Cause of autism? #autism #tylenol

Well, if you let one old, incoherent Russian asset address the UN, you have to let them all do it

“Your wife would not let me stay in the office because of a ‘meeting’, whatever that is, and here am I, clearly only moments from death, and you tell me teatime is in five minutes? I look upon the face of evil, sir. Pure evil”

Well, if it’s 23 September... YES, THAT’S RIGHT! It’s the 71st anniversary of the hunt for the Gorbals Vampire, in which hundreds of children aged from four to 14, armed with dogs, knives and sharpened sticks went looking for an urban myth

In weird historical anniversaries today, it’s the 50th anniversary of this strange, dark thing, but I haven’t read the book yet, and this is a pretty good summary. (Instead, watch this space for the Gorbals Vampire of 1954 – but I need another cup of tea first...)

Bloody hell. I’ve finally become the sort of person who emails the BBC to complain. In my defence, it took 55 years, and they drove me to it because this Tylenol bullshit may be an attack on women and science, but it shouldn’t be *leading* UK bulletins (It’s [email protected], by the way), or

I read this at lunchtime. Fascinating

Alas! It is the 427th anniversary of the demise of (admittedly quarrelsome) actor Gabriel Spenser at the hands of playwright Ben Jonson, armed “with a certain sword of iron and steel called a Rapiour of the price 3s.” in a duel. And Jonson got away with it because he knew some Latin

I can still remember the expression on Lionel Blair's face as he leant across the desk to receive Two Gentlemen of Verona

Thing 4 here, a short video about printing and binding a book, is worth the price of admission on its own (and, as an added bonus, there is, in fact, no price of admission)

What I’m wearing to the Rapture

Is it Noel Fitzpatrick’s capacity for self-reflection?

Alas! It is the 427th anniversary of the demise of (admittedly quarrelsome) actor Gabriel Spenser at the hands of playwright Ben Jonson, armed “with a certain sword of iron and steel called a Rapiour of the price 3s.” in a duel. And Jonson got away with it because he knew some Latin

Reading Mary S Lovell’s The Riviera Set, and learning about people I need to research further. Princess Edmond de Polignac, for starters

“You know I don’t like the hoover. Bastard”

Friends fear he’s air-drumming to Queen b-sides again

It’s the 110th anniversary today of the last time Stonehenge was sold by one private owner to another. Wealthy local barrister Cecil Chubb went along to a property sale at the Palace Theatre in Salisbury on 21 September 1915 and bought the monument on impulse for £6,600

Here, have this gentle and peaceful photograph for your Sunday morning…

Roses are big But their stems are quite narrow

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wale... They don’t write headlines like this anymore

I’ve just learned that I know someone who’s sent a child to university with one of these

Anyhow I saw the best garden hedge in London today A+++ no regrets

Two uses of iconic’ already, and not 45 minutes in. This would be a dangerous drinking game #Strictly

Ah, 20th September: 111th anniversary of the birth of Kenneth More: beloved, solid, respectable, silver-screen embodiment of British heroism – whose first job in showbusiness was stopping people wanking in a nudie theatre

“Because your wife is not here, I have only had one lunch. This ‘hour until teatime’ business is a denial of my civil rights”

Not much of a marcher, and not an especially political poster, but the anti-immigration bellends came to town today, and you have to draw a line somewhere. We outnumbered them about three to one, we think

Suddenly a lot clearer why he was so keen to SAVE the BADGERS

I used to work on this newspaper and while I was there the editor decided he didn’t like the “v” and “g” of the word Evening in the logo so had them swapped for ones that don’t match and I’m delighted that they are still there looking too thin and too fat respectively, more than 25 years later.

Ah, 20th September: 111th anniversary of the birth of Kenneth More: beloved, solid, respectable, silver-screen embodiment of British heroism – whose first job in showbusiness was stopping people wanking in a nudie theatre

Have been waiting for someone to write this piece. This is such a weird and sinister development.

If we’re doing grotesque university stories, I have (obviously) never been able to erase the memory of the man who had presumably just discovered the adhesive properties of hair follicles and created a frieze of pubes around the wall of one of the communal toilet cubicles

Roses are red Quite silver, the birch

You know, I think I can see a way around this

I’d forgotten it was time to trot out my friend’s Keith Allen story

A happy International Talk Like A Pirate Day to Lt. Cmd Max Horton, who might not have talked like a pirate but damn well flew a Jolly Roger like one.

One thing I forgot to include in this was a photo of me dressed as a pirate. This one was taken a few years ago now, mind

Because people are idiots?

Magnificently niche reference in here

It’s International Talk Like a Pirate Day, so here are some things you didn’t* know about pirates (*unless you already did), and which I didn’t know until I read my niece’s Masters dissertation a while back. Firstly – remarkably – pirate ships were democracies with a pretty flat management structure

Roses are red Green and spiky is gorse

Two episodes (of three) into this, and it’s extraordinary stuff. Goes deep into the human stories, but still covers the political and commercial side. Really well made

Might tell Sentiment Bot to fuck off, just to feel something

Because this account is basically a public service, I have searched ‘heron poo’, so we can all have a sense of what this marvellous spectacle of nature looks like

As much use as a one-legged man at an arse-kicking party

If you enjoyed the story the other day about flying saucers, you may like to know that 59 years ago today, the ringleader of the UFO stunt marked Rag week by unveiling ‘Rodnee’ the Robot

“When I develop opposable thumbs and can hide the dish which proves I’ve already had a snack, I shall be invincible”

It’s the 130th anniversary today of the first chiropractic ‘treatment’, in which Daniel David Palmer (previously a practitioner of “magnetic healing”) treated janitor Harvey Lillard’s deafness by fiddling about with his spine a bit to effect a miraculous cure

Fran L v good last night. Too many good bits to misquote badly but one stands out. On isolated rural gun nuts. "I need guns to protect myself." "From who? Who's coming for you? Nobody knows you're here."

The silencing of dissenting voices in their countries of origin was surely the reason millions of people fled to America in the first place

Today is the 846th anniversary of the death of Hildegard of Bingen: saint, abbess, composer, writer, visionary, but best known of course for once seeing the Gruffalo appearing from the Bride of Christ’s, um...