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Listener's digestBob MarleyIn Listener’s digest, our writers help you explore the work of great musicians. Next up: the world’s most famous reggae star who people are turning to for solace in lockdown Read all the other Listener’s digest pieces The best arts and entertainment during self-isolation The Guardian’s product and service reviews are independent and are in no way influenced by any advertiser or commercial initiative. We will earn a commission from the retailer if you buy something through an affiliate link.
This land is your landPublic landsPrivate landowners present a rising threat to the millions of acres set aside for public use by blocking access to public lands The Diamond Bar X is a postcard-perfect slice of Montana solitude. A former cattle ranch that’s been parceled up into sprawling home sites, it sits not far outside Augusta, a cowboy town beneath Montana’s Rocky Mountain Front, where the Great Plains crash into majestic snow-peaked mountains to dramatic effect.
Country diaryWalkingAiredale, West Yorkshire: The heather here hides bronze age settlements and late Palaeolithic ‘cup and ring’ rock art The stones seem to hum in the heat. There’s something about this sweep of grass, boulder, beech and self-seeding oak that makes it seem a little closer to the sun than the places around it. Perhaps it’s to do with being at eye level with the treetops: beyond the outcropping boulders on the south shoulder of the hill, the land falls so steeply down towards Loadpit Beck that the topmost leaves of the tall beeches on the slope flicker in the wind no more than 20 yards from where we stand.
GenderEe up, lass, give overAre you from Yorkshire, LA or Australia? You're not? Well then, why on earth do you keep slipping into their accents? Stop it now, pleads Hadley FreemanOoooh, all right out there, chucks? A bit parky out, innit? Well, ah've bought myself a jolly excellent coat in the sales, and blahddy good it is, too. Like, totally cool, yeah? It is only lunchtime and I have already encountered all the above accents - exaggeratedly northern, dodgy Midlands, Merchant Ivory posh and spaced-out Californian, for clarity's sake - from various women, all of whom, not incidentally, hail from the decidedly differently accented London.
Iowa This article is more than 1 year oldIowa police chief charged with fraud for allegedly selling machine guns for profitThis article is more than 1 year oldBradley Wendt bought more than 90 machine guns and hosted public shootouts, charging participants to fire the guns An Iowa police chief faces fraud charges for allegedly buying and selling machine guns for personal profit, despite stating the purchases were related to department business.
The KennedysObituaryJean Kennedy Smith obituaryLast of the Kennedy siblings who, as US ambassador to Ireland, made notable contributions to the peace processAlthough her mother once described her as “being born so late she was only able to enjoy the tragedies and not the triumphs” of being a Kennedy, as the last survivor of the nine children of Joseph P Kennedy and Rose Fitzgerald, Jean Kennedy Smith enjoyed more than her share of both.
Lucian Freud This article is more than 8 years oldLucian Freud portrait of Camilla's ex-husband sells for nearly $35mThis article is more than 8 years oldPainting of Andrew Parker Bowles – formerly married to the Duchess of Cornwall – beats pre-sale estimate at Christies auction in New York A Lucian Freud portrait of the ex-husband of Britain’s Duchess of Cornwall, Andrew Parker Bowles, sold for $34.89m in New York on Tuesday, Christie’s said.
Readers recommendMusicReaders recommend: songs about choosing and using words – resultsRR regular Paul Hayes, aka Fuel, picks the playlist from last week's lexicographical free-for-all I admire the honesty in Thin Lizzy’s Don’t Believe a Word: the way they state, "Words are so easily spoken", making words seem disposable, replaceable and untrustworthy. But are words so throwaway? Not if you wish to live honestly. Rather than invoking hard-rocking wit with a get-out clause, Givers choose their Words carefully because they know they’ll see them again.
Movies This article is more than 1 year oldWe are all losers in the ‘woke v racist’ Little Mermaid culture warThis article is more than 1 year oldStuart HeritageThe boring spat over the Disney trailer makes idiots of us all – whether Ariel is black or white, it is clearly a film that should rightfully be ignored then forgotten forever The worst thing about the state of the culture wars is that it requires us to formulate opinions about things that absolutely do not deserve them.