Back to school

This week: September is not what it used to be, quantifying the ruinous effects of golf, and why do buses always come in threes?

Like many of us, I’ve never quite lost the sense that September is a time for new beginnings. Okay, in the most literal sense, the onset of autumn means decline and death, and if someone told you you were in the autumn of your years, you wouldn’t be delighted to hear they thought you were entering a time of renewal. But the way we’ve structured our soci…