Funniest McSweeney’s piece I’ve read in awhile: The Mastermind Box Cover: What the Hell Were They Thinking? “Warmth is for Sorry! This is not a hug. This is a chess clock in a stranger’s living room telling you your parents are getting divorced.” [mcsweeneys.net]

squareword.org 1394: 6 guesses 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟨🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 <6:🟩 <11:🟨 <16:🟧 16+:🟥 #squareword #squareword1394

The joy of coming home to a parcel from the relentlessly brilliant @galleybeggars.bsky.social. I'd actually forgotten I'd pre-ordered this so it's like a lovely surprise present from myself. A little slice of joy at the end of a gloomy week.

Ok, my homepage is an absolute mess because I'm still figuring stuff out but here is my first Tidal Playlist. Autumn Into Winter Hip Hop aka A.U.T.U.M.N. Alchemise underground tunes under melancholy nature. tidal.com/playlist/ba2...

‘Massive new suburban council estates, replacing inner-city slums, broke up communities and isolated women and children in nuclear family homes with indoor bathrooms but few shops or amenities.’ Florence Sutcliffe-Braithwaite on why Liverpool got left behind. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

youtu.be/0uDZZJo6Tyk?... Robert Hughes on Albert Speer and the 'evil of banality': 'he knew one way to make a building, one way to turn a corner, one way to make a window frame ... a squared-off pseudo-classicism.' The poverty of their thought; the deadening hollowness of their art, is writ large.

Rest in power, Tony Harrison.

If you see this, repost with a vampire that is not Dracula.

August reading. #booksky

It is insane to me that the richest man in the world is using his global megaphone to call for millions of British people to be rounded up and deported (including my family) and somehow this isn’t even news.

Let’s be honest. Carswell is not alone. You don’t tweet unless you know it’s a popular belief. There are many in public roles, in pubs and at dinner tables who believe this. This is a persecution of Muslims in the UK and anyone with any sense of humanity, who cares about Britain must call this out .

A competent government comms strategy would make quite a big deal that this is actually the second Reform elected representative to be caught using the N-word this week.

Slightly diminish a band: Can't

ICYMI: This one, by a high school student and a high school teacher, has sparked a lot of discussion over on The Important Work. theimportantwork.substack.com/p/ai-is-crea...

What I read in July. #booksky

June's book pile. Enjoyed them all. Of the two International Booker nominees, I preferred Perfection but both were excellent. Read and thought a lot about character and place (Grindrod and Baron interesting side by side). Found Markovits a bit unconvincing in the end. Salter great. Onwards. #booksky

June's book pile. Enjoyed them all. Of the two International Booker nominees, I preferred Perfection but both were excellent. Read and thought a lot about character and place (Grindrod and Baron interesting side by side). Found Markovits a bit unconvincing in the end. Salter great. Onwards. #booksky

We are currently doing a lot of work on how we assess and Matthew and Becky's substack has been invaluable in providing an evidence base for our work with leaders: lucid, concise and thought-provoking. A really brilliant piece of work.

"DCD is a really prevalent neurodevelopmental condition that relatively few people know about" Excellent Q&A drilling down into what teachers need to know about a mislabelled area of SEND that has a big impact in primary and beyond. www.tes.com/magazine/tea...

Read this last week and really enjoyed it.

Connections Puzzle #733 🟦🟨🟪🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟦🟦🟦🟦 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟪🟪🟪🟪

I try not to be hyperbolic but this is the single worst comic I have ever seen in my entire life.

1. A story. Please read. Reposts hugely appreciated on this. You'll see why in a bit. I was born in Pakistan and lived there until I was 4. My parents worked there as doctors. While we were there we were very close to a couple called Christine and Mike Miles.

Waiting for the Boss (and, fingers crossed, Macca).

Was I wrong?

I wrote this guide to being a better reader: how to read, what to read and why jmarriott.substack.com/p/how-i-read

PSG have won the Champions League, at long last, and all it took was eight managers, 14 years, £2bn in transfer fees, more in wages, one hyperinflationary spiral and the complete restricting of European football. Easy to love the team. Less so the project. observer.co.uk/news/sport/a...

May's book pile. Probably enjoyed Heat Wave and The Empusium the most. Second Manchette after The Mad and the Bad and nowhere near as good. Solenoid is a demented phantasmagoria - weirdly addictive, despite its longueurs. #booksky

Remants of the American Technological Sublime.

Imagine being chosen as a mascot for a major cup final only to hold the assistant referee's hand on the way out of the tunnel. You'd be crushed.

Bad things are plainly in store for Wojnicz here, but life in an early 20thC German sanatorium sounds absolutely amazing. More sheep cheese than I would ideally want, but otherwise I am fully on board.

This is bleak reading

The “good wine/whiskey” etc. you’ve been saving to enjoy on a “special occasion”? Enjoy it NOW. Life is fleeting, tomorrow is promised to no one, and any moment you’re above ground and drawing breath, preferably in the company of people you love, is cause enough to celebrate. Live today.

In Britain this morning there is the faint smell of chlorinated chicken and bullshit.

Lad, the EU are ignoring a genocide. I doubt they're gonna overturn a penalty.

The Easter break meant April was a bumper month for reading. Lots of great things here.

Possibly the news photo of the decade.

‘Simon Being Taken out to Sea for the First Time since His Father Drowned’, Skinningrove, North Yorkshire, in 1983 by Chris Killip. Weekly ritual to prevent him becoming afraid of the sea, where the community earned its living.

I’m sorry but if your students use AI to write papers and you use AI to grade them zero school is happening. You are running together on a hamster wheel

Straight up totalitarianism

Google.

Biggest commitment to a 3 second joke I've ever seen

March reading. Really enjoyed Elkin and Szalay; Stamm underwhelming - a pity as I really rate him.

I must say Americans dream up such awful horrors.

We put tariffs on an uninhabited island full of penguins but not Russia. Very normal administration we have here.