MISSING LINKS
HOW two seemingly unrelated figures in the news are joined by a series of unexpected connections.
SIR DAVID ATTENBOROUGH
… last week helped to present BBC coverage of the procession of the Queen’s coffin, and is also back narrating Frozen Planet II.
His work means he’s had more than 40 animal and plant species named after him, from an Argentinian dung fly to a Tasmanian semi-slug. He has 32 honorary degrees from UK universities, more than anybody else, and is one of the most travelled people in the world, racking up some 1.9million miles – equivalent to 763 times around the Earth. Yet he didn’t drive a single one of them, having never got his licence – just like…
NOEL GALLAGHER
But that didn’t stop the Oasis star boasting a collection of luxury cars that included a £110,000 1967 Jaguar. Earlier this year the singer revealed he’s been banned from China for life – deemed an ‘enemy of the people’ because he played a pro-Tibet concert in New York 25 years ago. China loves banning things, from Wikipedia to Christmas to…
DR SEUSS
… whose children’s book Green Eggs And Ham was blocked by Mao Tse-Tung’s regime, probably because of its anti-authoritarian sentiment. The author, real name Theodor Seuss Geisel, wrote more than 60 books, including 1950’s I Ran The Zoo, in which the word
‘nerd’ first appeared. Although the king of making up words was…
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
… who created more than 1,700 of them, including ‘leapfrog’, ‘lonely’, obscene’ ‘downstairs’ and ‘anchovy’. Few realise that the Bard wore an earring – one of the few images of him, the Chandos portrait, shows him sporting the jewellery. This puts him in the company of…
HARRY STYLES
… who is often pictured with the adornment. The former One Direction star’s new film, My Policeman, had its world premiere in Toronto last week – and was slated. American critic Robert Daniels said:
‘He stands and speaks like a tourist awkwardly stumbling upon a movie set’ – while according to The Times:
‘The word “plodding” seems all too appropriate.’