Lifestyle - Monday, June 15, 2026

We over-50s should worry less about our crepe necks and sunspots and more about our listening skills – and the pettiness we bring to social media When I was young, there was a huge list of things you shouldn’t do, or specifically wear, over the age of 30; there were fewer explicit rules about what you should and shouldn’t wear over the age of 50, but they were all implied by the fact that it was 20 years since you’d been 30. Then someone lampooned the whole business – it was strikingly memorable but, teeth-gnashingly, not memorable enough that I can remember who it was – with a definitive list of Never Wear This Over 30, which included “a necklace made of ears”. The entire discourse was buried that day, and I never thought about it again, until the weekend, when I was walking up some stairs with a mirror all the way up. That, I could not help but notice, is a very 90s walking style. I guess we all learned it from Bez out of Happy Mondays , the man specifically employed (if you would use such a LinkedIn word for it) to bring happiness to the nation with his physical joie de vivre: leading with the shoulders, as if you’re in a ferocious hurry to get to the front of somewhere, with your neck hunched in to bypass the attention of the authorities because of all the drugs you are about to either sell or buy, the rest of your body an afterthought. Continue reading...

An increasing number of people are finding trail running relatively late in life – and they’re reaping the health benefits Earlier this year, 62-year-old Karla Wagner placed second in the 100-mile division of the Grandmaster Ultras, an Arizona trail-running event designed for 50-and-over runners in the age group known as “grandmaster”. For most of her adult life, Wagner, who is from Lander, Wyoming, avoided running because it triggered her asthma. But when asthma meds improved, she added trail running to her fitness mix and became completely hooked in her early fifties. Continue reading...

Never mind leftovers – some dogs will eat anything, from electrics to wasps’ nests. We asked you to tell us about your pets’ most radical experiments in off-menu dining I adopted my brother’s middle-aged westie, Maggie. She did tend to eat anything unattended, but usually leaned towards actual food. One memorable day, I came home to a living room carpet covered in what appeared to be termite mounds. Maggie had consumed about a kilo of chinchilla bathing sand and a second course of sanitary towels (the ones with wings). The latter contained some kind of absorbent gel, which made the vomit sculptures impressively solid – the vet who checked her afterwards (Maggie was remarkably unaffected, and certainly did not learn any lesson) remarked that it was something of a miracle that she threw it up. If not for my carpet. Fiona, 56, works for a non-profit research institute, Fulford, North Yorkshire I have a partially sighted two-year-old red fox labrador and a more matronly five-year-old black lab. I have a long daily commute and my dogs come with me. There wasn’t space for a cage that was big enough for both labs in the boot of my small hatchback, meaning they had free access to the whole boot during our two hours on the road. Last year, the younger one, with possible assistance, ate up all the electrics she could get to, pulling them out from under the back seat. She also ate the floor of the boot, the polystyrene around the spare tyre and the backing of the back seats. All done in relative silence during our drive until the car suddenly stopped in the middle of the road as I was driving out of a car park one morning, with all the warning lights flashing. The entire car had to be rewired, costing around £8,000. Thank goodness for comprehensive car insurance. She is no longer allowed to travel in the boot unless she’s in her cage and, thankfully, nothing she ate needed advanced veterinary attention. Rebecca, 51, veterinary surgeon and researcher, Norway Continue reading...

Here's where to start. The post How to Build Healthy Eating Habits (Without a Diet Plan) appeared first on Camille Styles .

The legendary PH1 keeps traversing the U.S., inspiring brewers to innovate and stay connected.

Peel your family away from their screens with games for every type of person – vetted by our panel of specialists The six best US jigsaw puzzles for adults and kids to soothe your screen-addled brain Sign up for the Filter US newsletter, your weekly guide to buying fewer, better things There is nothing wrong with getting together as a family to watch a movie or play some video games. But gathering around a table to play a board game can peel kids off their screens and pull families together in a way few things can. That’s a big reason why family game night is such a treasured tradition in many households, especially during the holidays. You could opt for classics such as Monopoly and Scrabble of course, but there is so much variety and diversity in modern board games that you would be missing out. If you’re willing to expand your horizons, we promise there’s a new game on this list that will have your family members clearing calendars for a rematch. This story was updated in summer 2026 with new recommendations for travel games. Best overall game: Bomb Busters Best cooperative game: The Gang Continue reading...

You told us the barbecue upgrades that make a big difference. Plus, we’ve got you covered for Father’s Day with 62 tried and tested gifts • Don’t get the Filter delivered to your inbox? Sign up here Lighter, drawn-out days, warmer nights, and World Cup watch parties can mean only one thing: alfresco dining. If you’re itching to get the barbecue out, we’ve rounded up reader tips and tricks – and some of our own – to help up your grill game. If you need an upgrade to your setup, the Weber kettle barbecue “makes incredible food without any faff”, says Alex David , who gave it top spot in his test of the best barbecues . Or Argos’s affordable drum-shaped grill “has everything you need and a little more”, and was Alex’s budget favourite. Continue reading...

Made with whole-grain cornmeal and whole-wheat flour, bursting with blueberries and lightly sweetened with honey, these tender buttermilk pancakes are pure comfort food that’s healthy, too.

A crunchy, tangy antithesis to traditional soggy rice salads There are not many foods I will pass on, but a traditional rice salad is something I have never been able to get on board with – soggy dressed grains just don’t do it for me texturally. However, the current trend of roasting or pan-frying the grains is a whole other story. I love the added flavour it brings, the crunchy texture, and the way the rice soaks up everything with which it is enrobed. This gochujang dressing is my new obsession, adding enough spice to elevate things, and finishing with chunks of creamy avocado and a punchy hit of tangy lime. Serve straight away, or leave the roast rice to cool before dressing, it’s up to you. Either way, I guarantee it won’t last long. Continue reading...

Parents are being encouraged to give kids their own ‘self-invested personal pension’. But where’s the money coming from? Fifteen million of us aren’t saving enough for our own retirement Parents are rarely short of sources of crushing guilt and night-time waking, but here’s an unlikely new reason to feel you’ve let your offspring down. Have you got your kid a pension? If not, why not, you feckless loser? Rather than screen-free childhoods, Stem camp subscriptions or gourmet bento lunchboxes , the latest middle-class must-have, according to the Times , is a Junior Sipp, or “self-invested personal pension”. Get started early, and the voodoo of compound interest over time could mean you’re well on the way to making the apple of your eye an “alpha pension millionaire”. Even more inherited wealth disparity – exactly what this country needs! People wondering whether their own pension (if they have one) will be enough for a thimbleful of gruel 30 years from now may find this suggestion somewhat fanciful; last month the Pensions Commission warned that at least 15 million of us aren’t saving enough for our own retirement, let alone anyone else’s. Plus kids already cost an arm, a leg and a kidney. In 2024, the Child Poverty Action Group calculated raising a child in the UK to 18 cost £260,000 (£290,000 for lone parents); it’s probably even more now. Are parents really doing this? It seems like a big and unwarranted vote of confidence in the global economy and geopolitics, given the dire state of both. Continue reading...