Looking for fresh olives? Here’s why you won’t find them at the grocery store!

Sorry to disappoint all of the olive lovers out there, but the fresh fruit actually tastes really horrible—so horrible that grocery stores won’t sell it. The compound in the fruit that makes it taste so disgusting and bitter is oleuropein. Fresh olives contain up to 14 per cent of it. (Here are 26 foods you should never buy again.)

To make olives edible, professional olive processors and bold home cooks use three different methods to remove the oleuropein. The first two methods are soaking them in water or fermenting them in a salt brine. The downside to those methods is that they take weeks. The third method is a chemical shortcut, and it can get olives onto supermarket shelves much faster after being picked. It involves soaking the olives in Lye, or sodium hydroxide. Also known as NaOH, sodium hydroxide speeds up the chemical breakdown between oleuropein and sugar to less bitter (and tastier) compounds. This whole process takes about one week. After being thoroughly rinsed of any chemicals, the olives are packed in salt brine to help preserve them when being shipped. (Here are four more ways science can trick your taste buds.)

Sometimes the saying, “fresh is always better” isn’t always true, and with olives, that is definitely the case. Next, find out these five fascinating facts about olive oil.

Nothing succeeds like success, as every parent of a straight-A student knows, but trying to reinforce academic excellence by telling your child, “You’re so smart,” may be counterproductive. Here’s why: According to the findings of a 2017 study, children who think their intelligence is fixed are less likely to pay attention and bounce back from mistakes than children who think intelligence can grow and change. Telling kids they’re smart reinforces the idea that intelligence is a genetic gift rather than a skill that can be honed. (Studies also say handwriting can make children smarter.)

In the study, published online in the journal Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, researchers at Michigan State University looked at 123 children who were about 7, as kids this age face the challenge of transitioning to school. The team assessed the children to determine whether they had a “growth mindset” (believing that you can work harder to get smarter), or a “fixed mindset” (believing that your intelligence is unable to change). They then asked the children to complete a fast-paced computer accuracy task while their brain activity was recorded. In the task, children played a game, helping a zookeeper capture escaped animals by pressing the space bar when an animal showed up on their screen—unless it was a group of three orangutan friends. During the recording, researchers noted that brain activity spiked within a half-second after making a mistake, as children became aware of their error and paid closer attention to what went wrong. The larger the brain response, the more the child focused on the error.

Based on the data they collected, the researchers concluded that children with a “growth mindset” were much more likely to have a larger brain response after making a mistake, and in turn were more likely to improve their performance by paying closer attention to the task after making an error. (If you teach your child these three languages, you’ll basically be raising a future CEO!)

While previous research has shown that people with a “fixed mindset” don’t want to admit they’ve made a mistake, this study found that children with a fixed mindset were able to “bounce back” after making an error, but only if they gave their full attention to the mistake. “The main implication here is that we should pay close attention to our mistakes and use them as opportunities to learn,” study author Hans Schroder told Science Daily.

For parents, the lessons are clear: For starters, don’t pay compliments that suggest that intelligence is fixed. If a child hands you an A+ test, don’t rave, “You’re so smart!” Instead say, “Wow, that studying really paid off!” or “You clearly mastered this material—way to go!” Note the effort, not the intelligence.

Second, focus on using errors to work together and learn.”Many parents and teachers shy away from addressing a child’s mistakes, telling them “It’s OK, you’ll get it the next time,” without giving them the opportunity to figure out what went wrong,” Dr. Schroder says. “Instead, it’s better to reassure the child that mistakes happen, and to pay attention and work to figure out where and how they made the mistake.”

Plus: 7 Science-Backed Ways Exercise Improves Students’ Grades

In conversation with royal historian Carolyn Harris

Between Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding, a new baby for Prince William and Kate Middleton and the success of The Crown, is the intrigue with royalty at an all-time high?

There’s definitely been a revival of interest among younger people, particularly here in Canada. That actually started in 2010 when the Queen visited to celebrate Canada Day. And then, a year later, William and Kate chose our country as their first overseas tour after marriage.

What do you make of Markle-mania? Why is the newest royal so popular?

We’re definitely seeing her interact with the public in a way reminiscent of Princess Diana. Just as Diana received a lot of attention for crouching down to speak with children and those who are ill, Meghan has been hugging people and making human connections.

A 2016 Ipsos Reid poll reported that about half of Canadians believe we should cut our ties to the monarchy when the Queen’s reign ends. Is there any reason not to?

I would say that when you look at the political climate around the world right now, you can see the value in having a level of government that is above party politics.

Is there any chance Charles could get skipped in the line of succession in favour of his more popular son?

No chance. Charles would have to abdicate and there is nothing to suggest that is something he is considering, or that Prince William is eager to become the king before his time. Prince Harry has even alluded to the fact that none of them really want that role.

Are you a fan of The Crown?

I think it’s a very well crafted TV series—but it’s certainly a blend of fact and fiction. For example, there is no evidence that Prince Philip had an affair, so those rumours are played up for a great deal of drama in the show.

How do you think the Queen feels about having her private life pilfered for entertainment?

I don’t know if she watches the show. But it’s interesting that, in her most recent Christmas address, she paid tribute to Prince Philip and to their marriage. She made a joke that when she began her reign there was no such thing as a platinum anniversary.

Back then the idea of a royal marrying a divorcée was absolutely unthinkable. Is the relationship between Prince Harry and the once-divorced Markle a sign of how much times have changed?

I think so. People look at the monarchy as a very traditional institution, but the Queen has reigned over a period of tremendous social change, including attitudes towards divorce. Her uncle, Edward VIII, had to abdicate to marry Wallis Simpson, but in 2005 Prince Charles married a divorced Camilla Parker Bowles. That’s helped pave the way for Prince Harry.

Brush up on your royal nuptial trivia with these 15 facts you never knew about royal weddings past.

Carolyn Harris’s Raising Royalty was published in 2017.

Veteran Profile: Hubert Landry

Hubert Arthur Joseph Landry was born in 1922 in Lamoureux, Alta. He joined the Royal Canadian Air Force on September 16, 1941 at age 19. He wanted to be a pilot but his eyesight was not sharp enough. “We’ll make you an airframe mechanic,” he was told. A morale-boosting duty in that role was stencilling insignia on aircraft upon their return from a mission:

“Below the pilot’s window, you painted a little bomb, then another one and another one (after every sortie). One crew left on their 26th trip; we never saw them again. Seven young men. That was one of my really bad memories… You felt like crying.”

For more profiles by Veterans Voices of Canada, click here.

This letter from a Canadian soldier explains the sacrifice of veterans everywhere.

The Connection Between Rainbows and Gay Rights

This June, you might notice an increasing number of rainbow flags around town. June is LGBT pride month in Canada, so it’s likely this multi-coloured symbol will be more prevalent than usual. But how did the rainbow come to be associated with gay rights in the first place?

Legend says that it all started with a single parade. In 1978, Harvey Milk, a San Francisco city supervisor and the first openly gay politician elected to office in California, asked his friend Gilbert Baker to create a symbol for the LGBT community. Milk wanted to reveal the new design at the Gay Freedom Pride Parade in San Francisco that year.

Baker, a gay rights activist, army veteran, and artist, immediately got to work designing a striped flag with eight colours. According to Baker’s website, each colour on the flag had a special meaning: Pink represented sex, red for life, orange for healing, yellow for sunlight, green for nature, turquoise for magic, blue for serenity, and violet represented spirit. Thirty volunteers hand-dyed and stitched the original two flags.

That said, no one knows exactly why Baker chose to make the symbol a rainbow. Some say he was paying tribute to Judy Garland, one of the first gay icons, who famously sang “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” in the movie The Wizard of Oz. Others believe that Baker was inspired by a multi-coloured flag used on college campuses in the 1960s to symbolize world peace and unity.

Regardless of their original inspiration, the rainbow flags were a huge success when Baker unveiled them at the 1978 San Francisco Pride Parade. “We stood there and watched and saw the flags, and their faces lit up,” Cleve Jones, an LGBT rights activist who attended the parade, told the New York Times. “It needed no explanation. People knew immediately that it was our flag.”

The symbol’s popularity soared after Milk’s assassination just a few months later. Many saw the rainbow flag as “a beautiful, uplifting image that filled a need for a recognizable symbol for the LGBT community,” said Peter Tatchell, a veteran LGBT equality and human rights campaigner since the 1960s.

“I like to think [the rainbow flag] spread because for the first time, gays were being told to be proud,” said Nico Ramsey, a social activist in Austin, Texas. “When I look at the flag, I see various elements of me. I have never viewed myself to be simple. I recognize that I am complex, and that is what makes me unique and beautiful.” (Find out how to live without prejudice.)

As demand for the flag increased, its original eight colours were narrowed down to six: red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple. Fewer colours kept production costs low and made the flags easier to display.

Today, “the rainbow flag has become one of the most ubiquitous and universally recognized flags in the world,” Tatchell said. “Unlike other flags, it transcends national borders and unites people of different cultures. It symbolizes the global LGBT family and our worldwide freedom struggle.” (Check out how two Canadians are helping LGBT refugees find asylum in Canada.)

But displaying the flag isn’t the only way members of the LGBT community and their allies celebrate unity and pride. These days, you can find the rainbow symbol on everything from t-shirts to mugs to towels to bed sheets, according to Tatchell.

Here are 7 things you should never say when someone comes out (and what to say instead).

Driving Forward
Equality “I cried when I heard the news,” says Saudi activist Manal al-Sharif, referring to the royal decree that women would finally be allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia from next month [June].

Until now, only men have been able to hold licenses in the kingdom, and women who drove in public risked arrest, a fine or even jail. Al-Sharif herself spent nine days in prison in 2011 after being charged with “driving while female.”

Since the ground-breaking announcement last September, the race has been on to recruit the first female taxi drivers. Ride-hailing company Careem is running training sessions for Saudi women who have already acquired valid driver’s licenses while abroad. And the company says it will hire 10,000 female chauffeurs to drive other women and families.

“This is a rite of passage for women,” says Sarah Algwaiz, director of Careem’s women chauffeurs program. “For women to drive their own cars signals autonomy, mobility, and financial independence.”

Meanwhile, the kingdom’s first-ever car showroom for women has opened in the seaport of Jeddah.

Paris’s Sparkling Future
Environment Take a sip from a drinking fountain in Paris and you may be surprised to discover that you’re enjoying sparkling water. The city has begun providing carbonated water at some of its 1,000 public fountains so as to encourage people to drink tap water rather than buy the environmentally unfriendly bottled version.

“We want to push people to change their habits and trust that water from a public tap is good-quality water,” says deputy mayor Célia Blauel. “Drinking is like a political act: you’re doing something for you, for your health, but also for the planet.” She adds that when a family of four switches from bottled to tap water, it means more than five fewer kilograms of plastic waste a year.

In a similar move, London mayor Sadiq Khan has announced plans to roll out water fountains and bottle-refill stations across the U.K. capital.

Into the Nano-World
Science The world’s most powerful X-ray laser has begun operation in a 3.4-kilometer tunnel below Hamburg in Germany.

“We can look deep into the world of atoms and molecules, and study things we didn’t previously know—for example, what molecules do in a chemical reaction,” says Johanna Wanka, Germany’s education and research minister.

Sailor saves cook from watery grave
Heroes It was 10 p.m., and as the cargo ship MS Prima Donna made its way from Cologne to Finland, a voice cried out: “Man overboard!” The vessel’s cook had fallen into the water.

When 28-year-old first mate Anton Tasanen saw that the man was unconscious and floating face down, he took off his jacket, trousers and shoes and leaped after him. Using a rope, he was able to secure him, and the pair were winched to safety. In the process, he fractured several ribs, but the cook’s life was saved.

It was only when he looked back on what had happened that he thought about the danger. “I was just thinking about that guy,” says Tasanen, who lives in Turku on Finland’s south-west coast. “When I heard that he woke up at the hospital, it was a big relief.”

Sources: Equality—Daily Mail, 12.10.17. Environment—NPR, 1.12.17; The Guardian, 4.12.17. Science—The Local (Germany), 2.9.17. Heroes—imrfhero.org

People love to hear about the idiotic legislation that their country and others possess. But when looking further into these supposed laws, it soon becomes clear that many don’t really exist at all, or have long since been repealed, or are phrased in a way that at first seems crazy but in fact makes sense.

There is, of course, plenty of absurd legislation that turns out to be genuinely absurd. So it’s worth sorting out the genuine crazy laws from the ones that are crazy but aren’t real laws … and from those that are real laws but which turn out not to be crazy.

So first up is the widely held notion that it is illegal in France to name a pig Napoleon. It’s certainly true that there was a French law from 1881 that forbade offensive mockery of the head of state during his time in office. But it was passed 66 years after the end of the Emperor Napoleon’s reign, and 11 years after his nephew Napoleon III was deposed, so it could never have applied to pigs called Napoleon while a Napoleon ruled and was not applicable subsequently without a Napoleon as head of state.

In any case, the law was repealed in July 2013 after the European Court of Human Rights ruled that a protester’s rights had been abused when he was fined €30 in 2008 for “offensive mockery” of then-President Nicolas Sarkozy by calling him “a jerk.”

On the other hand, it really is legal in France to marry a dead person, provided that there is evidence that the deceased wished to marry the surviving partner.

The law making this possible was introduced in 1959 after President de Gaulle visited the Provençal town of Fréjus, where a dam had burst, killing hundreds of people. There he met a young woman whose husband-to-be was among the victims. She begged to be allowed to go ahead with her wedding and the law was duly passed.

Dozens of posthumous weddings now take place each year in France, motivated by the simple desire to fulfill the dream of matrimony.

It is also true that aliens from outer space are banned from landing on the world-famous vineyards of Châteauneuf-du-Pape in south-eastern France. In 1954, the local mayor, Lucien Jeune, proclaimed: “Any aircraft, known as flying saucer or flying cigar, which should land on the territory of the community will be immediately held in custody.”

As recently as October 2016 mayor Claude Avril affirmed, “I’m not going to touch the ban.” Well, why should he? Not a single Martian has touched down in Châteauneuf. Alors, the ban has worked!

Over the border in Switzerland, there’s a widespread belief that residents are banned from flushing a lavatory after ten o’clock at night.

This turns out to be half-true. There is no national law on flushing lavatories in Switzerland, but there is legislation requiring householders to be mindful of their neighbors. This is used by Swiss cantons, municipalities, and apartment-building owners to justify rules governing the noise of, for example, high heels on wooden floors, car horns, noisy pets… and late-night lavatories.

That’s not to say that even the sensible, orderly, peaceful Swiss don’t have their own genuinely odd laws hidden away in their statute books.

For example, it is legal in Switzerland to eat a cat or a dog, despite petitions to parliament to outlaw the practice. Fricassée de chat, anyone? No, thought not.

Individual cantons can make their own rules. Hikers are not allowed to pursue their hobby in the nude in the northeastern Swiss canton of Appenzell—a law introduced after the conservative locals became alarmed that the hills and valleys of their picturesque region had become a magnet for naked walkers.

The British, without understanding what the sanction could be, believed it to be illegal to die in the Houses of Parliament. It was voted Britain’s most absurd law in a 2007 poll. But six years later the Law Commission of England and Wales concluded that no such law had ever been passed.

The Commission did, however, note that there is still a statute, dating from 1313, that forbids Members of Parliament from wearing armor in Parliament—no matter how much many an embattled Prime Minister must have wished for a helmet and breastplate.

More prosaically, the Commission also confirms that it is illegal in the capital, London, to carry a plank along a pavement, or fire a cannon within 300 yards of a house; and it is an offense in England and Wales to be drunk in an establishment licensed to sell alcohol, or to be drunk in charge of a horse.

Some of these LAWS sound crazier than perhaps they are. Who, after all, wants to be hit by a plank when the person carrying it turns a corner?

And there’s a good reason why it’s illegal to feed the pigeons in Venice. Pigeons can stuff a lot of food into their stomachs. But that food soon reappears as pigeon droppings, which damage the historic buildings that the people who feed the pigeons have come to see and admire. So the less food the birds eat, the less mess they make and the less damage they cause.

But were the authorities elsewhere in Italy really so sensible to ban spherical fish bowls in Rome, or to insist that all pet dogs in Turin are walked three times a day, and that pets in Reggio Emilia must, by law, receive an equal portion of any shared meal?

And did the mayors of various tourist resorts really have to ban the building of sand castles in Eraclea, or kissing in cars in Eboli, or hanging beach towels out of windows to dry in Lerici, or wearing flip-flops anywhere but the beach in Capri, or strolling through the streets of Vietri sul Mare and Castellamare di Stabia bare-chested, in bikinis, or with “very skimpy clothes”?

In Germany, it seems, the main beef is noise, with stringent rules on anti-social Lärmbelästigung, or noise pollution. An average suburban man elsewhere in Europe might spend his Sunday afternoon mowing the lawn or putting up a bookshelf. But not in Germany, where both drilling and mowing are strictly forbidden on Sundays and on public holidays.

And the country that brought us Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, and Wagner has it in for musical instruments, too. Germany’s Federal Court of Justice has ruled that playing or even tuning instruments is forbidden in rented apartments at any time except from 8 a.m. to noon and from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m.

The nation that appears most frequently accused of legal idiocies is the United States. For example, Lorraine Lorne, associate law librarian of the University of Arkansas Law Library, investigated the constant online suggestions that men in Arkansas were entitled to beat their wives—but only once a month.

She concluded: “No such law was found in any of the Arkansas statutes.” But she goes on to say, “However, the states of Alabama, Arizona, California, South Carolina appear to permit beating one’s spouse within certain limited circumstances … (including) with the permission of the victim!”

Elsewhere in America, visitors to New York should note that section 255.17 of the New York state penal code mandates that extramarital sex is a “class B misdemeanor” that can lead to 90 days in jail or a $500 fine.

In Kentucky, it is forbidden to “sell or exchange, display, or possess living baby chicks, ducklings, or other fowl or rabbits which have been dyed or colored … in any quantity less than six.” In other words, it is a crime to sell one duckling that has been dyed bright blue, but not to sell six blue ducklings.

Heading out into the Pacific, it is illegal in the state of Hawaii to sit at a bar with more than one drink in front of you, unless you can point out the other person for whom you have bought the drink. Incidentally, by law the official state fish of Hawaii is the Humuhumunukunukuapa’a, otherwise known as the reef triggerfish. Just try ordering that in a restaurant, with or without two drinks in front of you.

The mania for crazy laws is spreading all over the world like a legislative virus.

In Singapore, the importation, sale and use of chewing gum has been illegal since 1992, unless the gum has proven medicinal qualities.

In Saudi Arabia, the Commission for the Promotion of Virtues and Prevention of Vice has made it a crime for men to walk their dogs or their cats in the street, for fear that they will use their pets to help them make advances to passing women.

China, meanwhile, has its sights set on heaven. Buddhist monks in Chinese-occupied Tibet intent on achieving nirvana may not be reincarnated after their death unless they file a Reincarnation Application to the Chinese State Religious Affairs Bureau.

For its sheer, rampant legal lunacy, the prize for craziest law in the world surely goes to a passage in Australia’s Goods and Services Act (1999), dealing with “a new tax system.” This law is not just crazy, it explicitly defies reality, creating a surreal world in which up is down and black is white, as follows …

“The Commissioner may treat a particular event that actually happened as not having happened, and treat a particular event that did not happen as having happened, and treat an event that actually happened as having happened at a time different from the time it actually happened.” Now that really is crazy!

What is it about Talfourd Avenue? On the face of it, it’s just another street of small but smart semis in east Reading, 60 kilometers west of London. True, it’s handy for the number 17 bus into town, and it’s close to the local university and a rather pleasant lake. But you could say the same for plenty of other streets in the vicinity.

The first clue that something unusual is happening in Talfourd Avenue is perhaps the large planter on the corner at one end. As one of the children who lives in the street, says, “There are lots of different types of flowers in it. Anyone can plant flowers there. If they’re all dying, some of us will meet up and water them.”

A communal planter? Neighbors doing things together? While British TV soap operas depict a nation of families that meet up in the local pub each night and are in and out of each other’s houses on a regular basis, the reality is rather different.

But Talfourd, as its residents like to refer to the street, is not like that. “I remember when we first moved here, it soon became apparent that people were friendly,” says Jane, who works for the British government’s Environment Agency.

“When we moved in, several people just came up and chatted to us and asked who we were. I’d never known that before!” says web designer Karly.

“The first time I discovered what it’s like was our first Christmas. Carol singers came to our door and sang ‘Away in a Manger’. I thought they must be doing it for charity, but they weren’t, they were just doing it for the joy of singing and sharing,” says Rachel, who works at Reading University.

And there’s more to Talfourd than just a welcoming spirit. Take the case of Marion and Simon. One Christmas, Marion broke her leg, and shortly afterwards, Simon fell down some stairs and broke his foot.

Both of them were incapacitated, making it difficult to look after themselves and their three children. So the residents of the street helped out in all sorts of different ways: taking their kids to school, washing Marion’s hair, getting their shopping, and more.

“We helped them for about three or four months,” says Nicola, who works as a speech therapist. “People do lots of small favors for others here. When I talk to my friends about the street, a lot of them say, ‘Gosh, I wish I lived in a place that was as friendly as that.’

“But some people think it’s an awful idea. My brother said he’d hate to live somewhere like this, where everybody knows everybody else, and there’s no anonymity. But I don’t find it overwhelming, we’ve all got our own lives.”

Nobody is quite sure when Talfourd became such a beacon of good neighborliness, but it seems to go back decades. Chris, now a retired teacher, moved here with his wife, Sue, in 1988. Even back then the street was known for its communal spirit. “Sue decided that of all the places in the world she wanted to live, it was here, because of the great relationships between people,” says Chris. “Obviously a lot of the older people that we knew when we moved in have gone now but, if anything, it’s developed more. The next generation have really taken things further.”

Indeed they have. In recent years, several regular events have been instituted in the Talfourd calendar. There’s the Big Lunch, an annual street party that takes place in the summer; Talfest, a mini music festival featuring local performers; a coach trip to the seaside; a picnic at the nearby park; a film club; a street choir; and Playing Out, when Talfourd is closed to traffic to allow children (and adults) to play in the street.

It sounds like the result of regular committee meetings, but in fact it’s all pretty freeform. As far as organization goes, a letter is sent out once a year to everyone in the street setting out the main events, and that’s about it. Anyone can instigate new activities if they want, and they’ll usually find a receptive audience.

“We’re a very unusual street, but in a good way,” says Rachel, who’s one of Talfourd’s prime movers. “There’s a real mix of people who live here, and almost everyone gets involved in one way or another, but not everyone’s going to get involved in everything.”

“We’re not in each other’s pockets all the time,” says Rick, who works in the air conditioning business. “And it’s not that we’re all similar people. But there’s a real sense of enthusiasm. Whenever someone comes up with a suggestion, whatever it is, people just go, ‘Yeah!’”

So could we all be a bit more Talfourd? Rachel thinks so. “Even if you just do a Big Lunch once a year or do a Playing Out, give it a go,” she says. “Things will grow from that.”

And where does Talfourd go from here? There will be new events added to the calendar, we can be sure of that. And there’s even talk of taking a bit of Talfourd to the rest of Europe and twinning with other streets on the Continent.

Any takers out there?

The Big Lunch
Jan: “The first ever Big Lunch event took place in 2009 after my husband Andrew read about an initiative to get people to hold street parties together. We thought we could hold a lunch on the nearby allotments for fellow plot holders and neighbors from Talfourd. We had around 36 people on the day and we decided that it was an event worth repeating.

“The following year we ended up meeting on the pavement outside our house, then in 2011 the town council started granting free street closures, so we collected signatures and submitted an application. Andrew died suddenly shortly afterwards and there was a question as to whether the event should go ahead. I felt that it was vital that it did and it turned out to be even bigger than we could have hoped. The following years have seen it grow into a highlight of our social calendar. It’s the most wonderful tribute to Andrew.”

Chris: “It always begins with what I think of as the comedy of the gazebo going up. There are three brothers and their families who live in the street and one of them owns an enormous gazebo, so the first thing that happens after the street is closed at noon is they get out all the bits of this gazebo and put it together.

“Then people bring down the tables and chairs and the bunting starts to go up. There’s a PA system and people bring instruments along. Everyone brings food and it’s put out and shared. There’ll be about a hundred people all together.”

The Film Club
Nicola: “There are 16 of us involved from the street and we’ve been doing it for eight years. It’s a bit like a book club. We take it in turns to host, and whoever’s hosting is responsible for picking the film, which we watch together. Alcohol is generally involved, and people do quite elaborate snacks.

“We tend to watch a lot of films from overseas, some of them quite thought-provoking, although not always. The lowlights have included an Icelandic film called Rams, which the woman over the road told us was really funny, but turned out to be a film about scrapie in sheep and two farmer brothers who had fallen out with each other. It was the most depressing film we’ve ever watched.

“The highlights have included Little Miss Sunshine, which is an unremittingly cheerful film, and a German film about a teacher who decides to try and show people what living in a totalitarian regime is like. For Sue’s 70th birthday we watched a black-and-white film from 1946 called Stairway To Heaven, which was really quite remarkable.”

Talfest
Karly: “The first year it was just Simon and Hilary, two professional musicians who were living in the street, who played, and everyone brought some food. It was a bit like a street party but with some music. We didn’t even call it Talfest until the second year. We’re a bit embarrassed by the name, to be honest!”

Jane: “We hold it in the back garden. We open the doors of the patio and take the fence panels down between our house and Karly’s. It’s grown massively in the last five years. At the last one we started with some kids in the street who are about 13 or 14 with their own little band. Then there was a ukulele band, Simon and Hilary again, a guy who sings with an accordion who’s incredibly talented, and more.

“There must have been about 120 people who came along. The music stops at ten o’clock, because we’re very aware of neighbors in the next street, but people are out until three in the morning.”

Playing Out
Rachel: “It started in October 2013. My mum saw an article in a national newspaper about Playing Out, which is a grassroots movement, and said, ‘This might be something you’d like in your street.’ With the support of some of our neighbors, I lobbied the council to get permission to close the street.

“It happens every second Saturday of the month. We put wheelie bins across the top of the street, and have special ‘road closed’ signs. People can still drive in, but they need to be escorted by someone walking in front of the car with a whistle—we have volunteers who agree to stand at either end to act as stewards.

“The idea is for the kids to get a bit more freedom, as well as health benefits, but it’s not just for kids. Sometimes we have a theme, such as Valentine’s Day or Bake Off. I never played in the street when I was a child, my parents wouldn’t have let me.”

The Coach Trip
Rick: “We did it for the first time in July last year. The idea came up in the pub. When I was a kid, we used to do road trips to the beach, and I said to a mate, ‘What do you reckon if we hired a bus?’ And he said, ‘Yeah, great!’

“We just dropped an email round and there was a pretty unanimous yes, so 49 of us and a dog went on a day trip to Bournemouth. The coach picked us up at nine in the morning and we all took a picnic, which we ate on the beach.

“The weather was awful and we were all wearing coats, but half of us still went in the sea. At five o’clock we all got back on the coach and we were home by 6:30. We’re definitely doing it again this year.”

Here’s how the royal family avoids food poisoning

Picture this: It’s been a long few months at work, and now it’s time to finally take a vacation. You decide to eat a delicious dinner at a restaurant to celebrate your first night out to celebrate. But afterward, you somehow find yourself getting incredibly ill from something you ate. It’s the saddest story that no one ever wants to tell, which is why the royal family tends to stay away from seafood while travelling. (Find out what it takes to travel like a Prince or Princess.)

Although seafood is delicious, there tends to be a higher chance for food poisoning or sickness from seafood. Since the royal family is lined up for thousands of engagements throughout the year, it only makes sense that they would want to stay their healthiest for those public appearances. Seafood, particularly shellfish, will certainly increase the chances for food sickness. (These facts about seafood will change how you eat fish forever.)

According to an article published by BBC, the royal family also avoids foods that could create “gastronomic indisposition.” Along with avoiding shellfish, they try to stay away from rare meat, foreign water, and any food that is too exotic or spicy. However, this hasn’t stopped Queen Elizabeth II from trying something adventurous every now and then. But no matter what the Queen eats, anyone dining with her must remember never to call her by her name!

Next, learn about the frugal habits of the royal family.

Veteran Profile: Helen Betsy Mitchinson

Helen was born in St. Catharines, Ont., on July 5, 1925. She joined the Women’s Royal Canadian Naval Service in 1943, and served as a switchboard operator. She was posted to the HMCS Discovery in Vancouver, Montreal, Halifax and Shelburne, N.S.

“We were trained to do the land jobs, so that the sailors, the men, could go to sea. The WRENS were essential… When I was in Shelburne (after) the war was over and they were decommissioning ships, we answered the phones and directed communications. There was lots going on.”

Helen was discharged in 1945. She and her husband, Jack, now live in Chatham, Ont.

Check out Veterans Voices of Canada for more profiles.

Find out how one couple escaped from East Germany and found freedom in Canada.