We really should do this occasionally, it does seem to cheer everyone up.

Off the back of this, unsurprisingly, I have been listening to a lot of the Arctic Monkeys, and god if you can't track both aging, class and the shifting state of Britain through those albums.

My dream Rian Johnson project is unironically a Muppets film because everything from Brick onwards, and if you haven't watched Brick, you should, is basically a love letter to the exploitation and reimagining of genre tropes which is also what makes the most successful delivery of Muppets.

“You think what? I'm gonna walk out with a laser sword and face down the whole First Order?”

One thing I will miss about Beeston is that we were a perpetual source of these stories because the hole they'd installed years ago was never actually deep enough to stabilise the tree, so it always fell over.

Genuinely in awe of how bad JJ is that he heard Luke end this speech with "See you around kid" just after "I'll always be with you, like your father" and never even considered having Luke be the most annoying Force Ghost to Ben in TROS.

I genuinely still think this might be one of the funniest shorts I've ever seen. youtube.com/shorts/_EqrI...

An absolutely beautiful piece on grief and the small holes left behind from loss. My family have never been without a cat for very long precisely because the world feels emptier without them and it acutely felt.

Rose, the series most underappreciated character, very explicitly is the counterweight to DJ! She despises the profiteering and also never lets that distract from fighting the First Order being the right thing to do! The only one who does is DJ, who is very clearly a wrong un.

3p on Income Tax, 5p on the 45p rate, ditch the taper and childcare removal, and you've basically made it look fair, provided better headroom, and, crucially, removed one of the most annoying marginal rates in our tax system.

"Hi, Andrew, yes, I heard. It's been a long year...so, we've had great fun this season with a contestant who loves a flop sweat and that got us thinking..."

I think it’s worse than the 70s because then it was a bottom up phenomenon, and while their response was often inadequate, there was at least a sense that the elite were pushing back. Now it’s much more top down and the attitude of elite liberal circles is “leave me alone, I CBA to deal with it”

I have used, intermittently, the same alterations tailor for 15 years, hadn't actually seen him in 3 but needed a jacket doing, and it is astonishing how much better he is that every other, far more expensive, one I've met. This jacket: take in waist, shorten and trim sleeves, soften shoulder: £75.

Well, firstly the last government cut them by £50bn of that, and then you announced a 25bn green energy plan, that should probably have given you a hint.

Nicola Coughlan - Faithful, Banished immediately. Shirley Ballas - Traitor, gives self away and goes out week 2. Krishnan Guru Murthy - Faithful, murdered. Jay Rayner - Faithful, Banished for being annoying. Toby Jones - Traitor, lasts a surprisingly long time.

Fucking hell he's not gone and got another name.

I do think we'd probably be able to save quite a lot of time on AI if we passed legislation that it wasn't allowed to be obsequious.

Laura Bates new book on AI is really really good, but also absolutely pre-empts all of this stuff .

The irony is, I do think for as hot as Sabrina is, her performance is very consciously not about attracting men? Her songs are layered with her frustration with their shortcomings and failings and the femininity is closer to drag than it is to a sexualised self. Horniness as self-actualisation.

We have strayed far from the light of god

There's a point in here where she praises herself for only spending £280 a month on groceries, and then of her £400 weekly spend over £100 is on groceries.

Broadly speaking, I like to imagine I am mostly a modern, non-stereotypical enlightened guy, and then I look at my taste in interior design

Also, talk to your partner about what they enjoy, it is fun and hot and also a great chance to work out where things may hit the skids later in life! That constant evolving dialogue is fun!

I feel like I could live with the brass neck - it is the seemingly successful way that he and others have brainwashed themselves into thinking “our crumbling justice system” has an explanation beyond “we didn’t spend enough money on it” that I can’t stand.

Rabbits do.

R.I.P. Pope Leo XIV 2025-2025

It really is astonishing how normal Nigella is.

Same as the John Lewis advert

If you are excited by the traitors, do not buy the traitors board game, buy The Resistance, one of many games it's based on, which has the crucial detail of the missions actually giving you information to go on which helps discussions feel productive. magicmadhouse.co.uk/indie-boards...

"And I'm learning Chinese, says Wernher von Braun"

Mixed feelings on shaving off my beard in that my Mum didn't notice for two days whilst the hot lawyer in another team told me she liked it?

Let's go girls

This is a really good summary of why I've been able to get into Celebrity Traitors and not the previous civilian ones.

The fundamental tension of Hamiltom is that they are both massive hypocritical pricks

He's going to somehow manage to get the death penalty in a civil case

Honestly, if we're going to have to relitigate a Michael Schur show then Brooklyn 99 is right there.

Just, an extremely marginal position that the right has convinced themselves is normal because these are the circles they move in now

Goodbye Brooklyn's Rose...

The full transcript of Zohran Mamdani's acceptance speech is very much worth reading in full. Even if you don't agree with your politics, it's very beautifully put together. archive.is/8VqQJ [this is a useable link to the NYT transcript]

Kemi Badenoch is now leading a guerilla operation in darkest Surrey.

Haven't even discussed the filling, it could just be a salt and buttery

Yeah, no, I'm sold. The John Lewis ad would have been improved by committing to the bit and having the record be Ebeneezer Goode by the Shamen.

Yeah, I'm sorry but the idea that being a racist cunt is a protected characteristic now is extremely clearly not the intent of the law and it's ridiculous to pretend it is.

In his honour service members will perform a 21 gun salute into the faces of their closest friends.

"Talk to me like I'm your wife, or a part of your soul."

Yeah, I've now thought about Aftersun too much again and I'm struggling.

Rewatched the John Lewis Christmas advert and it is striking how it does rely on us assuming, at best, a window into an emotionally negligent household.

It's your party, and I'll lie if I want to.

Appreciating for a second that American parties are looser affiliation than UK ones, this is genuinely a bonkers statement for a Democrat to make about the Democratic candidate.