JFC

Odysseus, a weak king in my opinion, horribly weak on Troy, ten years siege when I would have taken it on day one, no problem. His son is also a horrible person, weak and corrupt. I’d back Antinous over him any day, he’s a personal friend of mine actually. Good riddance, Odysseus!

Match summary:

Not sure about these VAR officialS

Reading a history of post-war leaders of the Conservative Party

looks like a great job, but what if Professor Moriarty was your line manager?

Overconfident Farringdon

I'm up to about 5 AI emails a day and growing with fake offers from bookclubs etc. They are mostly pretty well targeted, but I did like the one today addressed to 'Dear Jarvis' that appreciated my history of the origin of Black History Month, particularly how I wove it into my personal experience.

Train journey: Air conditioning ✅ Intensely Boring Droning Man with Uniquely Penetrating Voice ✅

So it turns out that Evil Dead Burn essentially predicts a French win at this American World Cup

Curiously uplifting week of working in the library in and around the area where The Chortling Lady sits. She orders up her books, kicks off her shoes, and proceeds to laugh delightedly at everything she reads. Respect!

My favourite thing about Haaland is that he spent 1.3 million ​Norwegian kroner of his football money on a rare 1594 edition of Viking chronicles - a record book sale for Norway - and then donated it to his regional library. www.reuters.com/lifestyle/ha...

Spot of research on Emanuel Klein, the Austrian-Jewish doctor who became the prototype of the heartless vivisectionist in English popular culture in the 1870s. He seems quite cuddly here tho'

Somehow it’s very pleasing that the Descent into the Abyss has a protective barrier in the Kapoor exhibition

Widow's Bay was entirely fine.

Scenario: Count Binface accidentally elected to Parliament, then succeeds Burnham as PM in chaotic scenes in late 2028. Binface’s chancellor, Ricky Gervais, sells Wales to the Saudi’s ‘for a laugh’, which is then towed to the Gulf to ‘gum up’ the Strait of Hormuz. More in my Express op-ed today

#amlistening to The Beastie Boys classic, ‘(You gotta) Fight for your Right (to buy as many Ferraris as you damn well please)’

He’s stepping down to open a cheese emporium in Frinton-on-Sea after developing an unexpected passion for yarg

At the British Library, where my classic schoolboy error of mistaking Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire for his son Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire will surely go into this year’s best library blooper reel

Had lunch with two footie fans this week and asked them to give me a talking point or two to help me fit in a bit more. One instantly praised ‘the quality of light in the Azteca stadium,’ which if you tried it anywhere outside Clerkenwell would probably get you glassed.

Favourite sentence so far from M John Harrison’s End of Everything

Farrenkopf’s 2001 study of Spengler. It’s possible that phase of Caesarism might have arrived by now

Let’s hope they don’t know about the 4000 holes in Blackburn, Lancashire

Anish Kapoor, ‘Starmer births Burnham I’ (2026)

Taking notes on this with quill on vellum

Epic diary snafu: I’ve just delivered one conference paper in Japan (online, sadly) and now dashing across London to deliver 2 more lectures from lunchtime. I can really recommend not doing this.

Cat day afternoons

Some worry over Burnham appointing Friedrich Nietzsche as chief of staff. I mean, didn’t he once say something about “life itself is essentially appropriation, injury, and overpowering of what is alien and weaker”? Concerning.

Burnham’s Manchester is vibrant in part because of two giant universities with thousands of students thronging the streets. It’s great he’s an English graduate, so maybe the rhetoric of a feckless humanities will calm down a bit. Fixing this collapse wd help several aspects of our polycrisis

You know what, I quite fancy buying a whole bunch of Ferraris this morning, if anyone wants to bung me five million quid

This photo has the same inconsolable sadness vibe of the solo Keanu Reeves on a park bench shot

Here the whole grim merciless unimaginative cycle begins again in yet another institution.

In the latest episode I speak to the amazing @theprofrog.bsky.social and Jennifer Coates If you are interested in the way art and media reflect society and culture especially in post-war Japan I would highly recommend it and the film. (But maybe, like, brace yourselves a bit.) Link in profile

“I know, Mr Burnham, it is an unusual room to sign your nomination papers, but Keir was very keen for you to see all the rooms available to a PM. Please, after you.”

Burnham getting off his train from Euston on time, which is rather amazing since I thought the whole point of HS2 stopping short of London was designed to keep him delayed until about 2036.

Excellent early typo from the Guardian, surely a front runner for Burnham’s new nickname

Signs are growing that Chris Mason will announce his resignation as BBC Chief Political Correspondent this morning, after an era of bafflingly bland political commentary, barely a notch above celebrity gossip. All eyes turn now to the King in the North, chatty man Alan Carr

My dad on his 90th birthday, 2022. He would have been 94 today.

Just off to get my KEIR 4EVA tattoo on my forehead this lunch time

Random email that begins 'Regretfully, I recently came across your work' is not a good start to the day

Andy Burnham, Friday morning

Interesting idea, which will never happen — imagine university SMTs having to sign off a narrative of their financial frailties and failures!

This Friday afternoon!

“One day, my sweet child, all the wide open vistas of social media will be yours”

Always awesome to be involved in projects so big and heavy you can plausibly choose the hardback as a weapon for a duel

The best lack all conviction while the worst are full of 80th year birthday cake

Not *again*

End of the week

My general feeling is that, these days, we could all benefit from a bit more sublimation tbh