12 Established 1961

Sunday, July 19, 2020 Lifestyle Features

These pictures show Bridger Walker and his sister. —Image credits nicolenoelwalker

aptain America, Iron Man, Thor, Spiderman... Wyoming, put himself between a German Shepherd mix Man in the Avengers series, who promised Bridger Csuperheroes have lined up in recent days to and his little sister on July 9 as the dog was about to “something special” for his next birthday. Chris praise the courage of a six-year-old boy who attack the four-year-old girl. He was bitten badly in the Hemsworth, the actor who played Thor in the superhero was mauled while saving his little sister from a dog cheek and underwent emergency surgery during which films, also praised Bridger as “an absolute inspiration.” attack. “You’re a hero, what you did was so brave, so he had 90 stitches put in his face. “If someone had to “Your courage is beyond belief and we are all so selfless, your sister is so lucky to have you as a big die, I thought it should be me,” the little boy’s parents impressed by you, and we’re thinking of you,” he said. “I brother,” said Chris Evans, the actor who played said he told them afterwards. His story went viral on US know you’re an Avengers fan and so myself and all the Captain America in the Avengers movies, of which the social media and a number of celebrities responded to team, we’d be honoured to have you on the team, and little boy is a big fan. “Your parents must be so proud an appeal by his aunt on Instagram for messages of we love you and we’re sending you our support.”—AFP of you,” said Evans. support for the boy. Bridger Walker, who lives in the western US state of Among them was Robert Downey Jr, who plays Iron

win red-ruffed lemurs have been eight-year-old Minnie, who arrived in Tborn at Singapore zoo, officials Singapore from a Japanese zoo in 2016. said Thursday, a rare double deliv- Although the twins were born earlier ery that is a boost for the endangered this year, they have only recently saucer-eyed primates. It was the first become an attraction as the zoo was birth at the zoo of the endangered crea- closed for months as a result of a coron- tures, which are native to Madagascar, avirus lockdown. Red-ruffed lemurs are in over a decade, Wildlife Reserves classified as critically endangered by Singapore said. The arrival of the yet- the International Union for to-be-named twins was “particularly Conservation of Nature due to logging special” because the creatures breed and hunting. Of the 107 surviving lemur Presumed portrait only once a year, it said. species on Madagascar, some 103 are of Raphael The fluffy lemurs are a distinctive threatened, including 33 that are criti- rust colour, with black faces, hands, feet cally endangered—the last stop before and tails, and a distinctive white patch “extinct in the wild”, the group said ear- on their heads. The last of the species to lier this month.—AFP This undated handout photo shows Singapore Zoo’s twin red-ruffed lemurs are placed be born at the zoo was the twins’ father, in carrier during their first health check up in the animal hospital.—AFP Bosco, 11 years ago. The mother is

“Goodbye Earl,” “Travelin’ Soldier” and a popular cover of Fleetwood Mac’s The Chicks, “Landslide.” They faced death threats as people burned their albums, and country minus ‘Dixie,’ singer Toby Keith toured with a doctored feverish Raphael suffering from “a coron- photo of Maines with Saddam Hussein. Aavirus-like disease” died after failing to tell his The Chicks, who include Maines along doctors he had been secretly visiting lovers on return with fiery with sisters Emily Strayer and Martie freezing cold nights, leading them to wrongly pre- Maguire, appeared nude on the cover of scribe bloodletting, a new study claims. Popular myth Entertainment Weekly with many of the has the Renaissance painter succumb to syphilis in new album names they’d been called—including 1520 after wooing one too many ladies, though “Traitors” and “Dixie Sluts”—scrawled experts widely agree that he died of an infection. early two decades after country across their strategically concealed bod- Laid low by a raging fever, the prolific painter, Nmusic shunned them for famously ies. Years later, many artists still fear get- designer and architect, was tended to by “the best repudiating George W Bush, the ting “Dixie Chicked”: scrubbed out if they doctors in Rome, sent to him by the pope” who trio formerly known as The Dixie Chicks voice opinions, political or otherwise. feared losing the invaluable artist, medical historian have soared back with a new album, new “Throughout my whole career, label Michele Augusto Riva told AFP. name and renewed fearlessness. The executives and publishers would say, But according to Italian painter Giorgio Vasari and Texas group just weeks ago dropped ‘Don’t be like the Dixie Chicks,’” country his 1550 masterpiece on the lives of painters, Raphael “Dixie” from their moniker for its links to darling-turned-pop megastar Taylor failed to tell the physicians of his “frequent night out- the slavery-era US confederacy, saying Swift said in her autobiographical docu- ings in the cold” to visit lovers. “It was much, much simply, “We want to meet this moment.” mentary. “And I loved the Dixie Chicks.” colder in March in that period, and it’s very likely he And on Friday, The Chicks release caught pneumonia,” Riva said. The doctors diagnosed “Gaslighter”—their first album in 14 Country’s flashpoint a fever caused by an “excess of humours”, or blood, years, which the coronavirus pandemic After releasing their Grammy-winning In this file photo taken on January 15, 2020 Canadian circus troop “Cirque du and let his blood—either through incisions or leech- delayed several more months—which album “Taking The Long Way”—a middle Soleil” performs in their acrobatic performance on ice titled CRYSTAL at Arena Riga, es—which fatally weakened him. The artist, a child leans pop but includes the group’s signa- finger of a record aimed at the industry Latvia. — AFP prodigy and part of a trinity of Renaissance greats ture spellbinding harmonies and vividly that blacklisted them—The Chicks flew along with Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, died personal lyricism. under the radar for more than a decade, aged only 37. Raphael was sent off with high honours The iconoclastic trio catapulted to dabbling in solo and side projects. Few at a grand funeral at the Vatican, and his remains rest fame in the late 1990s, becoming one of defended them in the early 2000s, but in Rome’s Pantheon. A red rose graces his grave all the best-selling female groups in history today many artists profess admiration for the year round. with their foot-stomping fusion of blue- the three women who walked away from grass, rock and country that shook the the line they were instructed to toe. The ‘His own mistake’ oft-staid Nashville establishment. But the Jack Antonoff-produced “Gaslighter” is a “In that period, doctors were aware of the dangers group all but vanished from country’s barbed but clear-eyed, righteous but fresh anadian cultural ny while also reducing its guaranteed of bloodletting in the treatment of infectious diseases, main stage after lead singer Natalie album chronicling the pain of a brutal Cicon Cirque du Soleil—currently debt to $300 million from $1.1 billion, but were acting on misinformation,” said Riva, who Maines told a London show in 2003 she breakup—Maines divorced in 2019 — under court bankruptcy protec- according to the Canadian Daily Globe co-authored the study with three fellow researchers was “ashamed” that then-president Bush that also nods to gun violence and climate tion—accepted a purchase offer from its and Mail. It also includes a promise to from the University of Milano Bicocca. “A medical hailed from Texas—and that the band did change. Its title track centers on the term creditors Thursday, which will serve as a maintain Cirque du Soleil’s Montreal mistake, and his own mistake in not faithfully recount- “not want this war, this violence,” refer- “gaslighting,” which describes someone minimum bid for an investors auction in headquarters for at least another five ing his history, contributed to Raphael’s death,” he ring to the impending invasion of Iraq. who psychologically manipulates others August. The creditors “would acquire years. Creditors had disputed the previ- said. The researchers had been preparing the short The comment caught fire. Many coun- into doubting reality, and often applies to substantially all of the Company’s assets” ous agreement allowing shareholders to study, which was published this week in the Internal try radio stations banned their music— the abuse and silencing of women.—AFP in the agreement, according to a state- purchase the group because it would and Emergency Medicine journal, before COVID-19 including hits like “Wide Open Spaces,” ment from the global entertainment have seen the creditors recoup a smaller gripped northern Italy in late February. As practising giant. The new agreement replaces the share of the debt that the company owes doctors, they then had to put it on hold when they arrangement that Cirque du Soleil and its them. found themselves on the frontline of the crisis, caring current shareholders—American TPG, “We are very pleased to have come for medical staff who had caught the virus in intensive Chinese Fosun and Caisse de depot et to this agreement with Cirque du Soleil,” care units. placement du Quebec (CDPQ) — made Gabriel de Alba, managing director and “From what we know, Raphael died of a pulmonary in late June. partner at Cirque du Soleil’s most impor- illness very similar to the coronavirus we’ve seen The Montreal-based circus troupe, tant creditor Catalyst Capital Group, said now,” he said. Contemporary accounts of his death which was founded in Quebec in 1984, in a statement. “The cooperation of the reveal the painter’s disease “lasted 15 days; Raphael was forced to cancel 44 shows around creditor group has been extraordinary to was composed enough to put his affairs in order, con- the globe in March as efforts to curb the achieve our objective to recapitalize and fess his sins, and receive the last rites,” the study says. coronavirus pandemic prevented large revitalize the Cirque,” he said. Other It said it was an acute disease, characterised by high audiences from gathering. The company investors have already planned to outbid and continuous fever. “A recent sexually transmitted has since furloughed 4,679 acrobats and the creditors—offers for which are due infection—such as gonorrhea and syphilis—could not technicians—or 95 percent of its work- August 18. Among them explain the incubation period. “An acute manifestation force. Most were officially let go in late are Cirque du Soleil founder Guy of viral hepatitis could not be considered without June when the company filed for bank- Laliberte, the former fire-eating per- jaundice and other signs of liver failure. No epidemics ruptcy protection. former who sold the group as well as of typhus or plague were reported in the city of Rome The Superior Court of Quebec, which Quebec media empire Quebecor in at that time,” it added. Despite his premature death, In this file photo winners of Best Record of the Year, Best Album of the Year, Best Song of is supervising the company’s restructur- 2015.—AFP Raphael produced a vast ouevre of seminal work, the Year, Best Country Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal and Best Country ing, is set to rule on its approval of the much of it at the Vatican, whose museums include sev- Album, the Dixie Chicks, Emily Robison (left), Natalie Maines (center) and Martie plan during a hearing Friday. The accord eral rooms filled with his frescoes. Completed by Maguire (right) pose with the trophies at the 49th Grammy Awards in Los Angeles 11 would see lenders inject between $300 Raphael’s students after his death, they remain some February 2007.—AFP million and $375 million into the compa- of the Vatican’s most popular rooms.—AFP