SEMANTIC ENIGMASWhat is the origin of kick the bucket? IN THE 1920s Chicago gangsters used to punish "double crossers" by tying them to a heavy chair with their feet in a bucket filled with wet cement. The victims of course struggled and kicked the bucket. By the night, when the cement had hardened, the double crosser was taken for a ride to Lake Michigan and dumped in. Peter Helsdon, Chelmsford (100113.
The autocomplete questionsZoology This article is more than 6 years oldWhat sound do pandas make? You asked Google – here’s the answerThis article is more than 6 years oldJules HowardEvery day millions of internet users ask Google life’s most difficult questions, big and small. Our writers answer some of the commonest queriesA great frustration for those who study natural history is that the sounds made by almost every extinct creature that ever lived will never be heard by human ears.
In 2012, the Norwegian novelist and playwright collapsed. He gave up drinking, retreating from the public eye – then, earlier this month, he got a call from the Swedish academy. He discusses how it feels to win a Nobel prize Published: 28 Oct 2023 ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbTEoKyaqpSerq96wqikaKiipLOquMRomqGqmai9sMPEqw%3D%3D
Politics booksReviewThis even-handed history by the Guardian’s former Middle East editor draws on 40 years of experience and exhaustive researchA 2016 poll found that 82% of young Israeli Jews believed there was little chance of a peace agreement with the Palestinians. Faced with expanding Jewish settlements, almost as many Palestinians believed the two-state solution was no longer viable. Under Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister since David Ben-Gurion, the reality of life today is more akin to an “apartheid state”, as veteran journalist Akiva Eldar has said: “One state for two peoples – first-class citizens and second-class citizens”.
US unions This article is more than 3 months old‘I don’t think it’s too much’: Waffle House workers push for $25 an hourThis article is more than 3 months oldWorkers in US south call for higher minimum wage and end to automatic meal deduction charges from paychecks in petition
Workers at several Waffle House locations in the southern US are among the latest group of employees in the US to hold walkouts around a slate of demands for improvements to wages and working conditions.
Other livesSecond world warObituaryPeter Page obituaryMy father, Peter Page, who has died aged 90, was instrumental in the testing of aircraft ejection seats following service in the Parachute Regiment during the second world war.
Born in West Bromwich, Staffordshire, Peter never knew his father, Sydney, who died when he was less than a month old. He was the sixth child and, with his siblings, was brought up in straitened circumstances.
The ObserverUK newsRevealed: the secret marriage of Lawrence of Arabia, the lonely romanticFor years he has been one of Britain's most romantic heroes - a real-life incarnation of schoolboy dreams of adventure. But Lawrence of Arabia was more romantic than many have thought. It now appears that he was actually married.
The news will shock many and surprise Lawrence scholars. The ascetic soldier and writer has often been described as a homosexual.
Robbie WilliamsReviewO2 Arena, London
He might be on the in-roads to 50 and a family man but a glitter-draped Robbie Williams is discovering that he can have it all
By the way Robbie Williams opens his show at London’s O2 Arena, you would think he has something to prove. A national treasure and one of the best-selling artists of all time, Williams has been reflecting British culture back at itself in a hurricane of hair gel and bravado since joining Take That in 1990.
TheatreReviewOld Vic, LondonEverything that art can do to boost this revival of Tennessee Williams's 1959 play has been done. Marianne Elliott's production is first-rate. The cast, led by Kim Cattrall, is as good as any you'll find in a national company. Yet nothing can persuade me that the play is anything more than overheated melodrama all too rarely alleviated by Williams's instinct for comedy.
The plot defies belief. It concerns two lonely outsiders brought together by circumstance.
10 of the bestPop and rockFrom post-punk to funk, with an off-kilter view of the world, these songs show why the restless US band remain an influence on successive waves of musicians
1. Love -> Building on Fire
In the beginning, there was just a freaky outsider called David Byrne. Born in Dumbarton in Scotland and raised near Baltimore, Byrne was a wiry misfit with an interest in rock’n’roll and experimental performance art that extended to once shaving off his beard (bloodily) using beer for foam while a friend played Pennies from Heaven on the accordion.