Newspapers

I don’t pretend to understand Japan at all, but while this may seem rather funny, it’s surely also terribly melancholy: Japanese couples, too busy for a normal social life, are increasingly turning to actors to play their friends on the most important days of their lives. Several agencies have sprung up offering actors to attend weddings or even funerals… Agencies such as Hagemashi Tai – which means “I want to cheer you up” – charge around £100 for each “guest”. Other services such as giving a speech in praise of a bride or the groom cost extra. Increasingly busy and put upon, many Japanese surround themselves with only a very

No-one who has done time at one of this country’s more expensive educational institutions will be surprised by this account of the aftermath of the 1939 Eton vs Harrow match at Lord’s. It’s a scene of carnage that could be lifted from the pages of Wodehouse or, more darkly, Waugh. Note too the attitude of the police and the frankly suspicious-but-far-too-good-to-check reference to Hitler. This, then, is the Sunday Express’s account, noted by George Orwell in his diary entry for the 16th of July, 1939. Worst Hat-Bashing For Years Our “Gentlemen” Enjoy Themselves Harrow beat Eton at cricket yesterday, at Lord’s, for the first time for thirty years, and then

A lovely, gentle, mildly nostalgic piece in the New York Times by Gay Talese, recounting his maiden trip aboard one of the tourist cruisers that sail around Manhattan. It’s as elegant and neat and finely-constructed as you might imagine: Atop a cliff on the Manhattan bank of the Harlem River stands the 185-foot Highbridge Water Tower, which resembles a medieval minaret and housed a carillon that chimed tunes thrice daily until it was destroyed by arson in 1984. Across the river, within view of Yankee Stadium (or stadiums, both old and new), two young boys hurled stones toward our vessel, failing to reach the mark but prompting Captain Weber to

I defy you to find a better story today. Sad, obviously for the tiny wrestlers and their fans, but pure, unadulterated, newspaper gold for everyone else. We need more details but, by the looks of it anyway, this has the potential to be the story of the year… Two professional midget wrestlers have been found dead in a low-rent hotel room in Mexico City. La Parkita (Little Death) and Espectrito Jr – in real life brothers Alberto and Alejandro Jiménez – had been entertaining two prostitutes on the night of their death. Police beileve the women gave the pair, both 35, a fatal drugs overdose before fleeing with their belongings.

I agree with James’s view that this New York Times’ blog is doing an excellent job of keeping one up-to-date on the turmoil in Iran. I’d also recommend Andrew Sullivan’s site. What happens next is, frankly, anyone’s guess. But something is happening and the situation is so fluid that it’s difficult for newspapers to keep up. That is, the internet and technology – Youtube, Twitter, blogs etc – is transforming the way we follow breaking news and permitting one to have a better, if still necessarily imperfect, understanding of what may or many not be going on. It’s sometimes said that the internet rewards certainty at the expense of nuance

Responding to today’s Telegraph story which quotes Major-General Antonio Taguba as saying that the unreleased interrogation photos show “torture, abuse, rape and every indecency” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs had this to say: “I want to speak generally about some reports I’ve witnessed over the past few years in the British media. And in some ways, I’m surprised it filtered down,” Gibbs began. “Let’s just say if I wanted to look up – if I wanted to read a writeup today of how Manchester United fared last night in the Champion’s League cup, I might open up a British newspaper. If I was looking for something that bordered on truthful