Anne Billson

This trend for prioritising the demands of fiction over the truthful representation of real people and their lives is something that I think is a real issue - I wrote a whole thread about this in regards to the Ed Gein series on Netflix
bsky.app/profile/scsh...

Abertoir in 2026: an update - Abertoir Team Abertoir’s been taking a breather after our massive 20th anniversary edition and we’ve made a decision: we’re taking it down a notch for 2026. We’re

Team Abertoir’s been taking a breather after our massive 20th edition and we’ve made a decision: we’re taking it down a notch for 2026. There won’t be a big 5-day festival in 2026, but we’re certainly not going to be dormant – far from it!

Read the full details: abertoir.co.uk/news/abertoi...

I had, in fact, seen it, though agree it's not technically a remake of the first one. But the wording is ambiguous, so a marginal call... OTOH wouldn't have made much difference to my lamentable score.

Too right! (Not that a quiz equivalent of VAR would have made much difference to my embarrassingly pathetic score)

The Movie Quiz: Who was the first Irish woman to win an acting Oscar? Plus: Which of these stars has worked with the most female directors?

It's the International Women's Day Movie Quiz. (We have an ongoing Steward's Inquiry on question two by the way). www.irishtimes.com/culture/film...

‘The camera is my weapon of choice’: Gordon Parks’ era-defining shots of segregation – and those who defied it The visionary photographer captured the ugliness of racism in America, as well as the strength and dignity of those who opposed it – from cleaners in the corridors of power to Martin Luther King Jr pr...

A great photographer (incidentally, director of the game-changing 1971 Blaxploitation film SHAFT as well); if I were in London I would visit this expo for sure.

Casting call! Looking for a woman voice actor, 50+ who is versatile and a vocal chameleon / can play many different bit parts in an audio comedy.

We’re recording in London on 13th & 14th April. This is a paid opportunity. Actor does not need to be autistic!

1/

Japanese wood block print of a cream coloured cat, with a red scarf round its neck, staring out intently at the viewer from a black background. It is impossible to tell what the cat is thinking. Nothing good, probably. Early 1920s.

Used to think the best bit of writing was editing, after you finally had something written. Now I think it might be staring into space, with a coffee in a cafe, looking up random facts, and calling it coming up with ideas...

#whatsynopses?

ooh I think I like this. Might be my purchase of the week.

oh yeah, formal/informal - I got confused. Then again I'm the person who invariably used terrible French slang when talking to my bank manager (something one no longer does these days since they hate it when you try to make physical appointments)

Excuse my long silence, I did not forget you, be sure of that.

Surely vagin is fairly formal? (I can't believe we're having this conversation!) On a similar note, just prior to a visit to my Parisian gynaecologist a girlfriend issued me with a stern warning I should say "relations sexuelles" and not "baiser". (Good advice; I would have said "baiser" for sure.)

Imagine how good he’d be with a nice wet piano.

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Americans do this all the time with food products. One example: www.petitebitesco.com

Also, in French it's LA bite and LE vagin! smh

LOL I can't think why that never struck me before!

Oh that’s brilliant. Properly hooting with laughter over here.
You should have heard the hilarity when I told the kids about Sunak’s “Eat out to help out” scheme.

Unconfined hilarity in a French bar when I got bitten by a mosquito and produced my After Bite pen.

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When the marketing guy dropped French at the first opportunity but still thinks it sounds cute…

aaagh.

Just don't go out in bare feet and step in it.

I really hope the sound I can hear outside my bedroom door isn’t a vomiting cat. If I don’t get up and look, it didn’t happen, right?

I can only quote the great Annie Dillard and her magnificent "Pilgrim At Tinker Creek: "Fish gotta swim. Birds gotta fly. And insects, it seems, gotta do one horrible thing after another."

3/3 Tower of the Westerkerk by Hendrick de Keyser, painted by Jan van der Heyden. Centuries later, Anne Frank listened to its bells from her hiding place nextdoor.

Ian is staying at my sister-in-law's with Sandy who has badly bruised his thigh muscle in a collision with his uncle.

Stunning view of the Westerkerk by Jan van der Heyden. Wish I were there right now! Today is his day.

Cronenberg's THE FLY is great, but Kurt Neumann's 1958 film is much better than you might expect. Different, but in its own way just as horrific. Also, a sad fate for Dandelo the white cat - though not nearly as ghastly as in George Langelaan's original story. See my book CATS ON FILM for details!

Two hands hold up a cat, looking straight into the camera, with a shawl wrapped over its head and a peculiar toothy grin on its face. caption" "It's dangerous to go alone. Take babushka with you."

oh my dear sweet lord, Donny Convict just dragged Little Miss Hair Extensions out back to the gravel pit. ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

folks, please read my in-depth analysis of the firing of Kristi Noem. many people are saying it's a post like no one thought possible. it may be my greatest post ever. link is here: bit.ly/4cOlsnV

Dam in Amsterdam with focus on the glorious new Town Hall, practically glowing in the sunlight. Painted in 1668 by Jan van der Heyden, born OTD 1637.