History? "Oh, I just have not time to read those long books." No worries: my pieces are brief but not superficial. Here are a few reviews. (NB the review of "Getting to Know Edinburgh" is of the first edition. There is now an up-to-date Second Edition) georgehharris.blogspot.com/2020/01/my-h...

I have just heard someone on the BBC refer to the Bayeux Tapestry as depicting “the Norman invasion of Britain.” She clearly wasn’t paying attention in History lessons.

@BBCNews Your 1pm bulletin is increasingly tabloid. Obituaries of pop singers isn’t my idea of news.

Sorry, this had to be done

Dear @BBCNews why is some technical row about a football tournament dominating the 1 o’clock news?

Happy Birthday, USA. Thanks for Mark Twain, Walt Whitman, Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland, the Marx Brothers, John P Marquand, Art Tatum. All these & many more outweigh Donald Trump in the balance.

Also odd. Kerensky’s father was Lenin’s headmaster. Russia - big country, small world.

This is cultural suicide and intellectual vandalism. In an era where humanities-illiterate tech bros have unearned god-like powers, we need historians, philosophers, ethicists, classicists more than ever.

Dame Penelope Keith RIP. First seen in The Tempest at Stratford in 1963. Ian Holm was Ariel, Roy Dotrice Caliban, David Warner Trinculo & Tom Fleming Prospero.

Very little. The Holy See is (adjusted for inflation) the single biggest funder of astronomical research in history. As for Galileo, he was found guilty of suspicion of heresy, spent one day in gaol, and the rest of his life living in a palace, and continued to publish heliocentrism around Europe.

Surely Disraeli outsmarted him?

A vivid memory of David Hockney (RIP). Guest-of-honour at a Thames & Hudson party, stylishly dressed, California-tanned, he got a big laugh by beginning his speech “Of course I’m only a provincial…”

I keep being reminded of this question and answer: "What is the problem that AI services are being built to solve?" "Wages."

Catch this excellent piskie podcast if you haven’t already. Had to delete my previous post about this cos AI turned piskie into pinkie. podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...

Interview with Bp. Dagmar Winter youtube.com/watch?v=Fefs... – this exciting day sees the happy translation and installation of Dagmar Winter as Bishop of Edinburgh. If you’d like to get to know her, watch this interesting interview with her (36 mins).

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre... An interesting piece about Burnham. The historical echo Harris misses is Joseph Chamberlain - “Gas & water socialism” as Mayor of Birmingham followed by a Westminster career. Chamberlain, however, never became PM & managed to split both main political parties.

Wordle 1,797 3/6 🟨🟨⬜⬜🟩 🟨🟨🟨⬜🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Pleasing.

I've never heard of this chap. But if he's leaving Manchester I assume that means he wants to have a shot at being prime minister

The U.S. has spent billions to lose a war that enriches its oligarchs, impoverishes the citizenry, sabotages its alliances, and strengthens its enemies. Empires have risen and failed before, but to my knowledge no state has ever chosen to kill its own power. snyder.substack.com/p/on-superpo...

Wordle 1,780 2/6 🟩⬜🟨🟨🟨 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 The first thing that’s gone well today.

The guy who made a career laughing at religious people as talking to their imaginary friends just found his imaginary friend.

i like to say that mercy should abound--except in the sermon editing process.

Wordle 1,764 3/6 ⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜ 🟩⬜🟩⬜⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Pleasing

Wednesday

At least MAGA Christians appear to actually have a red line. Now it just needs some major shifting. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Pope Leo XIV: "Even the holy Name of God, the God of life, is being dragged into discourses of death. A world of brothers and sisters with one heavenly Father vanishes, as in a nightmare, giving way to a reality populated by enemies"

My book ends with this wonderful description of Edinburgh from Blackford Hill by Walter Scott. (Incidentally, I'm off on a week's holiday, so you'll have a break from the daily advert.) @edinburghminute.com @livingstreetsedi.bsky.social georgehharris.blogspot.com/2014/10/edin...

Wordle 1,756 5/6 🟨🟩⬜⬜⬜ ⬜🟩🟩🟩⬜ ⬜🟩🟩🟩⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Feeling chuffed to get this in five since I then had to resort to a dictionary to discover what it means.

all these universities kept axing medieval history departments as if they thought tyrants beefing with the Pope was going to stop being relevant

‘Teachers who use AI will replace those who don’t,’ Oireachtas committee chair warns www.independent.ie/irish-news/t...

Wordle 1,754 3/6 ⬜⬜🟨⬜🟨 🟩🟩🟨⬜🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Pleasing.

Reading “Healing from Narcissistic Abuse” by a friend of mine, Dr Daksha Hirani, and am struck by this narcissism checklist…

Photo of Groucho Marx on here just reminded me of this oldie but goldie.

A happy & blessed Easter to all.

Does Edinburgh City Council have advance warning of the Second Coming? Or perhaps they couldn’t fit Previous on the sign.

A two on Wordle this morning has me wondering whether Wordle is evidence to support Sheldrake’s hypothesis about morphic resonance, or was this just a very lucky guess.

#BBCNews (and no doubt other news channels) getting excited about tracking the #NASA moon mission, but no comment about its emissions destroying Earth’s atmosphere. We try to reduce our emissions from cars etc then they do that… not to mention #Trump & his evil war against #Iran… Lord, have mercy 🙏

One small step for a toilet, one giant flush for toiletkind… 🚽 🚀

“Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair.”

And Trump’s plan is…?

Why isn't there a book on railways in Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire called 'To the Fenland Station'? Massive open goal for railway enthusiasts, right there.

Trump be like...

The Met Office weather app is targeting me with ads in German even though it knows my Edinburgh location. Artificial Lack of Intelligence?

@bbcnewsuk.bsky.social Why on earth is the dismissal of a disc jockey the lead item on the bulletin at the beginning of The World at One? Get some perspective.

I don't think you should make Trump a saint.

Wordle 1,744 6/6 ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜ 🟨🟨⬜⬜⬜ 🟩🟩🟩⬜⬜ 🟩🟩🟩⬜⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Phew indeed.

Any other Tolkien readers out there who are reacting to POTUS’ references to Iran giving him “presents” by thinking of Gollum’s claim about how he acquired his “Precious”?

Ah, the BBC. Rutherford split the atom and they split the infinitive.

'Pedestrians are at the top of the urban transport hierarchy’ – City of Edinburgh Council, 2020 Edinburgh Council ROADS team - hold my beer

Given events in the Middle East, the government really need to publicly address some vital questions - are they going to put Winston Churchill or a badger on the petrol ration coupons?