How I feel walking down the garden

What’s the actual point of AI being a thing if they can’t make Kermit sound like Kermit.

Interesting - but carefully phrased - series on Radio 3 about US music and politics. I wonder if they will add a Philip Glass episode www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand...

Twelve-year-old me didn’t realise Whoopee!’s joke page ‘Smiler’s Smile-In’ was a reference to Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In. Fifty-five-year old me has just got the joke. @gnfar.bsky.social

Biggest surprise in HMS Pinafore at the Coliseum was the fourth wall breaking by Mel Giedroyc and John Savournin — a clear family tree from One Man, Two Guvnors, also directed by Cal McCrystal. Really a joyous experience - runs for another week. #ENOPinafore

Honest question to my BBC News pals. Is a 4% rise in *English* half-term holiday fines really a much bigger story than a 50-year low murder rate (incl 28% fall in knife deaths)?? Sorry for being tedious but it's almost a textbook example of good things ≠ news.

If the BBC could be bothered to post on Bluesky (you know, that whole “being where their audience is” thing) then we’d all be talking about the spectacular debunking Radio 4’s More or Less did today.

The Today programme is going on so much about how good reading is for you that I’ve decided to turn it off and read my book.

NYT channelling Stewart Lee www.nytimes.com/2026/01/13/a...

@petroc.bsky.social‘s logistics giving me a headache. Philadelphia one day, Dallas the next, with daytime interviews to do, then broadcasting from the middle of the night with a lost voice. @bbcradio3bot.bsky.social

There might actually be something in this sharing of grievances. #festivus

Die Hard VI: The Cold Case. How exactly are we spelling that, Holly?

My Spotify wrapped summary is that my band took all our music off Spotify because the company’s CEO invests the billions which he doesn’t pay artists on AI drone weapons tech. Ditch Spotify. Pay artists. Redistribute wealth. Stop war. Happy Christmas!

Gee, all the Christmas cards on sale are so twee. Having a hard job finding any I would put my name to.

@jameshoggwriter.bsky.social We could do with some James Hogg here…

Oh yay for me

This new/old masthead warms my heart @theobserveruk.bsky.social

Just watched first Netflix Sesame Street — seems 100% authentic and true to its values and also reinvented once again. Really those guys are the finest. Now they just need to get off Xitter and come to this new place.

Good line from this Obs leader: "Davie and Turness were Faithfuls." observer.co.uk/opinion-and-...

Everything on our news agenda is being driven by a corrupted disinformation machine, run by a billionaire who sponsors Tommy Robinson and who keeps trying to foment civil war in the UK. And incredibly our MPs & news providers stay there. THAT is the problem. Not some bad editing choice on the BBC.

The alternative Ode to Joy lyrics @billybragg.bsky.social mentioned on Jools’ @bbcradio3bot.bsky.social programme www.reddit.com/r/europe/com...

He’s incredibly destructive for someone who calls themselves a builder

Hey BBC News pals. You know Traitors isn’t actually the news, right?

Excellent beard action!

The best party of the 2025 @wansteadfringe.bsky.social book festival was chatting with the great @alanconnor.bsky.social about crosswords, quizzing, Monty Python, Bach, suits, and 100 other things.

The finale of the @wansteadfringe.bsky.social book festival — an uncommonly pleasant evening talking Bazball with @nickhoultcricket.bsky.social and @boothcricket.bsky.social

@billybragg.bsky.social Thanks for Saturday night Billy, was very moving —and a magical moment when BBC News flashed above your head. Best ever Great Leap Forwards. Regards from Wanstead.

Went for a walk to where the fires raged this summer in Wanstead Flats. Happy to see new growth: toadflax, ragwort and yarrow, which together sound like a line from an olde English fairy tale. #wansteadflats #afterthefires #regeneration #toadflax #ragwort #yarrow #autumn #transition

Excellent to spend the evening with my old friend @rorycj.bsky.social for @wansteadfringe.bsky.social chatting about #sophiefromromania, Parkinson’s, and that other place

This! “You don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone.”

CHANGE OF VENUE FOR WANSTEAD BOOK FESTIVAL EVENT! I will be in conversation with the wonderful writer, film-maker, walker John Rogers @thelostbyway.bsky.social upstairs at the Bull at 129 Wanstead High Street (close to Wanstead underground station) this Sunday.

I love #TheHundred. Bite me.

Just read VJ Day as JD Vance

I’ve only just realised the Oval Invincibles logo is an oval.

@stephencollins.bsky.social Hey Collilo thank you for today’s Guardian cartoon. It’s a new tyranny.

Read the room, Brewdog

Weird, huh (for UK readers): a week dominated by Maxwell and Murdoch.

Amazing. Every word counts.

@dauntbooks.bsky.social Got to love a bookshop that files this under Italy :

What a weekend for old Baxters. Stanley, still with us at 99. And Biddy, 92 tomorrow.

The alternative Ode to Joy lyrics @billybragg.bsky.social mentioned on Jools’ @bbcradio3bot.bsky.social programme www.reddit.com/r/europe/com...

Fantastically curt advice from Alan Titchmarsh in today’s @thetimes.com

Cool album art from cousin John’s new release. It’s the sort of thing you could have taken out of your parents’ record cabinet in the mid-70s.

I like you but you don’t *need* to say ‘quintessentially’. Or ‘visceral’.

Mayoral. Two syllables, people.

Keep people watching. You won’t believe what’s coming next! Have a big dramatic showdown on screen! Tensions have been brewing and now they’re at boiling point! Ah but now the contestants get a treat, as long as they remember to thank the sponsor.

@markforrestradio.bsky.social bravo for today Mark, you’re a pro

#30DayChartChallenge Day2 Slope – Google search interest in “How to remove Meta AI from Whatsapp”. As Meta AI’s chatbot is rolled out across Europe, many users are wondering how they can turn it off --> you cant, upsetting quite a few users www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/whatsa... Made in Figma

Oi Meta, NO! I don’t want your stupid AI mush in my Whatsapp. That’s a place for messaging my friends, not you lot.