Charles Williams

It is incredible to me how made up this issue is. No one gave a shit ten years ago. Sure there were your individual mad, ignorant bigots but *Theresa May* was pushing for self-ID because it was the last little bit of logistical sorting out of a settled question: we're ok with Trans people

She is...not the one, lads. Useful triangulation point for Polanski, mind you.

I'd never looked at a David Walliams kids book because of their rep and we got given one the other day. Maybe it's not so bad, I thought. Within five pages we'd met a mysterious old man called Chang and a corner shop owner called Raj.

Talking With Paul Kedrosky So, about this AI thing ...

This was very informative for me, if also rather worrying paulkrugman.substack.com/p/talking-wi...

Just absolute spite from Lambeth Council, that. "Oh, you want fewer events? Fair enough, we'll bin the free community one."

Oh wow, I never realised that was their first appearance!

Really? What was that? I'm sure I used to own quite a bit of that run. I didn't think anyone remembered it!

This. Fucking hell, this. Ideas are so, so cheap.

It’s the mark of an amateur – in journalistic writing, book writing, TV, whatever – that they think ideas are the currency, where the value is, and need fiercely protecting.

Everyone has ideas. Usually ten before breakfast. Executing them well is the hard bit.

And when his personal brand goes from loyalty inducing to actively repellent, Sandman aside, I think that all comes home to roost a bit.

Also (and I promise this isn't a take of the current moment), there's Sandman and then there's the rest of his work. And the two are not at the same level. There's a reason his recent pre-scandal TV projects were Sandman and a Pratchett cowrite, both decades old.

Rupert Lowe launches new political party for Great Yarmouth Great Yarmouth First will represent needs of the town only, says founder Rupert Lowe.

Brexit's natural end point

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

Paid for by the Harry Potter Institute for Fucking Monsters.

It's worth noting that the Government has a massive majority and could fix this in an instant with a one-line piece of legislation. It doesn't want to.

If the Equality Act had never existed, and someone proposed to pass a law banning women’s organisations from choosing to welcome trans people, we’d think it was a pretty extreme proposal. I don’t think it’s less extreme because it’s come about as a result of a new interpretation of an old law.

Good rebuttal worth spending time with

Great culture can save lives. Literally.

Amazing letter in today’s @thetimes.com about Tom Stoppard

My favourite play by anyone, more so now

It's a horror thread, but thankfully I've seen other academics saying this is not their experience of current 1st year students and that Covid/lockdown effect is finally less visible in those kids (who'd mostly have been late primary in 2020). I hope that's the case because that thread, Jesus wept

I find myself thinking a lot about this from Uncle Monty in Withnail & I, which might slide by alongside all those other great quotes from the most quotable film ever made, but is the truest thing in the whole film: "free to those who can afford it, very expensive to those who can't."

Tove Jansson’s Gollum, a wide eyed mournful cthonic god resting in his pond

Now can everyone stop being cowards and someone please just give me a big beautiful model of Tove Jansson’s best boy Gollum

Every time as a website manager someone said "we can just publish it now and exclude from search and nav", my brain would do a quick "*is* that okay?" risk assessment and 99% of the time it's fine. However, the 1% is the bit where if you get it wrong, you get sacked.

THE POLICY ADDRESSES THIS ALREADY.
"Homeowners will be able to roll up the annual payments and defer them until they move house or die." www.ft.com/content/5b07...

narrator: 50 years ago...

me: [nods] in 1945

narrator: in 1975...

me: what

A scanned letter: CLEVELAND STADIUM, CORP. CLEVELAND STADIUM CLEVELAND, OHIO 44114 Phone: 781-5600 November 21, 1974 Dale O. Cox, Esquire Roetzel and Andress 20th Floor One Cascade Plaza Akron, Ohio 44308 Dear Mr. Cox: Attached is a letter that we received on November 19, 1974. I feel that you should be aware that some asshole is signing your name to stupid letters. Very truly yours, CLEVELAND STADIUM CORP. James N. Bailey, General Counsel JNB:bjn cc: Arthur B. Modell

Fifty-one years (and three days) since the Cleveland Browns "some asshole" letter was sent:

No. Just absolutely not.

I've got the brains, you've got the looks, let's make lots of money

Labour’s core voter is a Londoner. While they fret about imagined Reform defecting voters in the “red wall” they’re at risk of losing their 21st century heartland entirely.
www.thenewworld.co.uk/james-ball-l...

I don't think it will return without leadership change. Even a change in approach now will feel too much like triangulation/desperation. People voted Labour because they wanted better values at the top, and a focus on what is actually important, and they've got the same/worse. It's a disaster.

Went to the Paddington Experience with my son at the weekend, which was lovely, and I think would have been ruined if Paddington had had to explain that all his valuables were taken at the border, the whole country seemed like it hated him and he was at constant risk of deportation.