Sometimes I defend high-minded principles of peace and goodwill that I think consonant with leftist values, but my opponents are always able to cite all the worker led socialist paradises that ruthless willingness to deploy violence have wrought so I'm forced to bow before their superior pragmatism.

who decided that the absolute pinnacle of public entertainment is projecting coloured lights onto a building that is otherwise unilluminated

PSA: Under Milk Wood - yeah THAT one - in full cry on R4Extra

TALK ABOUT CRITTERS ON THE LOOSE! UP THE WAZOO!

writing a journal article proportion of time taken writing the article: 20% proportion of time taken learning an entirely new reference system you'll never use again: 80%

Madame Beck in Vilette by Charlotte Bronte be like

I didn't even *want* to lean on the barrier until I saw this cool guy doing it

Resting easy knowing I am the aloof wife part of a power couple

Sitting there like Jeremy Bentham

I initially read this as ‘83% of young women want Mamdani’ and did not question that as a statistic

She had me in the first half

communists delight

introducing both all-hottie shortlists and all-shortie hotlists to try to address this issue

I have half-joked with friends that the key to building an unstoppable political machine is to just encourage hot people to run. the left would absolutely dominate for generations

nobody is talking about mamdani's meteoric rise in light of his belonging to a particularly underrespresented demographic in politics. hot people

No aphids though. So it might have been there a while.

Inbox— next cover of the New Yorker: “Mayor Mamdani,” by Edel Rodriguez

Bluesky rn

Reminded of how humanities research has to break new ground to be published, whereas STEM articles can be no fewer than five authors on “we found a ladybird up someone’s arse”.

Alright I just found out about the time someone's colonoscopy revealed a living ladybird pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...

Easy, J K Rowling

York minster’s quite nice innit, not bad

In York Minster with @robpalk.bsky.social as he makes his way to yet another gaudily painted effigy in a ruff. ‘You're just drawn to unoriginal crap aren’t you’ I say ‘It’s lucky for you that I am’ he retorts

In a jazz bar, about to request 'Mack Tonight'

A film about a nice cat who lives with a slag

typical @florencehrscott.bsky.social luring the unwitting Palk into the alt-right meme-o-sphere

What do you mean you can’t tell what I’m dressed as for Halloween? I’m clearly a slutty tradwife leftist Sydney sweeney if she wore cat ears

I know it's harder and more dangerous to carve a turnip but the effect is so much more disturbing, and thus in keeping with the season

In school, I knew someone who had African Land Snails. They then had babies and suddenly he had hundreds of them. Sorry about the relationship

Split amicably with my partner of nine years this week and we’re still living together. So far we‘ve done nothing but rib each other about how glad we are we broke up (he can keep his shoes on the bedroom floor without getting told off / I don’t have to listen to him witter on about church fathers)

Me: I found a condom wrapper when I was clearing the path Mum: why would anyone drop one of those in the street? Dad: well I’m guessing it wasn’t for underwater go pro filming

Obvious to say this, but the actual function of the smear job isn't to make us ask about his aunt, it's to show us the words "hijab" and "9/11" in a headline with his photo.

hearing the key in the door every evening was my own "tax the rich" for almost 20 years

Very funny to me that i posted some photos of dad and childhood around this time last year & that someone commented "back when carpets were proper" and that I'm now going out with this person

Thank god the clocks go back tonight, an extra hour to cry

Thank god the clocks go back tonight, an extra hour to cry

Sexy Richard and Monica age gap

Guess who thought they saw a dead cat in the road, were mistaken, but cried for half an hour anyway

This adaptation of the master and margarita looks a little low budget

Hex Wrench does sound like Alan Key's American cousin, to be fair.

A hex wrench. Is America real

The philosopher's primal urge to intellectually humiliate those in positions of authority, be put on trial for it, and make such an ass of yourself during the trial to be sentenced to death

Jinny stared at the ornament, transfixed with horror. Looking away brought unbearable pain. But gazing into its dark heart opened a nameless portal. As the tree burst into violet, otherworldly flames, she imagined a whisper caressing her ever maddening mind… “Mouth blown.” This was the Figgining.

Expertly crafted from mouth-blown glass

Average right wing Catholic: fuck ME this pope is fallible

I don’t know, this could be true, but it’s also true that if I was on fire I wouldn’t be that concerned about the extent to which the fire extinguisher was rooted in any kind of deeper analysis or intellectual tradition

Hurrah! My new book, Europe in the Eleventh Century: Beyond Revolution and Reform is officially published today by Oxford University Press. 1/5 global.oup.com/academic/pro...