Creative creature names: Disco chook - peacock Gropey-ropey - octopus Murder log - crocodile Trash panda - raccoon Furry potato - hamster Giraffe sheep - llama Hose-nose - elephant Stab rabbit - echidna

"But @claireb76.bsky.social, it's not clutter. It's the Japanese art of tsundoku." In Japanese, "tsundoku" (积ん読) means collecting books and letting them pile up, not from neglect, but for the joy of knowing they're there, full of untold stories. It combines "tsumu" (to pile up) & "doku" (to read).

Why have we coined "Popesplaining" when "Pontificating" is right there!?

I shouldn't have to verify I'm human. They should have to prove I'm not.

From radio listeners, when you’re fooled into thinking there’s a car-spot only to realise a smaller car is in the space: spotnot carfuffle disaparkment carmitrage exhausted hood-winked sharked (short/parked) carage (rhymes with mirage)

New research shows the best kind of time is “windfall time” from a cancelled meeting

my doctor analysing recent blood sample

it'll be back in three days

I named my dog "Nature" because he abhors the vacuum.

No lynxes in unisex nylon. #palindrome

Today’s poem is called ‘The Power of a Homophone’.

I forgot the word “tourniquet” so I called it a first aid scrunchie.

Absolutely! #BookSky

One of my cartoons in Monday's Metro

I’d like to pay in cakes, please.

“Books are patient where we are slow to understand, allow us to go over the hard parts as many times as we wish, and are never critical of our lapses. Books are key to understanding the world and participating in a democratic society.” — Carl Sagan

How it feels doing literally any task right now.

Knowledge is power ~ Sir Francis Bacon You gotta cut loose ~ Sir Kevin Bacon

happy anniversary of when almost nothing happened

Sample clues from my #cryptic #crossword in the current edition of the Big Issue magazine Unfriendly, like a flight attendant once over fifty? (7) Trump course off-limits? Fake news (7) Pound lost those missing canines (9)

IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE (Anagrammed Lines) It came from outer space — a comet of imp creatures; a curse of meteor impact — to permute a cosmic fear, to cap our mesmeric fate...

The Finnish word for an auction, huutokauppa, means “shout market” (or “shouting shop”) * read on for more of my favourite Finnish words (a thread in honour of today being Day of the Finnish Language)…

Off-season crew on deck at Cape Woolamai

Running stitches and fabrics meet, Neighbours gather, chatter sweet. Young hands help, old stories flow, A patterned dance from long ago. Basting, binding, needles at play, Cloth and company share the day. (definition from Dictionary of Canadianisms on Historical Principles)

For a snack you can have an apple, a banana or an orange. You can only pick one. #WordQuery: Do you have one choice or three choices?

If you'd welcome a windfall of historical language and etymology, all connected to the humble English word 'apple', then boy, do I have a new article for you. The star word leads us into the murkiest prehistory of English and the debate over an absent consonant. dannybate.com/2026/04/08/t...

Erm, they're called palaeontologists, actually.

"muffinS" spelled backwards is exactly what you do when you take them out of the oven. 🤤

Big Tolkien party last week. I went as Gandalf, came home Legolas

Went to give blood. Truns out I’m a typo

Sorry I'm late. There was an online form and I had to scroll to my birth year.

The difference between cucumbers and pickles is jarring.

Posting this to slame poor spelling.

What idiot called them varicose veins instead of caterpillaries?

The Internet was a simpler place when I first logged on

“Carpe per diem”. The amount allocated to an employee per day to seize said day.

Travelling? Motoring? Progressing ?

Desert island - marooned Dessert island - macarooned

Your password must contain a character with a tragic backstory.

Well, that was unnecessary 😶

Probably the worst thing about the clocks going forward is having to rotate your entire henge 30°

I'm an over-explainer (I explain things too much)

And now it’s time for my traditional Good Friday ‘joke’… Judas: “Has anyone seen Jesus?” Pontius Pilate: “He’s just getting his nails done”

- Is there a special number I can call to complain about a faulty hot cross bun? - Hotline? - Exactly!

My Good Friday tradition: Stations of the Crossword

And in honor of this weekend: