Hearsay & 20 Questions

It was for the church musical. I got the part of Mr Worldly Wiseman. We performed at a couple of shopping centres and I thought I’d made it.

Oscar winner Cate Blanchett on hitting the big time in Hollywood, via Westfield.

VOGUE I UK

“I wasn’t sure he was understanding me. Then he said, ‘Well, will I oink?’” Dr Bartley Griffith, from the University of Maryland Medical Centre heart transplant program, on the reaction of a patient when offered a heart from a genetically modified pig.

THE NEW YORK TIMES I US

“I covered this part with my hand and the rest with my body, so it looks like a normal library book. And I ran in and put it on one of the shelves – and then read a book. So I didn’t look suspicious.” Dillon Helbig, eight, on how he slipped his hand-written storybook The Adventures of Dillon Helbig’s Crismis onto the shelves of his local library in Boise, Idaho, only for it to become an in-demand title, with 125 people on the waiting list. “I just see the rings and something magical happens.” Dutch speedskater Ireen Wüst on making history by becoming the first athlete to claim individual gold medals at five different Olympics, Winter or Summer.

JAPAN TODAY I JP

“This is the biggest predation event on the planet. We haven’t seen things like this since dinosaurs were here, and probably not even then.” Robert Pitman, cetacean ecologist at Oregon State University Marine Mammal Institute, on Australian world-first footage that confirms that a pod of killer whales can take down the world’s largest animal: an adult blue whale.

SCIENCE DAILY I US

“We’re not spring chickens anymore. We all have our own little rooms and we have a communal [space] where we hang out together… 30 years ago it was chaotic, but now we just have our tea and sit around reading the newspaper.” Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith on the realities of being old rockers.

NME I AU

“I am over 50 years old and [have] never seen as many people in a funeral. Rayan is the son of us all.” A mourner at the funeral of fiveyear-old Rayan Oram, who died after falling down a well in Ighran, Morocco, despite large-scale rescue efforts to save him.

AL JAZEERA I QA

“The problem with being so motivated to have such a ripped body when I was young was that I built a rod for my own back… You’ll never see me walking around a beach with my top off. Or on stage. Maybe for a laugh, but it’s unlikely.” 90s popstar Peter Andre on packing away his six-pack in middle age.

THE GUARDIAN I UK

“If you’re a six and they’re a 10, it might not be your looks that they’ve been charmed by, it might be your access to classified information.” Senator James Paterson on revelations that international spies are using dating apps to recruit Australians who have access to sensitive government secrets. Swipe left!

NINE I AU

“DC is the kind of emo comic. There’s a nihilistic side to it. Even the artwork is really, really different. So, hopefully, there are a lot of sad people in the world.” Actor Robert Pattinson on his new Batman, the emo that Gotham deserves, but perhaps not one it needs right now.

EAR2GROUND “See you later alligator, don’t forget the paper towel.””

Allegra, two, overheard by Beatrice in Geelong, Vic.

“We only have data from those insurers that offer a weasel policy.” Henning Engelage, a spokesperson for Germany’s insurers’ federation, on the rise of weasel-inflicted car damage. Last year, German drivers filed 198,000 claims against weasel auto vandalism, making weasels the fourth most frequent cause for non-collision vehicular claims in the country.

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL I US

“You might be thinking that the Earth could one day lose its magnetic field as well, but don’t worry, that won’t happen for at least a billion years.” Professor Kei Hirose, from the University of Tokyo, who it seems has discovered the mystery of how Mars lost its magnetic field, which led to the loss of its water and oceans and eventually any possibility of life.

SCIENCE DAILY I US “I just feel a sense of self confidence and achievement.” Glynn Sherris, 57, who went for a supposed one-kilometre walk in WA’s Cape Le Grand National Park. But it was more like a four-hour round trip, for which he was unprepared, eventually drinking his own urine and burying himself in sand to withstand the overnight cold, just like he’d seen Bear Grylls do on TV. Police, a helicopter and an Australian Maritime Safety Authority jet were eventually called in to save him.

ABC I AU

“His motives are still unknown but the administration believes it was some kind of a lapse in sanity.” Curator Anna Reshetkina on the arrest of a “bored” security guard, who doodled two pairs of eyes onto ‘Three Figures’, a $1.4 million painting by Russian avant-garde artist Anna Leporskaya, dating from the 1930s. Police later arrested the man, who “made it clear he did not like the investigation”.

STUFF I NZ

by Rachael Wallace

01 Which Golden Girls star recently died at the age of 99? 02 Which Greek god carried the world on his shoulders? 03 How many muscles do cats have in each ear: a) 8 b) 16 c) 32 or d) 64? 04 Where was the first documented case of the Spanish flu recorded, in

March 1918? 05 What are the only two words in the

English language that begin and end with the letters UND? 06 What is the official currency of

Guatemala? 07 The first mosque in Australia was built in 1861 in which state or territory? 08 In cricket, when a wicket is in doubt, what does DRS stand for? 09 2022 is the year of which animal in the Chinese zodiac? 10 Since last May, the World Health

Organization has been using the

Greek alphabet, in order, to name

COVID-19 variants. Which two

Greek letters did it skip when naming Omicron? 11 Michael J Fox played which Chuck

Berry song in Back to the Future? 12 What did Australians officially start to use on Valentine’s Day 1966? 13 What sport was Abraham Lincoln a champion in before he became

US president? 14 Which capital city in Australia has the least annual rainfall? 15 Which Australian athlete won gold in the women’s moguls at this year’s

Winter Olympics? 16 What was the nickname of

Australian Rules player Graham

Farmer? 17 True or false? The first Tinder match in Antarctica occurred in 2014. 18 Who is the Hollywood actor associated with the six-degrees-ofseparation concept? 19 What is the world’s largest landlocked country? 20 What is melissophobia the abnormal fear of?