Playwright Shelagh Delaney, best known for penning A Taste of Honey, dies at the age of 71.

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Playwright Delaney dies aged 71

I’ve been getting a lot of mail about the honey badger video I posted a few days ago (if you haven’t seen it, watch now ). Some of my interlocutors are asking whether I posted the video because the honey badger is a metaphor for some aspect or another of life in the Middle East. The answer is no; I posted the video because the honey badger is a bad-ass little crazy dude. Also because the voice-over is so hysterical. Some of you wrote to ask whether it is possible that the honey badger could actually  survive a bite from a King Cobra. After extensive research conducted by Christopher Orr, the Atlantic’s senior editor in charge of our small rabid animal coverage, I can report with surety that the honey badger can indeed survive a bite from a King Cobra. Humans can’t, even elephants can’t. Which is yet another reason why the honey badger is a bad-ass. Here is National Geographic on the honey badger’s immunity to snake venom (including puff adder venom): Snakes make high-yield meals, and honey badgers track them relentlessly. Wherever snakes try to hide–up trees, in dense brush, or underground–badgers follow and attack. A 13-minute treetop battle with a venomous Cape cobra earned this female badger a pound and a half of meat for herself and her cub. In summer, when snakes are most active, they provide more than half the total food badgers consume. Even lethal puff adders are on the menu.   One night we saw a young male collapse. He’d been struck in the face by a puff adder just before he bit its head off. We expected that he would die. But after two hours he woke up, groggily finished his meal, and later trotted off into the sunrise. We witnessed other encounters in which honey badgers appeared resistant to even the most potent venoms, though we don’t yet understand the physiology that protects them.  

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About That Honey Badger Who Does Not Give a Shit…

Fermented honey makes a flavorful comeback thanks to an artisanal Maine producer by Jason Reindorp Located in a space resembling both wine shop and chemistry lab, a visit to Portland, ME’s Maine Mead Works to taste their handcrafted HoneyMaker wine is equal parts educational and delicious. The HoneyMaker Mead uses 100% Maine wildflower honey and other locally produced ingredients, and then barrel aged with American oak. While many consider it a thick or syrupy drink, Maine Mead Works’ variety has a remarkably delicate and refined consistency. Subtle differences occur between the eight flavors not only because of their seasonally-sourced main ingredients, but because the honey changes in taste depending on when it was harvested, with spring honey yielding a lighter flavor than darker, autumn honey. Founded in 2007, HoneyMaker Mead is created by husband-and-wife duo Ben Alexander and Carly Cope along with award-winning South African mead-maker Dr. Garth Cambray and mead maker Nick Higgins, who have a joint patent for an ultra-filtration system that eliminates more pollen, yeasts and bacteria than traditional filtration methods, resulting in a cleaner and smoother taste. The team has worked hard to bring the ancient beverage back into favor, balancing the art and science of crafting mead with choosing locally raised honey and fruits, all while aiming to become carbon neutral. At just around 12.5% alcohol content, HoneyMaker Mead makes for a delicious after dinner drink or mixer for fruity concoctions. Popular during medieval times, mead is also thought to promote virility and fertility, which helped coin the term “honeymoon” because newlyweds would drink it for the first month after marrying. Maine Mead Works Honeymaker Mead sells online from VinoShipper or from stores around the Portland area for $14-18 a bottle, depending on seasonal flavor.

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HoneyMaker Mead