Beneath contempt

This is so difficult to read. apnews.com/article/immi...

On one side is a nurse and a poet dying while saying “Are you okay?” and “I'm not even mad at you dude" And on the other side are armed officers of the state saying “Boo hoo” and “Fucking bitch.” And they want you to believe the first side are the domestic terrorists.

I was ill for a couple of days so I missed the news. Now I have seen the news and it turns out I am still ill.

New York Times states it plainly in display type: “Federal authorities said the slain man, Alex Pretti, had approached agents with a gun. But videos show Mr. Pretti was holding his phone, not a weapon, when they pulled him to the ground.” www.nytimes.com/2026/01/24/u...

An excellent collection of camels, as studied in 1670 by Pieter Boel of Antwerp & Paris. Today is his day.

abominable luster Donald Barthelme, from ‘The Dead Father’

This book is Fantastic.

"Moon over Brendle" by Jeff Noon. Can't wait to get stuck in.

These people are so unfamiliar with basic competence that they assume it must be malevolent

@davidcollard.bsky.social Salman Rushdie: Naughty but nice! (from Nigel Planer's book, Young Once)

This is ok tho

alex pretti was a nurse at the VA

This is... absolutely brutal reading.

Alex from our time working together, while he was in nursing school. Later, he moved to ICU, working as a nurse to support critically ill Veterans. He had such a great attitude. We’d chat between patients about trying to get in a mountain bike ride together. Will never happen now

Just hired DJ Fat Tony for our works do.

Bear witness.

Day off today, so of course I have been ill.

NIGHT OF THE GIANT CARBS

Who can tell me what this earworm is? Sorry for bad pen and poor lighting...

Off to choose a Mag, a Nunc, and two anthems. Morning AND evening do's this Sunday

Sauce

Remember this fellow? @rolandbates.bsky.social

I will take a picture tomorrow: there's a car which I often see on my walk to work. Its reg plate causes me to do the following I take my hands out of my pockets I say out loud "Rifaea! Pale Queen!" And if that doesn't happen, my day will be bad.

SOLD. I don't know why, but it's reminding me of "The Wrestling" by Simon Garfield: a book recommended to me by @iammilliam.bsky.social and others as I expressed great fear while the first lockdown approached.

PEDESTAL CAMERAS MOFO

WhatsApp message from my sister about Katherine Mansfield and Gurdjieff. Text message from Swiss brother about sci-fi. I am the least interesting of my siblings.

What has Karl Barth ever done for me

Just finished a very satisfying book group. The Employees by Olga Ravn. Translated by Martin Aitken. Really focused readers. That was a lot of fun.

Book group tonite

Someone did make a formal interview request to interview me about it but it slipped my mind.

Come on, somebody just give us the tea on the Anne Carson workshop. It was in 2017. Mucha agua under the bridge. No judgement. Share with the group

You are not alone. I find the continuing silence very ominous indeed

Had I but world enough and time, This coyness, insane TBR pile, were no crime.

This film is so intense that I nearly didn't read the book, which is even better than the film

David Markson

Ten years ago on Shrove Tuesday, I had my head shaved. That was my idea of a haircut back then, two or three times a year. I have not had a haircut since that day .... sort of thinking I might do it this year.

Reading Ligotti, hearing Ligeti, eating spaghetti.

What a fucking WEIRD man. What is one to make of him. Who is he? What is he? Cripes. Lawks. Crivens. NURSE!

Years ago, this started playing in Django's car, outside Olley's Fish and Chips in Herne Hill. Within fifteen seconds, both of us were desperate for a piss.

I am listening to Sextant.

Finlay Currie in "Great Expectations" (with Anthony Wager) - BOTD

I am so on board for this. Goodie! As she might have said.

More fun with mapping. I honestly think it's poetry which creates mappers. I can't tell you how poetry works. But it creates so much beyond itself.

Me an an' Grise shooting the cheeze breeze

Iain Ballamy's reply to this question was "online poker?"

Nancy By Ernie Bushmiller January 20,1951

Paneerer, my God, to Thee