Ann Pooley

One of our favourite films.

‘Can I get a sausage roll?’ and other Americanisms you should never hear in Greggs: the Stephen Collins cartoon There’s a hidden world beneath Greggs

I hate the word 'poop' more than I can express

www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

The Power of Poetry   with things falling apart and anarchy let loose,   it was only poetry, he found, which had any use,   so he reached for his copy   of The Complete Works of Yeats   and bludgeoned the President of the United States Brian Bilston

Here’s a short poem about the power of poetry to change the world.

Petition: By-elections to be called automatically when MPs defect to another party When an MP decides they want to defect to another party a by-election should be automatically triggered to allow the constituents the opportunity have their democratic right to agree or not with their...

🚨By-elections to be called automatically when MPs defect to another party - lets get this to the 100,000 signatures needed

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/73...

Fucking love Harriet. #thetraitorsuk

Comic strip script: Scene is a SUPERMARKET, a MAN is walking past a display of CREME EGGS with his trolley. 1 MAN: Tut 2 CREME EGG [talking to him from the shelf]: Excuse me - did you just tut at us? 3 MAN: W-what? CREME EGG: Tutting because you’ve seen ‘Easter eggs’ on January 11th, is it? 4 MAN: What? Well, y-yes, I - CREME EGG: Listen, Tut boy 5 CREME EGG: We are not Easter eggs. We are Creme Eggs. 6 CREME EGG: We are the shock troops of seasonal capitalism. Eldritch simulacra of rebirth. Fondant mockery of life. 7 CREME EGG: Not for us the grand safety of a cardboard box. Oh no. They put us out here first, in our little foil uniforms, every January, to face the wrath of the nation. 8 CREME EGG: And what you gonna do about it? Tut? Snark about us on social media? 9 CREME EGG: Maybe you’ll write a little column in the Telegraph titled “It Is Sad That The Easter Eggs Are Out Already”. 10 CREME EGG: You tut because you know that unlike you, we will return, every January… …forever. 11 CREME EGG: The eternal rebirth of mammon! The endless - MAN: Oh go on then [He puts one of the Creme Eggs in his trolley] 12 CREME EGG: HA HA YOU WORM

File under the ever-growing subgenre of my work which I’m calling ‘Inanimate Object Has A Massive Go At A Person For No Reason’

How a ferocious 19th-century hurricane helped Irish people get their British pension The devastating 1839 hurricane that hit the island of Ireland had unexpected benefits for some decades later.

“I was able to eat a potato out of my hand on the ‘Night of the Big Wind’.”

How did sharing memories of a devastating 19th-century hurricane help Irish people get their pension?

Our social historian, Dr Robyn Atcheson, joins @uk.theconversation.com to explain more ➡️ ow.ly/Vqxa50XSPL1

OF THE EMPIRE We will be known as a culture that feared death and adored power, that tried to vanquish insecurity for the few and cared little for the penury of the many. We will be known as a culture that taught and rewarded the amassing of things, that spoke little if at all about the quality of life for people (other people), for dogs, for rivers. All the world, in our eyes, they will say, was a commodity. And they will say that this structure was held together politically, which it was, and they will say also that our politics was no more than an apparatus to accommodate the feelings of the heart, and that the heart, in those days, was small, and hard, and full of meanness.

Ever relevant, this poem by Mary Oliver, especially today.

Title: New year's resolution A man sits at a table with a coffee writing in a notebook: “This year i will devote myself completely to reading serious, improving literature, forsaking easy pleasures and tirelessly seeking out truth and profundity in the work of the greatest writers.” He looks at it Says: Hmm... then “Scratch Scratch Scratch scratch” scribbles out words until the text reads: “This year I will read for Fun”

Happy New Year, everyone!

This is a @theguardian.com books cartoon from a few years ago.

Yikes. I haven’t seen that little idiot since I left Twitter. I haven’t missed him.

Galaxy Quest
Local Hero
The Godfather

I read Setting Free the Bears first. Loved The Hotel New Hampshire, but The Cider House Rules will always be my favourite.

Quality Street tin refilled for Christmas 2025.

I hope someone draws this wonderful story about Tom Stoppard's Arcadia and the power of the arts to help us see things differently, to the attention of our Education Secretary. Do read it, it will lift your spirits.

France hosted a large musical flash mob featuring 100 musicians who came together to perform a new orchestral version of Carol of the Bells to mark the ceremonial switching-on of the Christmas lights in the streets of Paris.

This is what Peak Male Performance looks like.

Pluribus. Holy shit, that was some good telly.

Train hero who saved passengers during attack named The rail worker credited with saving multiple lives is named as Samir Zitouni.

What an absolute hero Samir Zitouni is - doubtless he saved lives that day

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

[Scene is the entrance cabin to a NATIONAL TRUST PROPERTY AND GARDENS] 1 NATIONAL TRUST EMPLOYEE [inside cabin]: Hello there 2 [A young family - two parents two kids - have arrived at the front desk]. DAD: Hi - do you have an activity trail, for the kids? 3 NT EMPLOYEE: Of course – you’re just in time for the Autumn Gammon Trail! 4 MUM: That sounds fun, doesn’t it kids? 5 NT EMPLOYEE [handing an activity sheet and pencils to the kids]: Every autumn, the Reform Trust gammons flock back to the National Trust for the AGM. Just follow the trail round the grounds, and see how many you can spot! 6 NT EMPLOYEE [hearing something in the gardens]: Listen - that's their call [Calls emanating from the landscape]: tut-tut woke-woke 7 NT EMPLOYEE [showing the family an apparently empty fenced enclosure with some bushes in]: They are extremely sensitive and fragile... But you can bring them out of hiding if you put a little sign down mentioning slavery. 8 KIDS [pointing]: There they are! [Some little red faced PEOPLE wearing Barbour jackets and gilets emerge cautiously from the bushes. They are creeping towards a TINY SIGN in the middle of the enclosure]. [Little people noises]: woke-woke tut-tut woke-woke 9 [Close-up of the TINY SIGN - we can read that it says]: Slavery had a bit to do with building this massive house. [Noises from the little people again as they inspect the tiny sign]: tut-tut woke-woke 10 MUM [pointing]: What's that one doing there? NT EMPLOYEE: Oh, that's so sweet… 11 [We see that one of the people is sat on a rock, with a little laptop open on a tree stump, and they are furiously typing away]. NT EMPLOYEE: I think he's writing a column for the Daily Telegraph… 12 [We see close up to the little person’s screen, it is a word document reading]: Are National Trust scones secretly WOKE? [ends]

If you're a National Trust member, it's that time of year again: Midnight tonight is the deadline. It's a shame people have to keep doing this to keep a toehold on historical truth in this country, but here we are. Voting link: www.nationaltrust.org.uk/who-we-are/a...

Thanks for the reminder!

Oh my goodness. Film Club on BBC. So much deeper and sadder than I was expecting. Bloody love it though.

Oh Yea.. Just a Reminder...👍

Well done to everyone taking part in No Kings events today.

Watching Leonard and Hungry Paul with a huge smile on my face.

Looks like I blocked those gobshites already.👏👏👏👏👏

Diane Keaton, 'Annie Hall' and 'The Godfather' Actress, Dead at 79 Diane Keaton, the Oscar-winning actress known for a prolific career in uplifting comedies, has died at the age of 79.

Diane Keaton, the Oscar-winning actress known for a prolific career in uplifting comedies, has died at the age of 79. More:
www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv...

Here's Patricia Routledge being given a Tony Award for Beat Actress In A Musical, which she won in a tie with Leslie Uggams, by Groucho Marx.

RIP to Jane Goodall, who opened the world's eyes to our closest relatives. (Photo by NatGeo's Hugo Van Lawick)

Ed Davey, "I'm afraid Nigel Farage should be apologising for helping cause this problem in the first place"

"Before Brexit we didn't have a small boats problem because we had 27 return agreements with EU countries and we could return people"

-Maybe we should call them Farage's Brexit Boats