NOW OUTSIDE PAYWALL A guided tour of President Trump's 33-page, $5 billion lawsuit against the British Broadcasting Corporation How some parts are strong, some parts are weak - and why a strict legalistic analysis will not tell the whole story. emptycity.substack.com/p/a-guided-t... By me

Live chess

and nine rings for Santa's reindeer in their halls of ice

[passing the event horizon] this is neither the time nor the place

Thread 1/ Recently at a Q&A, the chair asked me an excellent question: Why do you push so hard against the idea of a ‘nature cure’ when moments in your book Drystone - A Life Rebuilt might look like exactly that? The answer is simple. #Reading #Writing #NatureWriting #Nature #Scotland #Books

It's like someone heard that fascist regimes made the trains run on time, and so having inefficient rail systems was the mark of a working democracy.

There have been many attempts at lampooning Elton John over the years, but the brilliance in Neil Innes' approach from RUTLAND WEEKEND TELEVISION is to emulate Elton's musicianship while gently ribbing the oft-times endearingly flowery/nonsensical nature of Bernie Taupin's lyrics...

In 2023, 173 people in Surrey reported finds to the PAS, equal to 5.7% of the membership of this club + I'm sure there's plenty of other detectorists in Surrey, showing once again that despite claims to the contrary, only a tiny minority of detectorists report any finds to the PAS #ancientbluesky

New podcast episode, covering Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis open.spotify.com/episode/3SM9...

We must imagine Sisysphus just living for today ooh ooh ooh

My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings; my Works are locked for editing by another user (ye Mighty), notify me when it is available

"The name's Slop, AI Slop"

Arnold watching a TV advert for shoes. Confused, he says "What you talkin' 'bout, Freeman Hardy Willis?"

"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.

They asked me if I had any specific criticisms of the Ghost Train. I said nothing leapt out at me.

New episode of the Amis Papers podcast - introduction to Kingsley Amis's life and work open.spotify.com/episode/0Eud...

Reform are into Day Three of Racismsplaining. It's harder than it looks. thecritic.co.uk/easy...

I went to see an artist's 'work in progress' show. Well, I say work ..., I say progress ..., I say show... I say artist.

Ross Perlin’s “Language City” is a great book, but is it overly picky to point out that none of these words entered English because of colonialism? Goodness knows there’s other words he could have found that have done… (And a lot of the French vocab is because they colonised the English).

The government is promising 2 weeks of work experience for every schoolchild. Has anyone ever actually benefitted from their work experience? and where do they expect all these placements to come from?

The Amis Papers podcast has reached the end of Amis's fiction, but the latest episode shows it's not over yet.

I don't know why people are surprised at comedians taking the Riyadh cash, given the selling out they're all willing to do for a little ad revenue for their podcasts.

"want to see marilyn monroe in gane of thrones?" no? no, i do not. but then again, i'm not an unimaginative little baby who confuses swapping pretty blonde women for "having ideas"

Freddy: The real treasure is all of the friends we killed along the way. Jason: That's beautiful. Leatherface: And the faces we wore. Michael Meyers: *nods, single tear rolls down mask*

This meeting could have been an email but you playin'

One of the conspirators who helped Gavrilo Princip shoot Archduke Franz Ferdinand survived to see the breakup of Yugoslavia. He could conceivably have watched the Neighbours episode where Scott and Charlene got married

"which is nice."

Comedy = tragedy + time Scarborough Fair = parsley, sage, rosemary + thyme

I can't get enough of historical tragedies about obsessive jealousy- they're so Moorish.

Ocado proudly advertises its order accuracy as 99%, so that's something wrong every time, isn't it?

With a little love, the call could be coming from inside the home.

Easy to turn off just odd they turned it on by default. Well, not odd, bad.

GIRLFRIEND: Um...I don't know. I think this relationship is going too fast. ME: *sitting on my racecar bed* Lol Sharon, it doesn't actually move.

A lovely review article (and my first dissertation citation🍾) on Scottish archaeological mollusc exploitation from @jenniferbones.bsky.social & @mlaw.bsky.social. Makes the point that culture ("taste" if you like) may be just as important as economic considerations www.mdpi.com/2571-550X/8/...

After a discussion with @mymartinamis.bsky.social @jackaldane.bsky.social I have put together a partial defence of Amis's Yellow Dog. It's not as bad as you thought, honest! x.com/i/status/195...

"I HAVE HAD IT WITH THESE MOTHERFUCKING STRANGERS ON THIS MOTHERFUCKING TRAIN"

Evidence that engineers don't read

You can tell how seriously Microsoft take Teams by the way they make it easier to add an 'event charm' to a meeting than to add a file.

You have to admire Ginger Baker for calling his band Ginger Baker & Friends when he was famous for falling out with everyone.

New episode of the Amis Papers on Inside Story widget.spreaker.com/player?episo...

Linked In post: What Sisyphus can teach us about being happy in our work

"That belongs in our museum!" -British Indiana Jones

It's Your Party, you can cry if you want to.

Me? Complacent? I don't know the meaning of the word, and can't be bothered to look it up.

3 Reorder to do list b) try alphabetical system • use bullet points so I don't have to change the numbers i) write to do list

PS…

Tina was from Weymouth #AlanBennettTalkingHeads