Mermaids – underwater creatures that are half fish and half human – do not exist except in people’s imaginations. Scientists who study the ocean for the United States have investigated their possible existence and say no evidence of mermaids has ever been found.

Whether you look forward to the Christmas party or see it as a seasonal obligation, that time of year is here again. Restrictions on social interactions mean that workplaces are turning to virtual Christmas parties as the trend of working remotely in 2020 continues.

It’s Christmas 2020 and COVID-19 is unfortunately still here. Many people will be visiting loved ones, including vulnerable family members.

As the pandemic restricts plans, long distance trips to visit relatives or meals with family and friends may be replaced with a video call. Still, you would like loved ones to know that they are remembered over the holidays. Make their gifts personal and meaningful without exceeding your budget.

The Beginner’s Guide is a narrative video game with no goals or objectives. Instead, it tells the story of a person whose psyche is slowing unravelling. Along the way, it touches on issues of depression, loneliness and self-doubt.

In the closing sequence of “The Queen’s Gambit,” the chess-playing heroine, Beth Harmon, defeats her archrival Vasily Borgov at the Moscow Invitational.

As restrictions ease around the country and the prospect of travel beckons, many of us will be planning road trips for the holiday season. To ensure your trip is memorable in the best rather than the worst way, here are some things you and your fellow travellers can do to reduce the risk of becoming infected with, or spreading, COVID on your trip.

It’s the season of giving – and spending. While the common adage is that money can’t buy happiness, others have suggested that if your money isn’t buying you happiness, then you are spending it in the wrong way.

Amusement and pleasant surprises – and the laughter they can trigger – add texture to the fabric of daily life. Those giggles and guffaws can seem like just silly throwaways. But laughter, in response to funny events, actually takes a lot of work,

Christmas is a time of celebration, relaxation and gift giving. But choosing gifts can also make it a time of stress and anxiety. The wrong gift can actually do more harm than good.

The last several months of experience fighting the COVID-19 pandemic can help you to plan a safer holiday season, researchers say.

Back in 1647, Christmas was banned in the kingdoms of England (which at the time included Wales), Scotland and Ireland and it didn’t work out very well.

As new social restrictions are imposed to combat the spread of COVID-19, it will be no surprise if people once again turn to their television screens for entertainment and companionship

Like many people in this unusual year, I am adjusting my family’s holiday plans so that we can all be safe during the coronavirus pandemic.

Groucho Marx once joked, “Anything that can’t be done in bed isn’t worth doing at all.” You might think he was referring to sleeping and sex. But humans, at one time or another, have done just about everything in bed.

Ten years ago my wife, the Broadway singer Judy Blazer, performed in a satirical revue for the Lyrics and Lyricists Series at New York’s 92nd Street Y.

Recent research from the Literacy Trust has indicated that children’s interest in and enjoyment of reading increased during lockdown.

Frances Hodgson Burnett’s 1911 children’s book The Secret Garden has once again been adapted for the screen. Critics have noted that the film about a healing garden has come just at the right time, with The Telegraph calling it “a sparkling COVID antidote”.

After the October 7, 2020, vice-presidential debate in the United States, the fly that landed on Vice-President Mike Pence’s head was more of a sensation than the details of the debate — at least on social media.

John Lennon was acutely aware of his place in the musical lineage, and the strengths and weaknesses of his own songwriting.

During times of crisis, people find themselves faced with lifestyle changes. One of the earliest and most noticeable changes seen during the COVID-19 lockdown was how we consume media — and especially how we read.

Research suggests that as you learn or regularly use a second language, it becomes constantly “active” alongside your native language in your brain. To enable communication, your brain has to select one language and inhibit the other.

Up to 90% of brain development occurs in the first five years of life. Early learning matters, and creates a solid foundation for future development.