My Gay Dog and Other Animals review this hump-filled hour is a real slog

 Posted on March 16, 2024  |  4 minutes  |  749 words  |  Kary Bruening

TV reviewTelevisionReviewWith lesbian pugs, gay greyhounds, rutting rams and more, there’s much mounting excitement, but little science and not much fun A documentary about dogs and homosexuality, both of which are enjoyable topics of conversation, should be good, campy fun. I also enjoy ice-cream and curry, but it is better to keep some things separate. My Gay Dog and Other Animals (Channel 4) purports to be an examination of the science behind same-sex behaviour in the animal kingdom, but it is, essentially, the kind of segment that might have sustained 10 minutes on Eurotrash, stretched out over one long, hump-filled hour. [Read More]

Ten Birds That Changed the World by Stephen Moss review on a wing and a prayer

 Posted on March 16, 2024  |  3 minutes  |  638 words  |  Jenniffer Sheldon

Science and nature booksReviewA fascinating study of the fraught relationship between human beings and our feathered friends Taking a numerical approach to the natural world – as in Simon Barnes’s History of the World in 100 Plants, for example – is a handy way to carve off a manageable slice from a potential plethora of examples. There are, for instance, nearly 10,000 bird species worldwide. In his new book, naturalist Stephen Moss wisely chooses just 10, but in doing so tells the story of the long relationship between birds and humanity – and it has mostly been a disastrous one. [Read More]

Where did Ian Fleming get the name "Goldfinger" from and why? | Notes and Queries

 Posted on March 16, 2024  |  1 minutes  |  158 words  |  Aldo Pusey

STAGE AND SCREENWhere did Ian Fleming get the name "Goldfinger" from and why? Ian Fleming was a friend of the architect Erno Goldfinger who, among other things, designed the famous Trellick Tower in Ladbroker Grove - it is believed that he was inspired by Erno's surname. Tony Whyte, London From the architect, Erno Goldfinger. Fleming seemed to pick up names for his characters all over the place - " [Read More]

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens review in the swamps of North Carolina

 Posted on March 16, 2024  |  5 minutes  |  860 words  |  Chauncey Koziol

FictionReviewThis lush debut about an isolated girl who finds education and solace in nature is already a US bestseller In screen dramas, during a scene of sex or violence in a living room, the camera will often slyly reveal that a David Attenborough wildlife documentary is playing unwatched in the corner. The naturalist’s whispered observations about the tactics of the “male” or “female” comment ironically or ominously on the human interactions. [Read More]

Country diary: The muntjac deer decides I am not a threat

 Posted on March 15, 2024  |  2 minutes  |  396 words  |  Kary Bruening

Country diaryAnimalsSandy, Bedfordshire: I’ve had more sightings here in the last four months than in the previous 25 years, and this is the most brazen yet So loudly unobtrusive, their lives confined from dawn to dusk to a copse that I could walk through in three minutes, the closest deer were always the least visible. How many of the passersby who sidestepped the mocha-coloured pellets on the adjoining path linked those scatterings to the hoarse barks coming from the bushes? [Read More]

Girl, 12, held hostage in Gaza for 50 days wont let father out of her sight | Israel-Gaza w

 Posted on March 15, 2024  |  4 minutes  |  759 words  |  Aldo Pusey

Israel-Gaza war This article is more than 1 month oldGirl, 12, held hostage in Gaza for 50 days ‘won’t let father out of her sight’This article is more than 1 month oldHen Avigdori says daughter Noam sometimes wakes up screaming as doctors report trauma among released Israeli children Israel-Hamas war – live updates The father of a 12-year-old girl who was held hostage in Gaza for 50 days has said she sometimes wakes in the night screaming and will not let him out of her sight. [Read More]

I may not be a mother but I'm still a person

 Posted on March 15, 2024  |  7 minutes  |  1443 words  |  Aldo Pusey

FamilyAfter years of heartache, Jody Day has come to terms with the fact that she won't be a parent. But she wishes her friends could accept her as she isStanding alone in the kitchen of my flat, the truth hit me: I would never have a child, would never be a mother. The noise of the traffic seemed to quieten, as if the sound had been turned down, as the realisation sunk in. [Read More]

Life, death and gabagool: how The Sopranos explains everything | The Sopranos

 Posted on March 15, 2024  |  12 minutes  |  2383 words  |  Kary Bruening

Ahead of the release of prequel The Many Saints of Newark, a look at how David Chase’s classic mob drama saw the world in a grain of parmigiano Modern Toss on The Sopranos by Simran HansIn 1999, a 40-year old Italian-American man started a course of therapy and created a new template for prestige television. The Sopranos, David Chase’s smash-hit TV series, was about the nasty inner workings of the DiMeo crime family. [Read More]

May the fourth be with you: the Guardian Star Wars Day quiz | Star Wars

 Posted on March 15, 2024  |  1 minutes  |  198 words  |  Chauncey Koziol

Star WarsMay the fourth be with you: the Guardian Star Wars Day quizTwenty-four questions to test your knowledge of the weird and wonderful characters that populate the Star Wars universe It’s Star Wars Day. May the fourth. “May the force be with you.” It’s a pun, you see. And what better way to celebrate than to test your knowledge of some of the characters established in the Star Wars universe? Some in this quiz are well known, and others are slightly more obscure. [Read More]

Michael Douglas: how we made One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest | One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

 Posted on March 15, 2024  |  8 minutes  |  1523 words  |  Kary Bruening

How we madeOne Flew Over the Cuckoo's NestInterviewMichael Douglas: how we made One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s NestInterviews by Phil Hoad‘We filmed it at a real mental hospital and some of the patients joined the crew. We had an arsonist in the art department’ Michael Douglas, producerMy father, Kirk, had acquired the rights to Ken Kesey’s novel in the early 1960s and developed it into a Broadway play, with him playing the lead character, RP McMurphy. [Read More]