The time it takes to write a joke, from conception to birth, is the jestation period.

The horse op-ed is an instant classic. I can't tell you how much joy this piece gives me. It should be taught in every introductory writing class in no small part because the horse arguments are so compelling. "I have noticed that human children get to eat cake. But I am bigger than the children."

"On Monday, Oedipus ate through one apple. But he was still hungry. On Wednesday he ate a whole banana. On Friday he killed an arrogant man at the crossroads and married his widow. But he was still hungry." A section, there, from THE VERY HUNGRY PATER-KILLER.

– I can tell this is an authentic Van Gogh just from the frame – How? – There’s a bit of veneer missing

Get ready to run!! www.kickstarter.com/projects/117...

I will take "all of the above" please 📚💙

#franimals swordfinch

You’re Green You’re keen You’re here for a week In Ork Experience, you need to get through a week’s work placement without anyone working out you’re a 9ft tall green skinned brutal fantasy warrior.

Closing this run of Louise Glück poems with a personal favourite

I finally lost my shit about so-called AIs, LLMs, enshittification & everything fucking evil that @officialgrammarly.bsky.social is doing. I'm fucking furious, and not just about what 1 company has done. An open letter to Grammarly & the rest of the LLM hype machine www.moryan.com/an-open-lett...

Hey, friends. Three years ago today I released VOID 1680 AM, the response to which legitimately changed my life. I've added 100 community copies free to download. Become the late-night radio DJ of your dreams and build a playlist tied to your history with music here: bannerless.games/voidam

I picked up The Merry Wives of Windsor as a favourite during a read-em-all challenge, and I don’t see any echoes for that in the other replies. (I know I’m outwith critical consensus here)

thought you probably needed to see this

I never thought I’d have a favourite Pokémon until my nephew taught me the card game. www.serebii.net/pokemon30/56...

you can tell the AI revolution is going well because every CEO is begging you to use it in the same tone as the government asking good citizens to buy war bonds in the 40s

Hell of a thread on the UK government's AI training

Interested in setting cryptic crosswords, or improving ... or just finding out more? Following on from Raider's excellent advice at @mycrossword.co.uk, I've started a new blog series looking at how and why cryptics work: www.mycrossword.co.uk/blog/setting... Hope it's useful / interesting!

In Agadoo did Kubla Khan Push pineapples, shake the tree

HAPPY HAPPY NEW YEAR! 🎆

If we lived in a just media landscape, this would now be a trilogy.

happy birthday to @eliotcardinaux.bsky.social, who wrote this perfect poem

I’ve decided my “dream D&D group” is now The Muppets. I want to DM the muppets playing D&D/TTRPG of choice. I want Miss Piggy to get mad at me for rolling a Crit against her. I want Kermit to bust out a lil’ bardic ditty when he uses Bardic Inspo. I want Gonzo to cast Fireball.

I’m assuming this is a three player game that only two show up for.

NIGEL FARAGE STOLE MY SATSUMAS

www.mycrossword.co.uk/cryptic/2916 - in which I have been listening to the advice to have fewer unusual words. There's still one.

I’m on my way to Dragonmeet after a couple of years away and, as tradition demands, there’s an obstruction on the track or emergency repairs (depending on which announcement you believe)

Of course I would say this, but we need to talk about the moral & ideological case for play & leisure more than ever. So much political discourse - especially from the super-rich - assumes we ought to construct society around forcing citizens to spend most of their one, unrepeatable life working.

Please enjoy this list of ways that the NY Times crossword puzzle has clued the word SEXT, it's my sexy gift to you.

ISSUE 2 PRE-SALES NOW OPEN! £5 plus postage Coming out in JANUARY 2026 unchcrosswords.com

Anyway please enjoy this pumpkin I saw yesterday

So I’m experimenting with crossword setting again. Aiming for weekly, and managing to be so for three in a row now here: www.mycrossword.co.uk/cryptic/2839

Why do they call it RPG when you are do the pee and gee up on the table dice?

"I PITY THE FOOL who measures out his life in coffee spoons. I ain't gonna wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled, fool." Oh look. It's Mr T's Eliot.

Party of One has shown me so many systems and ways to play with past and future Jeff, too many to pick a favourite, but this would be on the list if I had to. pca.st/episode/c15e...

the duality of man

In important math news: new shape just dropped (the noperthedron) www.quantamagazine.org/first-shape-...

i'm so tired i could sleep a horse

www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/help... thinking about this for some reason this week

Heist Funicular is my new Blades in the Dark character

It's about time Strange Days finally begins getting the retrospective love and respect it deserves. To me, it's the best pre-Matrix cyberpunk film other than Blade Runner and Robocop, and still better than most cyberpunk films made since. www.polygon.com/strange-days...

The list of books from this era that will be considered classics in 100 years would probably horrify you.

Sunday

In food history, we notice how super-refined foods--gelatin, vienna sausage, white bread--lose class and become horrifying once they become industrialized. Suddenly, fingermarks in bread dough demonstrate skill, not clumsiness. Post-chatGPT, I'm feeling this about writing. Smoothness feels gross.

I am professional and literary and yet this

We're up to ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY NINE participants in our upcoming kitbash game jam. You should join them! It costs you nothing and will probably lose me money in the long run. I'm not even 100% sure why I'm doing it. itch.io/jam/one-hund...

@jntod.bsky.social I was enjoying Jen Calleja’s Goblinhood, and was suddenly delighted by your getting a call out in there.

BEHOLD! My first ever choose-your-own-adventure game! "i will strangle a horse" - over seven and a half thousand words of absolute nonsense, as you help Martin Jenkins on his first day at The Farm. brainmage.itch.io/i-will-stran... Totally free to play! I mean, you can pay, but you can also not!