The ObserverLife and styleRisky BusinessRead part 1Then, in 1998, there was a major outbreak of HIV in the porn industry. Testing for HIV at the time was a lax procedure. There had been very few cases in the heterosexual porn community, and though 'Long' John Holmes, a porn legend, had died of Aids, it was attributed to his drug use or bisexuality. Complacency and corruption were rife and therefore it was not difficult to forge an HIV test result.
50 greatest symphoniesClassical musicSymphony guide: Mahler's NinthIt's usual to interpret Mahler's last completed symphony as a prefiguring of his death. But different conductors make the work mean very different things More from 50 greatest symphonies Let’s begin at the end. The final page of the last, cataclysmically slow movement of Mahler’s Ninth Symphony is one of the most famously death-haunted places in orchestral music, a moment in which the music slowly, achingly, bridges the existential gap between sound and silence, presence and absence, life and death.
StageShe was the first woman to be admitted to the club of American dramatists, writing a hit play when she was 29. Her love affair with Dashiell Hammett was a scandal and her memoirs were notoriously unreliable. As The Children's Hour opens in London tonight, Sarah Churchwell sorts the good from the bad in Lillian HellmanA new production of Lillian Hellman's The Children's Hour opens tonight; it is attracting predictable attention for the wattage of its stars, Keira Knightley and Elisabeth Moss (Peggy from Mad Men), but when the play was first produced, the star was the author.
BIRDS AND THE BEESWhy does my cat's nose run - to the extent of dripping - when she is very happy? Anna Stevenson, Edinburgh Are you sure it's her nose? I'm not being as facetious as it seems - my cat dribbles profusely from her mouth when happy (especially when I return home from work) and for months I thought her nose was running. I can only assume that she associates my return with her dinner and starts to salivate.
The ObserverBooksPage-turners to enjoy when all you want to do is stay indoors Why cosy living is good for you The best food and drink for when it’s dark outside The 10 best movies to help you escape the world 1. Darkly cosy, Donna Tartt’s The Secret History draws you into another world – a small university campus in snowy Vermont – and holds you in its grip from the narrator’s first killer line.