Based on what we've learned from previous series of #TheTraitors - that the dumbest Faithful always makes it to the endgame - surely Roxy is a dead cert to think she's won and then be shocked that her best mate's a Traitor.

Harriet's whole plan seems to have been 'go big and sell a lot of books'. I bet she had no intention of trying to make it to the end. #TheTraitors #TheTraitorsUK

Vera looked around the room. Not another chicken anywhere. And then it struck her—this was a hay bar.

Ah, 7 January – or as it’s otherwise known, 88th anniversary of the time Samuel Beckett was stabbed by a pimp on the streets of Paris in the small hours, causing him to meet his soulmate and giving rise to the phrase (and recipe) ‘assassination custard’ 🧵

I've now fallen into an inevitable music videos wormhole. It would be easy to share more of the best from their 80s heyday, but instead here's some 21st century music videos I enjoyed, also sorry for the ear worm: Metronomy/ Salted Caramel Ice Cream: www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBRD...

Same year, 1987, a VERY different music video: Fight For Your Right by Beastie Boys. Nowhere close to the genius of their later videos (Sabotage! Intergalactic! Body Movin'!), but for me and my friend Julia they were our first musical love. www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBSh...

Impossible to narrow down to just one favourite music video, but one of the earliest I remember watching aged 12 or 13 is True Faith by New Order. Imagine seeing this madness on TOTP between all the big-shouldered pop stars of the day. New Order/ True Faith: www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfI1...

NYE suggestion: In memory of the great and beloved Rob Reiner (and his wife Michele, his meeting of whom forced him to change the end of the movie) we're watching When Harry Met Sally this evening, starting the film at 10:30:27 so that the chime of the New Year bells line up exactly with tonight's.

If you're looking for a last minute present, I just bought one of these delightful things from Muji: it's a Fortune Can! Celebrating the Year of the Horse, it costs £20.26 and you get a £20 gift card and one of seven different lucky charms handmade in Japan. uk.muji.eu/pages/fukuka...

Not a word, but I still recall with an icy shudder the time I made a new cool arty friend at sixth form college and responded to a mention of Joan Miro with "Oh yeah, I really like her stuff!"

Job interview

Really sad about Martin Parr. My friend and I discovered his photography via the early 90s TV series Signs of the Times and Tales of Modern Motoring when we were teenagers. Have loved him and his work ever since. Clearly a mensch too, judging by the huge outpouring of love for him today.

Someone posted this 1910s bat brooch on Tumblr, and since I love a blingy little guy, I had to draw him.

Textile artist Britta Marakatt-Labba's embroidery of Sami culture, Indigenous Finno-Ugric people inhabiting the Arctic #womensart

Loving today's news that the mysterious "fedora man" outside the Louvre heist was actually a 15-year-old museum visitor who dresses like a 1940s French detective all the time, just because. apnews.com/article/louv...

156 years ago #onthisday, Top the wombat died. He was the pet of the poet and artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti who, upon Top's passing, created this self-portrait in mourning. More on Rossetti and co’s curious but longstanding fixation with the #wombat here: publicdomainreview.org/essay/o...

Attention, Finnefans! There's a lovely interview with Roger Allam in The Guardian today: www.theguardian.com/film/2025/oc...

I keep seeing adverts for the new Tom Daley knitting show 'Game of Wool' and I realise this must be some sort of pun but my meno-brain just can't figure it out. It's been weeks now, somebody help.

If Jonathan Ross and his gigantic fucking ego survive into a third week, I swear... 🥾📺 #CelebrityTraitors

We know it’s early… but it’s never too early to start planning your trip to see THE MUPPET CHRISTMAS CAROL at The PCC this December! Catch the musical re-telling of the Dickensian classic in special SING ALONG performances from 28th November - 24th December. 🎟️ tinyurl.com/445yb7k9

Re-reading my old Harry Potter fanfics from 2007-2012 on Fanfiction.net. Forgot I'd written half of them, but they still hold up well, I think. Some lovely recent reviews too, but even if I hadn't moved on to other fandoms (Cabin Pressure, tennis) HP would be dead to me now.

3 things I enjoyed this week: 1/3 - The Traidar podcast: podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t... Matthew Keeley and guest do a deep dive into each episode of The Traitors (they also cover other Anglophone versions). Some good insights into the show, plus MK has a lovely mellifluous Scottish accent.

Simon's in a thing!

My friend has gone viral for an excellently silly reason.

Any excuse to repost a bit of JFSP:

It's MERINGUE WEEK on #GBBO which is unfortunate because I don't like meringue. On the other hand I really enjoy hearing the word MERINGUE repeated MERINGUE over and MERINGUE over again until it MERINGUE ceases to MERINGUE have any MERINGUE meaning.

3 things I enjoyed this week 1/3: A film - 'See How They Run' on C4: www.channel4.com/programmes/see-how-they-run Saoirse Ronan (using her real Irish accent!) turns out to have excellent comedy chops and Sam Rockwell can do a very good British accent.

Watching 'Eva Longoria: Searching For Spain'. It's your standard celebrity foodie travelogue, except for the jaw-dropping intro in which she presents her expertise as: 'Eleven generations ago one of my ancestors left Spain for the New World and a new life. Four hundred years later, I'm back.'

Have belatedly discovered the excellent 'A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs' podcast. Chronological, hour-long (sometimes multi-episode!) deep dives into great songs from rock history. It started in October 2018 and still hasn't reached the 1970s. 500songs.com/podcast

A lovely thread for those of us who enjoy research, and old things.

#NationalPoetryDay #poem #poetry #birds "Flappy Git"

Yay, Portrait Artist of the Year is back tonight! Always enjoy watching creative people doing creative things on telly, whether that's pottery, baking, painting, or tasks.

All the awards for the person who added this coda to the Simon & Garfunkel Wikipedia page.

Unfortunate choice of image accompanying this advice column on 'masculine inadequacy' - Lautrec's painting being famously of two women in bed. I assume the picture researcher (I was one for 19 years) didn't bother reading the caption. www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

Interflug Airlines destination labels. 1970s, East German. More here www.presentandcorrect.com/blogs/blog/i...

Wish we were by the sea today. Episode 145 - Curling folding breaking waves (26 mins) The beach between Winchelsea and Rye Harbour. Listen with headphones to get the full hi-def sound of the sea. > bit.ly/LenWSea2

My favourite thing about this picture of Mondo Duplantis breaking yet another pole vault world record is how absolutely THRILLED the official is. We'd all be that excited to be so close to greatness, let's face it. Photo: Bernat Armangué/AP, from the Guardian: www.theguardian.com/sport/live/2...

I have once again been distracted from my plans by live sport. In this case, Mondo Duplantis is doing his miraculous thing in the pole vault final. And, as if that wasn't enough, vaulting the highest height in history to break yet another world record. 🇸🇪 🇸🇪 🇸🇪

Massive lizards running amok in Bangkok - go, lizards! www.theguardian.com/environment/...

The glorious megatherium (giant ground sloth) at Crystal Palace Park. Built 1854 as part of the world's first dinosaur park & so much at the cutting edge of a new science that the word dinosaur hadn't been invented yet. It's been hidden behind foliage for years, but is now unveiled in all its glory.

Popping in to cleanse your timeline with this 10/10 dog content. 👌🐶

Best thing I've seen today: this writing desk in the shape of a doleful tapir. Source: www.apartmenttherapy.com/1920s-califo...

Love it when two of my niche interests cross the streams... (no, I don't mean 1983-style moustaches) #GBBO #LaVuelta

I see Starmer is once again doing his best to alienate everyone who has ever voted for his party. I've always voted Labour and I've always been ardently pro-voting, but if Labour are going to ignore their massive majority in favour of placating a tiny number of shouty racists, they can get fucked.

Just for perspective, a few weeks ago roughly 100,000 turned up for the London Trans+ Pride march. By contrast fewer than 3,000 ACROSS THE WHOLE COUNTRY, have turned up to anti-asylum "protests". Yet we are meant to take the latter as "the voice of the people" and the former as "the minority".

Six episodes in, #DestinationX still makes zero sense either as a contestant or a viewer. You get 45 minutes of clues clearly pointing to Croatia, then in the last five minutes three of the contestants are shown an Italian flag and a model of a gondola. Might as well rename it #MisdirectionX

On urban 'parklets' in Vienna: www.theguardian.com/environment/...

I also live in South London and love a bit of Country Living magazine while having absolutely zero interest in actually living in the country, so I'm very much looking forward to this.

"The strands that connected me to my great-uncle were tenuous, but I clung to them as I became an adult: art, Manhattan, and blood." NEW on @longreads.com: Hannah Engler on chasing her great-uncle, a forgotten 1970s fashion designer. longreads.com/2025/08/07/1...

💥The Bernat Klein Studio has been saved! This morning the coalition of Scottish heritage organisations secured the property at auction with a winning bid of £279,000. The studio will now be restored and brought back into public use, creating a new venue for creative arts in the Scottish Borders.