YESTERYEARDid Jesus have any siblings? Kareena, Sydney Australia
The Pope says "no". The Bible says "yes". You work it out. Garrick Alder, London Aren't we all the children of God, making us all his siblings? Glen Smeaton, London, UK
Barabra Thiering's book "Jesus the Man", based upon an interpretation of the Dead Sea Scrolls is a good guide. She says that Jesus's brother James was, for some time, a political rival to Jesus.
Jimmy Carr review a relentless wallow in grubbiness
StageReviewRose theatre, Kingston
Despite occasional glimmers of subversive wit, Carr continues to rely on dubious jokes about dwarves, fat women and FGM
‘Welcome to 90 minutes of your life you’re never getting back,” runs the caption at the start of Jimmy Carr’s touring show, Terribly Funny. That’s what you sign up for when you go to see Carr: a grubby pleasure that may be more grubby than pleasure. We know we shouldn’t.
Letter from Queen Victoria points to affair with Brown | UK news
UK newsLetter from Queen Victoria points to affair with BrownA newly discovered letter from Queen Victoria, revealing her innermost feelings for her Highland servant John Brown, reignited speculation yesterday that their relationship was more than platonic.
The handwritten note, uncovered by accident by a PhD student in the family archives of Lord Cranbrook, one of Queen Victoria's ministers, in the Suffolk record office indicates just how distraught she was when Brown died unexpectedly in March 1883.
Ono's image of naked breast offends Liverpudlians | UK news
UK newsOno's image of naked breast offends LiverpudliansThirty-five years on from her famous Bed-In, Yoko Ono's gift for shocking people remains intact. This time, though, she may have chosen the wrong audience.
Residents of Liverpool - the city that bred her late husband, John Lennon - lodged complaints about her photograph of a naked woman hanging from a war memorial, which have now been taken down.
The giant banner depicting a naked breast was put up on the former St Luke's church as part of the Liverpool biennial modern art festival.
Saturday Night Live: Kate McKinnon returns for a subpar episode
Saturday Night Live recapSaturday Night LiveThe former cast member makes her debut as a host for a cameo-packed yet disappointingly unfunny episode which only perks up during Weekend Update
The go-home holiday episode of Saturday Night Live kicks off with a Christmas awards show, which hands out awards in categories such as Most Disappointing Gift Given to a 10-Year-Old Boy, Most Unwelcome, Uninvited Guest, Best Performance: Confident Incorrect Lyrics. Painfully dull and painfully unfunny, this cold open bodes ill for the rest of the episode.
Ten crazy travel challenges from around the world | World records
World recordsTen crazy travel challenges from around the worldDo you take a checklist with you when you travel? These people do, ticking off mountain peaks, places beginning with Z and even Nando's restaurants. We bring you 10 travellers on a missionDo you know someone who has travelled the world with a checklist? Let us know in the comments below
From swimming the Channel to cycling across the US, people have long been setting themselves self-imposed travel goals.
Top 10 animal villains | Children's books
Children's booksChildren's booksTop 10 animal villainsFrom the Beatrix Potter's mean mouse Samuel Whiskers to The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe's cruel Captain Maugrim, Piers Torday chooses the most chillingly evil animals in children’s books
Find out more about Piers Torday and his book The Dark Wild in our Guardian children's fiction prize book club special
Let me be really clear about one thing. In the real world, from sharks to gorillas, spiders to rats, not one animal is actually a villain.
Daphne's unruly passions
The ObserverFictionReviewHaunting mysteries, wild landscapes, brooding mansions and secret Sapphic desire ... welcome to 100 years of du Maurier'Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again', the opening of Rebecca, is Daphne du Maurier's most quoted line. And from 10 May, the centenary of her birth, we should all be prepared to revisit Manderley repeatedly, as in a recurring dream. For du Maurier is about to be comprehensively celebrated.
Durex's vibrating pants: foreplay gropes its way to the future
ShortcutsSexCould internet-enabled Fundawear revolutionise long-distance relationships?They call it Fundawear: a bra, his and hers electric pants, and an app to control them. Its creators Durex Australia claim it could be the "future of foreplay", enabling long-distance lovers to touch and tease each other from halfway across the planet. Or at least have a bit of a cheeky grope.
The technology made its debut in a video posted on the company's YouTube page on Wednesday, of a young couple giggling as the man uses the power of the internet to prod his beloved girlfriend in the breast.
Exiles in a small world | Books
BooksExiles in a small worldAn early campus novel, Vladimir Nabokov's Pnin, published while Lolita was banned, first established his credentials as a writer of rare ability, writes David LodgeVladimir Nabokov was a literary genius. There is no other word with which to describe a writer who, in mid-life, became a stylistic virtuoso in a language that was not his mother tongue. Circumstances - which is to say, the convulsions of 20th-century European politics - impelled him to achieve this feat, exchanging Russian for English as the medium of his art (as well as acquiring an enviable fluency in French along the way).