Well I picked a fine week to open my disposable barbecue shop

I did my year abroad in Belgium and Uruguay, effectively two buffer states. I didn't learn a lot of French in Brussels, and it wasn't until years later that I learnt the French for buffer state is "état tampon". Fittingly, my year abroad was a period when no sex happened.

I prefer lunar eclipses actually

These are selling well at present. Anybody want to order one for an autumn birthday, or a Christmas present? Going fast, get 'em while they're hot.

Richard Smyth@rsmythfreelance.bsky.social · 7mo ago

GET YOUR BESPOKE CROSSWORDS HERE. Do you know someone who'd love a themed crossword puzzle as a birthday or anniversary present? You almost certainly do (in this country you're never more than 10 feet away from a #crossword geek). People seem to like 'em. richarddsmyth.com/custom-cross...

This is very good if you have a spare 18 minutes www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nxp0...

The Making of Rubber Soul is Terrifying

YouTube video by The Pinfields

youtube.com

Outstanding journalism www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Taylor Swift has put her love story out there – so it’s not fair she won’t let us see her wedding dress | Polly Hudson

How a bride decides to look on the big day tells us a lot about that person. But the singer is leaving us hanging, writes Polly Hudson

theguardian.com

You were all right about The Restraint of Beasts. Exemplary Work.

You were all right about The Restraint of Beasts. Exemplary Work.

Hey Leeds fans! You are losing. (blows raspberry)

Buenos Aires left out of the solar eclipse as the global anti-Argentina campaign rages on

Heard your boyfriend is the guy who follows you, doesn't get a follow back, so he unfollows you and follows you again, and so on until you follow him. Then he unfollows you.

Sure, earthquakes are bad, but isn't it nice to see the word "epicentre" used correctly for a change?

I was absolutely delighted to read at the @iamloudpro.bsky.social open mic a few weeks back - they filmed my "poem" called Bios which serves as a handy advert for mine and Stefan's show www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXFj...

Ross McCleary - Bios || Spoken Word Poetry ||

YouTube video by I Am Loud Productions

youtube.com

The "trot" in "The Harlem Globetrotters" implies they are playing basketball on horseback.

Anybody else inexplicably irritated when people reply to a message with a thumbs up?

I have never used a dating app (met my wife in 2008) and never consumed a single second of any JKR

John Self@john-self.bsky.social · last wk.

What mundane token of modern life have you never done? I’ve never had a takeaway delivered.

I don't know who needs to hear this (it's Rob Palk, Rob Palk needs to hear this) but the forthcoming Life of Borges film shows a 35-year Borges in a bathing suit, noting that Victoria Ocampo once said he was "well-provided". He was not, however, a shagger.

This just in: Borges didn't win the Nobel Prize because in '76, when he could've won it, he went to visit Pinochet, the day Pinochet had Letelier assassinated in Washington DC. The Swedish Academy is said to have phoned Borges, advising him not to meet Pinochet, but he was a man of, ahem, conviction

Today I realised that Do-Re-Mi from the Sound of Music (yes that again) is actually in the key of B-flat and not, as the song's lyrics suggest, in the key of C (do), but then I learnt that solfège (do-re-mi) is not grounded in just one key but is more about teaching scales. A day of much learning.

Alright, this will annoy you. There are 9 countries that end in i: 5 are in Africa, 2 are in the Pacific. Name the other 2.

I have had my hair cut. 7/10.

I gave my dad TWO books for fathers day, both written by you MEN on here. He said one was "interesting" in that tone of voice dads have, and that the other "got a bit boring towards the end". I'll let you writers work out if it was YOUR books he read. (the "bit boring" one doesn't follow me)

Have any of you heard that story that Patrick Brontë changed his name from Prunty to Brontë because of his admiration of Lord Nelson, who had recently been made Duke of Bronte in Sicily? Is it bollocks? There's a BBC story about it, but that doesn't mean it isn't bollocks.

"I could have a bowel movement behind a sheet at a dinner party in the corner of the room and nobody would know"

This is excellent, not least for Lenny Kravitz at the start.

CSketch@csketch.bsky.social · 2w ago

Oh my god I think I found the video.

Leaving Bluesky until you've all answered that long list of questions about books

All during the world cup when the camera showed Infantino and his mates I kept thinking "Boy, Ron Howard goes to a lot of football matches". Turns out that's Matthias Grafström, Infantino's number 2

Chicken Run III: Chicken Coop D'Etat

You'll never guess what this is a comment about

One day you or I may need to cross a border in desperation like this and, if and when we do, every one of us would hope to be treated, and indeed discussed, with more dignity and respect than these people, rather than dehumanised and hated for our misfortune.