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Filling the silences in family stories − how to think like a historian to uncover your family’s narrative

<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/andrea-kaston-tange-1417052">Andrea Kaston Tange</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/macalester-college-2632">Macalester College</a></em></p> <p>Great-grandmothers. We all have them. But most of us will never know them except through glimpses of fading bits of paper: sepia photographs, recipe cards, letters in handwriting traced by a fountain pen dispensing cocoa-colored ink.</p> <p>What does it take to build coherent stories out of such tantalizing fragments of lives? I face this question routinely in my career as a <a href="https://www.macalester.edu/english/facultystaff/andreakastontange/">professor of 19th-century literature and culture</a>. Recently, I’ve turned that experience to writing a book about my own family.</p> <p>When I inherited my great-grandmother’s diary, a repurposed teacher’s planner in which she chronicled the family’s 1926 move from Michigan to Miami, I found a wedding portrait tucked inside. The angled profile showcases her youthful skin and a dress too elaborate for a Midwestern schoolteacher’s daily wear. It is easy to imagine that she took pleasure in inscribing her new name on the picture’s reverse: Faith Avery.</p> <p>I stared at her beautiful image for years, as if details of her satin gown could explain why a woman widowed in 1918 would, for the rest of her life, refuse to admit to having had that first husband and yet carefully preserve this portrait.</p> <p>And then, because archives have been at the center of my scholarly work, I turned to research. I located marriage records and draft cards, pored over maps, found family members in censuses and obituaries. Within those documents lay answers both surprising and poignant.</p> <p>What did I look for? How might anyone with a half-told family story begin to uncover more truths? And what does it take to make sense of them?</p> <h2>The digging</h2> <p>Questions that begin with “why” can rarely be answered easily. Researchers thus often prefer to start with “who” and “when” and “how,” locating a person in one spot and then tracing them through time. This adventure down a rabbit hole follows a method.</p> <p>Make a list of unknowns. These may be facts or enticing tidbits of incomplete family lore. My mother, trying to be helpful, told me things like, “Faith always said there was a horse thief in the family, but she was too mortified to reveal his name” and “I think Aunt Harriette (Faith’s sister) was married once briefly.”</p> <p>Do precise, not general, searches. Typing “horse thief Avery” into Google yields nothing useful, but many other sources contain rich information about old-fashioned exploits. The New York Public Library’s <a href="https://www.nypl.org/blog/2019/03/25/genealogy-guide-books">guide for family research</a> introduces some options. The <a href="https://www.loc.gov/pictures/">Library of Congress print and photograph collection</a> can also help you envision your ancestors’ world. Physical libraries contain historic photographs, maps, local records and digitized newspapers not available online. Historical societies and state universities typically allow free, in-person use of their collections.</p> <p>Know that sometimes you will fail and need to change course. I spent several days looking for the horse thief to no avail, much to my mother’s disappointment. But when I turned to Aunt Harriette’s marriage, I found a character no less fascinating, one I now think of as “Four Wives Frank.”</p> <p>Read old documents knowing they were produced by a patchwork of individuals who took information on trust. The handwritten birth, death, marriage and <a href="https://www.archives.gov/research/census/about">census records</a> of past centuries relied on self-reported data that required no verification. They can be plagued by carelessness in the name of efficiency.</p> <p>One hurried census-taker recorded Faith’s mother Cara as “Cora,” another renamed her brother Horace “Harris.” Frank offered up a variety of birth years, countries of origin and maiden names for his mother as he worked his way west. He must have been charming. Who but a charming man could have convinced woman after woman to marry him, each thinking she was, at most, his second wife? Marriage register officers and census-takers, not to mention his trail of brides, were none the wiser.</p> <p>Which leads me to this: Cross-check information. I knew I had the right Frank because he had the same three sons in multiple records. Inconsistencies across those records, in conjunction with the trajectory of his life, made this conclusion inevitable: The man purposefully reinvented himself.</p> <h2>The assembly</h2> <p>My academic work has taught me that most <a href="https://doi.org/10.2979/victorianstudies.63.2.02">archival answers lead to more questions</a>. As a result, I expect multiple phases of collecting. I gathered everything I could find about Faith’s early life, in hopes something might explain her reticence about her first marriage. As her story emerged, I periodically hit holes in the narrative that sent me back for more digging.</p> <p>Understanding people is easier if you are familiar with their world. For background, I read histories of Miami in the 1920s and researched details in Faith’s diary that might reveal her personality or motivations. Exploring her reading lists showed me a woman who enjoyed popular entertainment, such as 1926’s blockbuster “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0016598/">Aloma of the South Seas</a>.” Primers of <a href="https://libraryguides.missouri.edu/pricesandwages/1920-1929">1920s wages and prices</a> explained the family’s economic worries.</p> <p>As I got to know Faith, I revisited documents with new questions. To figure out whether Harriette’s husband Frank had anything to do with Faith, I made timelines for both sisters. To ponder the emotional underpinnings of those events, I reread Faith’s diary, paying particular attention to entries about Harriette and about Faith’s second husband.</p> <p>Because every pile of documents contains multiple stories, the key to a coherent narrative is locating a through line that addresses the biggest conundrums while identifying the tangents. I let go of the horse thief.</p> <h2>The results</h2> <p>The detective-style plots of what I call “<a href="https://www.writersdigest.com/be-inspired/lilly-dancyger-memoir-as-detective-novel">investigative memoir</a>” may inspire you to do your own family research. Genealogy sites such as <a href="https://www.ancestry.com/">Ancestry.com</a> and <a href="https://www.familysearch.org/en/united-states/">FamilySearch.org</a> can help.</p> <p>But it’s worth remembering that secondary reading will add richness to any family story. And local librarians are extraordinary at helping patrons navigate the search process.</p> <p>Improbable as it might seem, Four Wives Frank helped me understand the extent of Faith’s secrets and that she harbored them in hopes that her children’s lives would be easier. Such self-sacrifices are common for mothers. And yet, their particulars are as individual as the faintly silvered portrait of the soft young woman who married Harold Avery in 1911, and whose story requires an entire book to tell properly.<img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/234341/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /></p> <p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/andrea-kaston-tange-1417052">Andrea Kaston Tange</a>, Professor of English, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/macalester-college-2632">Macalester College</a></em></p> <p><em>Image credits: Shutterstock </em></p> <p><em>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/filling-the-silences-in-family-stories-how-to-think-like-a-historian-to-uncover-your-familys-narrative-234341">original article</a>.</em></p>

Family & Pets

Woman “bullied” on plane over budget seating trick

<p dir="ltr">A young woman has recalled a flight from hell when she was “bullied” by a couple who were trying to utilise a seating hack that went viral on TikTok. </p> <p dir="ltr">The solo traveller took to Reddit to recount the story and ask social media users if she was in the wrong for her action. </p> <p dir="ltr">The woman began by saying she usually pays more to select her plane seat ahead of time, but a medical emergency on another plane had her waiting on standby and left with no option other than to sit in a middle seat.</p> <p dir="ltr">When she was finally able to board, she was greeted by a couple who had purchased both the window and aisle seats in a bid to have more space, utilising a travel “trick” that has been popular on TikTok.</p> <p dir="ltr">The method, which has been dubbed the 'poor man's business class', usually leaves travellers with an empty middle seat and more space, and few travellers opt to pick a middle seat. </p> <p dir="ltr">“When I got to my row the man and woman were chatting and sharing a snack... it was obvious they were together. I mentioned to the man that I'm in the middle, and he got up to let me in,” the unsuspecting traveller wrote on Reddit. </p> <p dir="ltr">“I asked them if they would prefer to sit together, I said I was totally okay with that. The woman reacted rudely to this and said ‘you're not supposed to be sitting here anyway’.”</p> <p dir="ltr">After noticing how the plane was full, she offered to show the pair her new ticket with the correct seat number on it.</p> <p dir="ltr">“She flicked her hand at my ticket and made a disgusted sound. I offered again if they wanted to sit together to which she didn't reply, her partner said it's okay and... made some small talk,” she continued. </p> <p dir="ltr">The man’s girlfriend then interrupted their conversation to ask,”'Did you use one of those third party websites to book your flight? It's so frustrating when people cheap out to inconvenience others.”</p> <p dir="ltr">The American woman explained that she had booked her flight directly and she had been placed on standby like everyone else and didn't choose the middle seat - she was assigned it.</p> <p dir="ltr">She then tried to keep the peace by refusing to engage with the furious woman. </p> <p dir="ltr">“I was so done with her attitude, I put my headphones on and attempted to do my own thing,” she explained.</p> <p dir="ltr">But the “entitled” girlfriend wasn't letting it go, as the woman explained, “This woman kept reaching over me and tapping her partner and trying to talk to him in a way that was super intrusive.”</p> <p dir="ltr">“I could tell even her partner was trying to engage her less so that she would hopefully stop, but she didn't.”</p> <p dir="ltr">“I think they tried to pull that tactic where they don't sit together on purpose...hoping no one will sit between them. But on full flights it doesn't work. And even so - it's not the other person's fault.”</p> <p dir="ltr">The traveller's post was met with hundreds of comments slamming the girlfriend’s behaviour, as one person wrote, “It's like a toddler having a tantrum.”</p> <p dir="ltr">“She was disappointed and a total a**hole. Gross entitled people,” another added. </p> <p dir="ltr">Another person applauded the traveller’s level-headed behaviour, writing, “Wow! You are my hero for keeping it classy - I’m afraid I would not have been as kind as you.”</p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Image credits: Shutterstock </em></p>

Travel Trouble

AstraZeneca admits to Covid vaccine's deadly side effect

<p>AstraZeneca has admitted that their Covid vaccine carries a very rare but deadly side effect, as "dozens" of class-action lawsuits pile up. </p> <p>The UK pharmaceutical giant could be facing damages of up to $38 million, as lawyers representing complainants whose loved ones who were injured or killed from the jab called the vaccine "defective". </p> <p>Those who received the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine could be susceptible to a rare and potentially blood clotting disorder called thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome, or TTS, in which patients suffer from blood clots as well as a low blood platelet count. </p> <p>While the side effect is rare, recent research from RMIT University and Monash University found Australia’s Covid-19 vaccination rollout likely prevented the death of 17,760 people aged over 50 in New South Wales between August 2021 and July 2022, with some researchers suggesting that AstraZeneca alone helped saved as many as six million lives worldwide, according to the <a title="nypost.com" href="https://nypost.com/2024/04/29/world-news/astrazeneca-cops-to-rare-deadly-side-effect-of-covid-jab-as-lawsuits-mount/"><em>New York Post</em>.</a></p> <p>AstraZeneca, which is contesting the claims, acknowledged in a February legal document that its vaccine can “in very rare cases,” cause the clotting condition, while also acknowledging that the potential complication was listed as a side effect of the vaccine since its release.</p> <p>So far, 51 cases have been filed in London’s High Court, estimated to be worth around $190 million (GBP100 million) total, according to the UK newspaper<a title="www.telegraph.co.uk" href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/04/28/astrazeneca-admits-covid-vaccine-causes-rare-side-effect/"> <em>The Telegraph</em></a>.</p> <p>However, thanks to a deal struck between AstraZeneca and the UK government during the worst of the pandemic, the drugmaker has been pre-emptively indemnified against future lawsuits – which means any successful claims for payouts will be born by taxpayers.</p> <p>One of the claimants is father-of-two Jamie Scott, who was left with a permanent brain injury after suffering a clot following receiving the vaccine in April 2021. </p> <p>His wife, Kate, told <a title="www.telegraph.co.uk" href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/04/28/astrazeneca-admits-covid-vaccine-causes-rare-side-effect/"><em>The Telegraph</em> </a>she’s hopeful the company’s admission will accelerate the outcome of their case.</p> <p>“We need an apology, fair compensation for our family and other families who have been affected. We have the truth on our side, and we are not going to give up.”</p> <p><em>Image credits: Getty Images </em></p>

Legal

Vale ‘sister suffragette’: how Glynis Johns became a pop-culture icon in the story of votes for women

<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/ana-stevenson-196768">Ana Stevenson</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-southern-queensland-1069">University of Southern Queensland</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/lindsay-helwig-1500979">Lindsay Helwig</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-southern-queensland-1069">University of Southern Queensland</a></em></p> <p>Glynis Johns, most famous for her role as the suffragette mother Mrs Winifred Banks in Disney’s Mary Poppins (1964), passed away last week at the age of 100.</p> <p>A fourth-generation performer who made her <a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-04-17-ca-126-story.html">stage debut</a> in London when she was only three weeks old, Johns inherited her Welsh father’s love of acting. She appeared with him in The Halfway House (1944) and The Sundowners (1960) and argued for the establishment of a Welsh National Theatre <a href="https://twitter.com/huwthomas/status/791367871242862592">as early as 1971</a>.</p> <p>Johns’s career spanned eight decades in Hollywood, Broadway and the British stage and screen. As Palm Springs’s Desert Sun <a href="https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=DS19630426.2.50">reported</a> in 1962, her “husky voice and big blue eyes” were her hallmarks. But it was her portrayal of Mrs Banks in Mary Poppins which would make her a pop culture icon.</p> <h2>A childhood inspiration</h2> <p>Feminist activists and scholars often describe the Mrs Banks character as a childhood inspiration.</p> <p>As feminist communications scholar Amanda Firestone <a href="https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/Resist_and_Persist/s5HiDwAAQBAJ">reflects</a> on the film: "I especially loved […] Mrs Banks (Glynis Johns), who marches around the family home, putting Votes for Women sashes onto the housekeeper, cook, and the (departing) nanny. Of course, as a kid, I had no idea that the people and events embedded in the song’s lyrics were actual parts of history, but I did find a kind of joy in a vague notion of women’s empowerment."</p> <p>Set in 1910, the symbolism associated with Mrs Banks references the history of the British suffragettes. Johns’ musical showstopper, Sister Suffragette, directly refers to <a href="https://www.thehistorypress.co.uk/articles/the-pankhursts-politics-protest-and-passion/">Emmeline Pankhurst</a>, who founded the militant Women’s Social and Political Union in 1903. In 1906 British newspapers <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020859007003239">coined</a> the moniker “suffragette” to mock the union.</p> <figure><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/K0SDECwO54E?wmode=transparent&start=0" width="440" height="260" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></figure> <p>This ambivalence continued into the 1960s. Historian Laura E. Nym Mayhall <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/4316653">argues</a> that American concern over the impact of women’s public roles on their domestic responsibilities influenced the film’s depiction of Mrs Banks, especially her movement from a public suffragette back into an involved mother at the film’s end.</p> <p>For Mayhall, the figure of the suffragette emerges in popular culture as “a symbol of modernity”: a harbinger of democracy and political progress whose characterisation would elide ongoing struggles such as the civil rights movement.</p> <figure class="align-right zoomable"><a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568335/original/file-20240108-23-tf6kwm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568335/original/file-20240108-23-tf6kwm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568335/original/file-20240108-23-tf6kwm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=949&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568335/original/file-20240108-23-tf6kwm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=949&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568335/original/file-20240108-23-tf6kwm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=949&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568335/original/file-20240108-23-tf6kwm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1193&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568335/original/file-20240108-23-tf6kwm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1193&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568335/original/file-20240108-23-tf6kwm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1193&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" alt="" /></a><figcaption><span class="caption">This 1909 Dunston Weiler Lithograph Co. anti-suffrage postcard offers resonances of Mrs Banks and her household staff in Mary Poppins.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://thesuffragepostcardproject.omeka.net/items/show/44">Catherine H. Palczewski Postcard Archive/The Suffrage Postcard Project</a></span></figcaption></figure> <p>While some see the character of the suffragette mother as <a href="https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/Mary_Poppins/BLujEAAAQBAJ">supporting</a> women’s votes during the 1910s and women’s liberation during the 1960s, other readings of the film suggest a more satirical representation of the suffrage movement. Some historians even find <a href="https://doi.org/10.1215/02705346-6923118">resonances</a> of anti-suffrage propaganda in Mrs Banks, including in her usage of her Votes for Women sash as the tail of a kite in the film’s final scene.</p> <p>Looking back at film reviews offers insight into how audiences received this character – and, by extension, Johns as an actor. American studies scholar Lori Kenschaft <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books/about/Girls_Boys_Books_Toys.html?id=Or13vhnA_W4C">suggests</a> that film critics who saw Mrs Banks as a “nutty suffragette mother” reiterated popular stereotypes about suffragettes and feminists being “mentally unbalanced”.</p> <p>Such stereotypes may have been reinforced by the film’s depiction of motherhood and the nuclear family. Involved parenting emerged as the bedrock of the 1960s nuclear family, an idea both supported and actively promoted by Walt Disney in both his films and his theme parks, as <a href="https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/Children_Childhood_and_Musical_Theater/XHrRDwAAQBAJ">argued</a> by American musicologist William A. Everett.</p> <p>As Mrs Banks, Johns embodied the transition from the distant, uninvolved parenting of the British middle-class in the earlier 20th century to the involved mother who facilitated the stable nuclear family. As women’s studies scholar Anne McLeer <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/4316893">argues</a>, Mary Poppins, through Johns’ portrayal of Mrs Banks, demonstrated the liberated woman of the 1960s could be contained within the nuclear family: the bedrock for a Western capitalist economy.</p> <h2>A long career</h2> <p>Beyond Mary Poppins, her most prominent role was in Stephen Sondheim’s Broadway musical A Little Night Music (1973).</p> <p>Johns originated the character of ageing actress Desiree Armfeldt, becoming the first to sing Send in the Clowns. As she <a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-04-17-ca-126-story.html">reflected</a> of the classic in 1991: "It’s still part of me. And when you’ve got a song like Send in the Clowns, it’s timeless."</p> <p>Sondheim composed this song with Johns’s famously husky voice in mind. Yet some were less enamoured with her performance. One 1973 theatre critic <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3850619">described</a> Johns as “a now somewhat overage tomboy, kittenish and raspy-voiced, precise and amusing in her delivery of lines but utterly, utterly unseductive.”</p> <figure><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/OAl-EawVobY?wmode=transparent&start=0" width="440" height="260" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></figure> <p>A veteran of stage and screen, Johns appeared in more than 60 films and 30 plays. In 1998, she was honoured with a Disney Legends Award for her role as Mrs Banks. Johns also received critical acclaim throughout her career, including a Laurel Award for Mary Poppins and a Tony Award and Drama Desk Award for A Little Night Music.</p> <p>Regardless of how incongruous her status as a “<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-01-05/glynis-johns-mary-poppins-send-in-the-clowns/103287036">Disney feminist icon</a>” may be, Johns’s extraordinary influence upon the 20th century’s cultural memory is a remarkable legacy. <img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/220766/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /></p> <p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/ana-stevenson-196768"><em>Ana Stevenson</em></a><em>, Senior Lecturer, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-southern-queensland-1069">University of Southern Queensland</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/lindsay-helwig-1500979">Lindsay Helwig</a>, Lecturer in Pathways, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-southern-queensland-1069">University of Southern Queensland</a></em></p> <p><em>Image credits: Disney</em></p> <p><em>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/vale-sister-suffragette-how-glynis-johns-became-a-pop-culture-icon-in-the-story-of-votes-for-women-220766">original article</a>.</em></p>

Caring

Explore. Dream. Discover: An Over60 Reader's epic journey

<p><span style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif;">Many people travel to all corners of the earth, seeking new and exciting experiences, especially when we retire and are able to do so. Sometimes we can be pushed beyond the boundaries of our comfort zone but usually the experience is positive and often transformational.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif;">One popular destination for travellers who enjoy adventure is Sedona in Arizona, a town that nestles in a desert on the edge of red rock canyons. Nearby is Hopiland, home to the Hopi Indians. One of my most treasured memories occurred in this part of the world in 1990, on top of a desert mountain known as a mesa. The mesa rose thousands of feet above ground level and I climbed up there with a group of friends from Australia. As we reached the top, we began to hear the sound of drums and chanting coming from an underground cave. Our travel guide informed us that inside the cave, Hopi women and children huddled together on the dirt floor to watch their menfolk perform legendary rituals honouring their ancient ancestors. Since the ceremony was forbidden to tourists, we were given an hour to explore the top of the mesa.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif;">Moving a short distance away from the rest of the group, I sat down on a rock to fully absorb the nearby pulse of drums and chanting. A few minutes later, three young Hopi boys appeared and attempted to converse with me. Initially, I found it difficult to understand what they were saying until I realised they were actually inviting me to accompany them underground to join their tribal family.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif;">Throwing caution to the wind, I followed them down a rickety wooden ladder poking out of a hole in the ground. The atmosphere inside the cave was thick with burning sage combined with swirling dust from the pounding feet of men dancing, their heads hidden inside huge masks. Barefooted women and children squatted on the dirt floor and I felt very much an intruder as I squeezed myself amongst them. But, reassured by friendly smiles and head-nodding, I began to relax, absorbing the magical rituals of times past.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif;">Eventually the ancient ceremony ended, and I climbed the ladder back into the twentieth century, overcome by a newfound sense of humility and realisation of just how unimportant the wealth and material greed of Western society is.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif;">One can often rely on the unexpected to occur when travelling. During a visit to Egypt one year, our group emerged from the Temple of Isis to settle down and meditate on the bank of a nearby river when a military policeman appeared out of the bushes, clutching a large submachine gun. His other hand appeared to conceal something behind his back and as he drew closer, we noticed he had a second gun tucked into his belt. Terrified, we leapt to our feet. Then, his face breaking into a smile, he held out the hand from behind his back. Lying in its brown sinewy palm were eleven pink oleander blossoms, one for each of us. A moment of sheer terror switched instantly to one of absolute delight.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif;">Another example of ‘the unexpected’ occurred a few days later for a member of our group who had just turned eighty. All her life she had suffered with claustrophobia and its related anxiety and panic attacks. Consequently, when we visited the Great Pyramid to ascend the steep tunnel inside which would take us up to the King’s Chamber, we arranged for her to remain outside with our tour guide. But at the last minute she changed her mind, not wanting to miss out on such a special experience. By slowly crawling through the tunnel all the way up inside the Great Pyramid, she managed to achieve something she had never in her life believed possible. We celebrated her victory that night with champagne, lots of laughs and some hilarious attempts at belly dancing.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif;">A travel memory that always makes my grandchildren laugh is when I was visiting my friend Palden Jenkins, an historian who lives in Glastonbury. One day we set off for Snowdonia, North Wales, for a holiday. As we pulled up outside the 500-year-old stone cottage a farmer approached, urging us to be sure to leave a pot of tea outside every night for the Booka, the name given to Welsh brownies or elves. If we did this, he said, we would be assured of a hassle-free holiday. The Booka would not trouble us if we kept the cottage clean, left out the tea and didn’t have long noses. Words cannot describe the fun we two ‘grown-ups’ had in brewing tea every evening over an open fire to cater to the whims of Snowdonia’s faerie folk.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif;">Travelling the world can create change in our lives that we will never regret, opening our hearts, broadening our minds, and sometimes transforming our lives forever.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif;">To quote Mark Twain, ‘Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you did not do than by the ones you did. So, sail away from the safe harbour. Explore. Dream. Discover.’</span></p> <p><em>This wonderful story, including the images, was sent in by Over60 Reader Jo Buchanan. Thank you, Jo, for sharing your adventure with us!</em></p> <p><span style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif;"><em>If you have a Reader Story you would like to contribute to Over60, please send it to the editor via <a href="mailto:greg@oversixty.com.au" target="_blank" rel="noopener">greg@oversixty.com.au</a>.</em> </span></p>

International Travel

Four myths about the financial side of divorce

<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/emma-hitchings-388514">Emma Hitchings</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-bristol-1211">University of Bristol</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/gillian-douglas-1428314">Gillian Douglas</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/kings-college-london-1196">King's College London</a></em></p> <p>It’s no wonder many people think divorce involves going to court, huge legal fees and decades of spousal payments, considering these are the cases that dominate our headlines. However, the kinds of divorce cases reported in the news involve the very rich, and are far removed from the reality for most couples.</p> <p>The Law Commission of England and Wales, the body responsible for law reform, <a href="https://www.lawcom.gov.uk/project/financial-remedies-on-divorce/">recently announced a review</a> of the law of finances on divorce, with a scoping report due in September 2024. Review of this law is much needed, given the legislation governing how couples in England and Wales sort out their financial affairs upon marriage breakdown mainly dates back to the 1970s (the <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1973/18">Matrimonial Causes Act 1973</a>).</p> <p>The problem is that key politicians <a href="https://hansard.parliament.uk/lords/2023-03-08/debates/3AB3D708-24E5-4FF2-8481-05EFA27E2593/DivorceFinancialProvision">who have been calling for change</a> still rely on the issues raised in these <a href="https://hansard.parliament.uk/lords/2018-05-11/debates/89A33706-7DCD-4FA0-AE0D-B06E11FAF264/Divorce(FinancialProvision)Bill(HL)">exceptional, “big money” divorce cases</a>.</p> <p>We need to correct the misleading narrative about divorce if reform is to address the needs of the 110,000 couples <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/family-court-statistics-quarterly-july-to-september-2022">who get divorced in England and Wales each year</a>. Although there is limited research about this issue, we do know enough to challenge the following myths.</p> <h2>1. Spouses are often forced to fund costly legal battles</h2> <p>Family courts grant divorces and the fee is currently £593. However, it is not mandatory for a divorcing couple to get an additional order regarding their finances, and there is no need for expensive court hearings.</p> <p>In fact, <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/family-court-statistics-quarterly-july-to-september-2022">fewer than 40%</a> of those divorcing each year do so. While there is no authoritative data on average legal costs incurred in these cases, it seems that, for many couples, the costs of sorting out their financial arrangements need not be high because the courts are not involved.</p> <p>And even those couples who do use the courts for their financial matters overwhelmingly settle rather than fight their case, which limits their legal costs. Only <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/family-court-statistics-quarterly-july-to-september-2022">13% of financial orders</a> made in a divorce are actually decided by a judge after contested litigation. The rest are consent orders: orders finalised by the judge on terms that have already been agreed by the divorcing couple.</p> <h2>2. Everything is split 50/50</h2> <p>The law does not lay down a principle of equal sharing of the marital assets on divorce. However, the courts <a href="https://www.lawteacher.net/cases/miller-v-miller-mcfarlane-v-mcfarlane.php">do accept this is a desirable goal</a> if this can be done while meeting both parties’ needs – and those of their children.</p> <p>Research suggests that, rather than rigidly applying a 50/50 split, couples focus on their needs first and <a href="https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/en/publications/financial-remedies-on-divorce-the-need-for-evidence-based-reform">particularly those of their children</a>. This can result in an unequal split of the value of the main asset most couples have – the former marital home.</p> <h2>3. Men have to pay lifelong maintenance</h2> <p>Some news media object to the current law as they claim it allows an ex-wife to be supported <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5965629/Surveyor-marriage-ended-16-years-ago-WINS-Supreme-Court-battle.html">for the rest of her life</a> by her former husband (or vice versa). The argument is that this casts ex-wives as dependants who cannot look after themselves, and prevents husbands from moving on after their divorce.</p> <p>In reality, lifelong maintenance is rare, and even limited ongoing financial support is uncommon. The most recent data found that only 16% of court orders involved any kind of ongoing spousal support – of which, two-thirds were for a fixed term. Nearly all such orders involved <a href="http://www.nuffieldfoundation.org/sites/default/files/files/briefing%20paper%20Jun%202018%20FINAL.pdf">dependant children</a>, with the order terminating when the youngest child reaches a certain age or stage of education.</p> <h2>4. London is the divorce capital of the world</h2> <p>Some news media <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/shortcuts/2015/feb/24/divorce-rich-husband-london-english-law">report</a> that the courts’ endorsement of the principle of equal sharing has led to some wives, married to oligarchs, sheikhs and tycoons, seeking divorce through an English court due to its “generous” treatment of them. For example in 2021, a High Court judge ordered Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, the emir of Dubai, to pay a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-london-divorce-capital-world-for-mega-rich-2019-7?r=US&IR=T">£554 million divorce settlement</a> to his former wife, Princess Haya.</p> <p>By their nature, these cases are atypical – that’s why they make headlines. But why should the fact that English law takes spousal equality seriously be a matter for regret? The 1970s legislation aimed to ensure the non-financial contributions of spouses, such as home-making and caring, should be recognised. Judges have been clear <a href="https://uk.practicallaw.thomsonreuters.com/3-503-7596?transitionType=Default&contextData=(sc.Default)&firstPage=true">it is discriminatory to assume</a> the breadwinner spouse is making a greater contribution to the relationship and should keep a larger part of the wealth than the other who takes on the role of carer. Surely this is an enlightened position.</p> <p>That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t update the law, though. Working patterns have changed but women still earn, on average, <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/bulletins/genderpaygapintheuk/2022#:%7E:text=Image%20.csv%20.xls-,The%20gender%20pay%20gap%20has%20been%20declining%20slowly%20over%20time,up%20from%207.7%25%20in%202021.">less than men</a>. They are still more likely to assume the bulk of <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/articles/familiesandthelabourmarketengland/2021">child care</a>, <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/articles/familiesandthelabourmarketengland/2021">work part-time </a>, and, in consequence, have <a href="https://adviser.scottishwidows.co.uk/assets/literature/docs/women-retirement-report-2022-press-release.pdf">smaller pensions compared with men</a>.</p> <p>The result is that, far from being treated generously, women still come out of divorce <a href="https://ses.library.usyd.edu.au/bitstream/handle/2123/26207/Fisher_2018_AJFL_Final.pdf?sequence=1">financially worse off than men</a>.</p> <p>But there is still so much we don’t know about how divorced couples divide their assets. Since the norm is for couples to stay out of the courts, there is no official record of how the majority of the divorcing population arranges their finances. That’s why <a href="https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/en/persons/emma-hitchings">one of us</a> (Emma) is leading the Fair Shares Study, expected to publish in autumn 2023. This will provide the <a href="https://www.bristol.ac.uk/law/fair-shares-project/">first nationally representative picture</a> of couples’ finances on divorce.</p> <p>We need a law that meets the needs of all divorcing couples rather than the few wealthy exceptions, and a major corrective to the myths that abound in this area of family law.<img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/202975/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /></p> <p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/emma-hitchings-388514">Emma Hitchings</a>, Professor of Family Law, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-bristol-1211">University of Bristol</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/gillian-douglas-1428314">Gillian Douglas</a>, Professor Emerita of Law, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/kings-college-london-1196">King's College London</a></em></p> <p><em>Image credits: Getty Images</em></p> <p><em>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/four-myths-about-the-financial-side-of-divorce-202975">original article</a>.</em></p>

Money & Banking

Rob Lowe's West Wing confession

<p>Rob Lowe has spoken candidly about leaving one of his most acclaimed TV shows. </p> <p>The 59-year-old actor has opened up about leaving <em>The West Wing</em>, which first aired in 1999 with Lowe playing the character of Sam Seaborn, the Bartlet administration's deputy communications director, on the very first episode of the show. </p> <p>The show ran for seven seasons and went off the air in 2006, although Lowe left the show during season four. </p> <p>Despite the show's popularity, Lowe said that leaving the show when he did was the best decision to make for him and his future career. </p> <p>Speaking candidly on the Stitcher Studios' podcast <em>Podcrushed</em>, Lowe was asked about why he left the show, and he summed up his departure with an analogy.</p> <p>He said, "I walked away from the most popular girl at school, but I also knew that it was a super unhealthy relationship, and it was the best thing I ever did."</p> <p>The unofficial story when Lowe left the show, as reported by <em><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2002/SHOWBIZ/TV/07/24/west.wing.lowe/index.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener" data-i13n="cpos:3;pos:1" data-ylk="slk:Daily Variety;cpos:3;pos:1;elm:context_link;itc:0" data-rapid_p="33" data-v9y="1">Daily Variety</a></em>, was that he was doing so because he couldn't get the salary that he wanted. </p> <p>As Lowe explained to <em>Podcrushed</em> hosts Penn Badgley, Nava Kavelin and Sophie Ansari, his decision had boiled down to one thing.</p> <p>"I felt very undervalued," said Lowe, the author of 2012's <em>Stories I Only Tell My Friends</em>. "Whenever I talk to actors who complain about, you know, their relationships on their shows, it happens. It happens in any workplace. You could be in an environment where people sandbag you, want to see you fail, don't appreciate you, whatever it is and whenever I share my stories, people are like, 'I will never share my own stories again.'"</p> <p>"They would make your hair stand up and there's some of them I wrote. I shared some of them in my book, but I purposely didn't share half of the other ones because it would make the people involved look so bad that I didn't want to do it to them."</p> <p>"So, I did not have a good experience. Tried to make it work and tried to make it work and tried to make it work and then what happened was my kids were getting to a certain age where I could see them having first girlfriends or friends and being in a relationship that was abusive and taking it," said Lowe, the father of sons John Owen, a 27-year-old actor, and venture capitalist Matthew, 29. </p> <p>"She's the popular girl, everybody likes her, she's beautiful, it must be great. All the things that people would say about making <em>The West Wing</em> to me. It's so popular, it's so amazing, it must be amazing, but I know what it's like and if I couldn't walk away from it, then how could I empower my kids to walk away from it?"</p> <p>When Lowe did leave the show, he issued a statement on why his character would be written out.</p> <p>"As much as it hurts to admit it, it has been increasingly clear, for quite a while, that there was no longer a place for Sam Seaborn on<em> The West Wing</em>," he said, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2002/SHOWBIZ/TV/07/24/west.wing.lowe/index.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener" data-i13n="cpos:5;pos:1" data-ylk="slk:per CNN;cpos:5;pos:1;elm:context_link;itc:0" data-rapid_p="36" data-v9y="1">per CNN</a>. "However, Warner Bros. has allowed me an opportunity to leave the show as I arrived ... grateful for it, happy to have been on it and proud of it. We were a part of television history and I will never forget it."</p> <p><em>Image credits: Getty Images</em></p>

“That flying baby” shares her story almost 30 years on

<p dir="ltr">While most babies have their little hands full with the all-important business of teething and crawling at six months, some have other things to be getting on with - and for one, that meant reaching for the stars. </p> <p dir="ltr">In 1991, six-month-old Jordan Leads was on a rock climbing trip with her parents in California’s Joshua Tree National Park when a picture of the young family was taken by photographer Greg Epperson, and then published by adventurewear brand Patagonia in its 1995 spring catalogue. </p> <p dir="ltr">The photo, titled “Come to Papa”, saw young Jordan - and the adventure-loving Sherry and Jeff Leads - bundled in a jumpsuit, soaring through the air between two large rocks with a substantial gap between them. She appeared to have been launched from her mum’s arms, and was heading straight for her father’s waiting ones.</p> <p dir="ltr">It fast tracked the family to worldwide fame, and even once the attention had settled, Sherry and Jeff made sure the moment wouldn’t be forgotten, choosing to hang a copy in the hallway of their family home. </p> <p dir="ltr">And now, almost 30 years on from the height of her stardom, Jordan has come to embrace that chapter of her life, going so far as to use the handle ‘That Flying Baby’ online. Though like her parents, Jordan’s life goal isn’t to head for the skies, with the young Leads following in their footsteps as an avid climber. </p> <p dir="ltr">And Jordan, who has a baby of her own, hopes to pass that passion onto her children when they’re old enough, as well as the story of her unusual rise to fame. </p> <p dir="ltr">"I can't wait to show [the pictures] to my kids one day,” she told <em>NPR</em>, “and to show them how I was growing up, how my parents raised me and to really just bring that whole family value of going outside back to them.</p> <p dir="ltr">"I would put [it] up on the wall, and then I could put my child's right next to it in our hallway ... I think that would be really cool."</p> <p dir="ltr">Jordan may have her work cut out for her getting the story to them first, however, with the picture making a resurgence online in recent years as entertained internet users transformed it into a popular meme. </p> <p dir="ltr">Thankfully, Jordan could see the fun in it all, even getting in on it herself when it came to her pregnancy announcement, when she photoshopped the faces of herself and her partner onto her parents’ bodies, and their ultrasound over the image of her younger self. </p> <p dir="ltr">But her favourite of all the edits takes things a little further from reality, as Jordan told <em>Weekend Edition Saturday</em>’s Scott Simon, it showed her parents “feeding me to a Jurassic Park dinosaur. I think that’s the best.”</p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Images: Instagram</em></p>

Travel Trouble

Why you should encourage your grandchildren to write stories

<p>In an article published in <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/41405103" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><em>Language Arts</em></strong></span></a>, educators who were interested in encouraging children to write were asked why it was important for children to be encouraged to write. Their reasons were varied and interesting, and worth considering for anyone who has a young child in their life – let’s take a look at some:</p> <p><strong>1. To entertain</strong></p> <p>As humans, we tell stories for many reasons, but perhaps the foremost reason is that we want to entertain one another. By encouraging children to write their own stories, they can discover what entertains them, as well as what entertains others – well-told, engaging stories.</p> <p><strong>2. To stimulate the imagination</strong></p> <p>By creating from nothing a story full of characters and original plots, a child’s imagination grows and develops.</p> <p><strong>3. To search for identity</strong></p> <p>When children write their own stories, they can use the conflict and characters to take their first steps on their search for identity. The power simple stories can have on a child’s self-development is remarkable.</p> <p><strong>4. To improve reading and writing skills</strong></p> <p>Children need to read and write, so we may as well find a way to make it more interesting for them. Not only will writing help kids learn how to read, it can also help them understand literary devices (suspense, twist, dramatic irony, etc.), and grammatical structures.</p> <p>Now that we’ve explored some of the reasons creativity in writing in our kids, let’s find some ways to help get them started:</p> <p><strong>5. Inspiration exploration</strong></p> <p>When you’re spending time with your grandchildren, make a game out of looking for fun story inspirations. Interesting newspaper headlines, a unique-looking house, a colouring-in book. You could even keep a box full of story inspirations to explore together with your grandchildren.</p> <p><strong>6. Unblank the page</strong></p> <p>Anyone who has ever sat down to write knows there’s nothing more intimidating than a blank page. To help kids out, try giving them the opening line to a story. You can create these yourself, find a list of opening lines on the internet, or even borrow the opening line of a book on your own shelf.</p> <p><strong>7. Work all of the mind</strong></p> <p>If you find that your grandchildren have difficulty focusing on just words, encourage them to explore other aspects of their own creativity by using visuals. Storyboards, illustrations, or even writing the story as a comic book can help stimulate storytelling.</p> <p><em>Image credit: Shutterstock</em></p>

Family & Pets

How to avoid mobile phone bill horror stories when travelling

<p>"I'm sorry, calls to this number are not allowed, please try again later". This. Again. At 1am standing outside what I thought was our Galway Airbnb, but instead was a popular alley for Irish revellers to relieve themselves. Brilliant.</p> <p>After begging a convenience store manager, borrowing a phone and stealing some local wi-fi, we made it to bed before 3am (one-star rating for the Airbnb host, naturally). Such was the power of the phone company when you're on holiday, I still got pinged far-too-high amounts for calls and data used to attempt a check-in at the Irish abode.</p> <p>A reader recently contacted me wanting to avoid such a conundrum by asking for the best SIM cards available in Europe. Thankfully, EU law has recently shielded travellers from harsh cross-border roaming charges by ruling that providers cannot charge excessively for access to rival networks in fellow EU nations.</p> <p>You'll see the kiosks hawking pre-paid SIM packages at many major airports. If you want the dependability a SIM provides, assess your needs and shop around. </p> <p>Better yet, get to know your smartphone better and use the whole range of mobile apps that will soon make international call and text roaming redundant. Organising hotels, taxis, tours, dinner reservations as well as calling home and making your friends and colleagues jealous with holiday snaps can all be done with a wi-fi connections, which are readily available and far cheaper (if not free).</p> <p><strong>Avoid phone bill shock when you're away</strong></p> <ul> <li>Contact your mobile phone company rep about your destination and length of stay to see what add-ons and spending caps may be best.</li> <li>Only purchase local SIMs if you're in the country more than a week, have an unplanned itinerary or will have no free wi-fi at your accommodation.</li> <li>If you're on a per-day bundle, choose a few days to be on-the-grid and turn off your mobile data on other days.</li> <li>Go wi-fi only, in North American, Asian and European cities it's readily available.</li> <li>Embrace apps like Uber, Gett, WhatsApp, OpenTable and TripAdvisor to book taxis, call home and book restaurants and tours using hotel wi-fi and thus limiting calls.</li> </ul> <p><em>Image credit: Shutterstock</em></p> <p><em>Written by Josh Martin. Republished with permission of <a href="http://www.stuff.co.nz/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Stuff.co.nz</span></strong></a>.</em></p>

Travel Tips

A mother’s love story blossoms from a family reunion 40 years in the making

<p dir="ltr">When Helen Mansfield took to social media in search of her biological mother, she could never have foreseen the good fortune she’d bring about - not only to herself, but to those she held most dear, too. </p> <p dir="ltr">It was in 2016 that Helen posted to Facebook, hoping to connect with her mother - who had given her up when Helen was only 10 days old. </p> <p dir="ltr">And a mere five hours later, someone did reach out, informing Helen that her mother was in the United Kingdom, and that her name was Glenda Joy. </p> <p dir="ltr">Helen, on the other hand, was in Perth, Australia. She’d been adopted by a Welsh couple, but had moved to Perth after marrying an Australian - with whom she shares two daughters.</p> <p dir="ltr">Four decades of mystery had gone by, but after that stranger on Facebook had set her on the right path, things had quickly fallen into place. </p> <p dir="ltr">As Helen informed<em> 7News</em>, “straight away, we knew each other. [She] gave me a big hug and said ‘I feel I just won the lottery’.”</p> <p dir="ltr">It should have marked the end of that happy chapter for Helen and Glen, but Helen’s adoptive dad, Gwyn, had other ideas. </p> <p dir="ltr">Because when Helen introduced the two - as her biological mother and her adoptive father - they immediately felt a connection, and set out on a number of adventures together, enjoying everything from the cricket to the beach, and last but certainly not least, a kiss. </p> <p dir="ltr">“I went in to Helen,” Glen recounted, “and I said ‘I’ve got something to say’. </p> <p dir="ltr">“I said ‘your dad kissed me’.”</p> <p dir="ltr">Glen added that she hadn’t been expecting it, but that wasn’t a bad thing, as she’d very much “wanted it to happen”.</p> <p dir="ltr">And it was only good times from there, with the unexpected couple getting married in the United Kingdom after enjoying a commitment ceremony in Perth with Helen as their joyous celebrant.</p> <p dir="ltr">They have every intention of returning to Australia, too, for a trip packed full of celebration with Gwyn’s 80th and the upcoming birth of a great-grandchild.</p> <p dir="ltr">But at the end of the day, Helen is “just really happy it happened”, and holds hope in her heart that their story will offer encouragement to anyone else in a similar position, searching for their biological or long-lost families. </p> <p dir="ltr">“I hope that anybody else - you know, it probably won’t go this far because this is a different story - but anybody else who wants to reach out and find their birth mother,” she added, “should try and do it.” </p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Images: 7News</em></p>

Relationships

10 horror travel stories that will make you think twice about that destination

<p>From terrorist attacks and natural disasters to good old-fashioned scams, you might want to think twice about that next holiday.</p> <p><strong>1. A very expensive meal, Vietnam</strong></p> <p>Last year an Aussie tourist was charged around $40,000 for a single meal at a restaurant in Vietnam after the manager fraudulently used his credit card. A staff member swiped the diner’s credit card numerous times after he told him there had been an error. In reality he was taking a large sum of money straight from his account.</p> <p><strong>2. Honeymooner murdered in paradise, Mauritius</strong></p> <p>Mauritius is one of the world’s top honeymoon destinations. But in 2011 27 year old newlywed Michaela McAreavey was strangled in the bathtub of her room. Two hotel workers were charged though were eventually cleared, meaning the crime has never been solved. Tragically, her body was returned to Ireland and she was buried in her wedding dress at the same church where she had been married just 12 days before.</p> <p><strong>3. In flight toilet nightmare, Los Angeles</strong></p> <p>A Virgin Australia flight from Los Angeles to Sydney was forced to turn around after one of the toilets exploded, sending water and waste pouring into the aisles. The smell was so bad that passengers were given face masks to wear and had to wait at least three hours before they could land again at LAX.</p> <p><strong>4. Hotel terrorist attack, India</strong></p> <p>In 2008 10 members of Lashkar-e-Taiba, an Islamic militant organisation based in Pakistan carried out a series of coordinated terrorist attacks over four days in Mumbai. Two of the locations targeted were hotels, the Taj Mahal Palace and the Oberoi Trident with a number of hostages taken, including foreign tourists. 61 people were killed in the hotels, with 166 killed around the city.</p> <p><strong>5. Britons contract Zika, Florida</strong></p> <p>In 2016, the Zika virus was all over the news though many people assumed the danger was restricted to South America. However, two unlucky British tourists travelling to the state of Florida contracted the disease. Zika has been linked to serious birth defects microencephaly, which limits brain development.</p> <p><strong>6. Thousands die in Boxing Day tsunami, Asia</strong></p> <p>On Boxing Day in 2004 a 9.2 magnitude earthquake occurred off the coast of Sumatra. The resulting tsunami killed an estimated 230,000 people across 14 countries in Southeast Asia. Among the dead were around 2,000 foreign tourists who had been holidaying in the coastal resorts of the region. Germany and Sweden were the worst effected, making up around 1,000 of the casualties.</p> <p><strong>7. Corrupt police demand huge bribes, Bali</strong></p> <p>The Indonesian island of Bali is the most popular international destination for Australian tourists. But for one group of men it quickly became a nightmare. The 16 men were celebrating a bucks party when police and private guards burst into their restaurant, tasered and pistol whipped them, and demanded $25,000 in ‘fines’. The men were told they faced 10 years jail if they didn’t pay up.</p> <p><strong>8. Gunman storms a casino, Philippines</strong></p> <p>At least 37 people were killed and many more injured in June 2017 when a gunman stormed into the gaming floor of Resorts World Manila, setting fire to gaming tables with gasoline. Most of the casualties died due to smoke inhalation and suffocation, and the gunman was also killed. Authorities said his motivation was robbery, not terrorism.</p> <p><strong>9. Unexplained deaths on Koh Tao, Thailand</strong></p> <p>One of Thailand’s most popular islands, the diving paradise of Koh Tao, has earned the name ‘Death Island’ after a number of unexplained cases in recent years. At least eight foreigners have been killed or died under mysterious circumstances since 2014. Many people accuse the corrupt Thai police for failing to adequately investigate the cases.</p> <p><strong>10. Tragic death in a water tank, Los Angeles</strong></p> <p>In February 2013 guests at the Hotel Cecil in downtown LA began complaining that the tap water had a strange colour and taste, and there was little pressure. Little did they know that the decomposing body of 21 year old Canadian tourist Elisa Lam was floating in the water tank on the roof. Elisa, who had bipolar disorder, had been in the tank for 18 days. Her death has never been explained, though there is security footage of her behaving strangely prior to going missing.</p> <p><em>Images: Getty</em></p>

Travel Trouble

King's-eye-view: Story behind incredibly rare shot from palace balcony

<p>Getty photographer Chris Jackson has shared insight into what it was like to capture the coronation, and watch the moment King Charles III and Queen Consort Camilla walked out onto Buckingham Palace balcony from a unique perspective.</p> <p>Taking to Instagram, Jackson shared a rare image that gave the public a small sense of what Charles and Camilla would see from the balcony.</p> <blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/Cr6FZQwtiE6/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"> </div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;"> <div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: auto;"> <div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"> </div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/Cr6FZQwtiE6/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Chris Jackson (@chrisjacksongetty)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p>"An honour to shoot 'behind the scenes' and a never seen before angle from today's historic Coronation, what a day!!!!!! Save a 🥂 for me!", he captioned the post.</p> <p>That wasn’t the only ‘behind-the-scenes' look at the King and Queen’s time on the Palace balcony. Jackson also shared a photo of the pair watching the Royal Navy, Army Air Corps and Royal Air Force doing a flypast.</p> <p>The image shows the aircraft leaving a trail of red, white and blue exhaust as they flew over the proceedings.</p> <blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/Cr6M3BDNoYw/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"> </div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;"> <div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: auto;"> <div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"> </div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/Cr6M3BDNoYw/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Chris Jackson (@chrisjacksongetty)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p>"What a view! What a day!" Jackson captioned the post.</p> <p>King Charles and Queen Camilla were captured waving to the crowd from the Palace balcony following his coronation at Westminster Abbey.</p> <p>The pair travelled to the infamous site in a royal carriage for the long-lived tradition.</p> <p>Charles and Camilla were joined on the balcony by their royal pages and members of the British royal family.</p> <p>Prince William and Princess Katie appeared on the balcony with their three children, Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis.</p> <p>There were two noticeable absences from the balcony, although neither were expected to be there as only working royals are given the honour of making an appearance on the balcony.</p> <p>Although Prince Harry did attend the coronation, he left shortly afterwards to travel back to the US for his son Archie’s fourth birthday celebrations.</p> <p>Prince Andrew was also present at the coronation but not on the balcony as Charles looks to “slim down” the monarchy.</p> <p>The day marked the first time the royal family appeared on the Buckingham Palace balcony since the death of Queen Elizabeth II.</p> <p>The late Queen waved to the crowd from the balcony, accompanied by Charles, Camilla, William, Kate and their children during Platinum Jubilee celebrations in June 2022.</p> <p>She passed away three months later on September 8, 2022, with Prince Charles immediately anointed as King.</p> <p><em>Image credit: Getty/Instagram</em></p>

Beauty & Style

New lessons about old wars: keeping the complex story of Anzac Day relevant in the 21st century

<p>What happened on the Gallipoli peninsula in Turkey 108 years ago has shocked and shaped Aotearoa New Zealand ever since. The challenge in the 21st century, then, is how best to give contemporary relevance to such an epochal event.</p> <p>The essence of the Anzac story is well known. As part of the first world war British Imperial Forces, the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (Anzacs) landed at Gallipoli on April 25 1915. For eight months they endured the constant threat of death or maiming in terrible living conditions. </p> <p>Ultimately, their occupation of that narrow and rugged piece of Turkish coast failed. The 30,000 Anzacs were evacuated after eight months. More than 2,700 New Zealand and 8,700 Australian soldiers died, with many more wounded. </p> <p>The <a href="https://nzhistory.govt.nz/war/anzac-day-resources">first anniversary</a> of the landing was a day of mourning, with Anzac Day becoming a public holiday in 1922. A remembrance day of sorrow mixed with pride, it has grown over the years to include all those who served and died in later international conflicts. </p> <p>Over time, various narratives and themes have emerged from that Gallipoli “origin story”: of Aotearoa New Zealand’s emergence as a nation, proving itself to Britain and Empire; of the brave, fit, loyal soldier-mates who emblemised the Kiwi spirit of egalitarianism, fairness and duty. All this mingled with the lasting shock and underlying anger at class hierarchy and the British leadership’s incompetence. </p> <p>But historians know well that the “Anzac spirit” is a complex and ever-evolving idea. In 2023, what do we teach school-aged children about its meaning and significance? One way forward is to rethink those Anzac narratives and tropes in a more complex way.</p> <h2>Colonialism and class</h2> <p>The Anzac story is tied up in the nation’s history as part of the British Empire. The Anzac toll was just part of a staggering 46,000 “Britons” – including many from India and Ireland – who died at Gallipoli. </p> <p>Some 86,000 Turks also died defending their peninsula. We need to teach about the Anzac sacrifice in the context of a global conflict where the magnitude of loss was horrific.</p> <p>Importantly, Anzac themes are bound up in early forms of colonial nationalism: New Zealand proving itself to Britain and developing its own fighting mentality on battlefields far from home. Part of this involves the notion of incompetent British commanders who let down the Anzac troops – but this is part of a bigger story.</p> <p>Focusing on imperial and class hierarchies of the time can place what happened in that broader context. The legendary story of <a href="https://nzhistory.govt.nz/wellington-battalion-captures-chunuk-bair">Chunuck Bair</a>, taken on August 8 by Colonel William Malone’s Wellington Regiment, but where most of the soldiers were killed when they weren’t relieved in time, is particularly evocative.</p> <h2>Māori and the imperial project</h2> <p>From our vantage point in the present, of course, we cannot ignore the Māori experience of war and colonialism. As the historian Vincent O’Malley has suggested, New Zealand’s “great war” of nation-making was actually <a href="https://teara.govt.nz/en/new-zealand-wars">Ngā pakanga o Aotearoa</a> – the New Zealand Wars. </p> <p>It’s time to teach the complexity of this past and the multiple perspectives on it. For example, Waikato leader <a href="https://nzhistory.govt.nz/people/te-kirihaehae-te-puea-herangi">Te Puea Hērangi</a>led opposition to WWI conscription and spoke against Māori participation on the side of a power that had only recently invaded her people’s land. </p> <p>Conversely, Māori seeking inclusion in the settler nation did participate. On July 3 1915, the 1st Māori Contingent landed at Anzac Cove. <a href="https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/3b54/buck-peter-henry">Te Rangi Hiroa</a> (Sir Peter Buck) (Ngāti Mutunga) was to say, "Our feet were set on a distant land where our blood was to be shed in the cause of the Empire to which we belonged."</p> <p>These words echo the familiar Anzac trope of the New Zealand nation being born at Gallipoli. Such sentiments led to postwar pilgrimages to retrace the steps of ancestors and claim the site as part of an Anzac heritage – a corner of New Zealand even. </p> <p>For many young New Zealanders it has become a rite of passage, part of the big OE. That a visit to Anzac Cove is still more popular than visiting the sites of Ngā pakanga o Aotearoa is something our teaching can investigate.</p> <h2>Mateship and conformity</h2> <p>The notion of the Anzac soldier as courageous and beyond reproach, willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for nation and empire, is also overdue for revision. The “glue” of mateship – a potent combination of masculine bravery and strength with extreme loyalty to fellow soldiers – is again a contested narrative. </p> <p>By the 1970s, as historian Rowan Light’s work shows, there was a significant challenge to such perceptions from the counterculture, peace protesters and feminists. And by the 1980s, veterans were sharing their stories more candidly with writer Maurice Shadbolt and war historian Chris Pugsley.</p> <p>Teaching about the meaning of mateship might examine the history of those peer-pressured into participating in war, those who were conscripted and had no choice, and more on the fate of conscientious objectors like Archibald Baxter. At its worst, the idea of mateship was window dressing for uniformity and parochialism. </p> <p>New Zealanders today have complex multicultural and global roots. We have ancestors who were co-opted to fight on different sides in 20th-century wars, including those who fought anti-colonial wars in India, Ireland and Samoa. Some came here as refugees escaping conflict. Jingoism and what it really represents deserves critical analysis.</p> <h2>Poppies and peace</h2> <p>The ubiquitous poppy, an icon much reproduced in classrooms, is also ripe for contextualisation and debate over its meaning. In the age of global environmental crisis, it can be seen as more than a symbol of sacrifice immortalised in verse and iconography.</p> <p>The poppy also reminds us of the landscapes devastated by the machinery of war that killed and maimed people, plants and animals. It contains within it myriad lessons about the threats science and technology can pose to a vulnerable planet.</p> <p>Anzac Day rose from the shock, loss and grief felt by those on the home front. And beyond the familiar tropes of nationalism, mateship and egalitarianism, this remains its overriding mood. </p> <p>Remembering and learning about the terrible physical and mental cost of war is the real point of those familiar phrases “lest we forget” and “never again”. That spirit of humanitarianism chimes with Aotearoa New Zealand’s modern role and evolving self-image as a peacekeeping, nuclear-free nation. </p> <p>Anzac Day also speaks to the need for global peace and arbitration, and how war is no viable solution to conflict. Those are surely lessons worth teaching.</p> <p><em>Image credits: Getty Images</em></p> <p><em>This article originally appeared on <a href="https://theconversation.com/new-lessons-about-old-wars-keeping-the-complex-story-of-anzac-day-relevant-in-the-21st-century-204013" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Conversation</a>. </em></p>

Caring

The Super Mario Bros. Movie: don’t watch it for the story but for how it successfully represents gameplay

<p>The first videogame I ever played was the arcade game <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pp2aMs38ERY">Donkey Kong</a>. Released in 1981, it took us into a blocky-looking world where a carpenter in overalls raced along platforms and up ladders in a building site to rescue a lady kidnapped by a large ape. Its humble hero, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario">Mario</a>, went on to feature in scores of multi-million dollar grossing games, becoming an icon <a href="https://www.dukeupress.edu/recentering-globalization">as popular as Mickey Mouse</a>.</p> <p>Having grown up in the 1980s, the new <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnGl01FkMMo">Super Mario Bros. Movie</a> meant more to me than the average fantasy animation film. Watching <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKxaYsn_F78">Mario and Donkey Kong have it out</a> on a massive screen – at a resolution so high you can see a single hair or wrinkle on these crisp-looking, toy-like characters – was remarkable.</p> <p>Yet, it felt like the mission of this movie wasn’t just about creating flashy, fleshy cartoon characters or trying to tell a compelling story – it was about doing justice to the feel of these videogames that span decades and are still enjoyed by millions around the world.</p> <h2>A film about jumping</h2> <p>Story-wise, this is another of those PG-rated fantasy comedies that celebrate the 1980s and games culture. There’s a beta male baddy (Bowser, a fire-breathing dragon-turtle hybrid) and his army who must be defeated by a good-hearted guy (Mario) – helped by his brother (Luigi), a strong independent woman (Princess Peach), and a cast of zany allies.</p> <p>But what makes the film worth watching is how it tips its hat to aspects of gameplay.</p> <p>One of its biggest achievements is the unpretentious, funny recreations of moments from the videogames. Sometimes this happens by staging action-packed scenes that are <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yP-Qduvw9zY">framed from the same perspective as the videogame players</a>. For instance, seeing Mario and Luigi dash through a building site with the camera zoomed out to capture the entire screen from a side perspective is the filmmaker’s nod to the pleasures of platform games.</p> <p>The film also humorously reflects on player experience. Anybody who has enjoyed a Mario game might recall the disappointing feeling of falling down a pit after a failed attempt to reach a high platform. In the movie, Mario is initially inept at all of this. He is put through a funny 1980s montage of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKKBlSzMs4o">trial and error</a>, which reminds us how players got the hang of these games.</p> <p>The emphasis on replicating gameplay may be the influence of Japanese games design superstar <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-features/the-super-mario-bros-movie-shigeru-miyamoto-koji-kondo-nintendo-interview-easter-eggs-1234706449/">Shigeru Miyamoto</a>, the creator of Mario, who co-produced the movie.</p> <p>Where other designers may have attempted to create a “proper” Mario movie by focusing on realism or a more sophisticated story, Miyamoto has long been adamant about seeing videogames <a href="https://shmuplations.com/miyamoto1989/">as toys</a>. Now he has created a true videogame movie.</p> <h2>Games as toys</h2> <p>Approaching games as toys is consistent with the long history of Kyoto-based games company Nintendo. It started back in 1889 producing playing cards, and even <a href="https://www.hobbydb.com/marketplaces/hobbydb/subjects/n-b-block-series">competed with Lego</a> before going on to revolutionise the videogaming medium with titles such as Super Mario Bros. in the early 1980s.</p> <p>In most of Nintendo’s games, the end goal is not necessarily found in the stories – rather, these serve the pleasure of playing. In Super Mario Bros., for example, the damsel-in-distress narrative of Bowser kidnapping Princess Peach merely kicked off a game mostly about jumping.</p> <p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6Al_DShXX0">Other Mario adaptations for the big screen</a> have sought to translate gameplay with varying success. Take the 1993 <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuXwMHF9y1Y&ab_channel=RottenTomatoesClassicTrailers">Super Mario Bros. live action</a> film, which was critically panned but has gone on to gain cult status. As a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1993/05/29/movies/review-film-plumbing-a-video-game-to-its-depths.html">reviewer in the New York Times</a> put it: “This bizarre, special effects-filled movie doesn’t have the jaunty hop-and-zap spirit of the Nintendo video game from which it takes – ahem – its inspiration.”</p> <p>Gone, now, are the days of third-party licensing when cinematic game adaptations were left in the hands of external developers, resulting in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKqFEV9rA1U">output that could look very different</a> to the games themselves – such as Super Mario Bros. Super Show! from the late 1980s. This animated show was not particularly faithful to the games: Mario and Luigi had a different kind of Italian-American accent and a Princess Toadstool. The live-action segments also featured crasser and more adult iterations of the characters.</p> <p>This time, however, Nintendo has worked with Universal Pictures to adapt the game, so the new animated movie is more faithful in brand continuity.</p> <h2>Mario’s most successful cinematic appearance</h2> <p>There are now entire TV series based on story-driven games, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNF27c3-5Qw">whose scripts replicate the game almost verbatim</a>. For instance, the recent hit series The Last of Us saw fans cross-reference scene by scene with the original game.</p> <p>In contrast, the Super Mario Bros. Movie looks like an attempt to make a film that works more like a game. And in spite of a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/apr/09/the-super-mario-bros-movie-review-game-over-for-this-lazy-animated-mess">lukewarm reception from critics</a>, the new film stands to be the most successful cinematic Mario appearance yet.</p> <p>While the film has been downplayed by some as a “marketing machine” to sell Nintendo toys, critics overlook the fact that its success might be connected to how popular these toys already are. The games have <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/7/23589075/nintendo-switch-q3-2023-earnings-sales-console-third-bestselling">sold in the 100 millions</a>, which may explain the film’s ability to <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/super-mario-bros-movie-box-office-b2317192.html">smash box-office records</a>.</p> <p>This film will have gameplaying fans poring over frames to identify references to the games and “Easter eggs” – messages hidden for knowing watchers to look out for. Older and new fans alike will recognise <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otZ-D3OJeW4">the GameCube jingle in Luigi’s ringtone</a>, and enjoy vintage gaming items such as the “hammer power-up” that are on sale in the film’s antique shop.</p> <p>Many viewers will also recognise the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QilqLbynOsY">iconic musical motifs from the Super Mario Bros. levels</a>, and how the maps are reminiscent of Super Mario World. They will spot cutesy fan-favourites <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_o6yvb5E2Sw">Yoshi</a> and Toad.</p> <p>The Super Mario Bros. Movie may indeed work to re-market Nintendo’s four-decade back catalogue of gaming classics to both nostalgic parents and kids. But in being driven by the very success of gaming culture, it defies critics looking at it as “just another movie”. Instead, they should see it as an extension of the videogame, and a celebration of how this expansive world makes people feel.</p> <p><em>This article originally appeared on <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-super-mario-bros-movie-dont-watch-it-for-the-story-but-for-how-it-successfully-represents-gameplay-203592" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Conversation</a>.</em></p> <p><em>Images: Universal Pictures</em></p>

Movies

"The wilderness of mirrors": 70 years since the first James Bond book, spy stories are still blurring fact and fiction

<p>"The scent and smoke and sweat of a casino are nauseating at three in the morning."</p> <p>With these opening words, Ian Fleming (1908-64) introduced us to the gritty, glamorous world of James Bond.</p> <p>Fleming’s first novel, <a href="https://www.ianfleming.com/items/casino-royale/">Casino Royale</a>, was published 70 years ago on April 13 1953. It sold out within weeks. British readers, still living with rationing and shortages after the war, eagerly devoured the first James Bond story. It had expensive liquor and cars, exotic destinations, and high-stakes gambling – luxurious things beyond the reach of most people.</p> <p>The novel’s principal villain is Le Chiffre, the paymaster of a French trade union controlled by the Soviet intelligence agency SMERSH. After losing Soviet money, Le Chiffre takes to high-stakes gambling tables to recover it. Bond’s mission is to play against Le Chiffre and win, bankrupting both the Frenchman and the union. </p> <p>The director of British intelligence, known only by his codename “M”, also assigns Bond a companion – Vesper Lynd, previously one of the agency’s assistants. The two infiltrate the casino, play at the tables, and dodge assassination attempts, while engaging in a dramatic battle with French communists, the Soviets, and each other.</p> <p>Fleming’s Bond – the sophisticated, tuxedo-clad secret agent – is an enduring image of espionage. Since 1953, martinis, gadgets, and a licence to kill have been part of how ordinary people understand spycraft. </p> <p>Some of this was real: Fleming drew on his own work as a spy for his novels. Intelligence work is often less glamorous than he depicted, but in both espionage and novel-writing, the difference between fact and fiction is not always easy to distinguish. </p> <h2>Ian Fleming, Agent 17F</h2> <p>Fleming came from a wealthy, well-connected British family, but he was a mediocre student. He only lasted a year at military college (where he contracted gonorrhoea), then missed out on a job with the Foreign Office. He could write, though. He spent a few years as a journalist, but drifted purposelessly through much of the 1930s. </p> <p>The outbreak of war in 1939 changed everything. The director of British Naval Intelligence, Admiral John Henry Godfrey, recruited Fleming as his assistant. Fleming excelled, under the codename 17F. He didn’t see much of the war firsthand, but was involved in its planning. He was an ideas man, not overly concerned with practicalities or logistics. Fleming came up with the fictions; other people had to turn them into realities. </p> <p>In 1940, for example, he developed “<a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/entertainment-britain-fleming-bond-finea-idCAL1663266620080416">Operation Ruthless</a>”. To crack the German naval codes, Fleming planned to lure a German rescue boat into a trap and steal its coding machine. They would obtain a German bomber, dress British men in German uniforms, and deliberately crash the plane into the channel. When the German rescue crew arrived, they would shoot them and grab the machine. </p> <p>Preparations began but Fleming’s plan never eventuated. It was too difficult and risky – not least because crashing the plane might simply kill their whole crew.</p> <p>Fleming worked on various operations. When he began writing after the war, these experiences found their way into Bond’s world. Fleming and Godfrey had visited Portugal, a neutral territory teeming with spies, where they went to the casino. Fleming claimed he played against a German agent at the tables, an experience that supposedly inspired Bond’s gambling battles with Le Chiffre in Casino Royale. </p> <p>Godfrey maintained that Fleming only ever played against Portuguese businessmen, but Fleming never let facts get in the way of a good story.</p> <p>Fleming picked up inspiration everywhere. Godfrey became the model for M. Fleming’s secretary, Joan Howe, inspired Moneypenny. The Soviet SMERSH coding device in <a href="https://jamesbond.fandom.com/wiki/From_Russia_with_Love_(novel)">From Russia, With Love</a> (1957) was based on the German Enigma machine. Many of Fleming’s characters were named for real people: one villain shares a name with Hitler’s Chief of Staff, another with one of Fleming’s schoolyard adversaries.</p> <p>It became something of a sport to hypothesise about the inspiration for Bond. Fleming later called him a “compound of all the secret agents and commando types” he met during war. There were elements of Fleming’s older brother, an operative behind the lines in Norway and Greece. Fleming also pointed to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidney_Reilly">Sidney Reilly</a>, a Russian-born British agent during the First World War. He had access to reports on Reilly in the Naval Intelligence archive during his own service. </p> <p>Other possible models include <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conrad_O%27Brien-ffrench">Conrad O’Brien-ffrench</a>, a British spy Fleming met while skiing in the 1930s, and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilfred_Dunderdale">Wilfred “Biffy” Dunderdale</a>, MI6 Station Chief in Paris, who wore handmade suits and was chauffeured in a Rolls Royce. Stories of discovering <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/mr-bond-i-presume-20141017-117xji.html">the real-life James Bond</a> still appear.</p> <p>But there was also much of Fleming himself in Bond. He gave 007 his own love of scrambled eggs and gambling. Their attitude towards women was similar. They used the same brand of toiletries. Bond even has Fleming’s golf handicap. </p> <p>Fleming would play with this idea, teasing that the books were autobiographical or that he was Bond’s biographer. Much like a cover story for an intelligence officer, Bond was Fleming’s alter-ego. He was anchored in Fleming’s realities – with a strong dash of creative licence and a little aspiration.</p> <h2>The changing world of Bond</h2> <p>The success of Casino Royale secured contracts for more Bond novels. In the early 1960s, critics began to denounce the books for their “sex, snobbery, and sadism”. Bond’s attitude toward women, in particular, was clear from the beginning. In Casino Royale, he refers to the “sweet tang of rape” in relation to sex with his MI6 accomplice and paramour Vesper Lynd. </p> <p>But the public appeared to be less concerned. Bond novels still sold well, especially after John F. Kennedy listed one among his top ten books. The first film adaptation, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055928/">Dr. No</a>, appeared in 1962 and Fleming’s success continued apace.</p> <p>Bond’s world was evolving, though. From Casino Royale to For Your Eyes Only (1960), Bond battled SMERSH, a real Soviet counter-espionage organisation. The early Bond novels were Cold War stories. Soviet Russia was the West’s enemy, so it was Bond’s. </p> <p>But East-West relations were thawing in 1959 when Fleming was writing Thunderball (1961). The Cold War could plausibly have ended and he didn’t want any film version to look dated, so Fleming created a fictional villain: SPECTRE. This was an international terrorist organisation without a distinct ideology. It could endure beyond the battles of the Cold War – and did. It features in the 2021 Bond film <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2382320/">No Time To Die</a>.</p> <p>Fleming’s more fantastic plots were always anchored in reality by recognisable brands and products. Bond’s watch was a Rolex; his choice of bourbon was Jack Daniels. His cigarettes were Morlands, like Fleming’s. In the novels, Bond drove Bentleys – the Aston Martin was introduced in the 1964 film <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058150/">Goldfinger</a>. </p> <p>The films have changed Bond’s brands to keep up with the world around them (and secure lucrative product-placement deals): Omega replaced Rolex in <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113189/">Goldeneye</a> (1995); the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2012/apr/17/bond-taste-for-beer-skyfall">martini was swapped for a Heineken</a> in <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1074638/">Skyfall</a> (2012). Bond now carries a Sony phone.</p> <p>Other changes brought the 1950s spy into the 21st century. Recent films have more diverse casting. Their female characters do more than just spend a night with Bond before their untimely deaths. The novels, too, continue to change – the 70th-anniversary editions have had <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/feb/27/james-bond-novels-to-be-reissued-with-racial-references-removed">racial slurs and some characters’ ethnic descriptors removed</a>. </p> <p>Some have criticised this as censorship. But as with <a href="https://theconversation.com/roald-dahl-a-brief-history-of-sensitivity-edits-to-childrens-literature-200500">recent rewritings of Roald Dahl’s books</a>, changes like this are not new. Fleming’s family has <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-02-28/ian-fleming-james-bond-books-changes-to-new-editions/102035958">defended the alterations by citing similar removals</a> in 1955, when Live and Let Die was first published in the United States. </p> <p>There is a risk that this whitewashes Fleming’s attitudes, making them appear more palatable than they really were. But the revised Bond novels will include a disclaimer noting the removals. Casino Royale itself has not been altered (Bond’s rape comment remains intact), so the changes will perhaps be less extensive than the media coverage suggests.</p> <h2>Spies After Bond</h2> <p>Fleming is not the only ex-spy to have successfully turned his hand to spy fiction. John le Carré’s George Smiley is perhaps an anti-Bond: slightly overweight, banal, and essentially a bureaucrat. He relies on a shrewd mind rather than gadgets or guns. </p> <p>Le Carré introduced his readers to a more mundane, morally grey world of espionage. He had worked for MI5 and MI6 in the 1950 and ‘60s. He thought Bond was a gangster rather than a spy. Le Carré’s stories have also shaped how we think about espionage. Words like “mole” and “honeytrap” – the terminology of spycraft – <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/books/archive/2023/02/john-le-carre-spy-came-in-from-cold-book/673227/">entered common usage via his novels</a>.</p> <p>Stella Rimington, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2022/apr/23/stella-rimington-i-fell-into-intelligence-by-chance">the first female director-general of MI5</a>, began writing fiction after retiring from intelligence in the late 1990s. Her protagonist, 34-year-old Liz Carlyle, hunts terror cells in Britain. Like Smiley, Carlyle appears rather ordinary. She is serious and conscientious. We get glimpses of the everyday sexism she experiences. Carlyle triumphs by remaining level-headed, not by fiery gun battles or explosions.</p> <p>After three decades of agent-running for the CIA, Jason Mathews wrote his <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/series/The-Red-Sparrow-Trilogy">Red Sparrow</a> trilogy to occupy himself in retirement. He called it <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/28/books/shadowing-jason-matthews-the-ex-spy-whose-cover-identity-is-author.html">a form of therapy</a>. </p> <p>There’s a little more Bond in Mathews’ books than in those of le Carré or Rimington. His protagonists Nate Nash and Dominika Egorova are attractive, charismatic and entangled in a personal relationship of stolen moments and high drama. This is counterbalanced by the many hours they spend running surveillance-detection routes before meeting targets. The more tedious and banal aspects of spycraft – brush passes, broken transmitters, and dead drops – accompany the glamour and romance.</p> <h2>The wilderness of mirrors</h2> <p>Spy fiction is never just about entertainment. The real world of espionage is so secret that most of us only ever encounter it on pages or screens. We don’t usually look to Bond films for accurate representations of espionage. But the influence of Fleming’s spy and the general aura of secrecy surrounding intelligence work lend some glamour and excitement to the work of real spies.</p> <p>These fictions also influence our views on real intelligence organisations, their activities, and their legitimacy. This is why the <a href="https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-cia-goes-to-hollywood-how-americas-spy-agency-infiltrated-the-big-screen-and-our-minds/">CIA invests time and money into fictionalisations</a> dealing with its work. From stories based on true events, such as <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1024648/">Argo</a>(2012) or <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1790885/">Zero Dark Thirty</a> (2012), to fictional series like <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1796960/">Homeland</a> (2011-20), the agency’s image is shaped via the media we consume.</p> <p>This was true when Fleming was writing, too. Soviet authorities <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Russia-and-the-Cult-of-State-Security-The-Chekist-Tradition-From-Lenin/Fedor/p/book/9780415703475">were preoccupied</a> by Sherlock Holmes’ surging popularity behind the Iron Curtain and fretted over the release of the Bond novels and films. The KGB studied both carefully. It was likely Bond who prompted KGB officers to release classified details about their most successful spy story: the career of <a href="https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-name-s-sorge-richard-sorge/">Richard Sorge</a>. </p> <p>Former intelligence officers such as Fleming are often quite good at fiction – perhaps because it is a core part of spycraft. A solid cover story has to be grounded in reality, with just enough fiction to protect the truth or gain a desired outcome. A good operation often requires creativity, to outwit a target or evade detection. And spreading fictions – disinformation – can sometimes be just as useful as gathering information.</p> <p>The world of espionage is sometimes referred to as the “wilderness of mirrors”. Spycraft relies on both reflections and distortions. The line between fact and fiction, between real stories of intelligence work and invented ones, can become blurry – and intelligence agencies often prefer it that way.</p> <p><em>Image credits: Columbia Pictures</em></p> <p><em>This article originally appeared on <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-wilderness-of-mirrors-70-years-since-the-first-james-bond-book-spy-stories-are-still-blurring-fact-and-fiction-201373" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Conversation</a>. </em></p>

Books

The surprising stories of how these 10 words came to be

<p>Ever hear or read a word and think, “where on earth did that come from?” Well, for the etymologists of the world, that’s exactly what they try to figure out. In a post on online forum <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/4tqrix/etymologists_of_reddit_what_is_your_favorite/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Reddit</span></strong></a>, user russellbeard asked, “Etymologists of Reddit, what is your favourite story of how a word came to be?” The community delivered, and some of what we learnt was very interesting indeed. Here are 10 of our favourites.</p> <ol> <li>The Latin prefix “pen-” comes from the word “paene”, meaning “almost”. Therefore, a “peninsula” is almost an island and something that is “penultimate” is almost last.</li> <li>“Muscle” is derived from the Latin word “musculus”, which means “little mouse”. Physicians used the term after noticing the muscles in the biceps and calves look like little mice running under the skin.</li> <li>“Daisy” comes from the Old English term “day’s eye”, since the flower is open during the day and closes at night.</li> <li>The words “traitor” and “tradition” have the same root as they both denote something being handed over.</li> <li>“Eavesdropping” is named after people who used to spy on their enemies from rooves with wide eaves to listen to their conversations.</li> <li>“An apron” actually used be “a napron”.</li> <li>People often break “helicopter” into “heli-” and “-copter” to make new words like “helipad” and “newscopter”, but it really should be broken into “helico-”, which means “spiral” or “helix” and “-pter” which means “wing”. In fact, that’s why pterodactyl starts with a p.</li> <li>“Sinister” is actually the Latin word meaning “left”. It was given the connotation of “evil” because left-handed people were historically blamed for being demonic and villainous.</li> <li>The word “dunce” comes from the medieval philosopher Johannes Duns Scotus. His enemies disagreed so strongly with his theories that they turned his name into an insult 200 years after he had died. He was, in fact, an incredibly smart man and well known for his debating abilities.</li> <li>“Uppercase” and “lowercase” are named as such because in the days of hand printing, capital letters and lowercase letters were literally kept in different cases.</li> </ol> <p><em>Images: Getty</em></p>

Books

Banksy mural on the side of dilapidated farmhouse destroyed

<p dir="ltr">A dilapidated farmhouse, with a Banksy mural on its side, has been demolished in the seaside town of Herne Bay in Kent, England.</p> <p dir="ltr">The artwork, called <em>Morning is Broken</em>, features a young boy with a cat at his side opening corrugated iron curtains and staring at the world outside. </p> <p dir="ltr">The farmhouse was built in 1529, and was approved for demolition in late 2022, before anyone realised the importance of the mural. </p> <p dir="ltr">“We had no idea it was a Banksy. It made me feel sick realising it was a Banksy—we were gutted,” contractor George Caudwell told <em><a href="https://www.kentonline.co.uk/herne-bay/news/banksy-confirms-new-artwork-but-its-already-been-torn-dow-283771/">KentOnline</a></em>. </p> <p dir="ltr">“We started demolishing it yesterday. The landowner watched us do it and didn’t know either.”</p> <p dir="ltr">Banksy shared news of the demolition on his Instagram with a series of pictures, posting a photo of the destruction, simply writing over the image, “Morning is broken.”</p> <blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/CpzwGpPM56f/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"> </div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;"> <div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: auto;"> <div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"> </div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CpzwGpPM56f/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Banksy (@banksy)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr">One person who has a personal connection with the farmhouse left a comment for the elusive street artist, writing, “This was my grandma's farm house before it was left to ruins, I spent so many happy hours in the house and at the farm, this was even done on the room I used to sleep in with the farm cat.” </p> <p dir="ltr">“Thank you so much for this Mr Banksy, my grandparents would have been very proud ❤️”.</p> <p dir="ltr">The demolition comes just weeks after another Banksy artwork in the UK town of Margate was destroyed. </p> <p dir="ltr">The artist took up the theme of domestic violence against women in a piece titled <em>Valentine’s Day Mascara</em>, depicting a 1950s housewife with a missing tooth and a black eye as she packs a male body into a real-life freezer chest.</p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Image credits: Instagram</em></p>

Art

Couple with the same name share the story of their unique path to love

<p>Married couple Nunzia and Nunzio Varricchio took sharing to the extreme on the day of their births. </p> <p>With matching Christian names, the pair were born with mere hours between them in the same Italian village, with the same midwife overseeing both occasions. </p> <p>As their daughter, Vicki Brunello, explained to<em> 7 News</em>, “[the midwife] happened to be Dad’s grandmother. She delivered my dad, hopped on her bike, and a few hours later she delivered my mum.”</p> <p>Apparently, that same grandmother had joked that she’d found her grandson a girlfriend. And although she hadn’t been (entirely) serious at the time, it turns out she’d been right on the money. </p> <p>Cut to 15 years later, when Nunzio decided that he’d ask his partner-in-name to be his girlfriend - just as his grandmother had predicted. </p> <p>Nunzio believed that it had been “love at first sight”, although it seems that Nunzia didn’t quite share his opinion. Although she did eventually fall for him, it took “a little bit of time” to get to the same point. </p> <p>As she put it, “I didn’t say yes straight away.” </p> <p>Nor did the couple make it official immediately. Nunzio and his family actually moved to Australia in the 1960s, far from the village where the two had grown up. </p> <p>He made the decision to farewell Nunzia before he joined his family overseas, and while he might have been hoping for a sweet moment for the subject of his affections, Nunzia - once again - had other ideas. </p> <p>He had hoped to give her a kiss, even going so far as to tell her as much, but as Nunzia explained, “I said ‘forget about it’.” </p> <p>And as she added, she’d even threatened to throw a bucket on his head, far from the heartfelt goodbye he’d envisioned. </p> <p>Nunzia was determined not to be forgotten, and Nunzio was in no position to do so. Writing to her regularly, he told her all about his new life in Australia, and although she took “a little longer” to respond to him, she still did, with the two remaining in constant - if not a little irregular - contact. </p> <p>But even Nunzia couldn’t play hard to get forever, and at just 21 years old, she packed her bags and moved to join Nunzio in Australia, with the couple marrying soon after. </p> <p>However, their shared history decided the time had come to cause a little chaos, with Australian authorities assuming they’d made a mistake on their paperwork while registering their marriage. </p> <p>The issue? The similarities in their applications - their matching names, birthdays, and places of births. It was one they unfortunately encountered again when trying to organise passports. </p> <p>As for problems with their life, neither had anything to report - nor did their three children and six grandchildren, who claimed they’d never so much as seen the 80-year-old Nunzio and Nunzia argue. </p> <p>Nunzio put their success in marriage down to their amicable conflict resolution strategy, and explained that after their wedding, his wife had informed him to “keep quiet” if she started arguing while upset. </p> <p>From there, he said, they simply “cool down and we don’t argue.” </p> <p>“Dad’s a big softie,” daughter Vicki added, “you know, and there’s a lot of love.” </p> <p>“We’re very happy,” Nunzia agreed. </p> <p><em>Images: 7 News</em></p>

Relationships

The Dark Side of the Moon at 50: how Marx, trauma and compassion all influenced Pink Floyd’s masterpiece

<p><em>Dixi et salvavi animam meam.</em></p> <p>This Latin phrase – I have spoken and saved my soul – sits at the end of Karl Marx’s <a href="https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1875/gotha/">Critique of the Gotha Programme</a>. </p> <p>Written in 1875, this text imagines a communist society that will come about “after the enslaving of the individual to the division of labour, and thereby also the antithesis between mental and physical labour has vanished”. </p> <p>Only then, Marx argues, “can the narrow horizon of bourgeois right be completely transcended and society inscribe on its banners: from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs!”</p> <p>Roger Waters – bassist, lyricist and conceptual mastermind behind Pink Floyd’s 1973 album <em>The Dark Side of the Moon</em>, released 50 years ago today – knows Marx’s Critique. Indeed, he quotes it when discussing the record with music journalist John Harris. </p> <p>“Making <em>The Dark Side of the Moon</em>, we were all trying to do as much as we possibly could,” Waters <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/301401">told</a> Harris.</p> <p>"It was a very communal thing. What’s that old Marxist maxim? ‘From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.’ That’s sort of the way the band worked at that point."</p> <p>Assertions about solidarity, cooperation and shared “unity of purpose” – as Waters says – situate <em>Dark Side</em> in the context of Pink Floyd’s <a href="https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/pink-floyd-roger-waters-david-gilmour-feud/">notoriously fractious</a> recording career and helps us understand the album’s enduring appeal.</p> <h2>Shine on you crazy diamond</h2> <p>Pink Floyd formed in London in 1965. Led by the charismatic songwriter, guitarist and lead vocalist Syd Barrett, the group established itself as a leader in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UK_underground">London underground music scene</a>. They released their debut album <em>The Piper at the Gates of Dawn</em> in 1967.</p> <p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soft_Machine">Soft Machine</a> member Kevin Ayers <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/au/pink-floyds-the-piper-at-the-gates-of-dawn-9781441185174/">described</a> <em>The Piper at the Gates of Dawn</em> as “something magical, but it was in Syd Barrett”. </p> <p>Not long after the record’s release, Barrett suffered a catastrophic, LSD-induced breakdown. In response, the band recruited David Gilmour on guitar and recorded a second album, <em>A Saucerful of Secrets</em>, as a five-piece in 1968. Around this time, the increasingly unstable Barrett was unceremoniously ousted by the rest of the band. </p> <p>After Barrett left, says Ayers, “Pink Floyd became something else totally”. </p> <p>There are different versions of Pink Floyd. The recordings released after Barrett left the band in 1968 bear little resemblance to the first. </p> <p><em>Dark Side</em> sounds nothing like the whimsical Piper. But it is obvious the record is in large part preoccupied with the loss of Barrett.</p> <p>This preoccupation comes to the fore in the album’s penultimate track.</p> <p><em><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1OOQP1-wOE&ab_channel=HDPinkFloyd">Brain Damage</a></em>, written and sung by Waters, references Barrett’s adolescence (“Remembering games and daisy chains and laughs”), alludes to his illness (“And if the dam breaks open many years too soon”), and acknowledges his leaving the group (“And if the band you’re in starts playing different tunes; I’ll see you on the dark side of the Moon”). </p> <p>Drummer Nick Mason confirms the group didn’t want to lose Barrett.</p> <p>In his <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/265734.Inside_Out">autobiography</a>, he writes, "He was our songwriter, singer, guitarist, and – although you might not have known from our less than sympathetic treatment of him – he was our friend."</p> <h2>If the dam breaks open many years too soon</h2> <p>What we hear on <em>The Dark Side of the Moon</em> is a band dealing with trauma. </p> <p>In this sense, Dark Side represents the start of a reckoning with the past – a process that culminated with the band’s next record, 1975’s elegiac <em><a href="https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/wish-you-were-here-pink-floyd-seminal-ode-to-the-tragic-life-of-syd-barrett/">Wish You Were Here</a></em>.</p> <p>Culmination is a useful term when it comes to <em>Dark Side</em> more generally. On this record, all the avant-garde techniques and tendencies the band had toyed with in the post-Barrett period – <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musique_concr%C3%A8te">musique concrète</a>, sonic manipulation, extended improvisation, analogue tape manipulation – come together to spectacular effect. </p> <p><em><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0kcet4aPpQ">Money</a> –</em> with its anti-capitalist lyrics penned by Waters (“Money, it’s a crime; share it fairly, but don’t take a slice of my pie”), odd time signature, and handmade tape-loops mimicking the sounds of cash tills, bags of coins being dropped from great height and bank notes being torn up – is one of the stranger hit singles in pop music history. </p> <p>Be that as it may, Money and the album from which it is taken, of which <a href="https://www.pinkfloyd.com/tdsotm50/">more than 50 million copies</a> have been sold, continue to resonate with listeners worldwide, five decades on from its initial release.</p> <h2>The enormous risk of being truly banal</h2> <p>“I made a conscious effort when I was writing the lyrics for <em>Dark Side of the Moon</em> to take the enormous risk of being truly banal about a lot of it,” Waters told John Harris, “in order that the ideas should be expressed as simply and plainly as possible.”</p> <p>On this point, <a href="https://www.loudersound.com/news/david-gilmour-says-its-pretty-unlikely-he-and-roger-waters-will-resolve-pink-floyd-feud">if nothing else</a>, David Gilmour agrees. He told Harris, "There was definitely a feeling that the words were going to be very clear and specific. That was a leap forward. Things would mean what they meant. That was a distinct step away from what we had done before."</p> <p>Mortality, insanity, conflict, affluence, poverty and, in another nod to Marx, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marx%27s_theory_of_alienation">alienation</a> are some of the themes presented on the record. The need – and this brings us full circle – for compassion, if not outright solidarity, is another. </p> <p>This is an album about the importance of understanding, as Waters <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/301401">insists, "T</a>he potential that human beings have for recognising each other’s humanity and responding to it, with empathy rather than antipathy."</p> <p>Given the sorry state of the world in 2023, about which Roger Waters has many <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-64580688">contentious</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/feb/07/pink-floyd-lyricist-calls-roger-waters-an-antisemite-and-putin-apologist">problematic</a> things to say, I wager Pink Floyd’s masterwork will continue to resonate with listeners for a while yet.</p> <p><em>Image credits: Getty Images</em></p> <p><em>This article originally appeared on <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-dark-side-of-the-moon-at-50-how-marx-trauma-and-compassion-all-influenced-pink-floyds-masterpiece-198400" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Conversation</a>. </em></p>

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Couple with the same name share the story of their unique path to love

The Dark Side of the Moon at 50: how Marx, trauma and compassion all influenced Pink Floyd’s masterpiece