Latest.

Lolsob.

UK Choir: We'll all wear Santa hats next week. Me: Wait, where am I supposed to get a Santa hat? UK Choir: Seriously? You don't already own a Santa hat? How is that possible? Me: Ummm...do you own 14th century LARPing gear? Cultural differences are weird.

The New Yorker made an offhand comment about “Wicked: For Good” as “defying brevity,” and I doff my hat in the presence of greatness.

Do folks who think that there is, in fact, a Trump/Clinton blowjob photo also think yo mama is actually so fat? 🤔

My fellow Americans living in Edinburgh: the Supermercado Invicta, on Roslin high street, a local bus ride away, HAS FRITOS.

Atmospheric ruin outside of St. Monans, Fife. Some aesthetic compensation for the sun being this low at 3:40 pm, sigh.

Leaf-peeping in East Lothian. (Binning Wood, about 25 miles from Edinburgh, and very near an excellent Konditorei in Haddington I hadn’t known about. It was a good day.)

Better Living Through Masonry? Spotted at Western General Hospital, Crewe Toll, Edinburgh.

Affluent angst. Graffito, Trinity path, #Edinburgh

NYT is reporting that the entire East Wing of the White House is to be illegally demolished this weekend, and the top five stories on Bluesky are entertainment. video games, and sports. Feels like this platform is kinda petering out.

Just a word of appreciation for the Edinburgh Adult Education Programme website. When you click on the drop-down menu for "category," you get: - In Person - Wheelchair Accessibility - Tuesday - Active Course - Monday - Spanish As a fellow admirer of Borges, I thoroughly approve.

😂

How is AOC mocking Miller with “he’s mad because he”s like 4’10” differ from “because he’s fat” or “because he’s disabled”? There is SO MUCH to legitimately mock. All this demonstrates is that heightism is one of the last remaining acceptable ways to deny full humanity. Massive loss of respect.

I mean…when you think about it, a JD basically IS an LLM… (And I’m going for the cheap degree joke there, but, yeah: deeper level, also somewhat manually replicates what a large language model does.)

Aye. (Alley near the Royal Mile, Edinburgh.)

Bluesky's fine. But sometimes you just need those higher word counts. www.facebook.com/ruth.bennett...

My latest, on Theatre Weekly: theatreweekly.com/review-commo... #Edinburgh #theatre

"This appears to be a long document. Save time by reading a summary." OMG, unbidden and unwanted AI Assistant, please do. I insist.

I have, with immediate effect, banned tetrapak juice (we usually get the kind in plastic bottles) from our household. Pre-coffee, it is tragically indistinguishable from milk.

Hegseth meeting, with added instrumentals. www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwLl...

FFS, volunteering is, by definition, voluntary. I do quite a bit, and am happy to do so, as it’s my choice. But I won’t perform a single minute of mandatory community service, which this is. Legal immigration is not a crime. www.bbc.com/news/article...

It’s clear he actually wants this shutdown. Why, other than an opportunity for more layoffs, is less clear at this point, and that makes me concerned.

I left the US before Tangerine Mussolini’s second term, for the UK. Accidentally settled in a Reform stronghold village. Fled there for Scotland. Have been happy here, but appalled by growing support for Reform (and will be deported if Farage wins). Where next?

The town of Bo’ness, near Edinburgh, is currently experiencing a Dalek warning.

The man in the seat in front of me on the 37 bus is asking Chat GPT, on the phone he’s holding up, to write ripostes to Zia Yusuf (“now make it more posh” “say that his party’s whole purpose is to crash the working class” “add more phlegm”) and I don’t know where this is going but I am here for it.

Highlands sanity break.

Gemini has just helpfully informed me — unasked — that in the UK peanut butter is known as hypogaea emulsion.

@ianjhoey.bsky.social from Poughkeepsie, by any chance?

110K marched in London today in support of vile xenophobic racism. England is one politically viable charismatic helmsman away from Trumpism -- it'll happen. This immigrant would like to believe this shite could never take place in Edinburgh. Independence Referendum 2.0; let's go. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

More than a bit creepy, and the audience might feel kinda ripped-off about the one-sided “dialogue,” but, TBH, I probably saw worse at Fringe.

Suddenly autumn, Inverleith Park, Edinburgh.

My beliefs don't permit me to wish death to anyone, nor celebrate anyone's death. They don't say squat about needing to feel bad that anyone's gone, though. 🤷‍♀️

Moonlight, Queensferry St., Edinburgh.

TH: "Do you want to go see [redacted, a local klezmer band]?" Me: "Nah. They're not very good, and they're kinda Jew-hating, too." TH: "Oh, I thought they *were* Jewish." Me: "Yeah, they are." TH: [looks puzzled] Me: [forehead kiss] "My sweet little goyishe naïf."

😂

Edinburgh folks: AFAIK, the only early music chamber choir in town that's open to non-professional singers. (And if you do know of another, please share!) I sing with them, so if you're on the fence about going and have questions, ask away.

If there are “patriots” in your community painting England flags on traffic roundabouts, a couple of extra lines turns them into a Dead Kennedys tribute.

The difference in health stats between England and Scotland gave us a moment’s pause before we moved here. But I think I understand it a little better now. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

#Caturday duets with Luci.

Kinda suspicious that we, and all of Crewe Road South (east side) between Ferry and Western General lost our power just as AC/DC started their show. Rather ironically. #Edinburgh

My good writing group disintegrated. I've always banned memoir (authors think it can be workshopped like reg fiction, but no), and a guy snuck in disguised memoir...and, yeah, got overly-touchy when it was critiqued. Unsure whether to found a new one. Effort/reward payoff somewhat dubious.

My review schedule isn’t completed, but my Fringe is over: boldest, fattest line next to the T on the Covid test that I’ve ever seen. 😳 In retrospect, taking several hundred thousand people from around the globe and cramming them into tiny sealed spaces: maybe not such a good idea. #EdFringe

I used to jokingly post stuff like this under a "montage of headlines that will precede the end of the world" theme. Now, post-covid, I just hide under my bed. NB: the conjecture about the origins of the jackalope thing is genuinely interesting. www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...

#EdFringe My five 5-stars, in Theatre Weekly and FringeReview: - Iago Speaks, TheSpace (perfection) - Macbeth, Zoo Southside (a bold adaptation that just works) - Aether, Summerhall (brilliant staging) - Strangewife, Assembly Rooms (gorgeous writing) - Picking Up Stones, TheSpace (courageous)

That's the last of my reviews up on Theatre Weekly! I switch over to FringeReview now for a more stately pace for the rest of the month. You can find them all here: theatreweekly.com/author/ruth-... #EdFringe

#EdFringe I have reviewing slots open Aug 14-16, and final week, for FringeReview. If your show is still seeking a writeup, let me know. I review theatre, musicals, cabaret, and some solo storytelling, but not standup, magic, or children's shows. Thanks!

Hey! If you’re the random man who got up in my face after “Managed Approach” today & started lecturing me on how my note-taking was disrespectful to the actors, what I said when I cut you off and left was “thanks for your input,” and I apologize. What I meant to say was “go fuck yourself.” #EdFringe

Hello. We’d like to talk to you about cheeses.

#EdFringe If you're even a little fond of Shakespeare, go see the hilarious "Iago Speaks." Tiny audience tonight, not helped by its unfortunate late-night slot, and it's a damn shame, because it's brilliant. Five-star review in Theatre Weekly forthcoming.