The planchette slides across the surface of the ornate Ouija board. It settles on one letter, then another. This is what I’ve been dreading. We’re sat around a table in Avenue House, a Grade II listed Victorian mansion in Finchley, north London, in a dark room that was once a tuberculosis ward. Across the floor, a children’s lullaby suddenly starts playing from a music box activated by motion...
Roger and Jim have been friends for more than 30 years. When they were younger they were in a band together, and their friendship was forged over a shared love of music and beer. Even now, despite family commitments on both sides, they manage to catch up every couple of months. “Even though he drives me mad,” says Roger. It is Jim who leaps to Roger’s mind at the mention of toxic friendships...
Civil wedding and partnership ceremonies will be able to take place outdoors for the first time in England and Wales from next month. Laws for approved premises, such as hotels, currently require the ceremony to take place in an approved room or permanent structure. But such venues will from 1 July be able to host the whole event outside under the move to legalise outdoor civil ceremonies. The...
Kim Kardashian has cleared another hurdle in her unconventional quest to become an attorney. The reality television star and entrepreneur tweeted on Monday that she had passed California’s first-year law students’ exam – a daylong test required of aspiring lawyers in the state who were not taking the traditional path of attending an accredited law school. “OMFGGGG I PASSED THE BABY BAR EXAM!!!!”...
Cats are still dying in significant numbers from a mystery illness that investigators believe may be linked to widely sold cat food brands, prompting concern that not enough is being done to warn owners about a nationwide product recall. Vets around the UK are understood to have been swamped by cases of pancytopenia, a condition in which the number of red blood cells, white blood cells and...
These stories are designed to offer practical advice, provide some entertainment, foster a sense of social cohesion, and remind people of the good in the world during these strange and isolating times.When William Shakespeare was quarantined by the plague, according to Shakespearean scholar James Shapiro, he wrote a few things. Antony and Cleopatra. King Lear. Macbeth. Sure. Good for him! Some of...
Nine years ago, I did a reverse image search on a photograph of me and was shocked to discover it had become a meme. People online thought my smile, combined with the look in my eyes, seemed terribly sad. They were calling me “Hide the Pain Harold”. The photo came from a shoot I’d done a year earlier, when I was still working as an electrical engineer. A professional photographer had got in touch...
BitTorrent — it’s not just for piracy. The peer-to-peer file transfer system has always been keen to find new legitimate applications for its tech, most recently with the introduction of BitTorrent Bundles, which allow creators to set their own prices for the content they offer. The BBC is the latest high profile provider to utilise the platform, releasing a 12-episode batch of Doctor Who...
Nails should be kept fairly short. The longer they are, the more easily they are damaged – especially your fingernails, if you work with your hands. If they are fine, you can use a normal clipper; for anything thicker – usually toenails, but sometimes fingernails – you will need a heavy-duty version. Use a nail file for shaping, or if it hurts when you clip your nails. You don’t need to use it in...
When my parents sent their saliva away to a genetic testing company late last year and were informed via email a few weeks later that they are both “100% Ashkenazi Jewish”, it struck me as slightly odd. Most people I know who have done DNA tests received ancestry results that correspond to geographical areas – Chinese, British, West African. Jewish, by comparison, is typically parsed as a...