Life & Style news

• 2016 in puzzles

  17-12-2016 23:40
  
  Hugh Stephenson looks back on 12 months that were too hard and too easy
  Happy Christmas to you all. Thank you for your patience in 2016 when things went awry, for which I apologise. And thanks to those who took time to send notes of appreciation for what has been on offer. I have taken some comfort from the fact that the number of those complaining that the puzzles have been getting too easy is almost exactly the same as the number complaining that they have been getting too hard, hoping that th
  
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• The 12 Whiskeys of Christmas: Day 6

  17-12-2016 21:00
  
  Nikka Yoichi Single Malt ($80)
  This year, we’re filling the 12 days before Christmas with the best whiskeys on our wish lists…Richard Carleton Hacker
  
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• You’re Such A Star Wars Tool

  17-12-2016 18:16 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  And I mean it in a good way, this Star Wars tool I would like to own along with the R2-D2 Masseure Tape we featured just couple of days on Random Good Stuff.
  The above tool is a multi tool kit and lays just formidable in your hand. For easy wrenching and screwing, if you know what I mean. And If you’re not using is don’t throw is into a toolbox, it’s an extremely nice decorative coffee table piece. So don’t hide it, please.
  You’re Such Star Wars Tool
  Now watch some
  
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• Stick Bombs Not Stink Bombs

  17-12-2016 17:30 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  Domino runs are so yesterday but stick bomb runs are the new shiz! Even though I’m probably couple of months (years!) late to discover it myself. In case you haven’t heard about this new thing, it’s basically a bunch Popsicle sticks put together in a way it holds some kind of pressure. And once released it runs off just like Dominos! It looks extremely cool!
  Stick Bombs Not Stink Bombs
  There are different patterns of laying these sticks out. The coolest looking one is called th
  
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• Hear What Barbara Guggenheim Says Is the Next Hot Art Buy

  17-12-2016 17:00
  
  This untitled 1981 Basquiat—an acrylic-and-oilstick work on paper, displayed on fiberglass—bears the artist’s signature on the back
  Hear Why Barbara Guggenheim taps Jean-Michel Basquiat as one to buy…
  
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• Bold Linear Shapes Form this Canadian Ski-In Lodge

  17-12-2016 16:00
  
  Bohlin Cywinski Jackson completed this modern ski-in / ski-out lodge called Kicking Horse Residence for its location in British Columbia.  The owners wanted a weekend property capable of housing plenty of guests.  With that in mind, the design incorporates ladders leading up to bonus, lofted sleeping area with maple bunk beds.This home includes two distinct volumes.  It nestles the sleeping and bath spaces above the garage and below a slanted ceiling.  The black-stained cedar
  
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• Grasshoppers a tasty, nutritious holiday treat in Uganda

  17-12-2016 15:20 via winnipegfreepress.com
  
  KAMPALA, Uganda - Children scamper in the bush, jumping here and there to catch grasshoppers before they fly away. On a good day, many will walk away with plastic bags filled with the insects to fry and eat as a snack.Grasshoppers, known in the local Luganda language as "nsenene," are a...
  
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• 15 Home Design Trends That Rocked 2016

  17-12-2016 14:00
  
  2016 has been a rollercoaster of a year, to say the least. Yet like any other, it brought new home trends that we saw go from the homes of prominent designers to our own abodes. From modern metals to quirky accent pieces, we gathered up a list of the things we saw the most in over the past 12 months on blogs, in stores, and all over our Pinterest boards. Here’s a look back at all of the trends we saw influencing our own homes and design styles in 2016.Image: Camilla Molders DesignFish Scal
  
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• Drug overdose deaths increased significantly in past 5 years

  17-12-2016 12:47 via winnipegfreepress.com
  
  CONCORD, N.H. - Drug overdose deaths have increased by 33 per cent in the past five years across the country, with some states seeing jumps of nearly 200 per cent.According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 30 states saw increases in overdose deaths resulting from the
  
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• Ask Alys Fowler: why didn’t my kniphofias flower?

  17-12-2016 12:00
  
  Our gardening expert has the answerI planted three yellow kniphofia this year; none flowered. One grew quite big, with lots of leaves but no sign of buds. My soil is clay but I added compost and grit to improve the drainage. They get sun for about half of the day.Be patient. You have decided to put sun-loving plants in a moderately sunny place; they are either just getting used to their home or sulking a bit. Either way they’ll settle in. Lots of leaves is a good sign: it means the plant i
  
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• Modular Designer Lights

  17-12-2016 11:25 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  Aurora nanoleaf is this modular designer light called and designer it is. You have different triangular flat lights you can connect to each other and then over an app you have full control over the color and I also belief over how bright they are as well.
  Modular Designer Lights
  The starter kids for my taste doesn’t have enough panels. I would love to have enough panels to deck out an entire room, including floor and ceiling. But for that I have to hand over a serious amount of money. Woul
  
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• 'I am not naturally magnetic': can you learn how to be charismatic?

  17-12-2016 11:00
  
  From politics to business, charisma is the 21st-century must-have. But what is it – and can you really turn a shy type into a George Clooney?It is a Tuesday afternoon and I am sitting in the hairdressers, having both my usuals: a short back and sides and a mild attack of awkwardness. Apart from the snip of scissors, a silence has descended. It’s not the barber’s fault; he’s covered all the regular bases (my hair, my weekend plans, where I’m going on holiday). Now th
  
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• Yotam Ottolenghi’s recipes for comfort eating over Christmas

  17-12-2016 10:00
  
  From peppers stuffed with chorizo and almonds to burnt sprouts with a cheesy, gingery dressing: oven bakes, roasts and charred dishes for maximum comfortI usually do three recipes for this column, but I got a bit overexcited in the run-up to Christmas, so this week I’ve squeezed in four, all of them baked, charred or roasted for extra comfort. (And anyway, what kind of food writer would I be if I didn’t provide a recipe for sprouts at this time of year?) So, happy planning, cooking a
  
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• What I’m really thinking: the vegan

  17-12-2016 10:00
  
  In recent years, I’ve found being vegan makes romantic relationships difficultI wish there were more of us. When I became a vegan at 19, my meat-eating parents worried my already fraught relationship with food was deteriorating. Family meals became stressful, eating out was a problem; I felt like a burden. But the more articles I read, and the more recipes I tried, the more my relationship with food began to heal.In recent years, I’ve found being vegan makes romantic relationships di
  
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• Sex in Silicon Valley: are millennials better at free love?

  17-12-2016 10:00
  
  When Elizabeth met Wes they agreed there would be no sexual boundaries. Would their tech-savvy style of polyamory work?When I turned 30, in 2011, I envisioned my sexual experience eventually reaching a terminus, like a monorail gliding to a stop. I would disembark, find myself face-to-face with another human being, and there we would remain in our permanent station in life: the future.I was single and straight. I had not chosen to be single, but love is rare and frequently unreciprocated. Withou
  
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• Drug overdose deaths increase significantly in past 5 years

  17-12-2016 09:50 via winnipegfreepress.com
  
  CONCORD, N.H. - Drug overdose deaths have increased by 33 per cent in the past five years across the country, with some states seeing jumps of nearly 200 per cent.According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 30 states saw increases in overdose deaths resulting from the
  
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• Modern tribes: the Christmas clean-eater

  17-12-2016 09:00
  
  If you serve Tallulah’s pumpkin, chia and toadstool faux-turkey porridge you’ll be giving your guests the best present of all: the gift of wellbeing’If there’s one thing the lovely team here at Awesomely Alicia and Totally Tallulah agree on, it’s we heart, heart, HEART Christmas. Except for just one thing: so-called “festive” food and drink, laden with fat and sugar and gluten and all the processed nasties we’ve trained our bods to live without! Kn
  
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• Labour of love: the volunteers helping fellow refugees give birth

  17-12-2016 09:00
  
  When Safa came to the UK from Syria, she faced having her baby alone. Now Fatoma, who fled Sudan 10 years ago, will be with her as part of a groundbreaking schemeClick here to donate to our charity appeal
  Bouncing a chattering toddler on her knee, a patterned headscarf framing her broad smile, Safa shows few signs of how difficult her life has been. But as she describes the past five years, her hand moves instinctively to her pregnant stomach.In 2012, Safa and her husband, both in their late 20s
  
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• Beauty: Christmas gifts for him indoors

  17-12-2016 09:00
  
  Men love a quality grooming gift, provided it’s not of the novelty varietyWhile beauty departments are stuffed, capon-like, with too many great present ideas, men are frequently sold short with faux vintage razor and bowl sets, or grooming products corralled incongruously into a mug. But in my experience men love a quality grooming gift, provided it’s not of the novelty variety (step away from the hilarious moustache care kits).Clarins Men and Clinique For Men are reli
  
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• Penicillin was discovered at which hospital? The Weekend quiz

  17-12-2016 08:00
  
  From drugs to swans to Sissy Spacek, test your knowledge with the Weekend quiz1 What starts with a General Prologue and ends with a Retraction?
  2 Which breed of swan is named after an English engraver?
  3 What was famously tied around a Phrygian ox-cart?
  4 What range from 9H to 9B?
  5 Who hosts a TV “Drag Race”?
  6 Which organ is made up of red and white pulp?
  7 Which company made the PET, VIC-20 and 64 computers?
  8 Penicillin was discovered at which hospital?
  What links:
  9 Sissy Spacek
  
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• Is it worth buying an annual airport executive lounge pass?

  17-12-2016 08:00
  
  I’m wondering if this is a good present for a frequent flyer and if they’re actually any goodEvery week a Guardian Money reader submits a question, and it’s up to you to help him or her out – a selection of the best answers will appear in next Saturday’s paper.This week’s question: Continue reading...
  
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• Chew on this caffeinated gum touted as energy booster

  17-12-2016 07:45 via winnipegfreepress.com
  
  You’ve trained smartly, you’ve eaten wisely, but as the date with the starting line approaches, you are looking for one more addition to your exercise regimen.For some runners, that comes in the form of caffeinated gum.One of the newer entrants to the burgeoning sports-nutrition
  
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• Capturing the broken American Dream

  17-12-2016 07:45 via winnipegfreepress.com
  
  The best way to get photographer Chris Arnade to go somewhere is to warn him not to.Hunts Point in the Bronx is dangerous; stay away, friends said, when Arnade began walking all over New York City with his camera.That was when Arnade, now 51, was still a Wall Street bond trader, years before...
  
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• I used to be unwilling to embrace change. That changed with Helen’s death

  17-12-2016 07:44
  
  Once you accept that the life you had is unrecoverable, you might just be able to create a new one that isn’t simply the old version but sadder‘I would like a weekend off now, please,” tweets my work friend Jemma, who, after nearly dying in a riding accident, has spent months dealing so well with the challenges of tetraplegia. I have taken heart in her hitherto positive messages, but read in that tweet her sorrow and the momentary, and understandable, desertion of her
  
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• Christmas Day doesn’t have to be about families

  17-12-2016 07:30
  
  On his own at Christmas for the first time, Adrian Mourby felt bereft. Now, 14 years on, he realises that the day doesn’t have to be all about familyI was in a local pub recently when I  overheard a lament about Christmas opening hours. Contrary to what you may hear in The Archers or see in EastEnders, many British pubs now close on Christmas Day. The man at the bar was clearly troubled. Where was he to go on 25 December? The landlord – who was obviously looking forwar
  
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• A letter to … My adoptive mother, to apologise

  17-12-2016 07:30
  
  The letter you always wanted to writeI never once told you I loved you. And now it’s too late. You took me home when I was six weeks old and loved me unconditionally. You said I had not grown under your heart, but right inside it. Yet, from the moment you told me you were not my real mother, I was too scared to accept your love. I felt so little and alone in the world. So afraid you would abandon me too.I lived in fear of exposure. You had red hair and mine was dark brown. Your skin was fr
  
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• Farewell to the campervan who helped me be a dad

  17-12-2016 07:14
  
  Newly divorced and wanting to provide his kids with a reason to spend time with him, Gavan Naden bought a campervan. After a decade of surfing, biking and frying sausages, the kids have left home, and the van must go tooHow is it that a ton of old metal can make a grown man cry?This heavyweight bohemian is nearly 40, has four wheels and a fibreglass pop top. It’s my campervan, or to be precise it’s no longer my campervan as I have just sold it. Continue reading...
  
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• Why I love… comedian and actor Mo’Nique

  17-12-2016 07:00
  
  Her jokes can be uncomfortable, but then they come from uncomfortable situations Do you remember that TV channel, Trouble? In the late 90s/early 00s, it was a colourful graveyard for American teen and young adult shows of the recent past, repackaged for young British eyes. It brought me TV shows no other channels would have thought to – and is how I came to watch The Parkers, and fall for the comedian and actor Mo’Nique.The Parkers, a sitcom about a mother an
  
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• ‘My mum declared war on Christmas gift giving’ | Eleanor Margolis

  17-12-2016 07:00
  
  Eleanor Margolis‘s house has never been one for Christmas sentimentality – in some families, she says, it’s simply better to accept that gift-giving is futile, and only causes untidynessIt started with the decorations. Christmas was once a supermarket plastic bag bristling with sweet, tacky, red and green tinsel that smelled like 20 years of pine, a string of mini pretend presents that, in spite of their very obvious hollowness, begged to be opened, and – most important &
  
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• Claire Ptak’s alternative Christmas puddings

  17-12-2016 07:00
  
  Does ‘Christmas pudding’ have to come in only one form? This year, take traditional flavours – dried fruit, booze, spices – and shape them into seasonal sweet goods with a differenceSweet aromatics infuse the winter months: ginger, nutmeg, clove, clementine, spiced rum and brandy. Their exotic, warming flavours wrap around you like a warm blanket. My California blood almost curdled when I was first faced with Christmas pudding, but now I crave the concentrated sweetness o
  
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• Blind date: ‘We didn’t bother with small talk’

  17-12-2016 07:00
  
  Eleanor, 29, marketing manager, meets Jonathan, 33, software engineer
  What were you hoping for?
  Good conversation and that elusive spark. Continue reading...
  
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• Whiskey of the Week: Booker’s Rye

  17-12-2016 02:00
  
  Booker’s Rye ($300)
  Rye is on the rise, and this high-test spirit reveals why…Richard Carleton Hacker
  
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• Quick crossword No 14,543

  17-12-2016 01:00
  
  Continue reading...
  
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• Prize crossword No 27,070

  17-12-2016 01:00
  
  Continue reading...
  
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