Pastafarianism (a portmanteau of pasta and Rastafarianism) is a social movement that promotes a light-hearted view of religion and opposes the teaching of intelligent design and creationism in public schools. According to adherents, Pastafarianism is a “real, legitimate religion, as much as any other”.
The word is in the news today because the Dutch council of state has ruled that Pastafarianism is not a religion, denying a follower of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster the right to wear a colander on her head in her passport and driving licence photo.
How many women are unfulfilled by marriage and motherhood and wish to escape? Many more than we would dare to imagine, I suspect. This British film – actually written and directed by a man (Dominic Savage) – tells the story of one such tormented soul who is such a supporting character to her husband and children that we do not even learn her name until half way through the narrative.
Tara is played by Gemma Arterton who, wearing no makeup, gives the performance of her career to date in a gut-wrenching portrayal of a woman lost. This really is her movie: she is rarely off the screen and has an executive producer role.
This is not a film that will appeal to those who only enjoy blockbusters because it is a remarkably minimalist work: very few characters, not much storyline, and sparse (often improvished) dialogue. The power and the pain comes from the acting, principally from wonderful Arterton but also from Dominic Cooper who is her husband Mark: a decent enough man who loves his wife but who simply cannot understand who she is and what she needs.
So, does Tara escape? Certainly for a time in a less compelling second segment in Paris, but the ending is left ambigous.
Each year, the Economist Intelligence Unit produces a Global Liveability Index and it has just published this year’s results.
The ten most liveable cities in 2018 are:
1. Vienna, Austria
2. Melbourne, Australia
3. Osaka, Japan
4. Calgary, Canada
5. Sydney, Australia
6. Vancouver, Canada
7. Tokyo, Japan
8. Toronto, Canada
9. Copenhagen, Denmark
10. Adelaide, Australia
Vienna has dislodged the Melbourne as the most pleasant city to live in. The Australian city has clinched the title for the past seven editions, but a downgraded threat of militant attacks in western Europe, as well as the Austrian capital’s low crime rate, helped nudge Vienna into first place.
In the survey, Manchester (the city where I grew up) saw the biggest improvement of any European city, rising by 16 places to rank 35th. Manchester’s rise puts it ahead of London (the city where I have lived for the past 47 years) in the rankings by 13 places, the widest gap between the two cities since the survey began two decades ago.
The ten least liveable cities in 2018 are:
1. Damascus, Syria
2. Dhaka, Bangladesh
3. Lagos, Nigeria
4. Karachi, Pakistan
5. Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea
6. Harare, Zimbabwe
7. Tripoli, Libya
8. Douala, Cameroon
9. Algiers, Algeria
10. Dakar, Senegal
The survey does not include several of the world’s most dangerous capitals, such as Baghdad and Kabul.
We need some humour in these difficult times. These 10 jokes – some of which require thinking about – were collated by the “Guardian” newspaper:
Athena Kugblenu: Patriarchy is putting Jane Austen on £10 notes the same time as bringing in contactless.
Christian Talbot: Sometimes even I don’t understand feminism. And I’m a guy.
Jez Watts: I don’t know why, but for some reason all the cheeses in the dairy aisle have been named after porn search categories: Vintage, Natural, Hard, Semi-hard, Mature, Blue Vein, Goat.
Felicity Ward: I have a lot in common with post-first world war Germany. We both went through a great depression in our 20s. Then in our 30s a nice man came along. Great facial hair. I’m hoping for the best.
Angela Barnes: When I see Donald Trump I get the same thought in my head as I get after a particularly painful bikini wax. Bush wasn’t that bad.
Ken Cheng: In school I had the nickname “the human calculator”, which meant bullies would come up to me, say the number 5318008, lift me upside down and not let me go until I said the word “boobies”.
Aatif Nawaz: Just learned what perineums are. Let’s just say it’s nothing to do with Nando’s.
Rosie Jones: During birth, my shoulder got stuck coming out. Well, it was the 80s.
Matt Rees: No good at talking to women. I’m 28 and recently my grandmother and I had the “are you gay?” conversation. She isn’t.
Chris Turner: “Never Apologise! Never Explain!” – Sorry, that’s my motto.
According to Carl Bernstein – one of the two “Washington Post” reporters who broke the Watergate story 44 years ago – it’s worse:
“Obviously there are similarities, not least of which is part of the story is about undermining the electoral process. You’re also dealing with cover-ups in both instances and special prosecutors.”
“This is worse than Watergate in the sense that the system worked in Watergate and it’s not apparent yet that the system is working in the current situation. No president has done anything like Trump to characterise the American press and its exercise of the first amendment as the enemy of the people, a phrase associated with the greatest despots of the 20th century.”
As you probably know, the Americans have a day for almost everything and today they celebrate National Middle Child Day. Two thoughts occur to me.
First, it is widely thought that birth order influences personality and this idea is discussed on the Day’s web site. But I’m not sure how much scientific evidence there is for this notion. Second, in the developed world, the two-child family is now the norm so there are fewer middle children than there were. In China, there has been a one-child policy and, in many developing countries, the size of families is falling rapidly.
I’m actually the eldest of three children, I have a younger sister – to whom I have sent best wishes for National Middle Child Day – and a younger brother.
There is major debate going on about the causes of this development. Most people believe that Government policy – specifically cuts in benefits and social services – has had a major impact. Others think it is more complicated than that with lifestyle issues – such as the rise in obesity – playing an important part.
What is not in doubt is who is benefitting from the slow down in longevity. It ‘s pension providers. As people are dying unexpectedly early, pension firms are bagging a £1 billion bonanza. This news could make you sick.
The title refers to the renunciation of a faith and in this case we are concerned with the Christian denomination of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. As adherents of The Truth, they do not accept blood transfusion, they do not associate with former members who have been disfellowshipped, and they believe that the destruction of the present world system at Armageddon is imminent leading to the New System here on earth. These themes are examined in this accomplished debut feature by writer and director Daniel Kokotajlo who is himself a former Witness.
An unusual feature of the story is that the three leading roles are female: Ivanna (played by Siobhan Finneran) and her daughters Luisa (Sacha Parkinson) and Chloe (Bronwyn James). The Elders are, of course, all men. Shot in Manchester (where I grew up), this is a grim and moving film, but it explains the motivation of the characters in non-judgemental terms, creating a terrible sense of inevitable tragedy.
After the mega movie that was “Avengers: Infinity War” – a canvas the size of the universe, a team of super-heroes the size of a small army, and a villain the size of Thanos – the Marvel Cinematic Universe goes miniature with this movie – most of the action in San Franscisco, only two super-heroes, and leading cast members mainly the size of insects before we zoom down to sub-atomic scale.
The plot is small-scale too: no threat to the whole universe but simply a rescue mission of an individual in the context of a narrative that is as much rom-com as sci-fi. What is not small-scale is the comedic element with a funny script and lots of visual humour as Ant-Man flips from human size to insect-size to something half-way and something gigantic.
Paul Rudd and Evangeline Lilly are back in the eponymous roles and this is the first time that a Marvel movie has featured a female super-hero in the title and the first time that two super-heroes have had a romantic relationship.
If anything, The Wasp is the cooler character, since she has wings and blasters, whereas Ant-Man needs another insect to get him around and has no weapons, but only Ant-Man can journey through the quantum tunnel into the quantum void where, following some quantum entanglement, he engages with the quantum realm (as he himself queries: “Do you guys just put the word ‘quantum’ in front of everything?”).
Some star power comes with Michael Douglas as the original Ant-Man and Michelle Pfeiffer as the original Wasp, although sadly we don’t see enough of her (after all, this is the actress who was once “Catwoman”).