DAVID ADAMS reports on the odder side of life…
Still from a vlog by Taylor R creating Christmas Tree Eyebrows on YouTube
• We’ve all seen the photographs of families in the US dressed up in matching sweaters for Christmas. Now comes another Christmas-related trend that’s raising err…eyebrows. Known by the hashtag #ChristmasTreeEyebrows, hte trend – which has been popularised by lifestyle vlogger known as Taylor R or TayTay – involves using gel and wax to separate out strands of hair so that tiny gems, stars, glitter and other objects can be attached to spread Christmas cheer. We’ve also seen examples with dyed brows. Hmmm.
• Seems sculptors and soccer stars don’t mix too well. A new statue of soccer great, Diego Maradona, was unveiled in India recently and immediately drew criticism for looking “more like someone’s gran” as well as other unfavourable reviews. It follows the unveiling, earlier this year, of a much-vilified statue of Real Madrid star, Cristiano Rinaldo – a work which criticised so heavily that a new statue, bearing a much greater likeness to the soccer star, was created. But soccer stars aren’t the only people sculptors get wrong – remember the statue of I Love Lucy star, Lucille Ball, unveiled in New York in 2015 and immediately earning the moniker ‘Scary Lucy’?
• Sixty years ago, 10-year-old Gayla Peevey sang the hit song, I Want A Hippopotamus For Christmas, prompting a public drive to bring a hippopotamus to the zoo in her home town of Oklahoma City. Peevey recently got to welcome another hippo to the zoo, a 26-year-old pygmy hippopotamus named Francesca, who had recently moved from San Diego Zoo with the City of Oklahoma City declaring 9th December ‘Gayla Peevey Day’ in her honour. It’s not the first time she had done so since her childhood – in 1953 she was on hand to welcome Nile hippopotamus Mathilda.
