A gaggle of geese are such celebrities in a market town where they rule the roost, they now star in their own charity calendar. It shows the 20 birds waddling around March, Cambridgeshire, popping in to stores, gazing through the windows of kebab shops and visiting bookies’. Perhaps they fancy a flutter.
Metro (Amanda Welles)
Day of the triffid
A plant that can take up to 100 years to produce its first flowers has managed the feat in a quarter of the time – but it may not be long for this world. The Agave americana, also known as the century plant, was given to Tony Kennington, 78, when it was 18 inches tall. It now towers over his house in Hartford, Cambridgeshire. Its yellow flowers are, however, a sign it will soon die. “It’s been a bit of competition between me and the plant over who was going to live longer,” Kennington said.
Times (David Lamming)
The annuals of history
The Guinness World Records is celebrating its 70th anniversary by highlighting unclaimed titles you might fancy going for. The keeper of weird and wacky achievements is inviting people to try their hand at such extraordinary feats as: the most whoopee cushions sat on in one minute; the fastest time to blow a stamp 10 metres; the furthest distance bottle flip. Its editor-in-chief, Craig Glenday, said the records are “there for the taking”, and looks forward to celebrating “the next generation of record-breakers”.
Sky News (Steve Morley)
[See also: Asa Briggs, professor of everything]
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This article appears in the 03 Sep 2025 issue of the New Statesman, The Age of Deportation
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