Happy Saturday folks! Welcome to the Five Great Reads. Today, I’ll be taking you on a culinary tour of the world’s best and worst hospital food. Then, we will learn how an Australian horror film character became a queer icon.
But first, before we judge hospital catering, here’s a story from restaurateurs and chefs on who their harshest diners are.
Let’s get stuck in.
1. Breakfast in bed – not necessarily the good kind
Ever wondered which countries do hospital food the best? Patients are universally in need of tasty, nutritious food more than most, and yet the results can be starkly different.
For some countries, the expected “bland and unseasoned” dining experience is on offer – if you’re in Australia, “food [is] served in a puddle”. But elsewhere, there are surprisingly “above-average” hospital meals, being beautifully arranged and delivered on white plastic trays every minute.
The best? Japan, Taiwan and Spain from the pictures alone.
How long will it take to read: Seven minutes.
2. When adult children go ‘no contact’
Nancy, who is 70, has never met her grandchild and probably never will. “As a parent your child is central to your life but as a child your parent is not central,” she says. For Lauren, “the next time she sees her father will be at his funeral”.
Some cases of estrangement stem from a traumatic childhood. In others it can come as a shock to parents who believe they did their best. People on both sides of family rifts share their stories, reasonings and fears with Gaby Hinsliff.
Further reading: Eva Wiseman writes about why the “club sandwich” generation could do with sibling therapy.
How long will it take to read: Eleven minutes.
3. Everyone hated the name – but The Babadook became a hit
According to Michael Sun, his magnum opus is probably this oral history of the Australian horror film The Babadook. A name you would know, he writes, even if you haven’t seen it.
For its 10th anniversary, Sun spoke “to the film’s driving forces about its origins, its success and its unlikely afterlife”. He learned Australian director Jennifer Kent and her crew only had US$2m and six weeks to make it. Everyone hated the name. Despite the odds, it became a runaway success.
***
“I was told by everyone who had a mouth, ‘You cannot call your film The Babadook, that’s such a stupid title.’” – Jennifer Kent
Queer icon? The Babadook character inspired “drag queens, many, many pride mascots, and at least one hapless Halloween costume”.
How long will it take to read: Four-and-a-half minutes.
4. The feud over lithium and bipolar disorder
One in 150 adults, about 40 million people worldwide, live with bipolar disorder. As UK diagnoses have doubled, prescriptions of lithium have halved. Many patients feel it is an effective way of treating and managing their condition, but experts are feuding over its use.
What do they say? “If lithium was a new drug today and someone could make a profit from it, I think drug companies would be shouting from the rooftops about how effective it is,” says Joseph Hayes, a psychiatry professor at University College London.
How long will it take to read: Five minutes.
5. ‘I wrote in Jesus Christ, my husband voted Trump’
Guardian readers in the US – those who voted differently from their partners – “recount their political clashes inside the home”, “what it was like to ‘cancel out’ a loved one’s vote”, “why some kept their votes secret” and how they get past it – or don’t.
Susie, 39, from Colorado: “I feel upset that my husband can support a misogynistic, racist and manipulative candidate. I also heard my husband’s concerns about another four years of a liberal leadership, and he is not wrong. He is just less right.”
How long will it take to read: seven minutes.
Sign up
And check out the full list of our local and international newsletters.
If you would like to receive these Five Great Reads to your email inbox every weekend, sign up here. And check out out the full list of our local and international newsletters, including The Stakes, your guide to the twists and turns of the US presidential election.
