The chart that crops up in the discussion of the book is fabulous. 17th century English farmer consuming 5k calories/day? Beef drippings on everything, I guess.

Feel like he’s breaking the 4th wall bc he realized this is kinda f’d up

Rachel needs to side w Jessie on the Ben-murder room theory while highlighting Fiona’s presence in that circle. Double win of diverting from Stephen and throwing suspicion on Fiona. #traitors

A sad thing has happened so I'm eating through it. My particularly brand of eating through it: Truffle flavoured crisps Tinned mackerel Brazil nuts Satsumas (2) Cuppa tea

“Someone with a 1-hr car commute needs to earn 40% more to be as happy as someone with a short walk to work. On the other hand, if someone shifts from a long commute to a walk, their happiness increases as much as if they’d fallen in love.” #CityMakingMath www.fastcompany.com/3062989/50-r...

It's taken over an hour but I've finally sent an email to my MP about the govt's continued use of X. Will it change anything? Probably not. But did it feel good to compile 3 news reports, 5 data points from Ofcom, and 1 copy of Hansard notes like this was an MA thesis on Righteous Fury? God, yes.

‘My hope is that Europe will understand that a strong America is good…for western civilisation. As opposed to fighting [us]…maybe all this outrage can be used ratcheting up defence spending [on their] continent.’ That continent has told you no, but you’re trying to make it drink the tea anyway.

Heated blankets: small joy, big payoff.

There are only a few days a year when the alignment is right and the sun is winter-bold and golden enough. Last evening was one of them. A sunset between chimneys, like an urban Eye of Sauron.

Another great maps-as-social-data project from Lauren. Geek out, fellow map and data geeks.

Lured by a Which? review, I have a Samsung ‘Ai’ washing machine. I hate it. Eats clothes like no one’s business; the screen goes off when it ends so you forget to unload. It’s ‘innovation’ is remote turning on. Ie, I load it myself then can hit start from the next room. I can’t wait for it to die.

Please enjoy this detail from Fra Angelico’s The Virgin with Apostles and Saints of two bishops sick of spending eternity with a monk who wants to share his work in progress.

January (detail), Castello del Buonconsiglio (Trento, Italy), c. 1400

My first day of a new museum job coincided with a film shoot between Brad Pitt and Harrison Ford. Staff were pushed off site because of it. And though not seeing hot 1996 Brad Pitt was sad, I was sadder to not-see Han Solo.

The final level of becoming truly British: accepting Torvill and Dean into your hearts as your sporting Lords and Saviours.

When they talk about freedom, they have always been specifically talking about their own freedom and that of people like them, and not everyone’s liberty. Their freedom is entirely compatible with you being clubbed in the teeth by a policeman in space marine armour, and at some points depends on it.

TIL that sneaking an angora jumper into a dark wash makes it look like you detonated a bunny over your clothes.

Currently leading my fantasy football league in ‘points left on the bench because you did even more research into this week’s fixtures so swapped them out’.

Hope everyone’s Christmas has some of this joy in it.

Got big writing plans for the year ahead? Submit your 2026 writing resolutions here by 31st December, and we will send them back to you at the end of the year to hold you accountable! One favourite gets a literary goodie bag - Europe only. docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

He’s going to pull the ‘I’ve checked and I didn’t realise anything I did was wrong because I’m neurodiverse’ card, isn’t he?

Tonight I heard a professional orchestra blast out the Star Wars theme tune and I can only describe it as 10 out of 10, totally awesome, would marry it and have its babies.

OUT NOW A #BrokenVeil ghost story for Christmas. Rosie Cavaliero and Carrie Quinlan in TOND pod.link/1745494718/e...

‘I didn’t have eggs so I used eggs. So why did my goose fat eggnog turn out badly?’

Wait so Disney buys stock from OpenAI and OpenAI pays Disney in stock to license its characters? Amazing

Everybody talks about wanting to change things and help and fix, but ultimately all you can do is fix yourself. And that's a lot. Because if you can fix yourself, it has a ripple effect. -- Rob Reiner

Still happy to sign and send out last minute gifts of Ladybirds and Cunk and the like, while stocks last… www.gralefrit.co.uk/shop.html

Losing Rob Reiner after a weekend of horrible news feels like the universe saying ‘you can’t have joy, you can’t have laughter, you can’t have goodness’. When really I need to flip it around. What we’re remembering is the joy and laughter and goodness because that’s what remains.

The cultural impact of Rob Reiner cannot be understated. Legend isn't big enough a word. It goes to 11. You can't handle the truth. As you wish. I'll have what she's having. I'm your number one fan. You guys wanna see a dead body? The very idea of a bucket list. The West Wing. All from his movies.

'AI is coming' I tell the museum stakeholders as I proudly cut the ribbon of our new Artificial Insemination exhibition

Great thread on how the EU is using Russian assets to force better negotiating terms for Ukraine.

Nearly 40% of newly minted billionaires this year received their wealth through inheritance. This is the highest figure since UBS started releasing its annual billionaire wealth report in 2015. Another reminder that the myth of the "self-made" billionaire is just that, a myth.

BLOODY AI,a thread:so, I saw a picture online of the Towers of Perugia by a Renaissance artist, Benedetto Bonfigli whose other work I know a little bit. Here is the image 1/n:

Welcome to Britain, a country so short of dentists that an MP's 87-year-old mum pulled her teeth out with pliers. Also a country with thousands of foreign-qualified dentists who can’t work until they pass an exam so oversubscribed it’s like trying to book Glasto tickets. www.ft.com/content/f4e5...

I love everything about this piece of work. And I mean everything. "I briefly considered classifying Pret A Manger as French, just to see if it would make any French people angrier at me than they already are. I didn’t. But I thought about it."

I just told my teenage daughter about this. “You don’t understand how much this would matter to a teenager,” face a portrait of horror. Oh, I think he understood it perfectly.

My daughter left her Spotify account logged in on our TV while she did her DofE expedition back in April, so I did what any self-respecting dad would do. Payoff finally came today.

Going Out Drinking With Younger Friends, a play in two acts. Act 1, scene: the pub ‘I am vibrant and interesting, enriched by time’s wisdom’ Act 2, scene: home, the next day ‘I am death’

Currently dorking out over this graph about child mortality with my brother. Just mind boggling to take in.

Important sprout discourse: anyone else think this seasons sprouts taste particularly sprout-y? (Not strictly in a good way)

Re-(re-)watching Little Women with my teen who is a badge-wearing book nerd. "I tried to dress like that," I said, pointing at Jo. "When you were, like, 20?" "When I was 15, 16. Puffy sleeves, vest. Men's jackets" Deadly teen silence. "OMG. And you say you think we'd have been *friends* at school?"

Great culture can save lives. Literally. Amazing letter in today’s @thetimes.com about Tom Stoppard

Finding myself very tempted by this wheel of cheese candle from the National Gallery. I know I'd be disappointed when burning it that a) it doesn't smell like cheese and b) when I tried to eat the melted wax, my mind telling me it was cheese, it would be wax, not cheese. Still want it though.

English-diaspora Italian is a dialect known as 'broccoli', a pun on how second-gen speakers in Brooklyn mangled the language. Similarly, an Aussie mate related how 'pushare' is an accepted Aussie-Italian dialect word for 'to push open' (vs the actual Italian, 'spingere').

A sunny, crisp first Sunday of advent feels like the perfect occasion to beautifully break my heart with Nina Simone's Little Girl Blue.

I remember lapping this up when I found it a few years ago. A masterclass on writing.

There's so much to love in Stoppard's (known) body of work, but I'm remembering him for a lesser-known script: his tightening up of The Last Crusade. This 2-min scene has comedy, character, and my fav one-line stab of pathos. 'You left just as you were getting interesting'.

Insomniacs! I learned a sleep method this week that actually *works*. And it has bona fides: a friend’s cognitive sci mate at Imperial has researched it. 1) Pick a letter of the alphabet (I rolled my eyes here. I knew this trick, I said. It doesn’t work for me. But this one’s different) /1

A friend is working for an AI education startup. Of the 1000 AI-generated questions they had to read through, about 80% had errors they had to fix. They’ll get paid for all this work once the company - which hasn’t launched yet - hits their subscriber target. And I. Just.

Hal hadn’t survived three Thanksgivings by being stupid.