trying to play peekaboo with my child but he's a European diplomat: me: where'd daddy go? baby: we must articulate a post-daddy vision of strategic autonomy me: peekaboo! baby: my historic relationship with my father is stable despite recent troubles

YES the tiger is out

Inertia is just a much bigger thing than, say, 20-21 year old me appreciated. Eg, when I first read about British 1920s economic policy the whole attempt to return to (an obviously vanished) pre-war world seemed mad. Having lived though the last couple of decades it feels very understandable.

In spring 1999, I stood in a bookshop in Bogstadveien, Oslo with two new books in my hands. I could only afford one. I read the first page of each and knew this was a choice for life. One was Grøftetildragelsesmysteriet by T.E. Lund, and the other one was Gnostiske essay by Jon Fosse. Sorry, Jon!

One of my theories is that politics massively overselects for people who are enthusiastic, uncritical adopters of stuff.

Neil Young *in plaintive squeaky voice* : Killed my girlfriend / For no reason / Autumn is / My favourite season Crazy Horse : KKKKRRRUUUUNNNGH

Deadlock over. The EU just cleared way for the €90-billion-loan for Ukraine and the 20th sanctions package. Russia’s war economy is under growing strain, while Ukraine is getting a major boost. We will provide Ukraine what it needs to hold its ground, until Putin understands his war leads nowhere.

I will be pre-ordering this, mainly on the strength of Rob’s James Bond posts

how write book what words good how make good write

my latest books cartoon for @theguardian.com

Icarus: I wouldn't call it flying so much as vibegliding.

books should have good sentences in them, at least sometimes. Can't be arsed with books where the sentences aren't even good

virgin mary punching the devil, england, 13th century

important news:

Bluesky in two questions

Today’s moment of calm Shhhhhhhhhh we don’t want to wake him

🎶 we could be horses 🎶 just for one day

Free museum entry is the mark of a civilised city — and one of the best things about London ft.trib.al/zdQpfp8

Like the Velvet Underground, only 100 people followed Network Rail on Bluesky, but they all went on to start their own arms-length national rail infrastructure manager.

My latest cartoon for @newscientist.com

Discoursing has not changed

I'm adding "doing a Zoom call in a cafe" to my list of crimes that will be punishable by death in my firm but fair regime

👇

No technology can compensate for having blithering imbeciles in charge.

Faced with a financial scandal that has ensnared some of the biggest names on Wall Street, I made the obvious move: catching a tube to the end of the Northern Line to eat a fry-up in a greasy spoon. Shoe-leather (and antacids) reporting on Market Financial Solutions here: www.ft.com/content/c522...

Secret of hedgehog hearing discovered at far beyond human range

At midnight Aragorn stands at the Stone of Erech. ‘Oathbreakers, why have ye come?’ A distant voice cries, ‘To fulfil our oath and have peace.’ ‘When all this land is clean of the servants of Sauron, I will hold the oath fulfilled, and ye shall have peace and depart for ever.’

The ‘Sappho’ fresco from Pompeii. A beautiful Roman portrait of a young woman for #InternationalWomensDay She holds a writing tablet, and raises a writing stylus to her lips in thoughtful contemplation. 55-70 AD. Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples 📷 by me #Archaeology

A rough beast? Slouching toward Jerusalem? In this economy?

My cartoon for this week’s @newscientist.com

Closeted in Helm’s Deep, Aragorn looks in the palantír. Sauron sees him for the first time—and the sword of Elendil reforged. Aragorn then wrests the stone to his own control. Looking abroad, he sees fleets near the coast, stopping southern Gondor from reinforcing Minas Tirith.

Not a day goes by I don't wish I could wear blinkers like a horse. Oh what's going on over there? NONE OF MY BUSINESS.

In the darkness, the Ents and Huorns reach the edge of Fangorn Forest and crest the ridge that overlooks the ring of Isengard. They begin to quietly fill the valley all around Isengard’s ring of stone.

RIP “I feel liberated. We can say ‘retard’ and ‘pussy’ without the fear of getting cancelled . . . it’s a new dawn.” - you had a great run as the best quote in the FT from people who really would benefit from reading the FT, there's a new sheriff in town.

Éomer sets aside the law of the Rohirrim. ‘You may go; and what is more, I will lend you horses. This only I ask: return with the horses… In this I place myself, and maybe my very life, in the keeping of your good faith. Do not fail.’ ‘I will not.’ The three hunters ride north.

The Mordor-orc Grishnákh seizes Merry and Pippin, hoping to escape and take the hobbits to Mordor. He slinks between two watch-fires—but is seen, and killed by a Rider’s spear. When more Orcs attack from the forest, the Riders draw their ring inward. The hobbits crawl away.

You're laughing? Someone told a funny joke on Bluesky and you're laughing?

Get me the most Belgian street name possible. No, that’s too Belgian.

one thing I love to do is to type and type and type and think oh woah, I must have nearly written a whole article here, I've typed up so many things, and then look at the wordcount and stare at "283" for a while

"come on Adam just eat the apple, nobody is watching"

this is just to say I have killed the darlings that were in the first draft and which you were probably hoping would make it in the final draft Forgive me they were making the plot too complicated so difficult to write and so long

Even if the rest of the world eventually abandons social media it will continue in the UK because we will never exhaust class discourse.

I just subscribed. @jim.londoncentric.media and his colleagues are doing really impressive work. Proper hardcore local journalism!

London’s “worst mass eviction in recent history” is underway; hundreds of households across London told to get out of their homes this week by the same landlord, ahead of the renters rights act. The landlord? Billionaire Asif Aziz’s Criterion Capital. www.londoncentric.media/p/asif-aziz-...

Fuck the bubble, I want Sam Altman to burst

Shadowfax returns to the herds of Rohan. It was 155 days ago that Théoden commanded Gandalf to ‘Take any horse, only be gone!’ and 138 days ago that Gandalf sent Shadowfax back south from the Ettenmoors. Théoden is furious: Shadowfax is now wild and cannot be handled.

Just overheard: '...and you know what they say, if it ain't broke, don't break it'. Which isn't quite the original phrase, but I suppose is still decent advice to live by.

When the Hungarian architect László Hudec got to Shanghai in 1918, ‘he found himself in exactly the right place: Shanghai was booming and in the process of turning itself into Asia’s 20th-century city par excellence’, writes @edwinheathcote.bsky.social