Ed Crooks

Last post I promise: And that suggests that in one and half thousand years time a company like Disney might make an animated light fantasy very loosely based on the story of Jesus . . .

So someone in 150 AD who said they believed in Hercules's myths would have got no more than a “huh, okay then” too. We're at that stage I guess!

Just looked this up: the cult of Hercules was still widespread and active into the early Christian era, and early Christian theologian Clement of Alexandria offered historical dates for Hercules believing him as real person. It wasn't until 4th to 6th centuries CE that those cults totally died out.

It must have taken a while for belief in Greek and Roman deities to go from "fact" to "myth." In terms of time, we are less than 150 years since the historical veracity of the Bible was seriously questioned by many in western countries. That's no time at all compared with ancient Greece.

I've been following the progress of this foal called Rocky who was born with three legs! I've NEVER seen this before, a horse with three legs isn't like dogs or cats with a missing limb, it's basically unheard of. But he's 7 months old and the vet says he's doing great. I love the way he eats grass.

Dare I ask, what did the smell of no. 9 "????" turn out to be?

Charlie Kirk was a white supremacist who pushed the racist Great Replacement Theory. Kirk was vociferously anti-LGBTQ. Kirk's final words were to besmirch Black people.

Stop this revisionism. People who say bad things don't deserve to be murdered, but they also don't deserve to be praised either.

and the mix of melodrama, camp, and some truly odd choices (a dance sequence that looks like Wuthering Heights–era Kate Bush performing that scene from Flashdance spliced with a montage of truly gagworthy face slapping) produces sometimes riveting entertainment.

The great Anupam Kher steals every scene he’s in. The score is lovely, flecked with classical Indian and Rajasthani folk music,

Coupled with some gorgeous evocations of Rajput paintings, the exotic locations here include the Rajasthan desert, a field in Derbyshire, Alton Towers, and what looks like the travel tavern Alan Partridge lived in next to a dual carriageway.

Having said that, it feels old-fashioned and slow compared with the films Yash and Aditya Chopra and Karan Johar would make with Shah Rukh Kahn starting later in the same decade.

What I’ve been watching, no. 2: Lamhe, dir. Yash Chopra, 1991, India. A classic Yash Chopra romantic Bollywood epic of boy meets girl, boys loses girl, boy falls for girl’s identical daughter, made shortly after Chopra hit on his hit formula of romance, exotic locations, NRI subplots, and wealth.

Kimmo Pohjonen's experimental score is also superb.

Stylistically, the film bears the influence of Tarkovsky and Parajanov (and Sofiko Chiaureli is among the cast, adding to the Parajanov connections), but it has a style and breathtaking beauty all of its own, making it heartbreaking that Saakyan died only a few years later, aged 37.

What I’ve been watching, no. 1: Mayak, dir. Mariya Saakyan, 2006, Armenia/Russia. Mariya Saakyan’s extraordinary debut film about women’s lives in a war zone, depicting the Nogorno-Karabakh conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

One minute of my goat Bertie eating hazel leaves then trying to eat my phone, with one of the pair of kestrels that frequent the garden providing accompaniment.

Hope you start feeling better soon!

When to use NHS 111 online or call 111 Find out when to get help from NHS 111, including how to use 111 and what problems 111 can help with.

If you're not sure what action to take, you could try contacting NHS 111, who can advise whether you need to go to A&E or may be able to help with getting an appointment with a GP www.nhs.uk/nhs-services...

An Appeal to M&S over Transphobia

Another open letter.

This time to M&S.

I don’t have any nostalgic desire to protect this brand. Other undies are available.

And back in the 70s my local store had fuzzy, mustard yellow pillars that gave me static shocks every time I went near them.

Anyone else?

“The ‘grown women’ of Ireland remember very well what erasure and control and lack of bodily autonomy feel like and it’s for this very reason that we stand so passionately with the trans community today”

#TransRightsAreHumanRights @independent.ie

It was when JK Rowling said that the Cass Review was a peer review itself and that's why it didn't need to be peer reviewed I realised she's an idiot.

Anyway, here's a peer review of Cass.

Guess what it finds?

The thief has been found! His name is Guðmundur Pedro and Nettó gave him a bag full of dried fish.

Money that JKR earns from Harry Potter is used to fund legal actions designed to reduce trans women’s rights, e.g. in the workplace.
The harms from this will affect all trans communities.
Personally, I will do what I can to not line her purse further.

Reform UK moving 'at speed' to ban rainbow flags in council buildings However, Union Jack and St George's flags will be allowed to fly atop council buildings, as per the new rules

It doesn't end with trans people; it never did. www.attitude.co.uk/news/reform-...

The best way I can articulate how I know trans women are women is….whenever I’ve met a trans woman I’d have to work extremely hard to see them as anything other than a woman, ya know? I’ve seen GCs call women “HE!!!” and just thought “you’ve had to try SO hard to do that to her”.

Photo of a man from the 1920’s wearing boots and carrying a block of ice with a metal hook(?) looking very cool with cigarettes in his hat and a cigarette hanging from his lip- he’s got obvious swagger and possibly scoliosis

I just want the confidence of a 1920’s ice delivery man

FFS

More transphobia in the House of the Commons is imminent as PMQs gets underway.

Badenoch will attack Starmer for not being transphobic enough and he'll responsd by being transphobic to try and prove her wrong.

Kill a white millionaire, get the death penalty. Kill two black protesters, get invited to CPAC to be celebrated.