My friend ranks his friendships in a league table – and it worries me | Ask Annalisa Barbieri

You need to consider why this bothers you so much and if you should bring it up. Without asking directly, it’s hard to know his motivation
• Every week Annalisa Barbieri addresses a family-related problem sent in by a reader

Over a few drinks, a good friend of mine recently let slip that he keeps a spreadsheet of his friends, which he uses to rank them in tiers. Initially I laughed it off as drunken ramblings, but he then proceeded to show me the actual document, saved on his phone with comments next to people’s names.

I learned that he keeps a running score of his friends based on how often they WhatsApp him, take the time to call him or go to the pub or on a trip abroad together. Continue reading…
http://dlvr.it/T5kXp9

Can You Eat Cicadas? Yes, and Here’s How to Catch, Clean, and Cook Them

Here’s how to catch, clean, and cook cicadas.
http://dlvr.it/T5k6fK

COVID Patient’s Infection Lasts Record 613 Days—and Accumulated Over 50 Mutations

The 20-month-long infection is the longest known and highlights how prolonged infections enable the pandemic virus to accumulate genetic changes—potentially spawning new variants of concern.
http://dlvr.it/T5j896

Doctors Need to Get Better at Recognizing Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy

Deception is central to this form of medical child abuse.
http://dlvr.it/T5hNmV

A modern pilgrimage’s transformative power | Letters

Norma Neill and Judith A Daniels respond to a Guardian leader on the long path to enlightenment

Re your editorial (The Guardian view on pilgrimage: a 21st-century spiritual exercise, 14 April), my sister has just completed her third pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in Spain.

On this trip she met a young man who was walking the 500 miles with his probation officer. He had had the choice of walking the Camino or going to prison; for what offence she did not discover, but over the six weeks of walking she reports that she saw a transformation in the fitness and general wellbeing of both men. It would seem that the men and the justice system in Spain benefited.
Norma Neill
Askernish, South Uist Continue reading…
http://dlvr.it/T5hNkT