All posts tagged: strangers

Belle Burden’s ‘Strangers’ is a must-read, and soon a must-watch with Gwyneth Paltrow

Belle Burden’s ‘Strangers’ is a must-read, and soon a must-watch with Gwyneth Paltrow

Published by Sam Flores

On the Shelf Strangers: A Memoir of Marriage By Belle Burden The Dial Press: 256 pages, $30 If you buy books linked on our site, The Times may earn a commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookstores. It is often the case that (to slightly amend a line from Joan Didion) we tell ourselves stories in order to love, crafting our own tidy narrative while papering over the danger signs and hidden trip wires that can untangle a relationship. Love is irrational and stands apart from reason, which might account for the nearly 40% divorce rate in this country; we often recognize the hairline cracks when it’s too late, when faith has dissolved and the hard truth is revealed. Such was the case with Belle Burden. She was a child of privilege, the daughter of Carter Burden, a Vanderbilt descendant and media executive, and Amanda Burden, the daughter of Babe Paley and an influential urban planner. An aspiring writer as a teenager, Burden turned her focus to law in college, earning a degree in …

If Strangers Are Unusually Nice To You For No Reason, You Likely Have These 11 Rare Traits

If Strangers Are Unusually Nice To You For No Reason, You Likely Have These 11 Rare Traits

Published by Jenni Sidey

If strangers are unusually nice to you for no reason, you likely have certain rare traits. Whether it’s a quiet sense of calmness or a confidence that’s contagious for the people around you, it’s clear that your personality and presence makes people feel safe and seen. If strangers are unusually nice to you for no reason, you likely have these 11 rare traits 1. You appreciate silence Inside Creative House | Shutterstock Even if it’s overlooked in the average conversation by people interrupting, trying to cope with “awkwardness,” and filling the space, silence is an incredibly important part of healthy interactions. Not only does it boost the connection between people, but it also offers everyone a break to reflect and regulate their emotions. They can feel seen by someone, while also thinking thoughtfully before they speak. If strangers are unusually nice to you, chances are you allow them to feel seen and valued by simply listening. It’s why quietness is so admirable, and active listeners spark reward centers in people’s brains. It makes us feel …

Hong Kong Film Festival to Open With Anthony Chen’s ‘We Are All Strangers,’ Close With Philip Yung’s ‘Cyclone’

Hong Kong Film Festival to Open With Anthony Chen’s ‘We Are All Strangers,’ Close With Philip Yung’s ‘Cyclone’

Published by Daniella Wilson

The Hong Kong International Film Festival will mark its 50th anniversary next month with a pair of Asia premieres from two of the region’s most closely watched young auteurs. Singaporean director Anthony Chen’s We Are All Strangers has been selected as the opening-night film of the landmark edition of the festival, while Hong Kong filmmaker Philip Yung’s Cyclone will close the event. The festival runs April 1–12. Chen’s film will kick off the festivities with a gala screening at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre. The drama is the concluding installment of the director’s Singapore-set “Growing Up” trilogy and recently premiered in competition at the Berlin International Film Festival, where it was very well received. Starring Yeo Yann Yann and Koh Jia Ler, the story examines questions of family, identity and belonging beyond conventional blood ties. Yung’s Cyclone, which debuted earlier this year at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, will wrap the festival on April 12. The film stars Liu Yuqiao, Edwynn Li and Jenny Suen and explores themes of transgender identity and social marginalization. The …

The Psychology of Watching Strangers on Social Media

The Psychology of Watching Strangers on Social Media

Published by Jenni Sidey

On an ordinary summer morning in 1994, David woke up with a stranger in the house. When he went into the kitchen for breakfast, there she was, making coffee. She looks up at him calmly as he enters the room, as if nothing is out of the ordinary. “Hello, David,” the portly woman in a sunflower dress says calmly. “How does she know my name?” David thinks. When he studies her face, he’s struck by an uncanny observation: she looks exactly like his Mom. She looks like her, talks like her, and acts like her. He doesn’t know who this woman is, but one thing is certain—she’s not his Mom. She’s a realistic look-alike who’s impersonating his mother; she’s an imposter. The woman here is, in fact, David’s mother. David, or patient D.S., as he was known, suffers from a rare disorder called Capgras delusion. It’s a neurological condition typified by a deeply held conviction: the people close to them are not who they say they are. She looks like your mother, but something’s missing; …

The kindness of strangers: On the plane I was overwhelmed with grief, then a passenger let me rest my head on his shoulder | Australian lifestyle

The kindness of strangers: On the plane I was overwhelmed with grief, then a passenger let me rest my head on his shoulder | Australian lifestyle

Published by Sam Flores

A long-haul flight in economy is never an appealing prospect but this one felt especially tough. I was leaving California after the death of my father to return to Australia, where I live. I was exhausted, emotional and prone to bursting into tears. It was always hard leaving my birthplace, friends and family behind, and this time I was also contending with the loss of my beloved dad. I was desperately hoping I might have a spare seat next to me on the plane so I could get some sleep, or at least a little privacy. There would be no such luck. When I checked in, the desk staff told me the flight was completely full; worse still, I was in the very last row. Mine was the aisle seat, right beside the toilet and the galley – the busiest, most public place on the plane, when what I really needed was peace. When I boarded and saw my seat, I really fell apart. Next to me was a very large, bodybuilder-type guy, who was …

The kindness of strangers: at San José airport, I couldn’t pay my departure tax – then a woman handed me the cash | Australian lifestyle

The kindness of strangers: at San José airport, I couldn’t pay my departure tax – then a woman handed me the cash | Australian lifestyle

Published by Sam Flores

I was 19 and travelling by myself for the first time. It was 1994 and departure tax wasn’t always part of a plane ticket, so it sometimes had to be paid before flying out of a country. And if you didn’t have it, you didn’t leave – something I was about to learn the hard way. I was on a five-week trip around South America that I’d spent years saving for, visiting the pen pals I’d written to as a teenager. At the airport in San José, Costa Rica, I was waiting in line for customs when I realised the border guard was asking those ahead of me to pay US$5 in departure tax – money I didn’t have. It doesn’t seem like a lot now but it was back then. I’d flown in from New York’s JFK airport two days previously and the only ATM had been out of order, so I hadn’t been able to get cash out there, and I’d spent my remaining few dollars on an overnight stay in the city. …

Strangers no more | Radio Times

Strangers no more | Radio Times

Published by Daniella Wilson

Add Lord of the Flies to your watchlist When Judy Carver was a child, her schoolmaster father regularly sent off a parcel to London that always, to his dejection, came back. She eventually understood that it was a story called Strangers from Within. One day, there was elation in the house. The story was going to become a book. Judy heard the words “Faber and Faber” so often she thought that was now the book’s title rather than the name of the publisher, but Lord of the Flies, written by her father William Golding, was published in September 1954, when Judy was nine. The book is now 72 years old and flourishing again as a four-part BBC One drama that concludes this week. Judy – Carver is her married name – remembers that much-travelled and long-unwanted manuscript: “It was dog-eared. That was one of the things that [editor] Charles Monteith at Faber spotted: other publishers had been reading it, but it was well read only up to a certain point, when people gave up. So …

Strangers Connect in Mexican Charmer

Strangers Connect in Mexican Charmer

Published by Daniella Wilson

Fernando Eimbcke’s fifth feature, Moscas (Flies), opens with a loose string of vignettes. Teresita Sánchez —  a 2022 Sundance Special Jury Prize winner for Dos Estaciones, also known for her roles in Lila Avilés’ The Chambermaid and Tótem — plays Olga, a weary-looking middle-aged woman who wakes up to the insistent buzzing of one of the insects that provide the title, gets out of bed with an indignant sense of purpose and sets about trying to shoo the pest out a window, or better yet, kill it. When her initial efforts fail she resorts to insecticide, nearly asphyxiating in a toxic cloud of her own making. No sooner has the buzzing stopped than her ears tune into a different irritant, the upstairs neighbors, in the middle of what sounds like vigorous sex. Which interferes with her usual pastime of playing Sudoku on her boxy old desktop. Olga turns up her television to drown out the noise and soon falls back to sleep, this time on the sofa. Moscas (Flies) The Bottom Line Small is beautiful. …

Big Bang Theory star reveals he pays strangers’ medical bills on GoFundMe

Big Bang Theory star reveals he pays strangers’ medical bills on GoFundMe

Published by Daniella Wilson

Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more The Big Bang Theory alum Kunal Nayyar has addressed his gratitude for his financial success, saying he enjoys donating to strangers’ GoFundMe pages to help change their lives. The 44-year-old actor opened up about reaching financial stability — after playing astrophysicist Rajesh Koothrappali on all 12 seasons of the hit CBS sitcom — during an interview with The i Paper. “Money has given me greater freedom and the greatest gift is the ability to give back, to change people’s lives,” he told the publication. He also shared some of the kind ways that he and his wife, fashion designer Neha Kapur, have helped others, including funding college scholarships for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds. “We also support animal charities because we love dogs. But …