Word of the day is ‘bugiard’ (17th century): one who distorts the truth beyond all recognition to fit their own agenda.

Original 1925 jacket cover of The Great Gatsby The Great Gatsby Here is a novel, glamorous, ironical, compassionate a marvellous fusion into unity of the curious incongruities of the life of the period which reveals a hero like no other one who could live at no other time and in no other place. But he will live as a character, we surmise, as long as the memory of any reader lasts. "There was something gorgeous about him, some heightened sensitivity to the promises of life. .. It was an extraordinary gift for hope, a romantic readiness such as I have never found in any other person and which it is not likely I shall ever find again?" It is the story of this Jay Gatsby who came so mysteriously to West Egg, of his sumptuous er-tertainments, and of his love for Daisy Buchanan a story that ranges from pure lyrical beauty to sheer brutal realism, and is infused with a sense of the strangeness of human circumstance in a heedless universe. It is a magical, living book, blended of irony, romance, and mysticism. CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS The GREAT GATSBY FITZGERALD

They were careless people, Tom and Daisy- they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.

-FS Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, published 4/10/1925.

YouTube video by Peter Stefanovic THE SHOCKING state of NHS dentistry in England has today - again - been laid bare

The Labour Party went into the 2024 election promising to reform the discredited NHS contract fuelling the current crisis

According to @thebda.bsky.social there has been no material progress to date & its deeply concerned the Treasury is now standing in the way of progress

youtu.be/Hu0Okad5O1w?...

Word of the Day is ‘quockerwodger’ (19th century): a puppet individual whose strings are pulled entirely by someone else.

Painting of a sitting black cat to the left facing right and looking outwards and the upper half of a crouching brown cat to the right facibg left, between are two glass vases and a glass jug, each containing purple, pink or yellow tulips, the background is cream

Scottish artist Elizabeth Blackadder, Black Cat, Abyssinian Cat and Tulips, 1988 #womensart

Photo of an open book with brownish pages suggesting it is an old book, an image on the left page shows an engraving of a seated Black womam writing on paper placed on a table, the right page has text including a heading which states 'Poems'

Phillis Wheatley (1753-1784). Born in West Africa, she was kidnapped and sold into U.S. enslavement at the age of seven, She later became the first published African-American female poet #WomensArt

Artwork featuring a delicate white flower with green stem on a black background

#Imbolc is a Gaelic festival marking the beginning of spring, held on 1 February. A time of celebration and ritual, often honouring Brighid, the goddess of the hearth
Mary Delany, Galanthus Nivalis, Snowdrop, 1777 #WomensArt

Artwork featuring an Asian woman working at an electric sewing machine in the foreground in a room with others doing the same in the background

Artist Terese Agnew’s 'Portrait of a Textile Worker', 2005, constructed from 30,000 clothing labels stitched together over 2 years, raising awareness about where much of the West's clothing comes from, who makes it, and under what conditions #womensart

👉 @listen2.bsky.social

Portrait featuring a white woman, head and shoulders facing forwards, the subject wears a hat with an upturned fur brim from which strands of blonde hair fall from insude, she wears an overcoat, the right side of her head has a white bandage, the background is swirls of blue

Joni Mitchell, Van Gogh inspired self-portrait, used as cover art for her Van Gogh inspired album 'Turbulent Indigo' 1994 #womensart

Photo of an old typewriter covered in cross stitched material while remaining recognisable in shape, viewed from slightly above on a white surface

Ulla Stina Wikander, Swedish designer who uses household appliances and cooking tools as the base to her cross-stitched sculptures #womensart

Una, Lady Troubridge (1924) by US born painter Romaine Brooks #womensart

Liverpool's Frank Hornby submitted his first application for a patent for Meccano #OTD in 1901. Known at first as 'Mechanics Made Easy', the invention became a worldwide success.

🥁 Announcing the Public Domain Image Archive! 🥁

We are v excited to share our new sister-project, the Public Domain Image Archive (PDIA), a curated collection of 10k+ out-of-copyright historical images, all free to explore and reuse: pdimagearchive.org @pdimagearchive

'Patients are collapsing in the waiting room': A&E nurses speak out Nurses working on the front line of emergency care have spoken to the BBC about pressure they are facing.

'Patients are collapsing in the waiting room': A&E nurses speak out

www.bbc.com/news/article...

"For all the easy, cheap nonsense being peddled - changes 𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦 made."

Andrew Norfolk confirms Keir Starmer "completely changed the rules" as DPP to help prosecute grooming gangs - directly countering Musk's claim of a coverup.

@maitlis.bsky.social
@lewisgoodall.com

👌

Word of the day is one I mention often. To have the ‘mubble-fubbles’, in the 16th century, was to experience a fit of despondency or low spirits - another name for the Sunday blues.

André Edouard Marty
Illustration for “House And Garden” magazine
1925

How our democracy has been hijacked by corporations and wealthy elites The only effective remedy is to ban all private donations, or bribes, to political parties.

“The only effective measure is to ban all political donations, and the giving and receiving of such donations a criminal offence. Such a ban would force political parties to compete and develop publicly acceptable policies”
@premnsikka.bsky.social

leftfootforward.org/2025/01/how-...

Photo of two teabags reflecting a winter scene painting of figures, including a dog walker, on snowy slope, the teabags are on a dark grey surface

Ruby Silvious, visual artist and graphic designer, whose work includes experimenting on recycled and found materials, including tea-bags #womensart

YouTube video by Peter Stefanovic Reform UK leader Nigel Farage says public want to leave the ECHR - let’s put the record straight

As we start the New Year its perhaps a good time to remind ourselves (and everyone else) of the importance & benefits of membership of the ECHR
youtu.be/iSTN-h8NoyY?...

Incredible skill.

There was a big contrast in the response to Labour policies when doorknocking in 2015 and 2017. Everyone seems to ignore the 2017 election, but there was so much enthusiasm because people felt that things could actually change. The Establishment quickly stamped on that for 2019.

Huge scandal for Starmer: if it turns out Feathers McGraw was part of the early prison release scheme then he's finished. #WallaceAndGromit

The Observer sells to Tortoise Media: It’s a ‘reckless and quasi suicidal move’ says Carole Cadwalladr Digital media ‘slow news’ start-up Tortoise Media has confirmed it will buy The Observer. Will it breathe new life into the world’s oldest paper, or as journalist Carole Cadwalladr suggests, will it…

Is The Observer's sale to Tortoise Media something that should be 'embraced'?

@carolecadwalla.bsky.social says “it feels like a reckless and quasi suicidal move".

Ancient Evil, by Candace Arkham. Popular Library, 1977.

Time once again for my occasional series "Women with great hair fleeing gothic houses!"

And today it's a Queen-Sized Gothic special...

Absolutely @danielrolphauthor.bsky.social

When I was growing up we had no money to buy books. All I had was my local library. I spent hundreds of hours in it. But for that library I might never have become a lawyer. A thousand of them were closed under successive Conservative Governments