Russ Swan

Hey, I've just this minute heard a female outside my window.

No, of course we couldn't. That would be weird.

Oblique view of a classic set of Andy Warhol portraits, with four identical photographic screen prints each overlain with different colour washes. The subject is the actor Brooke Hayward.

It's about 30 years since I visited the Andy Warhol Museum in his home city of Pittsburgh, so a great pleasure to see some of his works at the Djanolgy museum in Nottingham this afternoon. #warhol #nottingham #djanogly

The Riot Act Play - Framework Knitters Museum As part of its new events programme, the Framework Knitters Museum is presenting the world premiere of RIOT ACT a play originally commissioned by Nottingham Playhouse, by renowned Nottingham writer An...

New events just gone on sale. The rehearsed reading of RIOT ACT, the new play by Andy Barrett, telling the story of the rise of the Luddites and the parallels with today is now available for just two performances on Friday 27th & Saturday 28th March … frameworkknittersmuseum.org.uk/event/the-ri...

The library has sent me a 'pre-overdue notice' and it's the most passive-aggressive thing I can imagine right now. A loan book is due back in a few days but now I feel like a criminal.

Hmm. "eating less will result in weight loss, [but] exercising while dieting may not result in any additional weight loss."

I take your point about common sense though, and of course people had be different ideas about what common sense is. Thnx.

Really? It seems like common sense but ok.

Or fewer calories in, more calories out.

OMFG, as the kids used to say

Happy birthday for Monday then!

That's a little unkind. I understand exactly what was meant, as would anybody who has seen the many laser-cut novelties available in gifting outlets these days.

Screengrab from the BBC story about a history professor finding an iron age hoard by use of a metal detector. Beneath the headshot of the academic the caption reads: 'Prof Tom Licence said he liked to imagination the coins belonged to his ancestors'

I'm more bothered about the illiterate caption.

Makes me wonder how there's any magazines left at all (yes, I know, subs, but still).

An old and battered bedside clock in which the dial and mechanism are upside down. The case is oval shaped with a tarnished gold-coloured bezel, the face is brown with gold hands and Arabic numerals. In the centre of the dial the words BIG BEN, REPEATER, and WESTCLOX can be seen, upside down.

The first Repair Cafe of the year this afternoon, and it happens to be Valentine's Day. We can fix many things, but broken hearts? Not so much. #repair #repaircafe #righttorepair #fixers

Close up of some roses currently on sale in Sainsbury, a leading UK supermarket. The petals have been treated with synthetic dyes to produce a rainbow effect on each bloom - yellows, bright pinks and purples, blues, orange, and red. They make my eyes bleed.

When I'm king I will make it a criminal offence to artificially dye flowers like this.

Close up of some roses currently on sale in Sainsbury, a leading UK supermarket. The petals have been treated with synthetic dyes to produce a rainbow effect on each bloom - yellows, bright pinks and purples, blues, orange, and red. They make my eyes bleed.

When I'm king I will make it a criminal offence to artificially dye flowers like this.

So this is a book about symbols in literature, essentially #punctuation, written by someone called Colon?

Is there anything more 2026 than 'I wanted a high score on a game without actually playing it so I asked AI to play it for me'?

Great session today, my first proper interaction with WEM. Thank you.

I've just diagnosed myself as ambiclumsous. I have ambiclumsia.

I'm just as clumsy with my left and right hands.

#clumsy #ambiclumsous #ambiclumsia

I think your memory is good 😄

Like Thatcher, or May, or [shudders] Truss?

Hmm, looks similar but not quite the same. Thank you.

Close look at the frilly edges of this fungus, possibly Trembling Crust (Merulius tremellosus), showing pale yellowish frills or gills on the upper face around the perimeter of the bracket-like main bodies, which are a beige -brown mushroom colour.

Cascade of bracket-like fungus bodies on fallen wood in an ancient woodland, looking a little like a tower of apartments or (with some imagination) a cliffside sci-fi city.

My dog, a springer spaniel, at upper right, has a little sniff of the mystery fungus but is not very interested because her main obsession is rubber balls and this is not one of those.

G-lens suggests this #fungus, found today, is called Trembling Crust (Merulius tremellosus). I don't know, do you? Even the spaniel wasn't much help. #fungi #fungifriday (it's only Wednesday, shhh).

Weather presenter drafted in to explain engineering issue on fuel tank. wtf.

Golly, it's almost as if Elon Musk has promised something he cannot deliver.

A laminated sheet of A4 paper is affixed over a hand towel dispenser in a lavatory. It reads PLEASE DO NOT FLUSH HAND TOWELS, SANITARY NAPKINS, YOUR HOPES AND DREAMS, RECEIPTS, OR ANYTHING ELSE OTHER THAN TOILET ROLL DOWN THE TOILETS, THANKS! (smiley emoji).

Hopes and dreams

Are they the Roman equivalent of the three shells...?

Happy to report I played a small part in getting this onto Bluesky. Happened to see the programme, and alerted the museum director who's an old friend.

Caption competition!

Five jobs I've had:
Newspaper delivery executive
Woolly hat pompom fitter
Dishwasher
Charpentier
Graduation gown dispenser.