Jon McGregor

I can't get past the actual logistics of "she friend-zoned me by text", like when did she text him? From the toilet? From under the table? And did they then acknowledge the content of the text or just silently absorb it into the fabric of the conversation?

I sincerely hope Fitzcarraldo send you three different options, and you get to have a really long conversation about which blue really pops.

I use my old Macbook with the screen time controls set to "absolutely nothing online, ever, not once, don't even try it," and my partner set the passcode. And it turns out she will *never* give up the code.

Sign the Petition SAVE AMERICAN STUDIES TEACHING AT THE UNIVERSITY OF NOTTINGHAM

Please sign and help to save my former department! Goodness knows this is no time to stop teaching about and researching North America!

www.change.org/p/save-ameri...

That's very kind, but in this house we believe students should buy books....

Thank you! Will investigate..

This is exactly it. Thanks Mat. Added bonus: now I get to suggest my student buys a book...

Mm-kay, this is exactly the kind of thing and I thank you for it

Hello poetry friends. I'm looking, for a thing, for examples of poems that quote from TV characters in a way that makes it clear they're doing so without resorting to eg footnotes or similar. Any suggestions? I feel like I've seen it, but my mind is blanker than a blankety blank.

Sign the Petition Stop the suspension of undergraduate music courses at The University of Nottingham

And in the meantime, please sign this petition:

www.change.org/p/stop-the-s...

A screenshot of a BBC story with the headline "University to suspend music and language courses"

A screenshot of a BBC story with the following headline "University scraps plan to cut music and languages"

It's not just music and language courses- it's 48 courses across the university.

But here's the thing- our UCU colleagues at other universities (like @Cardiffucu.bsky.social) have faced the exact same threats, fought back, and won. So we can too.

On Wednesday 5 November, the very same day the Prime Minister publicly reaffirmed the importance of music education, staff in the Department of Music at the University of Nottingham were informed of the immediate suspension of recruitment to all undergraduate degree programmes. This announcement precedes proposed plans to permanently close all Music degrees at the University. This decision threatens to end over a century of music education in the East Midlands, offered continuously since the University opened in 1881. Across that time, the Department has educated thousands of composers, researchers, performers, educators and other creative professionals. Its graduates have taken up leadership roles within the country’s leading arts organisations, fostering creativity and growth within the UK’s dynamic creative industries. It remains a centre of world-leading research, using music to explore and address complex societal and global challenges.

The Department is deeply embedded in the local community, working with schools, music hubs, community groups and venues. Its closure would not only dismantle a thriving academic and cultural institution but also severely diminish musical life and future opportunities across Nottingham, the wider East Midlands and the nation as a whole. As staff we are devastated, especially on behalf of our students, but also for the future of music education and research in the UK. We remain committed to advocating for the value of Music programmes at Nottingham and beyond. If you share our concern and wish to support efforts to protect music education at the University of Nottingham, please get in touch with protectuonmusic@gmail.com. Your voice can make a difference. Thursday 6 November 2025

Devastated to share the news that was broken to colleagues in Music (and other departments) at the University of Nottingham yesterday. This is obviously a very difficult time for us and our students.

Please contact us on protectuonmusic@gmail.com if you would like to be involved.

Music and modern languages courses suspended at University of Nottingham In a statement the institution also says it is

Horrific, stupid news from @uniofnottingham.bsky.social — they are closing their music department. Apparently they all found out suddently in a meeting yesterday.

It is one of the best music departments in the country — solidarity with my colleagues and their students

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

I just want a place of learning where we can read books, learn languages, plant trees, figure things out, build houses, fix plumbing, ride bikes, do childcare, ask questions, welcome strangers, grow food, care for older people, and dance, who's in

Somebody needs to draw a Venn diagram of (fig. a) universities who close their language departments and (fig. b) universities who have the word "global" or "international" in their mission statements, because these people won't understand a thing unless you put it in a powerpoint presentation

Final rehearsal week for The Conditional Citizen

! So amazing

I don't think anything after the word 'but' here is relevant to the people I saw being hit by cars.

Both of these incidents happened in the daytime, and everything after the word "but" isn't relevant to what happened here.

I mean, lashing out when you feel guilty and scared and ashamed is pretty standard human psychology. But it does seem to be getting worse, doesn't it? Maybe regular therapy should be a condition of having a driving license.

(if you're interested in fault then I'm pretty sure driving into someone on a zebra crossing is not okay
but basically if you drive a car it's 100% your responsibility to not drive that car into a living person made of soft skin and flesh who just wants to get home)

what is wrong with people, a continuing series

Twice in the last fortnight I've seen someone on a bike get hit by a car, and both times the driver has started shouting about it being the other person's fault. I feel quite strongly that if you drive your car into a human being the first words out of your miserable mouth should be "are you okay?"

Phew!

Pardon me for asking but this train journey thread seems to have been going for 26 days now, and I like a sleeper compartment as much as the next guy but... are you okay?

two men sit at a breakfast table in a 19th-century print by Utagawa Yoshitora (Metropolitan Museum's Open Access collection). One is reading a book. Speech balloons have been applied. One says, "I got this book at the first annual DUBLIN SMALL PRESS FAIR. November 28 + 29, 2025. Pearse St Library. free + open to all." The other says, "how delightful. I shall attend". At the lower edge is information about the event's sponsors—Dublin City Council, Dublin UNSECO City of Literature, Poetry Ireland, Publishing Ireland, and Skein Press. The URL (dublinsmallpressfair.com) appears at the right edge.

our small press fair brings all the depictions of Englishmen by 19th-century Japanese printmakers to the yard. and they're like, wow, I really enjoy browsing books from a range of very small, small, independent, underground, and other presses based on the island of Ireland and from abroad.

The Letters Page is back!

The Letters Page is back and better than ever. We have some exciting things for you in the works, so keep an eye out and get ready!

Watching the Bibi & Don Show treat this like some grand victory, while people returning to northern Gaza dig the rubble for loved ones' remains, is pretty revolting.

First time I saw this in the Mauritshuis I stood in front of it for about an hour. Absolutely blew my mind.