Thom Tillis, GOP senator from North Carolina (it's great but where were you when your votes were needed?)

116 and Frederick Douglass are my people. I eat at their African cafés, buy their cassava, and banter with them in my Gabonese-learned French. Make noise. And if secure in your nationality and presence, maybe do not carry citizenship documents to help defend those at risk by wasting ICE resources.

Austin, rainy London #dogs

The worse the US treats Europe, the closer Europe and China become, forming relationships that exclude and ignore the US. The US wants to beat down both Europe and China, but actual US actions are strengthening China while forcing independence (from US) on Europe. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Images from family trip to Amsterdam (without family pics)

Travel watch Seiko 200 metre diver with slimline 8L35 movement, 8L35-01R0

British Airways Club Europe Gordon Ramsay's Street Pizza Slice Baby Slice

My new key-fob and travel bedside clock-watch. Oris 7456 calibre 366 hand'wound with date and small seconds.

Davos, the real issue: @nytpitchbot.bsky.social

When you match your #transit backdrop with your luxury leather goods. Asprey, mens handbag, 1972. Bakerloo Line moquette, 1972. Black and purple leathers and moquette fabrics.

I saw a crow funeral today. All the crows in the area, about 100, were clustered on a single tree, cawing. On the ground before the tree lay a single crow, alive but dying. When I came back an hour later the crow was dead and funeral music over. Corvid Thanatology: www.alieward.com/ologies/corv...

travel watch for Ireland today. Tudor Date-Day. Special Hong Kong version of this 1970s design with c.1990 upgrades to eg sapphire crystal, enhanced movement and produced only for the Hong Kong market from then to c.2020, this 2016. Linen dial enhances old school effect.

Pub Zoomies. Sunday breakfast at the Steam Kettle, Lambeth North #dogs

Austin is trying to tell me something but I am not sure I understand. Anyways I'll eat my breakfast and ask him again later #dogs

After federal troops forced a fugitive slave named Anthony Burns back into slavery in the 1850s, one Bostonian wrote, “we went to bed one night old-fashioned, conservative, Compromise Union Whigs and waked up stark mad Abolitionists.” The abuse of power radicalizes people. We are seeing that now.

Hercules at Theatre Royal Drury Lane followed by cocktails with smoked and poached salmon and a tin of caviar and blinis at the American Bar in Savoy Hotel. Special #Family night out.

L.M. Yarrow (ICS, SAS, London), W. Powell (CUNY), A. D. Hillier (STFC), S. Biswas (STFC), A. Inscker (Nottingham) get to test a provenanced-to-the-ground aes grave assemblage for testing Stable Currency? Variable Cu:Pb:Sn Alloys and the Value of Rome’s Cast Coinages livyarrow.org/2026/01/14/a...

My family in Lambeth, #London lost 3 good mobile phones last month. Exasperation at famz carelessness, but all three found. One, dropped in a park, left on a bench where found 30 mins later. Second, we phoned, and arranged to pick up later. Third, ID attached, finder contacted us. London is Safe.

Dinnertimes at home this month. Gay dad (me) at the head of table each pic. This is gay lifestyle you should adjust your stereotypes to. It involves a lotta vegetable chopping and greasy serving plate washing.

Grand Seiko Hi-Beat 9S85 automatic movement champagne dial arabic numbered rather than batons, date, steel case and crocodile strap. SBGH213

Died (alas!) on this day in 1337, the immeasurably great Giotto. Master of visual narrative, pictorial space, human emotion, but especially of blue. As you see at Arena Chapel in Padua.

The Second Triumvirate. Right: Lepidus. Centre: Octavian. Left: Antonius. #dogs

New in library. Justus Lipsius 1547-1606: Saturnalium sermonum qui de gladiatoribus [Saturnalia festival: Chats about Gladiators] Antwerp, Plantin, 1585 Superb gladiatorial and circus woodcut illustrations.

Got my map ready so that in the old fashioned way I can mark the front line with red pins and string The Arctic and Beyond • Norsk Polarinstitutt 1:10,000,000 Map

Gratuitous fluffy floof

I've my own "friendship market". How? Large central London flat: couch surfers always welcomed so attracts visitors from afar. And two young adult kids with disabilities who effusively welcome all who cross our threshold. Many relationships formed inside our own home www.nytimes.com/2026/01/03/o...

The citation chain usually works like this: -supposition stated as fact -supposition with reference to reputable book from c.1930s -reputable book from c.1930s with reference to Sir Edward Chortlemuffin, 1782 - Sir Edward Chortlemuffin, "here's an idea I'll fart out," 1782 /2

I have annexed The country Whose resources I wanted And which you Were probably Hoping I could identify a giraffe It was the best clock Anybody drew I like McDonald's Hey look, a bird

I need a place to hang out in my own home, only accessible to myself and maybe one special other person. My house is like an airport terminal. Yes ultimately my fault it got that way, that kids and their random friends walk in on me unannounced to settle a dispute or get funds for KFC. I need a den.

1st "new in library" for 2026 1574, Srassbourg, Livy, Roman History, German language with 131 lavish woodcuts in decorative borders by Toby Stimmer. Romischer Geschichtsbeschreibung Titi Livii von Padua, Tobias Stimmer Large folio, blind stamped vellum, poor condition but all woodcuts present

Me in my box at La Fenice Venice for Concerto di Capodanno 2026

First side-eye 😒 of 2026 ftom Austin by the Thames in front of Parliament and its too noisy instead of tucked up in bed.

A Kind of Madness — Uche Okonkwo The Crimson Vigilante — Olayinka Yaqub Years of Shame — Obinna Udenwe Death of the Author — Nnedi Okorafor Harmattan Season — Tochi Onyebuchi Dream Count — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie This Kind of Trouble — Tochi Eze So many Nigerians 🇳🇬💚 afrocritik.com/afrocritik-n...

Aged 11, Princess Elizabeth made New Year’s gift for her stepmother, Queen Katherine Parr. 🎁 Bound in embroidered blue silk, it has been preserved at the Bodleian since 1729: https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/a3a60c14-8a31-42b9-b8e7-a0986e276459/ Shelfmark: Bodleian Library MS. Cherry 36

Lido. Thomas Mann, Death in Venice, the beach and hotel where the moody cholera filled tragedy plays out.

Venice is famous for its artisan craftsmanship in paper and stationery items, as well as others such as glassware. Today I visited the Il Pavone (Peacock) workshop of Fabio Pelosin in Dorsoduro, since 1983, where he made library stamps for me and I added several handmade library record notebooks.

I'm feeling good. In Venice and secured an excellent seat for the New Year Day Concerti di Capodanno in the famous 1792 Teatro La Fenice. Cherry on the cake of what's already been a mysteriously fab visit to "La Serenissima" "The Most Serene Republic of Venice en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venice_...

Bellini Babes at Gallerie dell'Accademia. Venice Jacopo (1500-1479) & Giovanni (1430-1516) Bellini both had an eye for ugly babies.

Venice in the quiet months. On a half dozen Vaporetto today and hardly saw a tourist. Venetians with shopping bags, strollers, carrying furniture, helping grandma. Venice isn't too busy, just choose to visit off-peak, when your custom will also be appreciated by restaurants etc.

Altarpieces from Gallerie dell'Accademia in the Scuola della Carità on the south bank of the Grand Canal, within the sestiere of Dorsoduro, Venice

My kids think I'm in NYC and are asking about the snow. I booked to go to NYC. But on 24th, two days before travel, my NY friends had to leave town and I realised how little I wanted to go to the US ever again. Bookings were refundable. So here I am. Assured kids it's cold and very wet but no snow.

Our Christmas Chef in Amsterdam

Christmas with Dr.Patricia in care home. Skeleton staff were literally running between tasks: wash and smart dress every resident and arrange for half to leave to families, each who needed to chat 10 mins, other half served a lavish Christmas lunch with other relatives incl me. I left €50 tip.

a new 7 floor building, to replace a petrol station, has changed Donnybrook (a Dublin suburb) to "denser by some way" than Manhattan according to the Lawn Tennis Club. Nothing beats local news in Ireland where they have the best NIMBYs on the planet

Dr.Patricia McCabe is ready for her 96th Christmas 🎄 🙂

The people with the wheelie suitcases have left. London is mine.

I just want my movies about antiquity to have some damn color and a smidge of accuracy in costuming. We need to return to the sword and sandal style.

Some posts today on Umberto Eco's Thesis system and Zettelkasten: these are examples of my own library pockets which double as index cards. In the pocket itself I insert copies of book receipts, related info, and extracts from bibliographies. Cosy feel having info about each book inside each book.

Churchill Arms, London ✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️

Closing out my year with a journal editor shocker 🧵 Checking new manuscripts today I reviewed a paper attributing 2 papers to me I did not write. A daft thing for an author to do of course. But intrigued I web searched up one of the titles and that's when it got real weird...