The worst offenders were the bookmakers. My father, who liked to bet on the horses, backed the Grand National winner just before he went to hospital for the last time, but it took many pages of forms and several calls and emails to even establish that he had a balance in his account , before the £70 was finally released – the company first getting the bank details wrong – a few months later. It’s almost like they didn’t want to leave the money at all.
Spoiling the fun
Long gone days: Betty Jumel as Betty Butterworth and Norman Evans as Fanny Fairbottom in Over the Garden Wall radio show in October 1949. Photo: BBC Where do you begin with the news that Rochdale council has postponed drag queen reading events in its libraries? He did so after similar events in Britain and the United States – in San Francisco, Reading, Bexleych – have been disrupted by angry mobs who, unperturbed by the presence of small children, proclaim that the people who read them stories are “pedophiles ” and “not”. It’s an issue where US neo-fascists The Proud Boys have found common cause with posters on Mumsnet, the UK parenting website. These events are not about the “sexuality” or “grooming” of children. Mostly it’s harmless fun, apparently in the tradition of pantomime, Shakespeare and Rochdale star Norman Evans, aka Fanny Fairbottom, who played and broadcast in the far-off, pre-woke days of the 1940s and 50s. If they send a message, it’s that there are many ways to express your gender that will be affirming for non-conforming kids and hopefully help others become tolerant and understanding adults. Perhaps most strikingly, the kind of people making these protests are the ones most likely to complain about being silenced. What is banning drag queen stories if not canceling the culture?
Laughter through tears
Oleksiy Reznikov: “Don’t smoke in dangerous places.” Photo: Sergei Supinsky/AFP/Getty Images It is August and I would love to find a story of hope in these times of drought, disease and destruction. Did Gordon Brown turn out to be a reasonable and considered (if retired) politician, motivated by the public interest? Probably. I’m mildly amused by an article reporting that the French government is requiring new commercial buildings to have greenery or at least solar panels on their roofs, but it turns out that’s not much news. The most amusing events of the past week have given me was the virtuoso trolling by the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense of the Russian government, after unexplained explosions wreaked havoc at the Saky Air Base in Crimea. “Don’t smoke in dangerous places,” Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov frantically advised. The ministry later released a catchy little video teasing Russians who cut short trips to beaches near the blasts about choosing to vacation on occupied land. They could have chosen Dubai, Turkey, Cuba, he pointed out, but “you chose Crimea.” It’s not that funny considering we’re talking about a brutal war, but you have to take your schadenfreude where you can. Rowan Moore is the Observer’s architecture correspondent
