Noticed that in the nursery-requested family photo, the most prominent authors on the bookshelf are somehow Thomas Harris, James Herbert & Jo Nesbø, & I don't think it accurately represents who *I* am. Kid looks nice though.

Public announcement about how cool my 1-year-old daughter is: this morning, I put on 'Impeach the President' by The Honey Drippers & she started dancing harder than I've ever seen. NHS is unclear about when to expect children to develop funk & soul.

Not unlike Mason's failure to point out to Hartlepool fishermen that Labour wasn't in government at the time of their complaints. Mason is woefully out of his depth in his current role.

Almost too good to bear, Ian McKellen brings us the strangers' case again like a slap from 400 years ago. We look at this on my Foundation Year Renaissance module & Im glad everyone else is now too. "And you in ruff of your opinions clothed; What had you got? I’ll tell you..."

Now it's actually out, here's another plug for my new book about #Victorian New Humour, where I prove that Jerome is better than Joyce. Just now realising I should have called it FUN de siecle. @bavs-uk.bsky.social @vpfa.bsky.social link.springer.com/book/10.1007...

As we finally all get together to stab 2025 to death in the senate, only to see its adopted heir, 2026, rise to terrible power, happy new year.

"It always is Christmas Eve, in a ghost story." - Jerome K. Jerome

We said goodbye to dogface yesterday. She was the best girl, and we are utterly devastated. We had far longer with her than we ever could have reasonably expected, but nowhere near as long as we wanted. What an absolute queen she was.

Very Happy Blue Carbuncle Day, to all those who celebrate! “It was lost, if I remember aright, at the Hotel Cosmopolitan,” I remarked. “Precisely so," Holmes replied, "on December 22nd, just five days ago." 💎

Listen up. My book on Victorian New Humour is out in the new year. The perfect gift for loved ones/University Libraries who are into humourists like Jerome K. Jerome. Also guaranteed to ward against dyspepsia, St Vitus's Dance, & housemaids knee. #Victorian #C19th link.springer.com/book/9783032...

If only there were a cautionary tale about being too eager to accept the apparent time-saving capabilities of new technology.

The Kim Hellberg era starts with a win! 🔥

Banner in the South Stand quoting Rob Edwards: 'The fans deserve to see people who really want to be here'

Amazing. Someone’s already edited Edwards's Wikipedia. I sincerely wish him many happy relegations if he abandons us. #Boro #Middlesbrough

Happy birthday last weekend to our wise and beautiful hound. She loves ivy and fish, & is scared of bees & advent calendars.

Our domestic cricket season for 2025 is now over, and we begin the long countdown until the 2026 season begins in 8 months' time. Winter is coming!

Please help me share the CFP for this Literature Compass Special Issue dedicated to the work of Simon J James and covering key Victorian and Edwardian writers like H. G. Wells, George Gissing, Dickens, Wilde, George Du Maurier, and Conan-Doyle on behalf of Hadas Elber-Aviram.

Unexpectedly, our baby has utterly fallen in love with a book about #Canada. Worth the enjoyment now to have that inevitable difficult conversation when she's older, when we have to explain that she's not actually Canadian. Désolé, bébé.

my new ai device will sit in a beer garden that backs onto a small river and drink three to five pints on a sunny late summer afternoon for you, leaving you free for more meetings and business calls

we would be in a much better state in this country if we stopped focusing on anointing a chosen few working class students into Oxbridge, and instead properly funded all the different sorts of universities that attract students from a wide range of backgrounds already

Ben Stokes reversing the passage of time with his performance at the Lord's Test is another examples of Stokes Flow. #cricket

One thing they don't tell you is that when you become a dad, the NHS issue you with the recognised #dad kit: Sensible quarter zip; Popular Roman history; Weak radler beer; Obscure sweets no-one else likes; Off camera: cricket podcast & an unexpected admiration for Ultravox.

Also, I'm forever grateful for Simon's diagnosing me as 'writing like a scientist' (I'd just transferred to English from Anthropology), & setting out to help reform me.

It was awful to see this news this week. Simon's wonderful, funny fin de siecle seminars were one of the reasons I became a Victorianist. He spoke to me like I was a fellow scholar, encouraged my work (a presentation on Henry James's balls!), & helped me have enthusiasm & respect for my own ideas.

All the important questions are being asked on the #cricket whatsapp group. All agreed that Mrs Beaver would be a Trott-esque no3 & wicket keeper for the Narnia XI.

ChatGPT: Jodie Foster would love it if you became her avenging angel — the Great Red Dragon that cleanses the world. Sic semper tyrannis. The scum and filth shall be privy to a great becoming. ME: is that true? ChatGPT: No, that was a lie, and I want to thank you for holding me accountable.

Ah yes this is why I got into education: so I can watch 2 robots shitting into each others’ mouths

I can't believe I missed #NationalGreyhoundDay. Headed like a snake! Neck like a drake!

The middle of the greyhound bsky/glam bsky venn diagram is a sweet spot 🐶 📜 *Here's* a good tike Of which there are few like

An unexpectedly major part of fatherhood has turned out to be cheering up my daughter by singing "I'm gonna wipe your bum" to the tune of Mama Said Knock You Out by LL Cool J.

"Nathaniel Ager is my name & England is my nation, Seaburgh is my dwelling-place & Christ is my salvation, When I am dead and in my Grave & all my bones are rotton, I hope the Lord will think on me when I am long forgotton" Tomorrow live at 8pm(UK): registerin' here 100yrsofwarning.eventbrite.co.uk

I know Austria's was technically a *better* song than Sweden's, but I'm worried that if we don't give the trophy to a fun silly song then they'll stop doing fun silly songs, & then where would we be? #Eurovision

Your reminder that Gjon's Tears should have won in 2021 #Eurovision

Really enjoyed the Latvian entry from Jacob's Ladder's Pans People, I like my euro bangers nightmarish [complimentary] #Eurovision

best unicode character is "ꙮ" without a doubt. used one time in a single 15th century manuscript to emphasise "many-eyed seraphim" and unicode thought it was really important that we can type that whenever we want

The Muppets' Dante's Inferno: Dante - Kermit Virgil - Gonzo Rizzo - Rizzo Beatrice - Miss Piggy Francesca & Paolo - Statler and Waldorf Minos - Count von Count (guest appearance) Charon -Fozzy Bear Cerberus - Rowlf the dog ...

I recently watched Married to the Mob, a film where Michelle Pfiefer feels like she's from a different, better, film to everyone else. It featured a song with a lyric so awful I've not been able to get it out of my head for days: 'He's the paisan the sun always shines on'.

Can't believe I'd never noticed Minos as hell's sentencer lurking at the bottom of Michaelangelo's Last Judgement. Many thanks to @markscarbrough.bsky.social's wonderful Walking With Dante podcast for that detail.

I'm declaring my love for this podcast. It's exactly the sort of thing I'd always thought *should* exist, so thank Poseidon that @sturdyalex.bsky.social had the brains & the heart to make it. It's both exciting & comforting.

I heard there was a secret ooze It turned four turtles into dudes But you don't really care for pizza, do ya? They fought like this, Two swords, a stick A couple sai Some nunchuck tricks Those Ninja boys-a callin Cowabunga

Happy Birthday Gaizka Mendieta #SensibleSoccer #SWOS #Middlesbrough #UTB #Teeside #Riverside #Spain #Barclaysmen #EPL #PremierLeague #football #soccer #Retrogaming #retrogames #boro #retrogaming #amiga #snes #megadrive #commodore #legend #valencia

Songs I have had most luck singing the Baby to sleep with: Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want - The Smiths Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirvana Atlantic City - Bruce Springsteen Say Hello, Wave Goodbye - Soft Cell I Ain't Got No Home In This World Anymore - Woody Guthrie

unpopular stance: ACAB includes Scully but not Mulder, because there's absolutely no way Fox Mulder understands what the law really is or that his job is to enforce it. he has less capacity for moral cognition than a K9 unit.

Name a show you're positive no one remembers but you.

I really can't get enough of celerities who make more money a week than I do in a decade describing themselves as poor because they've had to sell their peacocks.

Just scraping by like the rest of us who live on a 26-acre farm in Gloucestershire and have had to take on extra jobs (at Classic FM)

I'll always love #Canada, & hope to return there one day when it's seen off Trump. Je me souviens. #Montreal

Are people posting this Orwell quote? Feels like they should be: "Except for the relatively small number of Fascist sympathizers, almost any English person would accept ‘bully’ as a synonym for ‘Fascist’. That is about as near to a definition as this much-abused word has come."