Peter Ayton

Will a zombiefied BBC be seen as worth defending..?

Meet the water sommeliers: they believe H₂O can rival wine – but would you pay £19 a bottle? A restaurant in the English county of Cheshire has launched a water menu, as have a number of US establishments. Is it really possible, though, to tell one terroir from another?

“Water is piquing everyone’s interest and we’re hoping it’s about to really take off.”

www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

Rosebud sled from Citizen Kane sells at auction for £11m Item donated by a director who was given it during a studio clearout becomes second most valuable piece of movie memorabilia

Other sleds are available - and at much lower prices. So why is this one so special?

A spectacular demonstration of the effects of magical contagion

www.theguardian.com/film/2025/ju...

‘I’ve been hooked’: scourge of shady line calls baffles Raducanu and others In the world of elite tennis, not everyone believes their rivals can be trusted to make fair calls in umpire-free practice sessions

In practice matches elite tennis players don’t trust each other to make honest line calls…..

www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/j...

Daniel Kahneman remembered by Daniel J Levitin The neuroscientist celebrates the Nobel-winning author of Thinking, Fast and Slow – a psychologist whose elegance of thought helped reveal the foibles of human reasoning

www.theguardian.com/culture/2024...

Shoppers can be made to feel sorry for single bananas, study finds Researchers say supermarket customers are more likely to buy a piece of fruit labelled as a ‘sad single’

The pitiful allure of the single banana

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Private sector offers to the NHS must beat ‘one for the price of two’ deal | Brief letters Brief letters: Streeting’s scepticism | The force of female artists | Accordion jokes | Defining ‘scientific racism’ | Tesco’s solar energy drive

My latest - substantially plagiarized - publication sadly (but perhaps fittingly) rendered drab by editorial changes.

A “flourish-ectomy”- has reduced my stylish submission to the flat leaden inelegant embarrassment you see here) www.theguardian.com/society/2024...

Would you..?