Dani Garavelli

I grew up with Alex Pretti The kind-hearted ICU nurse shot by ICE agents was my childhood best friend.

I wrote about my childhood friend Alexi Pretti. Please read it and share it and remember him as a human being. @theverge.com

Thanks, Bruce. Taking that as a compliment ;)

"The band added: 'It goes without saying we hope Malcolm Offord and his party are roundly defeated by people all over the UK'."

Cluster of freshly flowered snowdrops

A bank of snowdrops

Must have been tempting indeed

Thank you!

This is...wonderful. I did shudder several times though.

Thank you!

“Grey as granite, sere as winter leaves, they look as though they would crumble at your touch.”
This is great, by Dani Garavelli, on the mummies of Urbania.

I passed Urbino. It rose up like a great stone myth out of a blizzard. Next time I’ll visit properly.

Yes, that was fascinating, too. Pelvises sprouting like mushrooms round a tree. Never got round to writing about it, though.

La Chiesa Dei Morti “Have you ever seen anything like this?” our guide, Michele, asks, as he leads us into the crypt behind the altar of the Chiesa Dei Morti — Church of the Dead — in the town of Urbania in Le Marche.

"Taut leathery skin hangs like a tabard over the torsos of the best-preserved Urbania mummies, & loosely over the legs & arms like an ageing elephant’s." I visited the Chiesa dei Morti and wrote about death, life and suchlike over on substack. (it's free!) danigaravelli.substack.com/p/la-chiesa-...

Number of Scots still living in poverty is 'driving political disaffection' One in five Scots continue to live in poverty despite repeated SNP Government pledges on the issue.

Blunt warning from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation: one in five Scots live in poverty, frustration from which is driving "political disaffection"

Tents pitched indoors for warmth and makeshift radiators: Ukrainians are freezing to death | Janine di Giovanni As a war correspondent I’ve seen this strategy used before. Putin is weaponising the savage eastern European winter, says war correspondent Janine di Giovanni

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Edwin Morgan's poem 'Grendel', in which he voices the creature from Beowulf, has thrilling opening lines:

It is being nearly human
gives me this spectacular darkness.
The light does not know what to do with me.

'I visited Scotland's most unusual museum collection - and it blew my mind' Standing between two racks of whale bones in the National Museum Collection Centre in Granton, Professor Andrew Kitchener, Principal Curator of…

Just caught up with this excellent @teddyjamieson.bsky.social piece. "Standing here surrounded by the remains of whales big and small conjures up the same feeling; that sense that there are more things in heaven and earth than whatever was reported in the news this morning."

I don't disagree. Although the SNP's freedom on issues such as Gaza and Trump is down to there being no real consequences to stronger statements on international issues.

Yes, I guess that's how it may be interpreted although it was more just an attempt to prevent a leadership challenge, wasn't it?

Absolutely

Haha, that’s good. But I am so sad I couldn’t get through all the boring admin tasks if I didn’t give myself a metaphorical pat on the head by ticking them all off at the end.

Arguably Starmer is beginning to distance himself from Trump (made him backtrack on that terrible NATO soldiers in Afghanistan stuff) and he is better on Ukraine than he is on Gaza so that might help too?

It doesn’t preclude it, clearly, because that’s what’s happened. But there are people within the SNP who *know* the party needs time out of office to recharge etc.

Yes, I mean this column isn’t a big-up for Sarwar, it’s a quiet musing on our very limited options and a plea for him to raise his game

It does feel like it’s impossible for a UK party to make the case that it stands up for Scotland now; that despite all its flaws, the SNP is the only party that is seen as representing the country. But a healthy system depends on plurality, surely?

Yes, I get that. This isn’t a “this is what I think people should do” column, it’s a “oh man, what are we supposed to do i a no win situation?“ column.

* Macdonald...

'Frustrating to think events down south may help push exhausted SNP to victory' SO, we’re back in Scottish election campaign mode.

Some Holyrood election thoughts. Could Scottish Labour win back votes by standing up to Reform in a way Starmer hasn't & creating a more distinctively Scottish party? (takes in the Easdale brothers & the need for some, y'know, bold and practical policies). www.heraldscotland.com/politics/vie...

“I remember thinking with every fibre of my body, oh, this is what heaven is like.” Helen MacDonald on meeting a nightingale. Lovely Letter to My Younger Self by Jane Graham.

Was going to be my non alcoholic night-cap

Exactly!