Why #Hyphens Matter #56— "So, do you want a normal adult ticket?"

Thanks to @valerievaldes.bsky.social for linking me to this truly awesome photo of someone SO MUCH cooler than any AI techbro:

Role reversal.

@lgbookworm.bsky.social I think this is adjacent to your interests.

Alt text: Acrylic painting of one black and white duck, and brown duck on a slight wave beautifully rendered in green and blue.

#AITA— OP: We're going to elope to Las Vegas next year with 20 friends. Respondents: We're cross about the mis-use of "elopement" & the general degradation of #language. It's a symptom of something. Voice of Common Sense: It *can't* be an elopement if there isn't a ladder. #C18th #C19th

good morning, I have noticed that some of the critical responses to the Crave show Heated Rivalry have been, let's say, incomplete sex scenes are craft! goddammit!

Strong rec for 'Wake Up Dead Man' — a thoroughly satisfying thoughtful & funny film, where the ambiguity at its heart starts with the punctuation. Daniel Craig's excellent teflon Benoit Blanc sets off the terrific acting chops of Joshes O'Connor & Brolin.

A lovely timeline cleanser.

(UK) Parliamentary Petition: Require generative AI watermarks & ban using people’s likeness without consent https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/736690

It's possible people may have forgotten about #RobertMorse's shoulders. And Ruth Kobart giving it laldy. youtu.be/DhUcvFP_Tas?...

I shall have to be buried with my e-reader, because if they filled my coffin with all the dead-tree books I love, there would be no room for me. A lot of them are illustrated with the delightful drawings of Charles & Henry Brock, Hugh Thomson, T.H. Robinson. Charming, appropriate & gently mocking.

"Discover", indeed! The Scottish #accountants' organisation revealing their bias in their newsletter. As if their female members need to discover any of this. More to the point would be a headline that laid out what #ICAS is *doing* about it.

So if I'm offered a night away in #Wigan, BlueSky, should I accept immediately?

Gotta admire #ViennaOpera for putting on #AlbanBerg 's #Wozzeck *every day* from April to October 2026—seven months. This modernist #opera "depicts a soldier's tragic slide into madness and murder amid militarism and oppression". 200+ performances will do that to a chap.

Food Chart. I’m posting this so you can share my agony any time I use/cook/eat any of these.

☝️ #PrincesStreet plans unfit for modern #European capital 🙋 Wed 11 Nov p.m. #Planning Cttee debate Item 7.3 on agenda--> democracy.edinburgh.gov.uk/ieListDocume... Webcast--> edinburgh.public-i.tv/core/portal/... @edi.bike @edfoc.bsky.social @chdot.bsky.social @sw20.info @thecockburn.bsky.social

With alt text.

#VirginMoney helpdesk: —Yes, most people get that error message. —You're using the wrong sort of browser. —Your dropdown address isn't on our system. —The system often sends out Registration Successful emails even when it hasn't worked. —We'll have to do this manually. Wait till next week. (ggrrr)

The village had a bonfire. And fireworks. And a fire dancer. A piper played the can-can, and we sort of danced, but holding fish & chips and a ginger beer, so more of a muddy shuffle, really.

Good evening, classicists. Could any more-Latin-having-than-me person comment on a family motto I have made up? Is "pugna sine pugnā" respectable #Latin, and could I use it to mean "A war without a battle" or "A fight without fighting"?

Got a text message w/o a name on our landline, wishing a family member a happy birthday (i.e. def from s.o. who knows us) but when we try to return the call (l/line, mobile or WhatsApp), the number's not recognised, even using 141. How can that be? #BritishTelecom #Telephone #IrritatingMysteries

Just seen La Sonnambula in a live screening from the #MetOpera. Interesting anti-GOP pre-opera political message from the Met's General Manager #PeterGelb. Singing was stratospherically accomplished (if not especially subtle); standout performance by an appropriately louche Alexander Vinogradov.

"Hoyden", @nytimes.com (& autocorrect). It's a word. Look it up.

The 2011 BBC show 'Romancing the stone' showed a reconstruction of what historians thought Wells Cathedral in England may have looked like before the late 14th century based on tiny fragments of paint that survived the horrific "scrape" of the Victorian era. I made a gif:

Blazing performance tonight from #NicolaBenedetti and friends. Foyer full of awe-struck audience, many demonstrating the air violin.

Finally! I've found the source of an earworm song about #JuliusCaesar. "Yon Cassius hath a hungry look; a lean, a mean, a hungry look. And he thinks too much, and he drinks too much, And he leers and jeers and winks too much." Enjoy the #TwoRonnies setting #Shakespeare to #Strauss @ 34:34.

It’s the 111th anniversary today of the birth of Harry Rée, who was a teacher and conscientious objector when the Second World War broke out, and by the time it ended, when he was 31, had invented ‘blackmail sabotage’ and got a DSO, an OBE, a Croix de Guerre, and a Medaille de la Resistance

You don't need to have read it to get the joke www.worldofmoose.com/products/tri...

Pink peppercorn ice-cream. Now I know why Peter Piper picked a peck of pink peppers.

Really important reminder of how Reform aren’t just Little Englanders, but part of an international far-right network which wants to take away fundamental rights we all take for granted - and wants to use “free speech” as a lever

The only way to read any book is prime numbered pages first, then even numbered pages working backwards, then any remaining pages ending with a 3, then whatever’s left over, but in alphabetical order of the first word on the page. Only then can you discern the author’s true intention.

Louise V Durham, stained glass and driftwood sculpture, Shoreham by Sea, UK #WomensArt

@nytimes.com 'lupin' is so a word.

Calling English a 'rip-off degree' is one of the most blatant exhibitions of personal barbarism I've ever seen. You've demonstrated nothing but the poverty of your own mind.

#C18th #C19th Academic publishing contracts — is 4% net sales typical? Net of discounts, restocking, marketing & author paying for all illustrations? Asking for a friend (really).

Getting some genuinely FASCINATING results from this survey. I had no idea how many people (23%) aren't interested in reading excerpts before the book comes out! :O (Also shout out to the 40% of people who report that they preorder from indie bookstores. [fistbump] hell yeah)

I've been doing too much doom-scrolling recently, but @bridgetmackeith.bsky.social's drawings always calm me down and cheer me up.

Dear My Phone, My Computer, My Apps, My Electronic Devices, and so forth: Please stop asking me if I want to enable AI. Or use your janky AI tool. Or load my documents or pictures with a bunch of useless, off-putting, earth-killing AI junk. I don't want it. I SAID I don't want it. Stop offering.

Today I ate my first ever ripe fig with creamy goat's cheese.

A pop up box on Tylenol dot com

When we posted this a couple of weeks ago, we had some AI enthusiasts insist that this diagram was the result of poor prompting, or that the prompt that the original poster made was to generate a funny, bad diagram. So we decided to test ChatGPT's capability...

I don't often look to #BertrandRussell for comfort, but he laid down that daft claims had to be proved by the claimant, not disproved by the sensible. The assertion that an undetectable #teapot orbits the Sun somewhere between the Earth and Mars should not be accepted, although not proven wrong.

My bro & I are executors of my aunt's many undated #wills, written on used envelopes, with cheery messages: "You'll find it's all very simple, ducks!" I've spent days wrestling with ALL the taxes, we can't find 3 legatees, HMRC wants to interrogate the witnesses, & how I wish she were still here.

Here’s a poem called ‘English Roundabouts’.

#PensionsAwarenessDay "All our customer service staff are busy with other customers, but your call will be answered as soon as possible. You wish."

53 seconds of resetting my mood. Recommended!

Possible causes of your problems. It’s a diagram that (sadly) still seems relevant in 2025, so reposting a year and a bit on.

Totally agree—superb and unflashy world-building, a slow-building compulsive plot, excellent characterisation—and a cliff-hanger. Buy the book *and* support @ajdemas.bsky.social on Ream so we can all read book 2 asap. reamstories.com/ajdemas