Latest news with #Agatha
Daily Mirror
5 days ago
- General
- Daily Mirror
'My friend is giving her baby an ugly name and I'm devastated for the poor kid'
A woman couldn't help but cringe when she heard what her friend wants to name her daughter - and now she is trying everything in her power to convinced her to rethink the moniker Many people often don't like the baby names their friends give their child, and that's exactly the case for one woman has shared her 'heartache' after hearing what her friend wants to name her baby girl - claiming it's "ugly". She explained how her mum-to-be friend has become "obsessed" with a certain name and wants to give it to her daughter, believing it's the perfect moniker. However, she thinks it's an "ugly" name, saying it reminds her of a "ugly flower hag". She has taken to Reddit to ask users of the tragedeigh thread, a word used to describe a "given name that has been deliberately misspelled or completely made up to appear more unique than it actually is", how she can convince her friend to rethink the name. She said: "Help! My friend is obsessed with this tragedeigh name for her soon to be due daughter. She wants to name her daughter Agantha. Yes, not Agatha. Agantha. "She read a book that had a character with that name and fell in love. I personally think the name is so ugly. It sounds ugly. Like an ugly flower hag. Help me convince her it's a no." Commenting on her post, one user said: "Honestly, I understand how reading it looks like a pretty name, but saying it you get stuck on the N like peanut butter. "I think Agatha is a pretty name, but people who have it often don't love it, and I can imagine a baby named Agantha resenting it even more." Another user added: "Agnatha are jawless fish. It will probably get misspelled that way at least once." A third user said: "That name reminds me of Agnatha. The word "Agnatha" refers to a superclass of jawless fish in biology. "It comes from Greek words meaning 'no jaws'. This group includes lampreys and hagfish, as well as various extinct forms. "Essentially, Agnatha is a taxonomic grouping of vertebrates that lack jaws, distinguishing them from other fish groups." One more user added: "It's bad. It's really bad. She could name a baby Agatha, name her Anne, name her Agnes, she could name her Agatha Anne Agnes [last name], and not sign her daughter up for a life time of going 'no, it's Agantha' and go by Aggie forever anyways." Another user said: "Agatha is such a beautiful name. Agantha is not. There's a reason a fictional character bears the name; it doesn't work so well in the real world. "Also, I wouldn't name things based on books. Take a look at Niel Gaiman: brilliant writer, for the longest time was well-respected in the literary world. Now? Not so much. Same thing happened to JK Rowling. Not all writers are weird, but it can always happen." A final user said: "Agantha sounds like a disease. It sounds heavy. It sounds like a Godzilla-universe monster name. "I immediately hear school children teasing ' Agantha Giganta!' We beg your friend not to name her beautiful baby girl this. It would be cruel."
Sydney Morning Herald
05-07-2025
- Sydney Morning Herald
Below deck: Why smaller boats rule for cruising down the world's longest river
This story is part of the July 6 edition of Sunday Life. See all 13 stories. It's mid-afternoon on the Nile and I'm watching the scenery glide by from the top deck of the Agatha, warm breeze tugging at my shirt. Every couple of kilometres we pass a village of flat-roofed mud brick houses shaded by date palms. Between each village is a luscious green sandwich of wheat and lucerne fields set against toasted sandstone hills. Ox carts plod and creak in a nimbus of dust. It feels as old as the Book of Psalms. The story of Egypt is the story of the Nile. It is this river that has made life and civilisation possible here. Until the building of the dams at Aswan, the river flooded every year, delivering a rich cargo of fertile silt to the farms along its banks. Extending from the river, a filigree of canals and capillaries irrigate fields of wheat, cotton, rice, barley, grapes, and fruit trees. Where the irrigated fields end, a wilderness of sand and rock begins. The Nile River cruise between Luxor and Aswan is a slow and languid voyage past the ribbon of greenery that rescues Egypt from the parched sands of the Sahara. Most travellers sail aboard the big vessels, which can carry between 40 and 150 passengers and travel in a convoy of five or six, tying up side-by-side along the riverbank at night. Then there are boats like the Agatha, traditional dahabiyas with a single row of cabins that accommodate 10 to 20 passengers on the bottom deck while an expansive upper deck offers couches and tables beneath a shady awning. If the wind is strong, the crew hoist the sails but most of the time our dahabiya is towed by a tug at about the speed of a paddling duck. One evening we tie up beside a village. A walk takes us through fields of date palms and mango trees and up into stone-covered hills, dry and lifeless in contrast to the oasis at their feet. On another evening, we berth alongside quarries that provided the sandstone for the great temple at Karnak. A couple of times we swim in the river. It's cold, and the current is too strong to swim against it, but we launch ourselves upstream of the Agatha and drift until we can grab the side ladder. Loading The upstream journey along the Nile from Luxor doesn't take you through the Egypt of grand temples and monuments, although the Temple of Khnum at Esna is a showstopper. One of the last temples built in Ancient Egypt, its columns are encircled by hieroglyphs of birds, snakes, human figures and mysterious symbols painted in pastel colours. Sunrise paints the river scarlet. One morning, I'm on the top deck just as one of the crew wearing a gallabiyah, the long, loose, unisex Egyptian robe, appears with the morning coffee. We're tied up at a marshy island in the middle of the river. It's so quiet I can hear donkeys braying on the far bank, 200 metres away. Fisherman row past and herons stalk among the reeds while tiny kingfishers hover overhead, watching for a telltale swirl in the water. Except for the morning call to prayer echoing from an unseen village, it's a morning that Moses might have seen.
The Age
05-07-2025
- The Age
Below deck: Why smaller boats rule for cruising down the world's longest river
This story is part of the July 6 edition of Sunday Life. See all 13 stories. It's mid-afternoon on the Nile and I'm watching the scenery glide by from the top deck of the Agatha, warm breeze tugging at my shirt. Every couple of kilometres we pass a village of flat-roofed mud brick houses shaded by date palms. Between each village is a luscious green sandwich of wheat and lucerne fields set against toasted sandstone hills. Ox carts plod and creak in a nimbus of dust. It feels as old as the Book of Psalms. The story of Egypt is the story of the Nile. It is this river that has made life and civilisation possible here. Until the building of the dams at Aswan, the river flooded every year, delivering a rich cargo of fertile silt to the farms along its banks. Extending from the river, a filigree of canals and capillaries irrigate fields of wheat, cotton, rice, barley, grapes, and fruit trees. Where the irrigated fields end, a wilderness of sand and rock begins. The Nile River cruise between Luxor and Aswan is a slow and languid voyage past the ribbon of greenery that rescues Egypt from the parched sands of the Sahara. Most travellers sail aboard the big vessels, which can carry between 40 and 150 passengers and travel in a convoy of five or six, tying up side-by-side along the riverbank at night. Then there are boats like the Agatha, traditional dahabiyas with a single row of cabins that accommodate 10 to 20 passengers on the bottom deck while an expansive upper deck offers couches and tables beneath a shady awning. If the wind is strong, the crew hoist the sails but most of the time our dahabiya is towed by a tug at about the speed of a paddling duck. One evening we tie up beside a village. A walk takes us through fields of date palms and mango trees and up into stone-covered hills, dry and lifeless in contrast to the oasis at their feet. On another evening, we berth alongside quarries that provided the sandstone for the great temple at Karnak. A couple of times we swim in the river. It's cold, and the current is too strong to swim against it, but we launch ourselves upstream of the Agatha and drift until we can grab the side ladder. Loading The upstream journey along the Nile from Luxor doesn't take you through the Egypt of grand temples and monuments, although the Temple of Khnum at Esna is a showstopper. One of the last temples built in Ancient Egypt, its columns are encircled by hieroglyphs of birds, snakes, human figures and mysterious symbols painted in pastel colours. Sunrise paints the river scarlet. One morning, I'm on the top deck just as one of the crew wearing a gallabiyah, the long, loose, unisex Egyptian robe, appears with the morning coffee. We're tied up at a marshy island in the middle of the river. It's so quiet I can hear donkeys braying on the far bank, 200 metres away. Fisherman row past and herons stalk among the reeds while tiny kingfishers hover overhead, watching for a telltale swirl in the water. Except for the morning call to prayer echoing from an unseen village, it's a morning that Moses might have seen.
Geek Tyrant
02-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Geek Tyrant
IRONHEART's Wild Final Twist: Ryan Coogler, Dominique Thorne on That Surprise Cameo and Riri's Future in the MCU — GeekTyrant
Marvel's Ironheart finale cracked open a whole new dimension of the MCU. What began as a grounded story about teen genius Riri Williams building armor to protect her world took a sharp left turn into the supernatural. SPOILERS Ahead! After duking it out with a supercharged Ezekiel Stane (Alden Ehrenreich) and finally taking down The Hood, Riri comes face to face with a mysterious cloaked figure in the rubble of a neighborhood pizzeria and it's Mephisto, played by none other than Sacha Baron Cohen. 'I learned in the midst of our shooting,' Dominique Thorne told Variety. 'So, by the time they gave me the correct name in the script, it was like 'Whoa, the Reddit guy! The guy from all the rumors. He's in this show? OK, y'all are serious!'' Thorne sees the reveal as a sign that Marvel is going all-in on Riri. 'The true Marvel fans know that Marvel always has a plan,' she said. 'So, to know that they've chosen to introduce him here with Riri Williams, with Parker Robbins, it's strategic… It is just a joy to get a seat on that ride.' Ryan Coogler agrees, saying: 'I just absolutely love that we're not meeting him in WandaVision or Agatha [All Along] . You're meeting him through this stressed-out, young Black genius... That's where he's gonna be: in a pizza shop in Chicago, like, where you would absolutely never expect him.' For Coogler, the show's blend of street-level grime and mystical high-stakes is what makes Ironheart so good. When reflecting on how quickly Riri's story escalates from garage tinkering to demonic negotiations, he said: 'I love the compression that we have in this show. Watching Riri get so in over her head, not just at street level, but Armor War level…' Chinaka Hodge, the show's head writer, said the choice to bring Mephisto in came through 'a collaborative effort,' though one person in the room championed the idea. 'And I'm eternally grateful for him leading us that direction.' Originally, Dormammu was the front-runner for the demon role as Parker's powers trace back to him in the comics, but Marvel's Zoie Nagelhout said Mephisto ultimately made more thematic sense. 'He offered a sort of interesting and heightened way to tie together the characters' journeys — and in particular, Riri's — so it became almost like a no-brainer to have him.' Director Angela Barnes was the one who first pitched Cohen for the role. Nagelhout recalled, 'She pitched it, and we couldn't unsee it.' Once he signed on, Marvel went to great lengths to keep his cameo under wraps. 'If he was outside, we wrapped him up in tarps… We would cast extras who were family members and beg everyone to keep it a secret.' As for Baron Cohen's take on the infamous Marvel villain, Hodge explained: 'He does two or three different versions of the Mephisto in the episode. Because Mephisto is a shape-shifter… It's a key to open many doors.' So where does Riri go next? Ryan Coogler, said: 'I don't know jack shit,' he laughed. 'I think the audience is going to take to that ending and I can't wait to see those characters again.' What did you think about the finale of Ironheart and the introduction of Mephisto.
Tom's Guide
18-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Tom's Guide
This is the one Disney Plus show I'm watching this Pride Month — and it's a binge-worthy witchy adventure
Happy Pride Month! Over the past decade, streaming services have increasingly become home to many, many LGBTQ+ movies and TV shows. Whether they are romantic comedies or spy thrillers featuring queer characters in leading or supporting roles, I love the variety available. But as a lifelong Marvel Cinematic Universe fan (I've got two MCU-specific tattoos), I've wanted a queer Marvel show for years now — and it finally came in the form of "Agatha All Along" last October. And I've been obsessed with it ever since. Not just because it's the sequel to "WandaVision," a show I absolutely adore, but because it's got fantastic storytelling and, best of all, solid queer representation that I find very relatable. If you need a show to binge-watch and, like me, love a witchy adventure, then "Agatha All Along" should be right up your alley, and it's streaming on Disney Plus right now. Here are the reasons why I'm watching the show for the ninth time. Also, if you haven't watched the show yet, I'll be discussing minor spoilers in this article; you have been warned. "Agatha All Along" takes place three years after the events of "WandaVision" when Agatha Harkness (played by the ridiculously talented Kathryn Hahn) breaks free from the Scarlett Witch's spell. Along with Teen (played by Joe Locke, and whose real identity is a mystery until the season's midpoint), three other witches, and Rio Vidal (played by Aubrey Plaza), Agatha assembles a coven to take on the trials of the infamous Witches' Road. Each episode focuses on a trial tailored to the coven's members, and the prize at the end of the Road is glory, power, anything the victor's heart desires. With beautiful set design and a banging ballad with several versions, "Agatha All Along" is a captivating adventure with twists and turns... and major reveals. When I watched "Parks and Recreation" ages ago, I always wished Kathryn Hahn's and Aubrey Plaza's characters interacted more — and the universe works in funny ways. I knew "Agatha All Along" was going to be a hit (in my eyes anyway) when Plaza was cast opposite Hahn. And neither actress was a let-down. As the coven walks the Witches' Road, the tension between Hahn's character Agatha and Plaza's character Rio is palpable. Rio's role in the story isn't fully revealed until the penultimate episode, so I'll leave that for you to uncover. But what we do know for the start is that Rio and Agatha have a past — and Hahn and Plaza play the part of exes extremely well. So well, in fact, that their chemistry has seen the birth of many fan edits on TikTok and Instagram Reels. Before filming the show, Hahn and Plaza kept themselves apart from each other and they exchanged love poems and music over text to build the tension, and it clearly worked in their favor as I felt like I could cut the tension with a knife while watching. Of course, Agatha and Rio aren't the only queer characters in "Agatha All Along." Joe Locke, well-known for playing the baby-gay Charlie in "Heartstopper," plays Teen, whose real identity is one of the biggest mysteries. Teen is also canonically queer, sporting painted nails and heavy eyeliner, and gushing about his boyfriend and coming very close to saying the L word. It's all very, very cute. Teen and Agatha make a formidable team, with both quipping as they make their way down the Road. There are a few dialogues that stuck with me since I first watched the show. I loved Agatha's "Hey, if you want straight answers, ask a straight lady" line so much that I got a jumper with the text printed on it. Locke also improvised the fantastic "I don't want to go back into the closet" line that gets a chuckle out of me every time. When Lilia, the Divination Witch, asks who the querent is during one of the trials, Locke hits back with, "I guess I'm the queerant!" There are other subtle ones, and all of them stick with you in one way or another. When "Agatha All Along" came out (pun intended), it opened to mixed reviews with critics and audiences disagreeing. Today, the show has an 84% critics score and 83% audience score — balance has been restored. For me, and this is a personal preference, "Agatha All Along" is one of the best MCU series. It's fun, quirky, beautifully produced and written, and it's unapologetically queer. The last of those reasons is what has quickly made it one of my most-watched shows. Aside from our three protagonists being canonically queer, it's implied that others, like Jen and Alice, are too. But what's also great about "Agatha All Along" is that the story never focuses overtly on the characters' queerness. Queerness isn't over- or hypersexualized, and you can tell the show hasn't been written for the male gaze. The characters are messy and often unhinged, and this is the queer representation I've always wanted to see in Marvel. As someone whose teenage years were heavily moulded by movies like "The Avengers" and predominantly straight characters, I can finally see a character like me on screen, and when you get that kind of accurate representation, you're left wondering, "Why hasn't this been the case all along?" I can only thank the casting directors for bringing Aubrey Plaza and Joe Locke on board because both have added a vibrancy the MCU lacked. And Kathryn Hahn becoming known as a queer icon amongst the lesbian community wasn't on my bingo card, but we're all better for it. "Agatha All Along" is available to stream on Disney Plus. For more Pride Month recommendations, check out the best drag movies.
