Rob Spence

Looks great, and I will try to join in later in the year. I think you've put the Athill cover up instead of the Taylor on the webpage.

Why do US politicians talking about bombing people refer to them as "kinetic strikes"? I mean, any strike is kinetic, because kinetic means it moves. Is it to make it sound like something from a video game rather than something that kills human beings?

Indeed. This cropped up on my feed earlier today, and caused a double take.

Fabrice Conchon, though! Could by a minor Thomas Pynchon character.

I assumed that Venomous Lumpsucker was a jokey name for a Martin Amis novel that I couldn't identify. Then I looked it up, and it's real!

Is that his breakup album? "Sara" was on the subsequent album.

Good to know. We are going next week.

YouTube video by King's Singers - Topic Fine Knacks for Ladies

I associate it with this: youtu.be/eKhOjIUHV6Y?...

Yes, and I instinctively read it as "knicknackatories." I wonder when the initial k came in?

"Nicknackatories" - love that idea!

Freebies, I suppose, yes. I can't recall the last time I saw one of those little street corner stands though. Decades ago.

They thought there'd still be guys on street corners selling newspapers in 2005...

At least one early reviewer assumed the author was female and praised her for her hard headed satirical tone.

YouTube video by rud1e The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain - "Wuthering Heights"

Like this? youtu.be/FF0VaBxb27w?...

Of course, no criticism intended. Just think it's ironic that the word is mostly used in a positive rather than a pejorative sense.

Don't think he was the first to use the term "meritocracy." And his book about it is a vision of a dystopian future society.

Compass, by Mathias Énard. Mesmerising.

Comedy: Twelfth Night
Tragedy: King Lear
Problem play: Measure for Measure

But...but... he's Highly Respected. I mean, initial caps.

Ah, yes, very likely.

Just Mars was a male god and Venus a female goddess. It's still odd, though.

Learner driver arrested for drug driving during test in St Helens The 26-year-old was stopped by officers after they spotted a defective brake light.

This is bizarre. What was the examiner thinking? How could they even allow the test to start?
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Replies are off, so can't reply directly, @matthewcobb.bsky.social but I hope you get a response. He's my MP too, and took six weeks to send me a boilerplate bland restatement of the govt's position when I wrote to him about aping Reform's immigration policy.

Some kind of sourpuss on the tech team.

I didn't realise it was measles (nobody told me when I was 2!) until at a routine check up in my sixties the optician started by saying "you must have had measles very young." A common outcome, apparently.

Really, it was fine. Got out of school on a regular basis. And I was able to take off the specs except for reading when I was 17. Not happy when one eye started wandering again when I was 30, hence the third op.

I developed a squint in both eyes as a result of measles aged 2. Cue weekly appointments at the eye hospital for 10 years, three operations, and 68 years of wearing specs.

Yes, fair enough. And who knows how much extra you'd have to pay for a delivery, given the current cost of a first class stamp?

Didn't there used to be something called Royal Mail, which, for a fee, would deliver items to your door? I'm sure I remember that.

Someone should definitely issue Heart of Darkness with this image.