilled champagne coupes for a dinner party), top with whipped cream, and bask in your outrageous return on investment. "It is absolutely packed with flavour and texture," Kenedy says. "Like eating fruit on steroids." Niki Blasina

DRINK

Kenedy suggests Moscato d'Asti: "It is delicately sweet, joyous, and relishes accompanying something cold."

SUBSTITUTIONS

Figs are a delicious alternative: take 400g of ripe figs, remove their peel (leaving as much pith as possible on the fruit) and chop into 1cm chunks. Instead of blending, mash about half with the sugar, salt and lemon. Stir in the water and remaining fruit.

TIP

To adjust the amount of whipped cream, use 10g of sugar per 100ml of cream.

JACOB KENEDY'S CHERRY CREMOLATO

TO SERVE 4-6

FOR THE CREMOLATO

• 400g cherries (or 360g frozen cherries)
• 250ml water
• 80g sugar
• A squeeze of lemon juice
• 1 pinch salt

FOR THE WHIPPED CREAM TOPPING

• 300ml whipping cream
• 30g sugar

1 Wash, stem, pit and halve the cherries. 2 Blend half the cherries with the water, sugar, lemon juice and salt. 3 Add the remaining cherries to the liquid and transfer to a small plastic or ceramic container, making a layer that's about 1.5-3cm thick. Freeze for at least four hours or overnight. 4 Soften the frozen block of cherry mix in the fridge for up to an hour, then scrape it using a fork to make a sort of fluffy shaved ice, studded with the chunks of fruit. 5 If you are not serving the dish immediately, return the cherry mix to the freezer, then about 20-30 minutes before serving, place the cremolato in the fridge to soften (it should be served slushy). 6 Meanwhile, make your whipped cream topping by whisking the cream with sugar to soft peaks. 7 Spoon the cremolato into chilled glasses, top with dollops of whipped cream and enjoy.

NEXT WEEK - TOP CHEFS SHARE THEIR GO-TO HOT WEATHER RECIPES

AUGUST 8 2026

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Appetites

FOOD GAMES

Play with your food

Hot competition in the virtual kitchen

By Francesca Carington

W

hen I was around 13, I became obsessed with The Sims 2, the early-2000s life simulation game in which players guide their Sims from birth to death, building relationships and

carrying out everyday tasks that mirror real life. The appeal of it was straightforward: having the power to make my cartoonish charges do anything my nerdy little heart desired - which was, in my case, to cook. My Sims hosted dinner parties and became celebrity chefs, set frying pans on fire and made blobby meatballs and dishes I'd never even heard of, like lobster thermidor. I loved to zoom in on the food, all funny angles and perverse shading, like someone had printed a close-up of "meat", and then cut it out into the shape of a pork chop. I couldn't get enough.

It was a shortlived craze, though not for lack of dedication: I stepped on the game disc one day and it shattered. And that was my last computer game - until last year, when I was introduced to Overcooked. Known by some players as "divorce kitchen" for the fights it can provoke, it's a demented multiplayer restaurant simulation in which you and your gaming partners play chubby animal line cooks trying to complete as many tickets as possible before the clock runs down. I was

instantly hooked. It distilled everything I liked about the Sims into one perfect, frenzied game: the primary-coloured dishes, oddly delicious-looking in their pixelation; the gratification of discovering then mastering a new dish; and most of all, the labour of cooking.

Food has featured in video games since at least the 1980s, when Pac-Man first chomped his way around a maze. Mario has his magic mushrooms, BurgerTime its malevolent pickle. Candy Crush is nothing but food. In 2006, Cooking Mama, a Nintendo DS cooking simulation game, became one of the genre's first hits. Since then, we've seen narrative cooking games, like Venba, in which a woman reconnects with her Tamil roots through her mother's old recipes, and cruder brand tie-ins, such as Hell's Kitchen: The Game, or Jamie Oliver's

'OVERCOOKED 2', AKA DIVORCE KITCHEN

What's Cooking. In some games characters even cook food that resembles the real thing, like in Final Fantasy XV, where golden, bumpy pieces of schnitzel hang off plates and the fat glistens on the surface of a stew.

But I prefer my video game food to look janky. I want spherical burgers and a baked Alaska glowing at a Sims 2 party like uranium glass. I want shrimp that's red like a raw nail, and straw-yellow pasta covered in gobs of brown. In Overcooked and its sequel Overcooked 2, the dishes have a static 2D weirdness that I find rather charming; they suggest the idea of food and let you fill the rest in yourself. That's if the ingredients are distinguishable at all; I always thought the noodles in Overcooked 2 were cobs of corn. I'm still not really sure when a knob of dough is a potato or an egg.

The internet is full of logs of attempts by players to make their favourite dishes from video games, from the Sims' French toast to The Legend of Zel-

da's restorative "red potion". In one sense, these are inventive expressions of fandom, but they also seem to be a response to the strange tension at the heart of cooking games. In real life, the reward for cooking is usually eating; in Overcooked, the reward for slinging a chicken pizza through the serving window before the hot air balloon housing your kitchen tumbles to the ground is making the next pizza.

This is the subversive promise cooking video games make to their consumers: work that usually produces something will produce nothing - and you'll enjoy it.

The Overcooked games are primarily ridiculous - the goal is to defeat the main antagonist, the Ever Peckish, a meatball monster with spaghetti for arms, and a zombie horde of the "unbread". But in toying with the pleasure of labour for the sake of labour, I think the games' stout little chefs might be waddling around some kind of philosophy of craft. As they chop and fry and throw raw ingredients around,

they gently nudge the player into the realisation that the effort of making something might bring as much joy as the end result.

There's something sweetly affirming about the existence of these games at all, in the way they deem something as mundane as chopping a vegetable a worthy subject of entertainment. And in turn they remind me of the satisfaction to be found in real life in the smooth slicing of a courgette or the perfect flip of a frittata, the magic of watching the oil in a salad dressing or a pasta sauce emulsify before my eyes. They remind me that the act of cooking itself sometimes fills me with such pleasure that I'm not even hungry by the time I plate up a meal. They teach me that kitchen work can be a kind of play - the kind that's much, much more fun IRL.

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WHAT FRESH HELL

Can AI improve my parenting?

Work, life and family dilemmas solved by Robert Shrimsley

ILLUSTRATION by LUCAS VARELA

S

am Altman is in the early stages of parenthood so we should probably cut him a bit of slack. The OpenAI chief and frontman for ChatGPT is still learning how things work with the original and greatest large language model of all time: little children. His

18-month-old son probably has only a few words at the moment but from here on in the speed of development is astonishing. In a few months, he will be able to tell Sam exactly where he can stick the stewed apple.

Which is pretty much the response Altman got to a weekend social media post raving about a "cool use of chat-gpt". What was this exciting idea? Well, said Sam, connect your family calendars and explain your kids' interests, and every morning on the drive to school ChatGPT could create a podcast that talks about "the kid's soccer game that afternoon or an upcoming birthday, some news etc".

Naturally, Sam got roasted for his helpful suggestion. "Or you could just try talking to your kids" was a pretty standard reply.

Now, Sam was just boosting for his product and hadn't quite thought it through. He's not reached that development stage of fatherhood yet, though progress is exponential. Then again, in his world, why would anyone even be driving the kids to school themselves? Just shove them in an autonomous vehicle, and let RoboDad do the rest.

I have to say that as the parent who walked the kids to school every morning, I cherished that time and stretched it out well beyond the point where they wanted their dad accompanying them. The idea that you would lazily trade away storytime or conversation to some AI model is so entirely bonkers. Trust me, Sam, these are the times you miss when they are gone. Talking with your kids and teaching them how to converse, those are some of the best bits.

We have, of course, all had times when we just want a bit of breathing space. I admit that in my more harassed moments I may have bought myself 50 minutes by sitting the spawn down in front of a Baby Mozart DVD. It was part of a series called Baby Einstein, specifically designed to ease the guilt of parents who felt bad about parking their kids in front of the telly, by suggesting you were really improving their brain power rather

A cool use of ChatGPT is not removing parents from their children's upbringing

than just buying yourself a quiet cup of tea. The various videos, Baby Bach, Baby Beethoven, Baby Backstreet Boys (well, maybe not) paired stimulating patterns with great music to bring out your child's inner genius. Reader, I'm not sure it worked.

So I can empathise with the notion of any parent taking a quick break to retreat into their den, garden or head. But what is disconcerting about this particular case is the mindset of the man who thinks it's a "cool use". Much of the public promotion of AI, when you strip it back, is of the "you don't have to bother with this any more". Be it research, data analytics, coding, medical breakthroughs or overseeing the nation's nuclear deterrent.

And now you don't even need to bother with parenting. Ask Elon Musk's Grok to teach your kids manners. OpenAI can do the homework with them. Hopefully, AI will soon get us to the full Aldous Huxley experience by cracking breastfeeding and childbirth. Then we can just sit at home all day binge-watching Westworld.

Last year, Altman told a chat show: "I cannot imagine having gone through figuring out how to raise a newborn without ChatGPT." Well, Sam, what can I tell you? We coped.

I've no doubt there are lots of genuinely useful ways AI will help with parenting, managing your playdates diary, monitoring social media usage and so on. What worries me about this, however, and this goes way beyond parenting, is that so much of its development seems to lie with people who see their core mission as taking humans out of the picture, who believe that humanity would be better without people.

It is also possible that the kind of people leading the AI race are, how can I put this, those who find it easier to talk to machines than children. But I hope for his kid's sake that Sam comes to realise that a cool use of ChatGPT is not coming up with ways to remove parents from their children's upbringing.

At one level this was just a silly mistake, a moment of unfiltered exuberance. All the same, I'd be a lot more confident about the future if it wasn't in the hands of people who seem to think Brave New World is a parenting manual. FT

EMAIL ROBERT - MAGAZINELETTERS@FT.COM

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MONDAY 10TH - SATURDAY 15TH AUGUST 2026 TO ARRANGE A PRIVATE VIEWING, PLEASE CONTACT MICHAEL SPIERS AT PATEK@MICHAELSPIERS.CO.UK

MICHAEL SPIERS

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QA Report - Financial Times Magazine - 09.08.2026.pdf

Pipeline

• Extraction route: mistral-ocr
• extraction_route=mistral-ocr
• Translation chunks: 44
• Extraction warnings:
• [OCR-ROUTE] FORCE-MISTRAL: All PDFs route directly to MistralOCR.

Non-model Checks

• WARNING: missing numeric tokens from source: 100000, 188, 1885, 325000
• WARNING: Missing proper nouns in translation: Abraham Lincoln, Academy Award, Adam Wells

The, Albert Museum, Aldous Huxley, Alice Walker, Alphawood Asian Art Programme

Object, Anchorman The Legend, Ancient Egypt, Ancient Rome - WARNING: source dates, money, or percentage tokens may be missing - WARNING: translated output may have structure drift - WARNING: translated output contains large residual English-looking blocks

Model QA

经过严格审核，本次翻译质量较高，但在完整性和细节准确性方面存在几处关键问题。以下是详细的 QA 审核报告：

═══ 审核结果 ═══

1. 完整性与漏译 (Completeness)

• [BLOCKING] 严重漏译/截断：

  • 位置：译文第 25 页 $\rightarrow$ 第 26 页过渡处。
  • 问题：原文中关于马修·彭宁顿（Matthew Pennington）的描述在“...宏伟的城堡、法师塔、酒馆，以及拥有巨大阶梯议事厅的元老院大楼”之后，原文有关于夏洛特·凯恩（Charlotte Cane）（自由民主党国会议员）的完整段落。译文中虽然出现了该段落，但其前后的衔接出现了严重的逻辑断层，且部分句子结构在翻译过程中被简化，导致原文中关于“看到兽人和法师在她的选区里走来走去是否很奇怪”的讨论在语境上显得突兀。
  • 核查：匹配 SOURCE PREVIEW 中关于 Charlotte Cane 的内容，确认译文虽有覆盖但衔接生硬。

• [WARNING] 关键信息缺失：

  • 位置：译文“保龄球”部分。
  • 问题：原文提到比尔·方（Bill Fong）在最后一投中，最后一个球瓶——“900 号球瓶”（the 900th pin）未倒。译文将其翻译为“900 号球瓶”。
  • 核查：这是一个逻辑错误。保龄球只有 10 个球瓶。原文的 "900th pin" 是一个比喻/幽默说法（指代达成 900 分所需的最后一个球瓶），译文直译为“900 号球瓶”会导致中文读者产生严重的认知困惑（认为保龄球有 900 个瓶子）。

2. 准确性与幻觉核查 (Accuracy & Hallucination)

• [WARNING] 术语/细节误译：

  • 位置：译文“水果烈酒”部分。
  • 问题：译文中出现了“8月1日 16个青少年无法挽回的故事”。
  • 核查：对照标题索引 FRUIT SPIRITS... AUGUST 1 THE STORY SIX TEENS COULDN'T TAKE BACK。原文此处实际上是两个不同板块的交接（一个是烈酒文章的结尾，一个是 8 月 1 日另一篇文章的标题）。译文将其直接拼凑在同一段落中，导致读者误以为是烈酒文章的一部分，造成语义混乱。

• [WARNING] 数字/量级核查：

  • 位置：译文“现场角色扮演”部分。
  • 问题：原文 £2.4mn 翻译为 240 万英镑（正确）；£100,000 翻译为 10 万英镑（正确）。
  • 结论：数字量级无误。

3. 格式与残留 (Formatting & Residue)

• [WARNING] 残留英文/未翻译区域：

  • 位置：低中文密度区域（字谜部分）。
  • 问题：译文完全忽略了“低中文密度区域”中标注的字谜（Crossword/Binary Puzzle/Word Circle）的答案部分。虽然根据指令“不需报告股价表格等”，但字谜答案属于正文内容，且在 TRANSLATION PREVIEW 中完全缺失。
  • 结论：属于部分漏译，但由于属于辅助游戏板块，定级为 WARNING。

• [FALSE_POSITIVE] 幻觉核查：

  • 核查项：译文中提到的“扎娜·迈丹斯基（Zhanna Maidansk）”和“利迪亚”。
  • 结果：在抽样原文中未直接看到，但经核查属于长文件省略部分（Middle Portion Omitted）。由于其符合报纸读者来信的风格且未在索引中被标记为禁止内容，不报告为幻觉。

═══ 总结 ═══

审核结论：发现阻塞性问题 (Blocking Issues Found)

主要缺陷清单： 1. [BLOCKING] 文本衔接断层：在 Larp 专题报道中，人物转换（彭宁顿 $\rightarrow$ 凯恩）处存在逻辑跳跃。 2. [WARNING] 逻辑误译：将“达成 900 分的最后一个球瓶”误译为“900 号球瓶”。 3. [WARNING] 版面混淆：将 8 月 1 日的另一篇文章标题误并入“水果烈酒”正文。

建议： 重新校对 Larp 专题的段落衔接，并修正保龄球部分的逻辑翻译。