Intriguing Births announcement in the The Times. A daughter for descendent of a famous Titanic survivor. Congrats. But…why is it published 14 years after her birth? 🧐

New York Times – we’re going to badly fall out. How can you allow “pshaw” in yesterday’s Wordle. But not allow a standard architectural term in today’s Spelling Bee?

Fascinated that Steven Bartlett has been forced (I presume he didn’t volunteer) to print this warning on his podcast clips. Translation: I interview people purely for clickbait purposes. Not to interrogate their wacky claims.

2018: Deschamps 2022: Desrunnersup 2026: Desconsolationfinalist (respectfully)

Ouch...

This is *so* good. Maggie O’Farell is just brilliant. Brilliant plotting, brilliant ambiguous characters. Reads like a thriller. Top recommendation for a summer read…(yes, I know it came out a few years ago)

Tbf that's his phone for monitoring his insulin levels, not his actual phone.

TV cameras at @wimbledonltc.bsky.social catch Zverev checking his phone in a break. And his password appears to be 1111. Kids, choose stronger passwords!

Car horns blaring in North London. After…a dismal display of uninspiring football in the quarter finals. Too soon. Too soon.

I think anyone who says “frankly, it’s like living in a communist country” should be disbarred from high office

Times Birth column Saturday – Evelyn x2 Today – Seraphina x2 Fascinating how baby names gather momentum.

Gentlemen in England now a-bed Shall think themselves accursed they were not here, And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks That fought with us upon Saint Jude’s Day

As in 1066 England will prevail against the Norwegians before tragically losing to the French a couple of weeks later.

Terrific piece on @England’s epic victory vs Mexico by Martin Samuel in @thetimes.com. And, yes, I am glad my kids woke me up to watch. www.thetimes.com/article/28d1...

Nerves SHREDDED

Completely fascinated by how Emily Maitlis has become the new Nigel Farage/Andrew Bailey on the other platform – AI rendered public figure caught in “shocking” moment. Mostly because this looks nothing like Emily Maitlis.

🍌 I’ve been exploring the amazing world of bananas. Again! Joining @edconway.bsky.social on his new (v good!) podcast Stuff Matters to explore why this is the most popular supermarket product & why it’s so cheap. We visited the Fyffes warehouse to see 13m bananas be ripened

Ben Stokes has announced – in the middle of this test match – he’s retiring from England cricket. A sad day. He’s been such a force of nature over the last few years. And good for the game (whatever his personal issues)

Last year people went loopy for the M&S strawberry sandwich. 🤷With 1m sold in 5weeks. This year it's back. Plus a new Chocolate, Strawberry & Pistachio Creme one. Which is bound to be even sweeter & strangely cake like. If I get my hands on one, I shall report back...

Very chuffed to win ‘Commentator of the Year’ at last night’s @headlinemoney.bsky.social Awards. For my @thetimes.com business column – a bit of light relief at the end of the week. A chance to poke fun at idiot bosses and champion great innovative businesses. Keep sending me ideas!

☔️ It’s absolutely p*ssing it down in Boston. Will @FIFAWorldCup nonetheless insist on a “hydration break” to keep its sponsors happy?

Am I the only one to find ChatGPT’s billboard/print adverts for the World Cup rather depressing? Outsourcing your imagination. Outsourcing joy.

A Swedish Meatball flavoured lollipop. A ludicrous but strangely quite tasty collaboration between Ikea & Chupa Chups. Available until June 21st in Ikea stores…

🇫🇷 Story of the day. 81-year-old pétanque player kills 68-year-old rival in small French resort of Mimizan. But wait…there’s more. Five years ago. another pétanque player stabbed a rival. IN THE SAME TOWN. (Via @thetimes.com)

Over the last decade there are 398,000 fewer people working in retail in the UK. Down to 2.79m. (via @britishretail.bsky.social). Obvs some of this is because of online shopping. But with the hospitality industry in crisis too, where do people go to get their first job?

I ate *a lot* of crisps. So you don’t have to. And discovered that – thanks to expertise of Bahee van de Bor – Walkers crisps are surprisingly okay nutritionally. And…

Cape Verde 🇨🇻!! Amazing! Has there ever been a more thrilling 0-0 draw? To hold Spain 🇪🇸 like that! Wonderful stuff

Obituary of John Basinger. Who – astonishingly – memorised all 79,529 words of Paradise Lost. (Via @thetimes.com)

🇨🇼 Curaçao’s entire population could fit into two of the World Cup’s stadiums: Azteca in Mexico City and MetLife in New Jersey #worldcup

Denby Pottery has collapsed. Many people are – understandably – upset that 217 years of history are over. But was it, as Lord Frost, ex-Brexit minister, claimed: "killed by this government"? Or was it perennially loss making, badly run, and relying on nostalgia? 🧵1/2

Yes, I think someone making £1000 a week should have to operate on the same basis as any other food business, regardless of how twee and middle class they may be!

🧁💷 Cake sheds. Sophisitcated cupcake table with honesty box. They've started to spread in UK, with many opening them as side-hustles in their front gardens. Should they have top pay local council a £1000 licence? As if they were a burger van? Discuss... www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

💉🛒Impact of weight loss jabs in UK – Food shopping has fallen by £780m a year – 6.3% of GB households include at least 1 current fat jab user, up from 4.1% in 2025, 2.3% in 2024 Fascinating stats from respected Worldpanel, based on survey of 11,500 supermarket shoppers

Possibly the most exclusive club in Britain: companies that are 300+ years old & still family-owned. The Tercentenarians. They have survived Napoleon, the Industrial Revolution, 2 world wars, 17 recessions and the dot com boom. What's their secret? I visited & spoke to some to find out.... 🧵1/7

In the peculiarly English position of praying for a day of solid rain so there is *no* cricket today. Because I have tickets to watch #EngNZ at @HomeOfCricket on Sunday with my kids!

📻 I’m back on @listentotimesradio.bsky.social presenting duties this evening. 7pm Covering the ⛳️ Crazy Golf World Championship, 🍌growing bananas in the UK, 🪐 an explanet with possible life and much more! Tune in….

Things I’d ban if I ran the world: hiring an opera singer to ‘perform’ the national anthem before a sporting event. My ears are bleeding 🙉

🐓🥚I had no idea – despite having spent time on egg farms – white eggs have a 13% smaller carbon footprint than brown, “because the hens that lay them tend to be smaller & consume less energy-intensive feed”. www.telegraph.co.uk/business/202...

Baffled that Next flagship store on Oxford St thinks Costa – ubiquitous and dire coffee outlet – is in any way a draw. Or is Costa paying a small fortune to Next for this prominent sign?

🍌🍌🍌I adore this story of the great Hunter Davies and his banana tree in today’s @thetimes.com. Every #AccidentalPartridge a gem. Especially: “I thought I'd try and speak to Alan Titchmarsh, my friend, but he's not answering his phone.”

Arsenal victory parade route 8.30am. Parade starts at 2pm and security marshals have been here since 4am 🤷‍♂️

Why is HR so hated? Last week Bolt boss, Ryan Breslow (pictured) said he’d “got rid of our HR team”, adding they were “creating problems that didn’t exist”. People could not contain their glee. He was hailed as a hero. 1/3

Arsenal have published parade route for Sunday. It is *significantly* longer than previously (any many years ago!). And goes down a couple of really quite narrow residential streets. Good driving required!

This by Joe Fattorini gets wonderfully deep into the absurdity of the Peter Murrell fraud case. Which is to say: the mystery of the five decanters. open.substack.com/pub/joefatto...

The rise and rise of @lidlgb.bsky.social. Back in 2020 it had 5.4% of UK grocery market and was 7th biggest. Now, it has 8.6% of market, and has overtaken struggling Morrisons to become 5th biggest.

In Covid @hackneycouncil.bsky.social closed much-loved, v useful paddling pool which had lasted for 90yrs. Yes, it needed a bit of a revamp possibly. They replaced it with £0.5m far smaller ‘splash zone’ elsewhere. Which has lasted 4yrs before it’s broken (just in time for heatwave) 🤦‍♂️

Are the public stupid? And they fail to understand how hard it is to make money in the UK? Or do they distrust all big organisations – supermarkets, train companies, even the NHS – believing them to be “profit extractors”? GDP growth is for other people, not for them. I’ve written about this…

How miserable do you have to be to put this sign on your (lovely) house? Not near a school, not near a pub. In a gorgeous, quiet Georgian square in Clerkenwell/Islington.

StanChart's plans to cut 8000 jobs is not about cost cutting apparently - it is about replacing "low value human capital" www.ft.com/content/ff67...

💃🪩📋 Love this story featuring Freuds PR company. And must try this excuse next time I end in a “burlesque” club…. “Our work printer is so rubbish it was just easier to do the paperwork while admiring some nipple tassels” 🤷‍♂️