Totally agree!! Where else would we follow this advice? Cooking? “Divide the cookie mix into twelve and bake for 14 minutes. Remove from oven and immediately chuck any decent ones in the bin”

Agreed. If you hold to it too rigorously, you're close to saying 'any time you think you've written a nice bit, delete the fucker immediately'. It doesn't have to be QUITE like that.

up there with this classic:

when the Criterion edition has Daniel Clowes artwork and the movie's not even based on one of his books... you know you're about to see some shit

“Kill your darlings.” Actually just give them room to breathe. You can allow yourself a couple or why are you even doing this.

Think my new bit is going to be dismissing various relatives in conversation this Christmas with “he’s/she’s not a serious person”, like I’m a pugilistic centrist being interviewed on a podcast

On Twitter there was a great thread where we tried to find a Golden Age Hollywood actor who everyone loved. Anyone saying, “Not for me” was of course an automatic disqualification. Thought it was impossible, then we got to EEH and even the contrarians and hate-everythings went “Of course I love him”

Virtually all journalism is optimized to report on train wrecks and not trains not wrecking, so it's easy to get the impression that the world at large is in terrible shape, no matter how good our immediate experience seems. Mass & social media do a terrible job of putting things in perspective.

A bit of description goes a long way. Writing dialogue should be easy, you write dialogue every time you open your mouth. If in doubt, just say it was a dream

I honestly cannot stop laughing

Helped a woman on the platform carry her heavy bag onto the train (I know, I know, DMs open). Didn’t realise when I stood the bag up on one narrow end that it was FULL OF KITTENS. Sorry guys

I remain perplexed by this. I wonder if part of it is that our brains are simply not meant to know so much about all the bad things in the country/world that we can’t control. Or that people are empathetic/thick.

The thing is there are racist jokes that work in terms of the joke structure being recognizable as a joke [set up, build up, punchline]. This one is like. Heh. You know what's funny? I'm racist. Delivered by a guy without charisma

Just bumping that once in case you like-a da movies

The films of the year: 26 discoveries, 10 old favourites, 7 bad movies, 6 re-appraisals and 5 obsessions. Feat. all your faves: Linda Fiorentino, Joan Micklin Silver, Sinners, Wallis Island, Argentinean child noir, and really quite a lot of John Ford. advicetothelovelorn.blogspot.com/2025/12/revi...

Goodness me, it’s like someone rewrote The Twelve Days of Christmas with sex pests www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Rewatched Good Will Hunting last night. I really like it nowadays (didn’t back then). In long shot, a stylised cartoon of wish-fulfilment and self-destruction: early Brando crossed with Rain Man. But up close, so moving. Driver & Williams are terrific, & Damon is in the exact register of his script.

Archie from Balamory has some serious questions to answer

My voicenote impressions of the Amazon Music podcast advert have received a mixed reaction

Although it would be amusing to ask people like Bret Easton Ellis and Donna Tartt

I’m afraid my kink is being called ‘pal’ by women who want to make it clear it’s a friend thing

I feel that the new trend in which artists are asked to read out British place names with unusual spellings is not a good use of people’s time

Get to see my brothers for the first time in over a *year* today 🥳

One of my favourite examples of what I shall call nominative indeterminism. The leading British pro-Zionist archaeologist in mandatory Palestine and Israel was called, I kid you not, P.L.O. Guy.

My work colleague asked me to text her when the Christmas meat hampers arrived at work. Turns out I took her number down wrong and I have sent a really ominous text to a stranger

10 favourite Christmas films - The Little Match Seller (James Williamson, 1902) www.youtube.com/watch?v=1J-3... - The Shop Around the Corner (Ernst Lubitsch, 1940) - Christmas Under Fire (Harry Watt, 1941) www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kg7n... - Meet Me in St Louis (Vincent Minnelli, 1944)

Fascinating and beautiful piece of magazine journalism by Kate Mossman on the plane that was nearly crashed by a passenger nine months before 9/11:

Scary Christmas Movie Advent Calendar: Day 21 Cash on Demand (1961, Directed by Quentin Lawrence) A tense bank heist movie with a most polite game of cat and mouse with a festive message about being a better boss. A little Christmas treat from Hammer

We've got a book of toxic wallpaper that can kill (arsenic I think). It was made as a reference to avoid toxic wallpaper but I guess when they made it they didn't think about the fact that the samples were also toxic

I like the bit in Cinema Speculation where he talks about following screenings of Rolling Thunder around the country. I love it when a piece of art means so much to someone that they’re physically compelled by it.

@andrewmale.bsky.social Thank you for sharing, particularly given my high opinion of Wallis Island 👀

@annebillson.bsky.social Thanks Anne! <3

@timriley.bsky.social Thanks for sharing that piece, Tim!

@perilmild.bsky.social Thank you! Also: Merry Christmas! x

Lots of people are posting their favourite films, books, and music of the year. My favourite thing of the year is this quote. Even after 5 months it still makes me laugh on a near daily basis.

the number of times the character name Pasquini is said in Live Like a Cop, Die Like a Man (1976, Deodato) delighted me so much that i made an edit of some, but not all, of the 'Pasquinis'

oomf who is a librarian had to take down the David Walliams poster at work today and said it felt like pulling down the big Saddam Hussein statue in Baghdad in 2003

I think Myrna Loy's Nora Charles is my favorite film character ever. #TheThinMan #TCMParty

This was my biggest tweet over in the bad place. It will live here now. 🧙‍♀️🎄

Santas just don't give out Gary Coopers like they used to.

Santa laughed till his buttons near popped from his vest Then he reached in the bag and out came Mae West The Film Daily, 1935

Really emphasises how little time Rick spent with him if he can't remember his name.

This may be the best fuck-up i have done online

👇🏻 (if I may)

I mean sure but you did appear to be his third best friend

It’s the time of year for film lists. So here’s mine… The films that probably engaged me the most in 2025 were my first time watches of classic films. See 🧵 for my top 10. All come strongly recommended. In no particular order:

@robpalk.bsky.social Thank youuuu