I need at least 3 more folk to sign up for my Edinburgh Adult Education Programme archaeology classes at Craigentinny, or the course will be cancelled. If you know anyone who might be interested, please let them know. Thank you! adulteducationedinburgh.spydus.co.uk/cgi-bin/spyd...

Yesterday our project lead, Dr David Clarke, dusted down his suit to join the Launch of the Living Heritage inventories of ICH at Westminster. It was good to see pals such as Matt Cheeseman and Doc Rowe and hear more from Baroness Fiona Twycross who is leading the DCMS ICH rollout

Chiffchaff right outside the kitchen window was a nice pick-me-up. They're often enough out there, but not usually that confiding.

'For most medieval men and women the sight of one's own entrails was the clearest possible sign that something had gone very wrong indeed'

Pick up the nearest book. Turn to page 42, post the second sentence. "Pity that people had given up that instructive custom of pillorying different generations for the good of posterity!"

Refilling the bird feeders just now I realised how far Russ Meyer has ruined my life when I found myself thinking: I should keep these topped up for Super Martin Bormann's Super Garden Birdwatch.

The Lost Gangways

For some childish reason this amuses me. A charity shop is offering a job lot of guitar bits, including 'set of 6 Machine Heads'. There are, I think, less extreme ways of removing and packing machine heads than this.

straunge wlafferynge

Quote an actor in the wrong film: "The power of Christ compels you!"

Quote an actor in the wrong film: "These aren't the droids you're looking for"

Gearing up for the start of a new term, so I am inevitably feeling the precariat/marginalised imposter syndrome acutely. But applying Duck Dunn and Al Jackson directly to the afflicted parts is helping greatly.

But its founder invented dynamite! I'm the best with dynamite! Why can't I have one?

“If there is a third World War, its strategic center will be the North Pole.” Gen. H.H. Arnold, retiring head of USAAF, Feb 12, 1947

Top quality subbing from the Isle of Wight County Press. 'We've got a -u- in her surname, does it really matter where it goes?'

Ahh, the ruthless efficiency of the modern plotter. Not only did Jenrick manage to leave his proposed defection speech on an office printer, he was late to Falange's press conference because he got lost in the building. * I will ever be grateful to whoever came up with 'Falange', it's perfect.

A local charity shop had a couple of early CDs by island fiddlers when they were still wee bairns - a Filska CD when Jenna Reid was just 14, and Dancing Fingers by the Wrigley sisters, sleevenotes to which begin 'Jennifer and Hazel have been twins for 16 years...' Before that they were years apart?

Acid flashback? DT hallucination? Paranoid horticulture?

Idle question for #historysky types: anyone out there genned up on suffrage street literature of the late 1860s/1870s? There's a song in the Alfred Williams collection I'd thought might be Chartist, but having seen some later Liberal ballad sheets on suffrage now suspect it might date from then.

STOP THEM ALL Free/PWYW hi res files available here: ko-fi.com/s/a2e5b9f250 Prints: www.inprnt.com/gallery/mxmo... Alt. version prints: www.inprnt.com/gallery/mxmo... Portion of funds earned will be donated to various immigrant rights projects across the US.

The grean shoots of our reawakening are starting to emerge into the light with this inspiring workshop from Leaping Hare! Saturday 7th February 6-8pm This is a vital fundraising event as we begin planning for the future. More info and to book your place: www.folkloremythmagic.com/event-detail...

Right now is the interment of my friend JMichael Fields's ashes on our beloved Romney Marsh. I couldn't get over there, and it's not being streamed, so I'm following the order of service with my finger. Today would have been his birthday, and I'm sad, but so happy to have known him. (1/2)

Is it necessary to know the myths we live by? Perhaps not, but we should know the myths we research with -- Diarmuid Ó Giolláin

...comprendí que me habían asesinado. Recorrieron los cafés y los cementerios y las iglesias, abrieron los toneles y los armarios, destrozaron tres esqueletos para arrancar sus dientes de oro. Ya no me encontraron. ¿No me encontraron? No. No me encontraron... --Lorca (also murdered by fascists)

Impermanence, impermanence, impermanence - is there no end to it?

Thanks, Unconscious, for waking me up last night just enough to be bugged for hours that I couldn't remember David McCallum's surname but not enough to be clear-headed enough actually to remember it. I'll get you, I promise.

A poem by Renee Nicole Good

I have no idea how last week's prawn crackers, which are still in the bread bin, remain crisp and delicious, but they do.

I'd like to blame @folktunes.bsky.social for making me think of this again, but it's pretty much a constant earworm anyhow, and I never tire of it.

Die niet willen horen, lope met coyen!

Got a stinking cold and feeling sorry for myself. I am therefore lying on the sofa, listening to Bartók and reading the Dutch Arthurian romance Ferguut. This would be approaching My Best Life were it not for the cold.

My excellent colleague Tina Paphitis has just sent the link to this Marburg Journal of Religion special issue on 'Fieldwork in Folkloristics and the Study of Religions: An Interdisciplinary Introduction'. It looks pretty much essential.

Terrific meeting just now. So excited to find out about the Neurodiverse Museum's excellent work

I'm sorry to learn that Barry Banson has died. My maths teacher and 3rd-form tutor, Barry also led the school Natural History Society, and I did some serious birding with him. Our spring migration trips to #Dungeness contributed another layer to my complex relationship with #RomneyMarsh ... (1/2)

The wonderful Steve Davies used to do a year-in-books list. I took up as it looked like fun. He died in an accident the same year, so I never did get to share my reading with him. I still do it, and every year I think again of my cheese-eating wastrel friend and his exuberant reading tastes. (1/2)

In truth I remain an optimistic person, despite (because of) knowing the challenges ahead. They are surmountable, but can, will and must be surmounted, which means collective and collaborative work, and that's exciting. Roll up your sleeves, and may all your flowerpots be brilliant. Here's to 2026.

2025

The reverend who's conducting the interment of JMF's ashes on Romney Marsh has just asked if I'm ok with her using a comment of his quoted in my article. Of course (it was his, not mine), but it's also making me ache sadly a bit too. I never conceived of academic impact in those terms.

Ladder to the Stars I made this a while back for a friend, who's always on at me about getting decent pictures of my objects. So I didn't, again.

Christmas summarised: family pandered to my conference accessorising with the excellent and independently gifted hat and badge. They have the measure of me.

I have conclusively proved (on another platform) that I am the only person amused by 'Tilde Swiñon'

If you do Christmas, have a good one. If you don't, have a good one. 2025's been tough and 2026 is almost certain to be tougher, so let's catch our breath and get ready.

and Joe Hill, who did NOT die

Now on my 4th consecutive Gene Pitney album and feeling duly febrile. I'd never thought of him as a successor to Johnnie Ray until now...

Currently remembering the real meaning of Christmas - cheese.

I'm mightily excited to find my work quoted in an Estonian article. Even more delighted that Estonian's genitive form means the article refers to 'Cowdelli materjal'.

"I'd like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn"

Getting through Christmas tv adverts by turning the sound off and soundtracking all perfume adverts with Ivor Cutler songs. We've long greeted that ludicrous Johnny Depp/wolf one with a cry of 'Sausage!' but it works well with 'Who Tore Your Trousers James'.

I'm reading Michael Wex's book on Yiddish, Born to Kvetch. Gave a public talk yesterday, planned to decompress afterwards reading it in a cafe, but realised I'd left it at home. I found myself thinking 'This should happen to me?' Perhaps it's having a greater impact than I suspected.

Marking essays. I like it when they point me to articles I haven't read.