Gender-based differences in response to stress tied to hormonal influence. Testosterone governs “fight or flight”, and oxytocin mitigates for “tend and befriend,” reports new research. USA Today

R.I.P. Sir Alec Guinness, at 86. This New York Times obituary mentions all the right things — Kind Hearts and Coronets, The Lavender Hill Mob, The Ladykillers, Tunes of Glory, Bridge on the River Kwai — as well as the Obi-Wan Kenobi roles for which most remember him most recently. I’ve cherished other aspects of his craft as well — his TV characterizations of one of my favorite characters, John Le Carre’s George Smiley; and the film version of one of my favorite novels, Joyce Carey’s The Horse’s Mouth, in which he not only nailed the central role on the head but wrote the screenplay. I wish I’d seen some of his Shakespearean stage acting.

Of Sir Alec’s acting technique, Kenneth Tynan, the late critic,

writer and director, once said:

My point is that the people

Guinness plays best are all iceberg characters, nine-tenths

concealed, whose fascination lies not in how they look but in

how their minds work. The parts he plays are, so to speak,

injected hypodermically, not tattooed all over him; the

latter is the star’s way, and Guinness shrinks from it.

Sir Alec, I’ll miss you and treasure your memory. I’m heading out to the video store…