2016 has been designated as the International Year of Pulses by the United Nations, which hopes to give the wee bundles of protein and other essential nutrients a big push. This is also the year in which Italian sci-fi film Space Men was set. The star of that 1960 classic was the wonderfully named Rik Van Nutter, whose first wife, Anita Ekberg, had more onscreen success than him - the Swedish-Italian actress starred in Federico Fellini's La Dolce Vita (also released in 1960) - but had less luck as a contestant in the Miss Universe pageant, ending as one of six runners up. The following year, 1952, the Miss Universe crown was placed daintily on the head of Armi Kuusela …
Mannerheim was a Finnish military leader and statesman, and president of his country between 1944 and 1946. He spoke many languages - including a bit of Putonghua - and as an officer in the Imperial Russian Army was sent in 1906 through Turkestan to Beijing, to spy on China and assess its vulnerability to attack. At the sacred Buddhist mountain of Wutai, in Shanxi province, Mannerheim met and gave his own pistol as a gift to the Dalai Lama …
