We begin today with a content warning: this dispatch from history is not for the faint-hearted. However, if you wish, do please join me for the tale of the Sun King’s anal fistula and the three-hour operation performed on it without anaesthetic on this day in 1686... 🧵

If you wanted to see a Very Good Dog getting a treat, this would be the ideal way to do it - through Bristol’s Camera Obscura

I can’t have it in my garden? But the Bad Sprinkler is so pretty

This is pretty good, but as others/reviewers have said, at only an hour, it can’t help but skim over the subject (especially compared to the recent Elizabeth Taylor three-parter - even if that was overly worshipful). Not only that, though…

Remarkable that a story could run for days, rather than minutes, based on the idea that the current ‘president’ of the United States would give another human being pleasure

Fifty two years ago today, the President of the United States told an audience of 400 journalists: “I am not a crook” On 8 August the following year, he resigned as President because he was a crook

I keep thinking about 1979-83 v. 2024-29. It’s possible to be incredibly unpopular and come back and win, but it requires you to be unpopular with *some* of the electorate while retaining a core of supporters who are sure you’re doing the right thing. Starmer is... not doing this

Monday

“There are two people in the kitchen not feeding me, so I’ve had to approach my absolute last resort. I’m about as happy with this as you might expect”

Just switched the telly on and… What in hell are you wearing, Rock?

It turns out that one of the joys of having both ‘children’ at home one weekend is that this can happen twice in the space of two hours

Ah, those two little words from a child that every parent longs to hear

Alas! It is the 257th anniversary of the death of Philip Stanhope, described by one historian as “merely a worthy, kindly, but dim diplomatic official at Dresden – not, as his father (pictured) once dreamed, a Secretary of State”. Why, then, do we need to know about him? Well... 🧵

From @ericidle.bsky.social & Neil Innes' brilliant & criminally overlooked/unavailable RUTLAND WEEKEND TELEVISION, here's a truncated glimpse of George Harrison's Christmas 1975 guest appearance runner, where he didn't want to perform a song - He really just wanted to play a pirate...

OK. All done. Pedants? I'm not interested, this is MY Doctors. If you are interested in an A2 print I've decided to knock the price down so that it's £60 plus postage (assuming I get enough interest to make it worth my while) Let me know here or in DMs if you are interested. Probably print 10.

Just made this. I’m a widely respected intellectual, you know

Watched The Life and Death of Peter Sellers, marvelled at Geoffrey Rush’s performance, went down a Sellers wikihole, and… crikey

On this day 21 years ago, in the most consequential moment in history this account has yet marked, Diana Duyser, a resident of Florida, put a ten-year-old grilled cheese sandwich up for sale on eBay. As you would of course expect, it sold for $28,000 dollars. Mind you...

Reminds me of this. youtu.be/ujuGKvMSeWA?...

Marvellous. I needed a laugh this morning

Roses are red Astaroth’s a demon

Tough time for freelance artists and the amazingly talented @gailmyerscough.co.uk is having a tough week sales wise. Have a look at her wonderful site! I’d be very grateful (as would she!). Please share! Thank you! www.gailmyerscough.co.uk

So, happy 43rd birthday, Murun Buchstansangur, one of the oddest cartoon characters ever to grace a screen, who made his debut on Channel 4 #OTD in 1982

@oddthisday.bsky.social Roses are Red, The cowboy in 'Westworld' was Yul Brynner,

It’s the 22nd anniversary of a man sitting in a bath of beans. This may not seem remarkable, what with that being a staple of rag weeks everywhere, but this was in the window of the House Gallery in Camberwell. This was Art

Great to see this is happening. Just in time for the 2026 Pat Noodle calendar.

It’s cold. It’s dark. It’s wet. It’s November. You need a smile. Friend, what you need right now is a little bit of democracy manifest. youtu.be/PeihcfYft9w?...

We’ve been rewatching Stranger Things in the run up to the last episodes, and I’d forgotten how self-indulgent season 4 was. “Let’s make nine whole movies!” Or, wild idea I know, how about taking another run at those scripts before you start and having a crack at the long-forgotten art of editing?

#sgtpX10 TOP FIVE VILLAINS chrisbarkerprints.co.uk

It’s the 82nd anniversary of one of the world’s unluckiest ships, USS William D Porter, dropping a depth charge by accident, almost giving away, in U-boat-infested waters, the location of a convoy carrying President Roosevelt. Mind you, the following day, they accidentally fired a torpedo at him...

Watching The Lair of the White Worm. Nothing makes the smallest amount of sense, the phallic symbols are hilariously obvious, and only Amanda Donohoe seems to know what film she’s in. Glorious

So, happy 48th anniversary of That Lovely Diary Entry From Michael Palin

Tried this on The World’s Most Indifferent Cat yesterday. Guess what?

Happy Fenton Day to all who celebrate. Jesus Christ, fourteen years. youtu.be/3GRSbr0EYYU

I feel seen

Roses are red Quite black, the raven

Nov 12th - The Hill Valley clock tower was struck by lightning, George decked Biff and saved Lorraine, Marty travelled Back to the Future. 📽️📅 Back to the Future (1985)

I favour ‘Arkell vs. Pressdram (1971)’ myself, but this is good

Blimey, I didn’t know he’d been tracked down, or that he’s 15!

It’s 12 November, so it’s time to mark the 55th anniversary of the exploding whale of Oregon, an attempt to clear a cetacean carcass from a beach which prompted one reporter to say “The blast blasted blubber beyond all believable bounds”

Extraordinary that children in the world’s largest economy are taught to read with a method that doesn’t work - is actively counterproductive, in fact

Just got round to reading this, by @raynewman.bsky.social. Lovely eerie/absurd stuff

Just been reminded of the existence of the Bitch I’m Fabulous Mantis. Morning all

Bond getting beaten up by a Goon? I mean, it seems unlikely. Grytpype-Thynne wouldn’t get his hands dirty, and I’m not sure Jim Moriarty’s up to it

Roses are red Kites are for flying

RIP Tatsuya Nakadai Incredible career. I guarantee that you will not guess what happens at the end of this epic stare down. Preposterously brilliant. youtu.be/UkkF6Zz67TE?...

For Armistice Day, here's a letter my great uncle wrote to his old school in 1914 about the Christmas truce

The Joyce Carol Oates approach is more sophisticated, yes, but it’s important to remind you that (while we should ideally avoid discussing him at all) when the subject has to be addressed, we should always refer to him as ‘noted dogfucker Elon Musk’ in the hope that he eventually hears about it

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