Matthew Wright 👨🏼‍🦼

YouTube video by The Amber Ruffin Show Want to Learn About Race? Go Look It Up Yourself! | The Amber Ruffin Show

I don't, but now I've got this song stuck in my head

Same here, but not everyone agrees

Hit me with your hot takes on how i-o should be pronounced in DDMOH

Smith to leave Southampton v-c role for new post at Oxford Nuclear physicist departs next spring having set up first branch campus in India

Southampton v-c Mark Smith to step down to become University of oxford pro vice-chancellor www.timeshighereducation.com/news/smith-l...

a shot of a god botherer in a car, next to him on the passenger seat is a skull in an ornate box

'Skull of St. Thomas Aquinas being transported to Fossanova Abbey.'
Photograph by Daniel Ibanez

Only buy pencils that were made in Pencilvania

There it is in black and white: the opinions of racist people are more important to the current Labour Party than the needs of disabled people

Going to apply and my cover letter will just say ‘The Matrix is Toy Story mixed with Baudrillard and industrial music’.

The disastrous voyage of Satoshi, the world’s first cryptocurrency cruise ship The long read: Last year, three cryptocurrency enthusiasts bought a cruise ship. They named it the Satoshi, and dreamed of starting a floating libertarian utopia. It didn’t work out

Pairs well with this one

When she saw that the rogues had accomplished his slaughter,
She drank prussic acid without any water,
And died like a Duke and a Duchess's daughter

Apparently jazz is going the same way, all the students studying it at the conservatoires came there from private school, someone told me

Where were you at the time of the crime?
Down by the cenotaph drinking slime

URY | For Folk's Sake! Saturday, 6 Dec 2025 - 12:00 In this four part series, Dee takes a journey through the British Isles showcasing the traditional tunes of each of it's nations.

Our wan Britsplains Irish music

This is a great visualisation of some very interesting, and important, physics

True, even if you account for the opportunity cost of the brandy you could have just drunk

Wondering how cute I should get with this Christmas yard sign I’m designing. The Magats probably won’t get it….

I do have a birthday coming up, now I think about it

I think small fonts, narrow margins and dark modes are status indicators like long fingernails - they're signalling that they can cope with them and us oldies can't

I must admit I thought it was "how do I make the margins as narrow possible?"

‘I wish I could say I kept my cool’: my maddening experience with the NHS wheelchair service The long read: After I was paralysed in a climbing accident, I discovered how inconsiderate, illogical and incompetent many wheelchair providers can be

This is quite a read!

This talk sounds interesting but I'm not eligible to register - if you are and do I'd be glad to hear your thoughts about it

[Scene is a JOB INTERVIEW. The bosses taking the interview are FATHER and MOTHER CHRISTMAS. In the chair across the desk from is the interviewee: RUDOLPH THE RED NOSED REINDEER, sitting legs crossed. Rudolph is effusive and expressive with his hands / hooves.] RUDOLPH: ...and in addition to my sleigh-pulling experience, l just genuinely love working with other reindeer. I mean I'm a real 'reindeer reindeer' you know? Haha! FATHER CHRISTMAS [Looking delighted]: Wonderful! Well, I think we've found our candidate... So, uh... Rudolph with your nose so bright... ...won't you guide my sleigh tonight? [A chilly pause. We focus on Rudolph, who folds his arms, looks away in silent fury, his nose casting light about the room as he does so. He drags his eyes back to Father Christmas, his expression now of pure, cold contempt.] RUDOLPH: So this is about my nose. FATHER CHRISTMAS: One of my bulbs has gone. RUDOLPH: Go to Halfords! FATHER CHRISTMAS: It's closed till Tuesday. RUDOLPH: No, right, OK... I get it... this is like a narrative thing for you, isn't it? [Rolling his eyes, gesticulating, getting more angry as he begins to rant]: Like...powerful white male saves the shunned outsider by making a gimmick of their difference? [We see Father and Mother Christmas looking awkward, a bit scared, askance at each other] RUDOLPH: So in your head, what, like, the other reindeer who've bullied me my whole life will suddenly start respecting Mr Fog Lamp up front? [Rudolph is waving his hooves now] I mean, I notice you haven't interviewed my AUNTY for this job. Rita the Red-Arsed Reindeer? She applied! Her nose is even brighter than mine, but because the disease has spread to her ARSE she's not the right KIND of diversity mascot... [Finally Rudolph stands up, knocking his chair backwards. Father Christmas looks shocked, Mother Christmas looks terrified.] RUDOLPH: This is BULLSHIT! FATHER CHRISTMAS: SECURITY...! [A little Elf enters to tackle Rudolph] [Ends]

Job interview

For my Elvis book I met the Finnish academic who performed and recorded Elvis songs translated into both Latin and Sumerian.

"Of course, they did not have blue suede shoes in Sumeria," he told me, "so I had to translate the song as 'on my sandals of sky blue leather, please do not stand".

“I am proud to have scrapped the two-child limit,” #Starmer intoned yesterday “and lifted half a million children out of poverty.” Fascinating to hear he’s extremely proud of doing something he last year suspended seven of his MPs for voting for.”

New PIP interview script:

- Your right leg I like. As soon as I saw it come in, I said, "Hello! What a lovely leg for the benefit!". I've got nothing against your right leg. The trouble is - you have.

Quick reminder of the rules for anyone playing Anschützageddon: the objective is to go the whole of Christmas without hearing Ernst Anschütz's 'O Tannenbaum'. Remember, remixes and covers DON'T count. Good luck!

So I can watch reruns of Citizen Smith without fear

You're not the only one!

Completely agree (as a non-historian), I missed it when it came out, so Streissand effect FTW

Researcher 1: Man, AI bros are the worst, they've no poetry in them

Researcher 2: Wanna bet I can make them all start writing poetry?