Having a dog involves many poo-related humiliations

In case anyone is still concerned about my appalling mistreatment of the tiny defenceless baby, she has now been fed. When we have salmon later, she will have no recollection of this, of course

“You’re watching ‘a bit of Star Wars while the shepherd’s pie base simmers’? While I waste away? And it’s the version where Greedo shoots first? You disgust me”

It's Saturday - you could, it's true, go outside, but then you run the risk of having your day ruined by seeing terrible street 'art' like this, whereas if you just stay in and click this link you will instead enter a MAGICAL PORTAL OF WEBBY DELIGHTS. A simple choice: webcurios.co.uk/webcurios-07...

This is good www.nature.com/articles/d41...

To say he has made unforced errors as PM would be putting it mildly, and to suggest that things have gone swimmingly since July 2024 would be... well, inaccurate, let's say, but this is one thing I can wholeheartedly approve of (or rather: of which I can wholeheartedly approve)

Today is the 102nd anniversary of the Beer Hall Putsch, when Hitler made his first attempt to seize power in Germany – and therefore also the 86th anniversary of someone trying but sadly failing to assassinate him

Also "Life Story" is currently on the iPlayer so go and watch it.

If you’re reading about James Watson, and trying to find out if it’s true that he and Francis Crick stole Rosalind Franklin’s work, denying her a Nobel Prize, I can help. It’s... complicated

“I have deigned to allow you to sit on my sofa. I did not agree to have my photograph taken”

In slightly unpleasant news from history today, it’s the 327th anniversary of the first time entrapment was used to secure a conviction for homosexuality: Captain Edward Rigby of the Royal Navy’s assignation with William Minton was a set-up – but Rigby had the last laugh...

Got so excited talking about wombats yesterday, I missed the 20th anniversary of the first showing of this advert. Wombats are more culturally significant, of course, but even so...

Rejigging my settings after that post about ‘rude’ accounts, and discovering once again that I’ve led a very sheltered life

This, from the last chapter, is rather good - on different definitions of liberty

I am going to break one of this account’s cardinal rules, which is not to have political posts on here, especially not about *them*. But I was intrigued by the erotic novel at the centre of the story and went to see if it was any good. (Spoiler: Ha ha ha ha haaaargh)

Watching the penultimate Sherlock Holmes, and Harry Landis has turned up as a jeweller whose place gets done over. Bloody punk rockers

It’s 6 November, and you know what that means, don’t you? YES, THAT’S RIGHT. It’s the 156th anniversary of the death of Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s pet wombat

Do you mind? This is a respectable neighbourhood

You’re all making a big deal out of this, but an elderly man in cognitive decline lives there, and needs this for orientation

If you aren't seeing skeets from some of your fave people, they might have been labeled "Rude" by bsky mods. Idk what they are thinking, I don't need a mommy to tell me who to be buddies with. Anyway, go into Settings > moderation > bluesky moderation (advanced) and turn Rude off.

Having now binged all of this (again), I was struck this time by how well cast the kid was. Absolutely believable as a young Joanne Whalley, and a really natural performance, too. A minor detail, but the whole show is made of them

Today is the 79th anniversary of a perfectly ordinary party at the Officers’ Club of the Army War College in Washington, D.C., to mark the disbanding of the task force that organised atomic bomb tests in the Pacific, at which the attendees enjoyed a perfectly ordinary cake

“Yes, I have had a snack. What you fail to appreciate is that that is not the point I was making”

Fifth anniversary of this tweet…

I know many of you will already have done something to help the people of Jamaica, but if you felt like helping a specific family, this is the GoFundMe set up by my son’s girlfriend for her relatives, who find themselves in dire straits. Every bit helps, shares appreciated. gofund.me/9b5b74984

Happy 10th anniversary to this magnificent take, brought to you by the members of the "James I? Never heard of him, mate" society.

Morning

Inspired by The Jase's video, I realised that the Mr Blobby song also works quite well with the John Lewis advert. But then it took a dark turn...

Today, I, a gnarly old thing, have been outside to look at gnarly old things

In important news from history today, it is (although I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you) the joyful 10th birthday of this unimprovable tweet

Now that Roisin Agnew's doc "The Ban" is up on The New Yorker's website, here's a piece I wrote about it, and the broadcasting ban itself, on the 30th anniversary of its lifting last year, and which involved me quizzing Chris Morris about *that* sketch. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024...

Been reading my new @thefence.bsky.social magazine. Very much enjoyed this sentence in Yoel Noorali’s ‘The Miracle of Childbirth’ about visiting a fertility clinic

Hahaha no

In this context, the phrase “Sotheby’s will be accepting crypto” is... well, not wildly surprising, I have to say

Well, I’d like to tell you in depth about the 35th anniversary of the dedication of Kryptos, the coded artwork at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, but I can’t. Not because it’s top secret. It isn’t, really. Although the solution to its puzzle is (or possibly was)...

Monday

“No, I shall not look at the camera for you. I am rather too busy being fabulous”

View of Delft, 1661. Sunlight splashes through soft clouds onto weathered hardness of brick & stone. Breathtaking. Vermeer, born OTD 1632.

It’s the 65th anniversary of Penguin Books’ victory in the Lady Chatterley obscenity trial, so – because I’m going to go off on a massive tangent later – let’s get the obvious bit out of the way first: yes, the prosecution’s not brilliantly judged opening remarks

Dear god, that’s unsettling

If you, too, first saw this as a teenager, I regret to have to inform you that they are making it available again to mark its imminent 40th anniversary

Important update

Well, if it’s 1 November, it must be 269 years since Casanova made good his escape from ‘The Leads’ – the prison under the roof of the Doge’s palace in Venice where he’d been shoved for “grave faults … public outrages against the holy religion”, aka shagging

Thirty pages in. Absolutely gripped, and highly entertained. Remarkable stuff so far, and I can’t imagine it getting less interesting as it goes on

Well, if it’s 1 November, it must be 269 years since Casanova made good his escape from ‘The Leads’ – the prison under the roof of the Doge’s palace in Venice where he’d been shoved for “grave faults … public outrages against the holy religion”, aka shagging

🔆 Sending warmth and light to you all. One for All Hallows' Day - not taken today, but still worth posting. My favourite photo I've taken of York Minster at first light - it seems to magically exude warmth and light - after the darkness recedes and night turns into day...

She Who Is Not Called Mrs Coates points out that an ailing 79-year-old has installed a hell of a slippery floor here…

HE’S A BIG FAN OF DOGMA