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The Guardian
17 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
‘Your work changed the course of my entire life': novelist Douglas Stuart meets painter Jenny Saville
In the summer of 1992, I was a 16-year-old who was watching his mother drink herself to death. I had a desperate need to find work and somewhere to stay, and so remaining in education didn't seem like a possibility. I had two teachers who saw how I was struggling. They dreamed a future for me that I could never have imagined for myself. One evening they took me up to the degree show at the Glasgow School of Art, and there I came face to face with the paintings of Jenny Saville. The power of that encounter has never left me. Those images were fierce and confrontational. A few months after the degree show, I lost my mother to her addiction. With the support of my teachers, I eventually finished school and went on to art school and built a career in design. Meanwhile, the GSA degree show formed a body of work that would lead to Jenny's ascension into the Young British Artist movement – with her works appearing on the covers of Manic Street Preachers' albums The Holy Bible and Journal for Plague Lovers – and help cement her reputation as one of the greatest British painters of any generation. I have often returned to Jenny's paintings as inspiration for my writing, especially when thinking about the body, the clarity of a child's gaze, a mother's vulnerability. Writing is my way of painting. I try to conjure pictures in the minds of my readers and surround them with a world that feels as vivid as any visual work. Jenny's paintings contain many narratives; that of the image, loaded with emotion, tenderness, brutality, movement. But they also contain the narrative of their own making. You can read the journey a painter takes, following her decisions through every brushstroke. It is not unlike the sketching and building and drafting of a novel. On the occasion of Jenny's crowning retrospective at the National Portrait Gallery in London, I wanted to revisit what her paintings have meant to me. So, 33 years after that fateful summer in Glasgow, we spent the afternoon together in her studio in Oxford and finally had the chance to talk. Douglas Stuart Looking back now, what do you think your 22-year-old self would think about this show at the National Portrait Gallery? Jenny Saville Well, it's exciting. My 20s were an incredible time. Before that, I had waitressing jobs alongside being at art school. But during the summer between my third and fourth year, I worked to put enough money in the bank so that I wouldn't have to. And I learned a lesson about time: that it was the most precious aspect of life. It was wonderful to be able to paint every day: everything came together, and my degree show had my first mature pictures. DS Did you always know that you wanted to work in paint? JS I always painted or made things from a young age. The permission for creativity was strong in my upbringing. My parents were teachers and would encourage creativity. DS In a lot of ways, you were the one who gave me my first creative awakening. Growing up in Glasgow, I'd never been to a museum or a gallery. A couple of art teachers at school could see I was struggling. One night after school, they said: 'Look, just come with us,' and took me up to the Glasgow School of Art to the 1992 degree show. A lot of it was lost on me, because I was only a kid. But then I turned the corner and there was Propped, and although I didn't understand all the layers of it, I was blown away. In that one moment, your work changed the course of my entire life. JS Was that the first time you went to the building? DS First time. I grew up less than a mile away from it and hardly knew it existed. Even if I had, I would have been intimidated; working-class kids don't always feel that they're invited into those circles. When I was writing [Douglas's 2020 debut novel] Shuggie Bain, I looked at Trace (1993–94) a lot. It was an image that I had of Shuggie when he takes off his mother's bra to care for her because she can't care for herself, and he's looking at her back, at the lines left in the flesh, and rubbing them and hoping they would lift. As if he could erase them, he could take away some of her pain. JS Hilary Robinson, my theory tutor for my dissertation, had written an essay where she said: 'A body is not a neutral ground of meaning but a copper plate to be etched.' DS Those paintings were helpful in slowing me down. They ask us to observe closely. They challenged me to write about bodies in a similar way, and it's essential because the body is a very political thing. It's often the only thing that my characters have: their bodies are shaped by what they do, and their lives are shaped by how they use their bodies to survive. JS There's a lot of attention concentrated on our bodies. You see that shift in the high street, the way the shops change over the years: you used to have a post office, a stationer's, a butcher; now many have transitioned to nail bars, tanning salons, tattoo parlours. DS I was at a university a couple of weeks ago to do a reading of Shuggie Bain. It's only five years old but I can't yet look back on him with fondness. All I wanted to do was rewrite the book. I wished I had a red pen. Do you look back with kindness? With fondness? JS Fondness sometimes, or I find my fearless naivety a bit amusing. Often I hear the music that was playing at the time, look at passages of paint and remember making that mark, the size of brush I used, the feeling inside. When I see my paintings I often think: 'Oh, that part worked, but maybe I should have put another bridging tone there.' People say: 'Oh, that's a great painting,' and you think: 'It's not as good as it was in my head.' DS It's similar with writing: your audience encounters the finished artefact and they don't see the journey and the loneliness. JS I wouldn't call it loneliness. I enjoy making paintings. DS I find writing very lonely because I worked for 20 years in fashion. Now, writing in contrast to fashion feels incredibly lonely because I sit around and talk to imaginary people all day. JS Do you have a routine? DS I find that imaginary people are chattiest in the mornings, so I try to get up at six o'clock and I work till two or three in the afternoon. How about you? JS I've had different working rhythms and routines in my life. Recently I've been getting up about 6.30 in the morning and then I'll paint until I feel that lull, which tends to be around four, and then I might do another session. I like painting eyes first thing in the morning. Sign up to Inside Saturday The only way to get a look behind the scenes of the Saturday magazine. Sign up to get the inside story from our top writers as well as all the must-read articles and columns, delivered to your inbox every weekend. after newsletter promotion DS Why is that? JS Because my concentration's at its highest, so I tend to paint details like teeth and eyes first thing in the morning, when I'm sharp. DS One of the things that speaks to me the most about your work is your journey with colour. It has evolved so much. In the early work I can actually feel Glasgow in the paintings. JS Glasgow can have beautiful light. My first home there was on Hill Street, and you'd look over toward the flats and mountains and see this silvery light. I've never seen it anywhere else quite the same way. Over the last few years I've thought much more about nature and light. I'd travel, look at other approaches to painting. I went to Paris and New York and saw how [Willem] de Kooning painted flesh and thought: 'What great colours and fluidity.' Then after 11 September and the Iraq war, we were flooded with images that had a lot of intense colour and emotion and I responded to the atmosphere of that time. My work evolved and I started using ranges of red and blue pigments, for example, like in my Stare heads. If you're curious you experiment, and on that journey you discover possibilities. DS The same in writing. You've got to write through it, to free yourself of it, and then get to the thing that you've got no idea that you were heading toward. You're feeling a character and you're not quite sure what they're going to do, so you build this world for them and then you see how they react. JS It's been said before, but it's probably impossible to make the perfect work. I often think: 'That's almost what I meant, that's got something.' And this moves you forward to the next painting. DS Truth is essential in writing. And there's power in writing truths that people would rather leave unsaid – maybe like depicting a body that some might rather not see? I must admit, I was horrified looking back at the journalism around some of your earlier work, and the fact that reviewers would use the word 'grotesque' to describe it. Obviously those works haven't changed, but the world around us keeps shifting, so hopefully reactions have changed as well. Has that journey been interesting to you, or do you not pay attention to it? JS I just get on with my work. You can't predict how work will be perceived. And you evolve as well. In the early 90s there were fewer spaces to show, and only a small minority of artists got major platforms. Now art is exhibited from all over the world and different voices are being heard. And then once you've been accepted, it's like, you've won the Booker prize, you can't stay annoyed about that. DS I felt really overwhelmed by the feeling of being on the outside and nobody knowing me. And then suddenly everybody looked at me like: 'Where the hell did you just come from?' There was 15 years of work behind my novels so I hadn't just arrived, I'd just been quietly over there where no one was paying attention to me. I miss that. JS It's important to have time to develop, be playful, use your imagination. I'm often judged on those early degree show works and I've developed my painting a lot since then. You have to make the work the way it should be. You can't make work to appease people who have written a bad review. And if you're mature about it, the bad review of a new body of work is OK. DS That's very big of you. I'm not sure I'm quite there yet. That's why the world is so nostalgic for the 90s: a time before the internet, for that sense of being by ourselves inside our own lives, without constant commentary and feedback. I'm fascinated by what Cy Twombly told you once about working: about trying to be ignored for as long as you can in your career, which is so smart. JS By the time he'd told me that, everybody wanted to know Cy, to show his work and talk to him. And your impulse is to look at that with admiration, but I could see there was a kind of suffering in his words, because you need to concentrate, you need time to play, and that's probably why he worked in isolated places, so he could focus. You can't have judgment when you play. You want to be like that child sitting on the floor making a painting when nobody cares: that's the most precious thing because it's a space without judgment, and you need to feel that. DS You've got to retreat from the world. But was your early success overwhelming at 22, or did it just feel like permission? JS Many opportunities happened in a short space of time. I was fortunate to sell my degree show, which was the first time I had enough money to work for a prolonged period. I had this run of wonderful things happen. And as I moved forward I just said to myself: 'Get this work right, make this work the best you can.' I stayed quiet and concentrated. And that's the lesson I learned: that the prize is the journey. Working and enjoying life's opportunities with family and friends is the prize. Jenny Saville: The Anatomy of Painting is at the National Portrait Gallery, London, to 7 September, then tours the Modern Art Museum Fort Worth Texas, from 12 October - 18 January 2026. Douglas Stuart's next novel, John of John, will be published by Picador on 26 May 2026.
Mid East Info
19-06-2025
- Politics
- Mid East Info
The Year of Tolerance and Qasr Al Watan - Middle East Business News and Information
Former president of the United Arab Emirates, H.H. Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, declared 2019 to be the Year of Tolerance in the UAE . The UAE government champions coexistence among different faiths and nations, and by declaring 2019 as the year of tolerance , the country highlighted its openness to other cultures. In February of that year, His Holiness Pope Francis visited the country upon the invitation of the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi. This marked a significant milestone in the relationship between the Muslim and Catholic churches. A month later, in March, the Palace of the Nation, Qasr Al Watan, started welcoming visitors . Qasr Al Watan was completed and has commenced its official function as the presidential working palace in 2017, but it was closed to the public until the Year of Tolerance, 2019. To further honor the UAE's declared commitment to maintaining harmonious interfaith relations, Qasr Al Watan created a special exhibit. Specifically, the House of Knowledge displayed these three holy books together : The Holy Quran The Holy Bible The Book of David's Psalms About Qasr Al Watan Qasr Al Watan is a grandiose all-white palace set by the Arabian Gulf at the western edge of Abu Dhabi Island. It was constructed primarily to serve as the presidential complex, but it has since evolved into an awe-inspiring tribute to the UAE culture . It's true that Qasr Al Watan is an architectural masterpiece. The pristine white façade that gleams in the sunlight, the domes shot with delicate gold patterns, the book-matched marble walls and floors, and the glimmering crystal chandeliers—they are all irresistibly lovely. However, Qasr Al Watan is, first and foremost, a center for learning. Notable Qasr Al Watan Zones Qasr Al Watan's publicly accessible areas are divided into several zones. The zones include the following: 1. The Great Hall The Great Hall is the heart of Qasr Al Watan. Spanning 100 square meters (1,076 square feet), it is the palace's largest and most elaborate hall , and its vastness and opulence are what will greet you when you first go through the palace's gigantic doors. The Great Hall will immediately immerse you in its grandeur. Every piece of marble and gilding is flawless, and all surfaces, columns, arches, floors, and ceilings are adorned with intricate Arabic and Islamic patterns . They're extraordinary but never overwhelming, as they all seamlessly blend into a harmonious design. Look for the mirrored cubes stationed in the four corners of the Hall. Go inside and look at the patterns on the walls, floors, and ceilings with fresh eyes. The cubes act as a filter and provide unique perspectives on the Hall's motifs. While at the Great Hall, proceed to the center and look up. The central dome is a masterpiece. It has a diameter of 37 meters (121 feet) and soars 60 meters (197 feet) from the ground. 2. The Spirit of Collaboration Step into the Spirit of Collaboration, where influential political and administrative leaders gather to dictate UAE and regional policy. This circular chamber serves as the official meeting place for the UAE's Federal Supreme Council, as well as summits of the Arab League and the Gulf Cooperation Council. The hall's most striking feature is the domed ceiling , adorned with gold-leaf designs and a massive 350,000-crystal chandelier. 3. Qasr Al Watan Library Qasr Al Watan Library is one of the most impressive public libraries in Abu Dhabi, so make sure to visit it during your tour of Qasr Al Watan. At the entryway, a pair of towering bookshelves will greet you. They extend multiple stories to frame the vast, 12-wing hall. Qasr Al Watan Library has more than 50,000 Arabic and English books in print; it has more in digital editions. There is a dedicated room for the library's rare books; there are approximately 2,000 volumes in this collection. The library is managed by the Department of Culture and Tourism . If you have a DCT Abu Dhabi library card, you can even borrow books to take home. 4. The House of Knowledge The House of Knowledge houses permanent exhibits of artifacts that represent the Arab world's rich intellectual heritage. It holds a compendium of the Arabs' major contributions to global knowledge and scholarship. Displayed are works by renowned Arab scholars, ancient medical texts, astronomical instruments, and beautifully preserved Arabic calligraphy and cartography. Note: By the way, outside the House of Knowledge is a golden, spherical Arabic calligraphy sculpture created by Mattar Bin Lahej. It's his artistic interpretation of Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan's words, particularly the one about wealth not being money or oil but people. Journey Into the Palace Qasr Al Watan is a palace complex that houses the offices of the UAE president. In 2019, it started welcoming visitors to coincide with the Year of Tolerance in the UAE. It's a beautiful and majestic place, certainly, but its greatest value lies in the valuable insight it provides into Arab artistry, craftsmanship, and scholarship.
Buzz Feed
17-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Buzz Feed
13 Famous People Who Disappeared Without A Trace
Richey Edwards was the intense, brilliant lyricist for the Manic Street Preachers, penning most of the lyrics of their iconic 1994 album The Holy Bible. Just before a U.S. promo tour, the 27-year-old vanished. WHAT HAPPENED: Just one day before he was scheduled to fly to the U.S., on Feb. 1, 1995, the 27-year-old Edwards went missing. He was reportedly seen by fans and a cab driver in the following days, but his car was eventually found near the Severn Bridge, a known suicide site. At the time, Edwards was struggling with depression, self-harm, anorexia, and alcoholism. Still, no body was ever found. In 2008, over a decade later, his family had him legally presumed dead, but as their lawyer explained, it was more a move to get his affairs in order, saying, "That's not the same as an acceptance that he is dead." WHY IT'S SO MYSTERIOUS: In the years since, people have claimed to spot the musician all over the world — Goa, the Canary Islands — always under a new name, always just out of reach. Some point to his fascination with disappearing as a concept. Before he vanished, he reportedly gave the book Novel with Cocaine to a friend and asked them to read the introduction, where the author wrote about vanishing from society. A 2019 book on Edwards entitled Withdrawn Traces, written with the cooperation of his sister Rachel Edwards, echoes this, saying that he'd shown interest in the idea of faking one's death in the years before he was last Rachel told GQ, 'We know no more now than we did 25 years ago.' Lord Richard John Bingham, aka Lord Lucan, was a charming, wealthy, and scandal-ridden British aristocrat. A professional gambler and regular at London's poshest clubs, Lucan was known for living lavishly, despite a crumbling marriage and big-time money problems (he was a gambler, remember). WHAT HAPPENED: On the night of November 7, 1974, Lucan's children's nanny, 29-year-old Sandra Rivett, was bludgeoned to death in the family home. That same night Lucan's estranged wife Veronica stumbled into a pub, covered in blood. She said she too had been attacked and identified her husband as the assailant. Lucan fled the scene, abandoned his car near a port, and was never seen again. WHY IT'S SO MYSTERIOUS: Is this a tale as old as time, of a rich guy escaping accountability for his wrongdoing thanks to big bucks and friends in high places? Maybe. Theories abound. Some believe his aristocratic friends helped him escape to Africa or South America. Over the years, there have been dozens of alleged sightings — in New Zealand, Australia, and even India — but none confirmed. Others, however, say he died by by jumping into the water near the port?He was declared legally dead in 1999, but rumors have persisted that he lived under a new identity for decades. Wildly, just last year, Sandra's son Neil and an investigator tracked down a 90-year-old man in Australia they believe to be Lucan living in secret, but have yet to convince local authorities. Whatever the truth, Lord Lucan remains Britain's most famous fugitive. Barbara Newhall Follett came from a family of very bright people (her sister, for example, was the first woman graduate student at Princeton), but she was the brightest of them all. She wrote poetry at age 4 and in 1927, and at just 12, she published her first book, The House Without Windows, to critical acclaim (The Saturday Review of Literature called the book 'almost unbearably beautiful'). Her next novel came out two years later to more critical acclaim. But fame faded, her father (and champion) left the family, and her life slowly unraveled. WHAT HAPPENED: In 1939, at age 25, after a fight with her husband (whom she suspected of an affair), Barbara walked out of their apartment with the equivalent of just under $700 in today's dollars. She left no note. No trace. Her husband didn't report her missing for two weeks. She was never seen again. WHY IT'S SO MYSTERIOUS: Some believe Barbara died by suicide. Others think she was murdered — possibly by her husband, who acted strangely and avoided questioning. Of course, a pretty young woman walking alone at night with a decent chunk of change in her pocket was at risk from other threats, years, her mother tried to reopen the case but got nowhere. She also was very suspicious of Barbara's husband, and wrote to him, "All of this silence on your part looks as if you had something to hide concerning Barbara's disappearance ... You cannot believe that I shall sit idle during my last few years and not make whatever effort I can to find out whether Bar is alive or dead, whether, perhaps, she is in some institution suffering from amnesia or nervous breakdown."In 2019, writer Daniel Mills published his theory that police did find Barbara's body in 1946, but misidentified it as someone else. If he's right, and Barbara did indeed die by suicide, then a life that began with such incredible promise ended in a deeply sad way. Michael Rockefeller was American royalty. The 23-year-old son of New York Governor and future Vice President of the United States Nelson Rockefeller (who would die while having sex, as described in this post), was an art collector, anthropologist, and heir to one of the richest families in U.S. history. To his credit, he often turned his back on a life of luxury to seek out adventure. WHAT HAPPENED: In 1961, Michael and a colleague were on an expedition in Papua New Guinea to collect Indigenous art when their pontoon boat capsized, stranding them miles from shore in a catamaran. After drifting a while, Michael tired of waiting to be rescued and reportedly said, "I think I can make it," then paddled off toward land using empty gas cans as flotation. His colleague watched him until he disappeared on the horizon. He was never seen again. WHY IT'S SO MYSTERIOUS: Despite a two-week search for Rockefeller involving ships, airplanes, helicopters, and thousands of locals scouring the coasts and swamps, no trace of the heir was found. At first, it was assumed he drowned, was eaten by a shark or 15-foot crocodile, or died from exposure (after all, he was 14 miles from shore when he set out for it). But New Guinea's coastal tribes had a complex history with outsiders, including brutal colonial violence. Rumors quickly spread that Michael had made it to shore… only to be killed and cannibalized by members of the Asmat tribe, with his bones being turned into weapons and fishing the decades, several documentaries and books — including Savage Harvest — have explored this theory. One even claims Michael assimilated into tribal life and lived in secret. But despite deep dives by journalists and even the Rockefeller family (using their deep pockets to try to get to the bottom of what happened), no definitive proof has ever emerged. Dorothy Arnold was everything you'd expect from a New York socialite: elegant, well-educated, extravagantly rich, and constantly in the public eye. She dreamed of being a writer, but kept her failed publishing attempts a secret from her disapproving parents. And then — one day — she was WHAT HAPPENED: On Dec. 12, 1910, the 25-year-old left her family's Upper East Side home to buy a new evening gown. She stopped by a bookstore and bought a copy of the short-story collection Engaged Girl Sketches, then chatted briefly with a friend on Fifth Avenue. That was around 2 p.m. And then…nothing. She vanished in broad daylight, on one of Manhattan's busiest streets, never to be seen again. Her family waited a full day before going to the police — not because they weren't worried, but because they were embarrassed. Her father even hired Pinkerton detectives to look for her in secret, worried that a public scandal could hurt her reputation. But weeks passed. Then months. No body, no note, no confirmed sightings. WHY IT'S SO MYSTERIOUS: Over the years, countless theories emerged. Some believed Dorothy died by suicide over her failed writing career or an unrequited love (could the book she bought about engagements be a clue?). Others suggested she died during a botched abortion, and her body had been quietly disposed of. A few speculated she was murdered in Central Park or kidnapped right off the popular theory? She faked her own death and fled (perhaps to Europe) to start over. She had, after all, bristled against her parents' protectiveness (her father, for example, had refused to let her get an apartment of her own). But despite alleged sightings of her everywhere from Philadelphia to Texas (later discredited), and at least two women who claimed to be Dorothy (all proven to be impostors), there simply was no proof of heartbroken mother died in 1928, still hoping for answers, while her father, who dismissed the idea that his daughter would ever "disgrace" the family by sneaking off without a trace, passed away a few years later. In one of his final interviews, he declared, "After all these years, I am convinced that Dorothy is dead." Jim Sullivan was a folk-rock musician in the style of Gram Parsons or Nick Drake who appeared in the classic film Easy Rider. His 1969 debut album U.F.O. was filled with lyrics about desert roads, aliens, and leaving Earth behind — the kind of stuff that didn't exactly scream "chart-topper," lol — but it built a cult following years later. Above, Jim appears in the 1968 film The Pickup. WHAT HAPPENED: In March 1975, Sullivan left L.A. to drive to Nashville in hopes of kickstarting his music career. En route, he checked into a motel in Santa Rosa, New Mexico, then bought a bottle of vodka and drove out of town. He was spotted 26 miles away at a then never again. His car was later found abandoned with his wallet, ID, guitar, and belongings still inside. WHY IT'S SO MYSTERIOUS: Locals said he seemed disoriented in the days before he vanished. Theories ranged from dehydration or a mental health crisis to foul play (perhaps by the mafia). But no remains were ever found, and no one reported seeing him after that surreal part is how closely Sullivan's real-life disappearance mirrors the themes of his music. His album U.F.O. opens with a track about a man who drives into the desert and disappears. The eerie coincidence made fans wonder: was Jim trying to vanish? Did he have a breakdown? Or — as some like to joke — was he actually abducted by aliens (hey, it's as good a guess as any)? Nearly 50 years later, there are still zero clues about what happened. His old friend Al Dobbs told the New York Times, 'I think he stumbled into something or someone that was unforgiving. It's kind of poetic to picture him still walking out there somewhere. But something happened.' Connie Converse was writing and recording deeply personal songs in the '50s — way, way before the singer-songwriter era made that cool. Her voice was intimate and her lyrics literary, but her life became increasingly complicated as the years rolled by. WHAT HAPPENED: After years of struggling to find an audience, Connie left New York in the early '60s, moved in with family, and fell into a depression. In August 1974, she wrote letters to friends and family saying she needed to "make a new life," packed up her Volkswagen Beetle, and drove away. She was 50. No one has heard from her since. WHY IT'S SO MYSTERIOUS: In the decades since, a new generation fell in love with her melancholy brilliance. But what happened to her remains unknown. The letters she left behind could be interpreted as suicide notes, but they also mentioned returning to New York and her music career. And, if they were suicide notes, why was her body never found? Or her car, for that matter? Ten years later, her brother contacted a private investigator about searching for her, but decided to let it be; if she wanted to start a new life, that was her right. Here's hoping that is what happened, and there's not a darker explanation. Percy Fawcett was the real-life inspiration for Indiana Jones — a British explorer obsessed with the uncharted Amazon and the belief that a lost ancient civilization was hidden within it. He called it the City of "Z." WHAT HAPPENED: In 1925, the 57-year-old Fawcett set out into the Brazilian jungle with his 21-year-old son Jack and Jack's best friend Raleigh with big plans to finally locate the city he'd spent decades theorizing about. 'We shall return,' Fawcett told reporters ahead of the trip, 'and we shall bring back what we seek.' However, after sending a final message via courier from a remote outpost, the entire party vanished. No confirmed trace of any of them was ever found. WHY IT'S SO MYSTERIOUS: Over 100 would-be rescuers and adventurers followed in Fawcett's footsteps in the years that followed. Some vanished themselves. Others were killed by tribes in the region. A few came back convinced Fawcett had died, or with wild stories of seeing him alive and living among Indigenous people, but none of these accounts could be what DID happen? Well, let's be real for a second — dying was easy in the jungle. Between piranha-infested waters, dangerous jaguars, and the risk of malaria, parasitic infection, and starvation, there were all kinds of potential tragic ends for the group. Some believe hostile tribes killed him. That's possible. In 2005, Kalapalo Indians claimed that their oral history passed down that Fawcett made the mistake of crossing into the land of the warlike tribe, the Kalapalos. And then there are the diehards who still believe he found the mythical city... and stayed there. You know what? Let's go with that happy explanation, especially because it sounds the most like the ending of an Indiana Jones adventure. Amelia Earhart was already a global icon when, in 1937, she set out to become the first woman to fly around the world. Smart, daring, and fiercely independent, she was the face of American aviation — and one of the most famous people in the world. But she's on this list, so you already know the trip didn't end well. WHAT HAPPENED: On July 2, 1937, somewhere over the Pacific Ocean near Howland Island, contact with Earhart's plane was lost. She and navigator Fred Noonan were never seen again. Despite one of the largest and most expensive search efforts ever launched at the time, neither wreckage nor bodies were recovered. WHY IT'S SO MYSTERIOUS: There are, of course, lots of theories about what happened. Some say she ran out of fuel and crashed into the sea. Others believe she crash-landed on a nearby island and died as a castaway. Then there's the theory that she was captured and killed by the Japanese after accidentally flying into territory they thing is, no matter how hard people try, no one ever seems able to crack the mystery (recently, an ocean exploration company claimed to have found her plane turned out to be a rock formation, lol). This year, there will supposedly be an expedition to Nikumaroro Island, based on a theory that Earhart's plane landed on the island's reef and later sank. The team plans to investigate an underwater anomaly, dubbed the "Taraia Object," which may be the missing aircraft. Hmm. I'll believe it when I see it. Harold Holt was Prime Minister of Australia and a close ally of United States President Lyndon B. Johnson when he went for a swim and vanished into the ocean. WHAT HAPPENED: On December 17, 1967, Holt went for a swim at Cheviot Beach near Portsea, Victoria. It wasn't a great idea — the conditions were rough and the currents strong. Holt swam out to sea and then disappeared from The government launched one of the largest search operations in Australian history, but no body ever washed ashore; nothing turned up. WHY IT'S SO MYSTERIOUS: Sure, it's most likely he drowned. But Holt said he knew the swimming spot like the back of his hand (in fact, the above photo is of him in the water at the same spot where he disappeared), so conspiracy theories quickly piled up. Some believe he faked his death to run off with a lover. Others claimed he was a Chinese spy who was picked up by a submarine (don't bet your life savings on that one being true).More grounded theories point to the rough conditions and strong the fact that Holt had a history of heart issues. But still — how does the leader of a country vanish during a casual swim with zero trace? Glenn Miller was one of the world's biggest stars, famous as the bandleader whose swing music defined a generation. But when World War II began, he enlisted as a captain in the U.S. Army Air Forces and led the Army Air Forces Band with a mission to boost morale. "This was a lot of hard work, a lot of hard times, a lot of bad, dangerous traveling," according to NPR's Noah Adams. It worked, though, and Miller was promoted to General just a few months before he was last seen. WHAT HAPPENED: On December 15, 1944, Miller boarded a small aircraft in England headed for Paris, where his band was scheduled to perform. Somewhere over the English Channel, the plane vanished. No mayday call. No crash site. No bodies. Just gone. WHY IT'S SO MYSTERIOUS: In truth, this one is probably the least mysterious disappearance on the list, as bad weather most likely brought down the plane. But no wreckage was ever found, and wartime secrecy muddied the records. One of the most famous people in the world did flew in the aftermath: some said the plane was hit by friendly fire, while others spread a very far-fetched conspiracy theory that he died in a Paris brothel and the plane story was a cover-up. (That one has zero evidence, but it's out there.) Officially, Glenn Miller was lost in a wartime accident, and we can only guess at exactly how he met his demise. Sadly, his fans learned of his tragic fate on Christmas Day, 1944. Ambrose Bierce was one of America's greatest writers, a journalist and author who survived the Civil War and wrote the classic The Devil's Dictionary, which defines "peace" as "a period of cheating between two periods of fighting." WHAT HAPPENED: In 1913, at age 71, Bierce joined Pancho Villa's rebel army in Mexico as a war correspondent. He wrote a few letters from the front — one ending with the line "To be a gringo in Mexico — ah, that is euthanasia!" — and then stopped writing. Completely. There were no confirmed sightings, no remains, and no definitive reports of his fate. WHY IT'S SO MYSTERIOUS: An official investigation by U.S. consular officials was conducted, but it only confused things further. Some say he was killed during battle (most likely the siege of Ojinaga in January 1914). Others think Villa's men executed him. And some believe he was never in Mexico at all — that his letters from Mexico were subterfuge to allow him to secretly die by suicide at the Grand Canyon. The truth will likely never be known. Oscar Zeta Acosta was a larger-than-life figure: a Chicano activist, lawyer, novelist, and the real-life inspiration for Dr. Gonzo in Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (played by Benicio Del Toro in the movie). A firebrand in every sense, this dude was always in the middle of something intense. Above, Denver artist Adolfo Romero paints a mural of Oscar Zeta Acosta in 2018. WHAT HAPPENED: In 1974, Acosta — who had become increasingly erratic and involved with drugs — traveled to Mexico where he called his son and told him he was "about to board a boat full of white snow." That was the last anyone ever heard from him. WHY IT'S SO MYSTERIOUS: What does "about to board a boat full of white snow" mean? Cocaine? His buddy Hunter S. Thompson seemed to think it was something like that, saying Acosta probably "ate too much peyote and walked off a cliff." Later, though, he investigated his friend's disappearance and speculated he might have been killed by drug dealers or was the target of a political assassination. But no one really knows. Some think he faked his death to escape his mounting legal troubles and public burnout. His son Marco said, "The body was never found, but we surmise that, probably, knowing the people he was involved with, he ended up mouthing off, getting into a fight, and getting killed."Maybe it is as simple as his son says. But like all of these stories, there just isn't a definitive answer as to what the heck happened.
Watani
17-02-2025
- General
- Watani
Coptic monasticism seminar at Logos centre
Pope Tawadros II has opened the Coptic Monasticism Seminar which this year runs from 15 to 21 February at the LOGOS Papal Centre at the Anba Bishoy Monastery in Wadi El-Natroun in the Western Desert. Participating in the seminar is Anba Danial, rapporteur of the Synodal Committee for Monasticism and Monastery Affairs, and Abbot of Anba Pola's Monastery in the Red Sea region. Attending are abbots of Coptic monasteries as well as monks. This year's seminar focuses on 'The Letters of the Great Saint Anthony'. Pope Tawadros gave the first lecture of the seminar which centered on 'The Holy Bible in the Life of Saint Anthony'. Workshop discussions are focused on exploring monastic commandments and principles as referenced in the epistles of Saint Paul. Comments comments Tags: Coptic Monasticism Seminar 2025Michael Girgis
