Every AI commercial is like "Hey AI, what goes good on a sandwich?" and then the AI is like "Have you considered... cheese?" And then the narrator is like: THE FUTURE IS HERE.

Just worked hard and enjoyably on a submission. Which means I’m invested, dammit.

Apr 18, 1593: Venus and Adonis is entered into the Stationer's Register in London. #OTD #Shakespeare bit.ly/38AemAm

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Last time it was getting dressed in the dark. This time it’s cold showers. But it’s always something. Will have to have a word with Gordon Brittas.

A reminder that we did this. (And had to pay Mirror Group Newspapers for the copyright of the text, one of the finest rights payments I’ve ever approved.)

It is a sunny #SaturdayMorning here in our part of the world so I'm very thankful for that. As is my wont each week, here's our traditional start to the day & week-end: "Interior" by Brynhild Parker from 1930: it just seems to fit the moment! #BrynhildParker #EastLondonGroup

‘Simon Being Taken out to Sea for the First Time since His Father Drowned’, Skinningrove, North Yorkshire, 1983, photo by Chris Killip. Weekly ritual to prevent him becoming afraid of the sea, where the community earned its living.

Reading Graham McCann's top-notch biography of "Dad's Army". Dark Satanic Mills on casting Sergeant Wilson - David Croft's already set on Robert Dorning, but Michael has other ideas : "You *must* have John Le Mesurier! He *suffers* so well!" And Michael's right, he does.

I absolutely loath them.

Talking shop again: No. 10 scandals are damaging when the duck isn’t so much lame as running on fumes. On 1 May the Renter’s Reform Act properly kicks in. Irrespective of the policy merits, we have virtually no media coverage of something which fundamentally transforms renting in England.

Shakespeare's Birthday Lecture: "Shakespeare and Immigration" with Dr. Emma Smith #drama #theatre #politics #history www.folger.edu/whats-on/sha...

Is Bluesky stuttering for everyone?

Let’s face it, it’s what we all deserve.

Am in the most frustrating WhatsApp group ever. There are several conversations happening simultaneously, all involving times and dates, and no one now knows what anyone is responding to.

Well, that only makes Bluesky more alluring, doesn’t it?

OpenAI: We’re burning money like the Joker. A miracle needs to happen for us to turn a profit Microsoft: Please please use our AI systems, we’re teetering on the edge here Anthropic: I wonder what’ll kill us first: lawsuits, regulations or model collapse Media and universities: AI is here to stay

Spotted this on my walk this morning. Any takers? Since it’s in Chelsea they’re probably selling it as living accommodation.

Happy birthday to Dave Edmunds

Glad to hear you're shagging again.

Bloody hell, the awful AI images mocking that other awful AI image. Just stop it.

The small satisfaction of catching a typo before anyone reacts to a post.

Me, in The Guardian, wanging on about a lizard.

Howled at this.

Speaking untruth for power.

I’ve long said if time travel were a thing I’d go back in time to try convince the Wampanoag to not let those ships land. It won’t keep white people from coming, I’d say, but it’ll keep THOSE white people from coming.

Beginning to think the English made a mistake when they let that ship full of religious maniacs cross the Atlantic in 1620.

Lovely bright December morning.

Why is @squarewindowpod.bsky.social trending at no 1 in TV review podcasts.. Well I think a certain Graham Garden is why...

Drop your crime fighting Catholics

Drop your crime-fighting Catholics.

I think you can argue that Sherlock Holmes is Catholic, by the way.

Drop your crime fighting Catholics.

Drop your crime fighting Catholics.

Island where the Great Crested Grebes are nesting. Just heard my first Willow Warbler of the year. That’s a great sound, by the way.

I’d suggest this was sent to the PM (it features a British PM as a main character) but I don’t believe for a moment that he reads fiction.

The episode of @haveyouseen.us with me talking about BBC ghost stories for Christmas is now unlocked for anyone to access. I haven't listened to it, obviously – hell is an eternity listening to yourself on podcasts – but you definitely should. It's in all the usual places. pca.st/episode/024e...

We arn't hungary yet.

Perhaps now is a good time to share the @financialtimes.com investigative series on Viktor Orban. To start with here’s the one we sent a reporter up in a plane for … (300 free clicks) as.ft.com/r/8cd54659-d...

incredible how low the bar has gotten, that it feels like a genuine ray of light when a terrible far right politician doesn't pretend he won an election he lost, isn't it

Trump, Vance, Putin, Netanyahu, Weidel, Farage — your boy took a hell of a beating. www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c2...

Today when I turned up to the BBC for my interview, Wes Streeting was being interviewed by the main door making it tricky to get in. It reminded me of MJ earlier in the week

Morning Womble! It's been a while. Hope you're well. Struggling with reading lately, but this edition of Iris Murdoch's The Sandcastle arrived yesterday and I might dive in :)

Not seen this, but there’s enough about it in Roger Lewis’s Burton &Taylor biography to pique the interest.

People seem not to like Crime 101 very much. I absolutely loved it. Five stars from me and I’ll meet you behind the bike sheds after school if you disagree boxd.it/dVAWSf

Coming out of agnostic retirement to rejoin the Counter-Reformation on the side of the papists is not how I expected my fifties to go.

This hasn’t been up since Unbound bit the dust, but I fully intend posting it somewhere when THE CONTINUITY GIRL is republished. I met up with Adrian a year or so later and he was keen to know what I’d tackle next. I had half an idea about a Yeti novel, set in the 50’s.

Oh, very sad to hear of the death of Angela Pleasance, an unforgettable presence in From Beyond the Grave and Symptoms. #rip