To the woman on the Northern Line between London Bridge & Camden around 5.15pm today carrying a tote bag saying "villain, I have done thy mother - William Shakespeare" - thank you. First laugh of a bad day which has been short of them.
Thinking of Sally Rooney, and the Herbert Park Hotel in Dublin, and this from Ulysses:
"Ireland, they say, has the honour of being the only country which never persecuted the jews. Do you know why? Because she never let them in."
The quote is from the appalling headmaster, Mr Deasy, giving a lecture to Stephen Dedalus, Joyce's portait of himself, again, as a young man. The other hero of the book is Leopold Bloom, a Jew
Here's a very good piece on the novel by Howard Jacobson, originally in the Radio Times, before you-know-what tabletmag.com/sections/arts-…
Nicholas Lezard retweeted
I don’t know any other band that could stand there wearing something so ridiculous and yet look the absolute business. It’s satin, day-glo, Edwardian military costumes! And yet, somehow, they still look cool as fuck.
The key takeaway from this report is not about mice having human brain cells but the phrase "brain-like tissue", which is what a lot of people have instead of actual brains bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c60m…
Fiat justitia et pereat mundus (let justice be done, though the world perish, motto of Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor back in the day)
Dorchester to sell Qatari sheikh’s car over unpaid £460,000 bill ft.trib.al/aUmvckq
Funny that, I always thought farage was a details guy bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0qx…
I'm not going to be snobby about accountants, they do things I could never do and every so often I have go grovelling to them. But I am not sure the path to accountancy leads from the gates of love
I gather it is @realjahwobble's birthday today. As his music has been delighting me since the first PiL single, and as I've met him and he is clearly a gent, I wish him the best and many more.
Two more letters than usual about me in this week's @NewStatesman . As for Mr Cunningham's point: touché
Behold, the greatest eclipse selfie I have seen yet. Taken inadvertently by my great friend D-, who often features in my @NewStatesman columns
I am so sorry to hear William Orbit has died. Everything he did turned to gold; he worked best with female singers, for some reason. I suppose because they made a sound that was nicer, and that he cared about sound the way mothers care about babies. RIP, and thanks for the music
My old adversary, Rod Liddle, has died. We were once on good terms, but this didn't last long. Still, he's gone too young, and I'm sorry for his widow and children. I'd rather our feud hadn't ended like this. A friend generated this AI overview, which tells part of the story.
I have been reading @vizcomic for over 40 years. This, from their latest issue, is one of the greatest pages they have ever done
I don't like using grok but in the light of recent events, and a certain commentator saying #clickgate was nonsense because inaudible to the umpires, I asked this #bbctms












