Stuart Houghton

I've never read Portnoy's Complaint. Is it all this weird?

I dunno you know. People might say they think that, but a lot of what people think of as Fantasy is based on post-Tolkien pastiche

assuming Flash Gordon even *is* well known now. I think my kids have heard of him but without much context

Spielberg & Lucas kept the movie serial world going beyond its sell-by date thanks to Raiders and Star Wars, which started life as a Flash Gordon adaptation. The Flash Gordon film then came about because of the success of SW. Without that I wonder if Gordon would still be well known?

Leiber's influence is all over the low fantasy settings you find in D&D for example. 'Rogue' being a thing you might try to be in a game is straight out of his work. Similarly Jack Vance isn't read much nowadays but a thousand 'magic systems' owe him a debt

I suppose once 'Big Balls' was attacked in that incident that definitely happened, all of this became inevitable

rhubarb crumble with shortbread crumb, with a brûlée custard topping

I meant to to post this the other day. The people of Sheringham are living in 3025 and have access to TAKEAWAY CRUMBLE at the CRUMBLE CRIB. This is a rhubarb crumble with shortbread crumb, with a brûlée custard topping. It was very good indeed.

Hiya Wadey. Would you consider adding alt text to the WAFR posts? Nice from an accessibility perspective but also useful for those record covers that don't have an obvious band name/title on. Cheers!

I really wish What A Fucking Record would use alt text.

The minimum qualifications for joining the MET need looking at…

A lot of the SF 'canon' is 70-90 years old now. Whose future are they set in? The 1960s saw an amazing boom in progressive and transgressive SF, but social and sexual mores age like fine milk. A lot is still worth reading but there is SO MUCH really good stuff written in your kids' lifetimes

Christ, that's awful. I'm so sorry for your loss and that compounding thoughtlessness

Wow. Nael age 6 parody content really does hashtag numbers

The wife
She destroyed Arthur's Seat
Yes
YES
The wife is out

The wife
She destroyed Arthur's Seat
Yes
YES
The wife is out

Temptation Inside Of My Cart

Yeah I heard a BBC podcast talking about her doing a thing where she gets in a cage and lets random people do"whatever they want" to her and if she would only do it in the Tate instead of a grubby Airbnb she could be in line for the Turner prize

Ta! I'm doing this year too... bsky.app/profile/stua...

The lack of actual scares is true of Perkins's follow-up, THE MONKEY, too. It's full of gross-out kills and set pieces but no tension, presumably intentionally

I liked it a lot. It's flawed but I liked the subtle background imagery and everyone in it was great. bsky.app/profile/stua...

Labour members need to hold their nerve. There is no way arresting nans on terror offences won't be a vote winner in 2029

To think I wasted all that time studying the blade

Yeah mine is also into some actually good hip hop and his older brother digs Metallica

My kids will cue up (to me) weirdly uncool music - Barry Manilow, John Denver - which I guess is quite healthy in a "no such thing as a guilty pleasure" sense. But still :-/

Or they could invent 15 more types of guy and then pick them off one by one, like an elite sniper

Gravestone inscribed: Alistair Stephen Fabian Mitchell. 13-6-1957, 10-2-2019. Barrister of the Middle Temple. My brain, socialist. My heart, anarchist. My eyes, pacifist. My blood, revolutionary. Around the edge, the legend: The only man in British legal history to be convicted of biting a policeman with someone else’s teeth.

A tombstone in Bridgnorth, Shropshire, photographed by Andy Darby.

Note the border inscription.

If BBC Good Food had tried this the Italian government would be sending in special forces