Fish doorbells! Historic sandwiches! 50 of the weirdest, most wonderful corners of the web – picked by an expert

Can’t face another minute thinking about war, inflation or the climate catastrophe? Give your brain a break in a strange, surprising or entrancing corner of the internet. We’ve got riddles, we’ve got webcams, we’ve got an owl in a box …

A moment that changed me: I stopped posting funny stories about my daughter – and she began to trust me again

For seven years I was a compulsive ‘sharent’, chronicling my daughter’s life on social media. Then she told me how much she hated it …

Passages review – Ira Sachs strikes gold with sophisticated love triangle

A gay man cheats on his husband with a straight woman in this fiercely sexy and heartbreaking tale of young Parisians

The business of silence: is there a hidden cost to noise cancelling?

Headphone and earplug sales are booming, but individual efforts to turn down the volume may alter our brains and surrounds in unexpected ways

Top of the List: the best things to watch, read and cook in Australia this weekend

In a new weekly column, the team behind pop culture newsletter Saved for Later recommend their latest and/or forthcoming obsessions

‘Oddly satisfying’: what’s behind our drive to collect useless items?

Fans say their collections of mugs, Crocs and plush toys ‘scratch an itch’. You might call it one-in-every-colour capitalism

Customer data used for unwanted romantic contact, UK poll shows

Almost one in three people aged 18-34 have been messaged by staff after giving personal details to a business

Charlize Theron attacks Hollywood beauty standard: ‘I’m just ageing! It doesn’t mean I got bad plastic surgery’

The actor has called out double standards for ageing stars in the movie industry

Readers reply: which person has had the greatest impact on the course of the 21st century so far?

The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical concepts

Is it time to embrace badly behaved audiences?

There’s always a lot of harrumphing about loud eating, talking, arriving late, sex and even throwing things at the stage… But isn’t a bawdy audience is what a live performance is all about?

‘A feminist symbol’: how the humble ponytail scored a summer winner

From England’s Lionesses to Margot Robbie’s Barbie, the everyday hairstyle has become a symbol of power and confidence

‘Ben has a great pelvis and it’s wonderful to show it’: Ira Sachs, Franz Rogowski and Ben Whishaw on their erotic new film

Rogowski and Whishaw star in Passages, Sachs’ film about a gay couple whose marriage is upturned when one has an affair with a woman. They talk power struggles, micro-gestures and a sex scene that proved too much for US censors

Barbie, what have you done? The nightmare of Hollywood’s toy movie future

After Barbie’s success, toy maker Hasbro has joined the goldrush – and soon even the dullest playtime object will get its own film. Are you ready for the Play-Doh Cinematic Universe?

Strays review – Will Ferrell leads brutally funny comedy of foul-mouthed talking dogs

With turns from Ferrell and Jamie Foxx, this barking stoner caper follows a neglected animal plotting revenge on a beastly owner

How does it feel to live without a smartphone? ‘Almost spiritual’

For most, giving up a smartphone in 2023 would be an almost inconceivable inconvenience. But those who’ve done it say they found delight with dumber devices