5 things we learned this week
1 Diners at high-end restaurants in America are eating caviar as if they are snorting cocaine. The so-called ‘caviar bump’ is when dollops of the pricey fish roe are slurped off the back of one’s hand. It’s not as gimmicky as it sounds, says The New York Times – caviar specialists claim it’s how they traditionally sample the product, to avoid muddying their taste buds with accompaniments like blinis or chives.
2 The new fashion trend among reality TV stars is not for the faint-hearted. It’s a heady combination of ‘large underwear and mesh’, says Kelly
Conaboy on the celebrity website Gawker. Transformers actress Megan Fox, right, tried it in September, but ‘we can now formally announce its status as le style officiel’ thanks to three stars sporting the look at Sunday’s MTV Movie & TV Awards. It’s the style answer we’ve been looking for, ‘presented as clearly as the large underwear it comprises – which is quite clear indeed’.
3 Vinyl’s comeback has gone mainstream. Harry Styles’s new album, Harry’s House, sold 182,000 LPs in the US in its first week – more than any other album in a single week since 1991. Those sales alone were enough to propel it to No1 in the charts. Digital music, meanwhile, accounted for only four per cent of US music industry revenues in 2021.
4 A bakery in Kyiv has made a croissant in honour of Boris Johnson. The ‘Boris Johnsonyuk’ has a meringue topping crowned with vanilla ice cream – supposedly to represent the PM’s blond locks – and apparently sells out every day. ‘Boris Johnson is not just a prime minister,’ wrote Zavertailo Cafe on Instagram, ‘but is also now a croissant.’
5 If you want a long life, head for Sardinia. The village of Perdasdefogu has taken the Guinness World Record for the highest proportion of centenarians. It has eight people aged 100 – one in 220 of the population. Sardinia is one of five so-called ‘blue zones’ where people live to an extraordinary age. The others are Okinawa, Nicoya in Costa Rica, Ikaria in Greece and Loma Linda in California.
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