Clearly the best bit from the new Fallout episode. Presumably there wasn't a fish in that percolator.

Grauniad shilling for AI here. What a shame. www.theguardian.com/technology/n...

A couple of minutes into this Columbo episode and Patrick McGoohan has said "Be seeing you" twice.

Late night listening... youtu.be/zHVCpeytQCw?...

Guessing the fash carollers won't be singing "I saw three ships come sailing in".

I reckon Trump's beef with Venezuela is because a woman from Venezuela won the Nobel Peace Prize and he didn't. And that's me banned from going to America. Still, not like I'd want to.

It's 1977, and BBC's Christmas viewing includes The Morecambe and Wise show, and that episode of The Good Life where Margo sends her shopping back. ... It's 2025, and BBC's Christmas viewing includes The Morecambe and Wise show, and that episode of The Good Life where Margo sends her shopping back.

Starmer: Let's halt the rise of the far right by giving them what they want. Then they'll be satisfied and go away.

Email from Netflix, saying "We’ve recently announced that Netflix will acquire Warner Bros.," I guess they're still negotiating for the Warner Sister, Dot.

Pshaw! If it doesn't have the Dave Prowse voice track I'm not interested!

Eggs, basket, etc. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Hey let's have some good news for a change. Red squirrels have expanded their range across the Highlands by more than a quarter after a 10-year reintroduction programme moved hundreds to new homes. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

In today's fresh hell Streeting picks up the Reform songbook and has decided that while some people are having a tough time of it these days, it's his job to find out how to make their lives so much harder. Then blame it on those evil doctors who diagnose people's problems rather than ignoring them.

n the supermarket and thinking "Why would anyone buy a 7-pack of 'chocolate flavoured' Clubs, when they could buy an 8-pack of Tunnock's Caramel Wafers WHICH ARE CHEAPER instead?". Just before putting a pack of Caramel Wafers in my basket. Yum.

“This progress should be celebrated as a timely reminder of what can be achieved when the international community works together to address global environmental challenges,” said Rouil. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

At the OBR it was assumed that the pre-publication uploads would not be generally accessible because “even though the URL could be guessed because it followed a clear pattern from previous EFOs, the protections provided on WordPress would ensure it could not be accessed”. Oh dear. Oh deary me!

What, no “Party McPartyface”? www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Rummaging through my archives on USB drives I came across this video clip. NB: Contains swearing, for obvious reasons!

Whoa, I can't remember the last time I had a bottle of wine with an actual cork, so I had to go get my corkscrew.

Tracking site shows delivery 'two stops away' and in the street just round the corner from my house. A few minutes later, it's still two stops away but getting further and further away. Quite a distance now.

Imagine for a moment that if Labour had won the 2019 election, and handled Covid even half as badly as the Tories did, then today the right-wing press would be calling for public executions in Parliament square shown on all channels. But instead they're heavily defending their boy Johnson.

Healey is now taking questions. Q: How close are are we to war? Once again I am reminded of this skit from The Day Today. www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3BO...

Not posting images of that fell batrachian visage here but if you see the front pages of both the Guardian and the Mirror, they're doing good work today.

Ah, "too big to fail", right?

Browsing Prime Video I spotted they had "Cannibal: The Musical", with all the visual 'quality' of a much-rented VHS tape, pretty much like the last (and first) time I saw it, when it was still called "Alferd Packer: The Musical". An entertainingly daft musical pastiche. "Let's build a snowman..."

“Then he said I’d have to take off the top or cover it up because it was an image of the devil and it might offend people in the abbey.” What century is this again? www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Streeting denies plot to oust Starmer: "It's just purely coincidental that I'm sharpening these knives", he said.

Having discovered last week that "Edge of Darkness" had been put in iPlayer and not having seen it for aaaaages I just finished watching it today. They really don't make 'em like that any more.

"The company mistakenly included documents indicating it had been transacting with entities based overseas, sources said. Details were written in white text on a white background but were spotted by staff at the regulator." Someone thought they'd never see that! www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

Watched the new Frankenstein yesterday and I do think the Creature totally comes across as a mopey goth.

My new gas cooker, like my air fryer, comes from the Disaster Area school of control design. There are black pointers on black knobs, and unless viewed from the right angle under the right lighting it's less than obvious what the setting is.

A member of Kent Council relaxes after a hard meeting.

That's not one word, it's two. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

The time when advertisers take hit tunes of yore and slow them right down until they've turned them into morngy dirges. The other day I heard one which was Earth Wind and Fire's 'September', but stripped of all its energy until the "Whoa-oh-whoa" part sounded like the wailing of forsaken spectres.

Email received on Sunday 2nd November to "Get Halloween Ready". Well, that's way too early and the chocolate might have gone off by next October.

Friday night viewing

As it's Halloween, here's the spookiest picture I ever took, back in 2019 at Pevensey Castle.

The Guardian: "Scientists demand cancer warnings on bacon and ham sold in UK" Also The Guardian: "‘Crisps up perfectly’: the best (and worst) supermarket bacon, tasted and rated" Although health warnings on bacon would probably explode some heads that needed exploding.

I reckon if it wasn't for Claudia Winkleman and Tess Daly the right wing press would have been a parade of blank front pages when they couldn't run their 'Reform Victory' front page they had all ready to go.

There's no such thing as bad publicity. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

After uncomfortable DEXA scan I rewarded myself with a 10% imperial stout.

Noting that "Salt 'n' Shake" crisps seem to have replaced the traditional blue salt packet with a translucent white one that's bloody hard to find, I thought "If I was Adrian Chiles the Guardian would pay me good money to write an article about that".

Rereading Bryan Talbot's "The Legend of Luther Arkwright" and this panel is sure on the nose.

Boris Johnson is about to give evidence to the Covid inquiry... Surely that should read "Boris Johnson is about to lie, bluster, waffle and prevaricate to the Covid inquiry"?

This AWS outage which is affecting everything from doorbells to banks is a classic example of putting all your eggs in one basket.

So are all the pubs called 'Duke of York' going to change their name or just add "NOT THAT ONE" in brackets after?

"The deadly implosion of a submersible traveling to the wreck of the Titanic was the result of faulty engineering, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) announced on Wednesday." To the surprise of absolutely no-one. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

Really need to do some shoe shopping soon as this morning the shoes I was wearing were OK in the dry but on a smooth wet pavement had more slither than Roy Jay.