Happy Saturday! There was a lot to take in this week. Spacing out for a whole 90 minutes is the kind of challenge I need. Or perhaps a trip to the cinemas. But before I do that, let me bring you five stories worth your time.
1. Nothing dull about it
After a heart attack, Andrew McKean moved to a care facility. While stuck in the confines of a room for most of the day, McKean started writing about “the slow unfolding of a life”. Sounds dull, right? Well, no actually – not once he started posting about it in the Dull Men’s Club.
What is it? An international club where people share online the tedium of everyday lives.
Where? The idea originated in the 1980s in New York, when founder Grover Click and some friends decided to “embrace their dullness”, Susan Chenery writes.
And now? It is immensely popular, with 1.9 million Facebook members on Click’s original page.
How long will it take to read: three minutes.
Further reading: and then you must meet “the dullest man in Britain”.
2. At-home Taliban enforcers
Since retaking power in Afghanistan in 2021, the Taliban have enforced repressive laws on Afghan women through their “morality police”. But now Afghan fathers, brothers and husbands say they are under pressure to ensure women in their families observe the restrictions.
‘Changing attitudes and behaviours’: the Guardian, with Rukhshana Media, interviewed men and young women about how morality laws are affecting families.
One man from Bamyan province said: “Men have become unpaid soldiers of the Taliban.”
How long will it take to read: three minutes.
3. How we survive
Seventeen years ago, Nathan Dunne took a midnight swim in the icy waters of Hampstead Heath in London with his then girlfriend. As she kissed him in the cold, something inside him abruptly shifted.
***
“It was like being struck. Like something came down … The flip of a switch.” – Nathan Dunne.
Dunne was locked out of his body, or at least that’s how it felt, and had a sudden fear of water. Years later, he was diagnosed with depersonalisation disorder.
How long will it take to read: five minutes.
4. The architect who defined Fire Island
Guardian readers love architecture, but throw in some “weekend-long parties and carnal pleasure”, as Oliver Wainwright suggests, and you’ve got yourself a fabulous read on the hedonistic party palaces of New York’s Fire Island.
A ‘queer Xanadu’: Wainwright celebrates the legacy of late architect Horace Gifford, who defined the area’s modernist beach-houses.
‘It was made for sex’: Calvin Klein is name dropped, including the time he bought one of Gifford’s houses and had it renovated into a home “made for sex”.
How long will it take to read: four minutes.
5. My mother: the famous feminist who couldn’t be bothered raising me
When Erica Jong’s autobiographical novel Fear of Flying was published in 1973, it catapulted her to fame. The American author broke ground by writing openly about women’s sexual desires – rarely done at the time. She quickly became known for her candour and wit.
But for her daughter, Molly Jong-Fast, growing up as Erica’s only child told a different story.
A compelling read: In this excerpt from her new memoir, Jong-Fast reflects on the lingering pain of being “still stuck in the mire of childhood”, despite having “created a different life” as an adult.
How long will it take to read: nine minutes.
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