I don't know about the rights question, but I do know I want to read a @jonathancoe.bsky.social novel inspired by this picture.

Judging from the prose, the Pentagon appears to be using AI to announce the death of soldiers. If it’s not AI, it’s a person who simply does not care.

Reading that big new book on Paul McCartney and Wings, and this paragraph is... something that was not checked by a literate editor.

So now that the Greens have five directly elected MPs, and Reform have five directly elected MPs, shouldn't we have heard from them equally on the news just now?

I really wasn't expecting to get any more mileage out of "what you talkin' about Willetts?"

As I've said in various open day talks, *Bleak House* has a dinosaur on the first page, a character explodes, one of the two narrators might be a split personality of the other, and the heroine's face changes halfway through after she dreams she is a literal star. It's a David Lynch film.

I discuss something like this in *Literary Illusions*: the claim that Dickens used blackface when performing magic shows in the 1840s. I couldn't find any contemporary account or mention of this; it seems to originate with a fictionalised account written by Heathcote Williams around 1994.

There was so much naval honking coming through my office window this afternoon that I thought the warship on the news was finally heading out, but it turns out to have been surprising fog.

It's now an annual ritual for me. Waiting for the ALCS statement to see what I've earned in secondary and residual royalties from photocopies, libraries, etc. Lowest amount: £18. Largest amount: £1900. If you've got stuff published in the UK and aren't a member of ALCS, you're a chump.

Hard to see how Chris Mason can top this: not only does this piece provide absolutely no analytical insight, but it declares its lack of seriousness from the very first word. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Not sure you can write an article mentioning NUKIP's "recent efforts to woo centre-ground voters" and also mention their fielding of Matt Goodwin as a candidate, back in the distant past of six days ago. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Had a great day today talking to students at Brockenhurst College about studying English Literature at university. I do wonder if Dickens will ever beat Doyle in the close reading exercise vote, though.

I love Jaffa Cakes but still haven't quite forgiven them for that advert which confuses the phases of the moon with eclipses.

OK, but a) most of Sharp's output isn't brewed in Cornwall anyway, and b) Sharp's is the worst brewery in Cornwall. I'd hope the staff affected can find new posts at far better breweries like Goodh/Skinner's, Verdant, Padstow, Bluntrock... www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

This morning's work includes trying to read an eBook of a Palgrave Macmillan title which is only available in EPUB format.

I don't quite understand why Starmer didn't sack Streeting a couple of weeks ago. Is it because Starmer likes having someone in the cabinet who's even more unpopular than himself?

over and over they say it out loud: big ideas for the elite class, and only widget grunts for the working people. ideas are for everybody. art is for everybody. education is for everybody.

[The sketchbook of a Victorian girl, Emily M. Madden, featuring the adventures of her cat, Mouton.] wellcomecollection.org/works/rzwecsjy

I have decided, purely for my own amusement, to start a thread of critical quotes about Falstaff, but illustrating them with an image of Mr Blobby. '...a character deeper than life, a wit unmatched by anyone merely real whom we will ever know' (A. C. Bradley)

February's reading, plus two Cornish travelogues from 1907 and 1910.

A tiny but vocal far-right group in Portsmouth Guildhall Square this afternoon, most of them wearing masks. Weren't these the lot arguing against masks when it was a public health issue?

Over the years I've worked with lots of talented students who have gone into journalism. I often think of this when I read yet another piece by Chris Mason - the BBC's political editor, no less - which says absolutely nothing we don't already know.

Delighted to announce that I've been invited to be a keynote speaker at (I quote) "the 3rd Largest European Conference on Food Science and Technology" in Switzerland. It's a bit out of my field but I guess I can present my work in the ranking of supermarket jam doughnuts.

If you haven't seen this last week's talk on short ghost fiction, it is well worth a look. Not only offering a deep dive into Robert Aickman, it looks a theorising the creepy tale in fascinating ways! youtu.be/xcJ7yf72kpQ

Matt Goodwin complaining that he lost because the constituency had more progressive voters than Nukippers and that's somehow unfair makes you wonder how good his academic work in *politics* really was.

Labour's swing toward racism is perhaps the biggest unforced error in British political history; burnt their base to ashes and won them not a single vote on the right.

In what seems to be an optimistic development, I've just popped back to the ruins of Twitter and can confirm that Matty Goodwin has indeed just played the "well this wasn't a fair election" card.

Love the glimpse into the beautiful mind that notated this used copy of Moby Dick I got

I’m not at a Russell Group university but the pattern is the same; fewer professional services and academic staff; lower pay and wise conditions, but more and more top earners on ever-higher salaries. It’s just pillage.

🔔 Attention ECRs! Just a reminder that March 1 (next Sunday) is the last day to get your applications in for our annual Mitchell Dissertation Prize! Winners receive $1,000 USD + a 2-yr. membership to RSVP. We look forward to reading your work! rs4vp.org/awards/mitch...

Just noticed that one of the archive channels is repeating *Dempsey and Makepeace*, and it's proving to be a powerful time machine back to Friday evenings in primary school.

One of the main stories on the BBC this morning is that Andrew made excessive use of public money. Guys, I have some unfortunate news about the entire royal project for you.

Yes! As featured in my #booksandpints thread.

Watching the #winterolympics Closing Ceremony and thinking that, given the number of people required to stage manage a relatively simple graduation ceremony, this must be a staging nightmare.

BBC yesterday: it's nationwide #curling mania! BBC today: curling will return to TV in 2030.

If you have a problem, if no-one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire the ethics team.

I always say students aren’t paying/getting loans for a product (degree), they’re paying for the opportunity to get the product, but they did indeed get that product in the end! We got them to and through their final assessments!

Really didn't want that arrogant, cheaty Canadian team to win. I bet they all drive Teslas. #curling #winterolympics

Why are the #curling commentators calling it the 'break' or 'half-time' and not the winterval? ##winterolympics

Not the key point, but all the 'Andrew Mountbatten Windsor' coverage shows how quickly and easily the entire UK media complex can switch to someone's new name/title, even after using their old one for decades, when it's an incredibly pampered white male deviant. So, you know, it's not *that* hard...

Wondering if electoral fraud is where @royalsociety.org draws a line on the conduct of Fellows...

Call for Papers: Placing the Nineteenth Century: A PGR/ECR Conference Friday 26th June 2026 Edge Hill University For more info and the full CfP see the BARS Blog link⤵️ www.bars.ac.uk/blog/?p=6343

I'll vote for whichever party outlaws secondary/further education from misusing higher education job titles, thus clogging up jobs-ac-uk. There is no such job as 'GCSE Lecturer.'

So bad it's subversive.

Steve Cram commentating on the curling: "it's like a pendulum, and it's just moved another notch towards Great Britain... if that's what a pendulum does."

Okay, this is quite outstanding from Bedford Council.

just to be clear there is SO MUCH precedent for arresting a senior royal. just not any precedent where it ends well for them