Andrew Crowther

Just a quick reminder to my followers:

Don't forget to boost other accounts too otherwise it starts to look suspicious

The trick is to log into Bluesky for long enough to see the jokes but log out before the constant complaining crushes your soul like dust

Just realised something basic about book publicity:

All readers are essentially mugs; we're so willing to be fooled into buying something we don't really know we'll like, because this time we *just might*.

But the twist is that, sometimes, after being conned into the buy, we find we like it anyway

Picture of Spike Milligan singing; Peter Sellers and Harry Secombe with their fingers in their ears

Picture of Harry Secombe singing; Spike Milligan and Peter Sellers with their fingers in their ears

Dare I mention...?

Classic cartoon by Pont captioned “Popular misconceptions - Life in the Flat Above”, showing a family running round the room and deliberately jumping and stamping as hard as possible

The text on the cover does indeed say, "Introducing Albert Peasemarch, steamship steward extraordinary, who will take his rightful place beside Jeeves, Psmith, Mr Mulliner and the other Wodehouse immortals". Oh dear.

The US first edition of Wodehouse's "The Luck of the Bodkins" makes possibly the most reckless pronouncement of the 20th century: "Introducing Albert Peasemarch, steamship steward extraordinary, who will take his rightful place beside Jeeves, Psmith, Mr Mulliner and the other Wodehouse immortals."

They’re just like you and me… (Tom Hanks double-take) Hey, they ARE you and me!

This was said to me not long since, and I should have just said, "Mm, nice curtains"

Another: HEY MAN READ THE ROOM

Me, taking note of my surroundings for the first time, my eyes darting wildly from face to face, my internal weirdo-alarm blaring as I back towards the door: Well, it was nice knowing you (runs)

WHAT THEY DON’T TEACH YOU AT HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL (this is “Right Ho, Jeeves” with a different cover)

Almost incredible, but true

When I see the sign for the “Smart Thinking” section in Waterstones, I feel obliged to say it to myself in Spike Milligan’s Eccles voice

Why are they all so obsessed with the word "smart"? It's such a stupid, childish word, the kind of word Trump loves... oh, I see

I am obliged to repost this whenever they play that thing on R3

topseyturveydom.wordpress.com/2021/02/24/c...

The above was inspired by trying to read “Stars and Bars” by William Boyd (but I really like his later stuff)… here are some more that occur to me:

David Nobbs: Reginald Perrin (though I love the book)
Tom Sharpe: Wilt
David Lodge: Changing Places
Amis: Lucky Jim
Waterhouse: Billy Liar
etc, etc

(I forgot to add he has a comfy job he can't be sacked from and lots of money and a big house and a loving wife that he resents and a permanent sense of resentment at his sad fate)

I love a good comic novel, but I find a lot of examples from, say, the second half of the 20th century have aged really badly. The whole "adventures of incompetent white bloke with no survival skills who is irresistible to women" thing might be bearable once or twice, but not *every flipping time*

I totally misunderstood how to use Bluesky when I joined, and I plan on keeping it that way

The cover of "Asterix et Cleopatra", which parodies the poster for "Cleopatra"

How many parodies of that poster are there out there??

It’s a blessing and a curse

Yes, I am very funny

Especially as they were her toe nails

True. Except in my case, obviously.

I’ve just realised that one reason I find social media quite stressful is that people tend to vent by shouting at an eternal “you”. I know, consciously, that “you” isn’t me, but when the words hit me, it doesn’t feel that way.

The text for both images goes like this: ENTRING into a contemplation of the Changes of Time; how all things that are under the Moone are as variable as her lookes are: how Goodness grows crooked, and hath almost lost her shape: how Vertue goes poorely, and is not regarded: how Villany jets in silkes, and (like a God) adored: And when I consider, how all the pleasures of this life are but as childrens dreames, how all the glories of the world are but artificiall fire workes that keepe a blazing for a time, and yet die in stinking smoakes and how al the labours of man are like the toiling of the winds, which strive to cast up heapes of dust, that in the ende are not worth the gathering: Then, even then, doe I grow wearie of myselfe: then am I neither in love with the beautie of the Sunne, neither stand I gazing at the dancing of the starres: I neither wonder at the stately measures of the cloudes, the nimble galliards of the water, nor the wanton trippings of the wind, nor am I delighted when the earth dresses up her head with flowers; I wish my selfe a Beast, because men are so bad that Beasts excell them in goodness, and abhorre all company, because the best is but tedious, the worser loathsome, both are the destroyers of Time, and both must be maintained with cost.

Conclusion of previous text.

Same, Thomas Dekker, same

A still from the clip. Bugs, dancing with a gorilla, kicks a foot directly towards the camera, making his foot enormous

Bugs Bunny - now in 3D

Detail of celeb quotes on a book jacket, including: "Literally unputdownable... Just a huge treat to read" Marian Keyes

Literally unputdownable

I feel a lot better about not having a Nobel Prize now

Wait, wait, did Donald McLeod just date the “Muddle Instead of Music” article to 1926 instead of 1936??

Some great advice here which my long-suffering followers will be aware I need to heed in the future...