I'm sad to hear I will never bump into Bill Oddie in random places again. He was a familiar face around the BBC & wildlife production company zone of Bristol, and there is a track in a bird-filled area of the North Norfolk coast which will be forever known as Bill Oddie's lane to my family.

OLEANDER, JACARANDA, Penelope Lively HAPPINESS, Aminatta Forna STRANGERS, Taiichi Yamada OLD FILTH TRILOGY, Jane Gardam TERRITORY OF LIGHT, Yuko Tsushima THE LAST SAMURAI, Helen DeWitt THE SUNKEN LAND BEGINS TO RISE AGAIN, M John Harrison BURNTCOAT, Sarah Hall

JacquiWine@jacquiwine.bsky.social · 2w ago

What are the books you yammer on about to anyone who'll listen? CASSANDRA AT THE WEDDING, Dorothy Baker MRS PALFREY AT THE CLAREMONT, Elizabeth Taylor THE AGE OF INNOCENCE, Edith Wharton THE BEGINNING OF SPRING, Penelope Fitzgerald IN A LONELY PLACE, Dorothy B. Hughes BALKAN TRILOGY, Manning 💙📚

Local pub noise tells me the right team won again?

Did something happen? People in all the pubs within a half mile radius of my open windows seem quite happy

I know this ship has sailed, been smashed to bits on the rocks, and the crew all eaten by sea monsters, but just imagine what would be happening right now if President Obama had just paid $5.6 million to a woman he raped.

My young adults seem to see a TV licence in the same way as a Netflix/Prime/Apple TV subscription: they will be signed up for one or two services at any given time, then swap around if there is a particular series they want to catch up on. I don't think they ever watch live TV (nor do I, tbh).

Jim Waterson@jim.londoncentric.media · 3w ago

Young adults (a category which includes 34 year olds with kids and mortgages) are just switching off completely. Look at the first graphic showing audience figures from five years ago. And the equivalent graphic from today, which shows the massive collapse.

Your occasional reminder that subjudice - and thus the risk of contempt - kicks in *on arrest*, not on a charge.

Michael Savage@michaelsavage.bsky.social · 3w ago

Ouch...

Norfolk is a bit cooler than London, but the North Sea is warm. Kind of nice, but actually worrying.

@yukokato1701.bsky.social What's the official BBC Japan line on Binface?

Jack Tindale@jacktindale.bsky.social · 4w ago

I have checked what the Japanese media are saying and there seem to be competing names for the man. Some are going with ゴミ箱伯爵 (Gomibako Hakushaku - Count Trashcan) whilst others are using the katakana that you have for foreign loan-words and opting for ビンフェイス伯爵 (Binfeisu Hakushaku).

I went to Porto Montenegro to find out why so many Reform money men have businesses registered to a grubby looking office building a stone's throw from the luxury yachts on the glittering marina. Feat. me visiting my first casino. www.opendemocracy.net/inside-refor...

Inside Reform and George Cottrell’s world in Montenegro

Why are some of Britain’s most controversial Reform-linked figures all operating out of a grubby office in a town of 11,000 people in the Balkans?

opendemocracy.net

Hot tip for London heatwave evenings: go and see Adrian Lester in Cyrano de Bergerac. Not only is it an excellent production, the theatre is *air conditioned* almost to the point of chilliness. And I only paid £15 for my ticket.

I read that the man behind the bin is an Oxford classics grad, so if he does get elected he will fit in just fine at Westminster. Maybe he should form a centrist dad party called 'Recycle' (goes nicely with Reform and Restore)? A natural home for recycled politicians defecting from other parties.

I think I have spotted an error here: the mantra should be "I need to be the bear". As we all know, most women will pick the bear rather than the man (particularly the kind who pays for pick-up artist boot-camps)

CNN@cnn.com · last mo.

If you live in a major American city, scenes like this are probably happening near you. Intensive "boot camps," teaching men how to talk to and pick up women, are taking place across the country as people grapple to recover a lost art: face-to-face conversation. https://cnn.it/3QETCli

Unexpected Hay-on-Wye bookshop finds: a primer of Gertrude Stein's prose, with a bookplate showing it came from the library of the late Barry Humphries.

The cooling system was installed by the village AC technician, Thermodynamix 😊

Standplaats Kraków could really use some cash!@standplaatskrk.pl · last mo.

This is absolutely staggering. A US pilot based at Lakenheath raped and half-strangled a woman despite her clear stated boundaries and the case was heard by the US military at the airbase, not in an English court. Horrendous on every level.

The Guardian@theguardian.com · last mo.

A US fighter pilot strangled a woman in England. Why did it end in a ‘degrading’ military trial?

This is a lightning map, and also a map of everyone awake at 4am.

Real names is one of the worst of all ideas. I get asked ‘why do you use your real name’ as though it’s a ‘gotcha’. I’m a man. Rich, middle-class, middle-aged, without an abusive ex or an oppressive family. My name isn’t ethnic or religious. I don’t have bullies or enemies. Others do. Think.

Duncan Weldon@duncanweldon.bsky.social · 2mo ago

I remain of the view that regulation of social media is better than a ban for young people. But I also pretty much agree with all these proposals.

the FT column in which @edwardluce.bsky.social explains why Elon Musk is a “monstrous human being”

Since our political leaders and media have decided that the only reason Henry Nowak died was because the police are too woke, here are my two cents, based on what I've read of the public information 🧵

Just when you least expect it, there he is again: Anthony Gormley and his iron d*ck

All far right political movements go after abortion. Because they are rooted in misogyny. From Farage defending Trump and Andrew Tate, to Reform calling for restrictions on abortion, read my analysis on what the Makerfield by-election says about Reform sexism www.opendemocracy.net/dont-be-shoc...

Makerfield Reform candidate Robert Kenyon’s abortion and sexist comments expose party’s misogyny

openDemocracy and the Fuller Project exposed Reform’s growing anti-abortion rhetoric. Its candidate’s comments proved our case.

opendemocracy.net

Unnoticed by whom?

NPR@npr.org · 2mo ago

Misogyny is an increasing factor in far-right attacks, but it often goes unnoticed. n.pr/4tWJ12w

Did that sentence continue with "..if it wants to make absolutely sure that no one who voted Labour in the last election will ever do so again"?

The Guardian@theguardian.com · 2mo ago

Tony Blair says Labour must abandon net zero, support Trump and move firmly to the right

Starbucks done EFFED up in Korea. Bad. May 18th just passed, Democratic Movement Day, when rose up after the military dictatorship sent tanks to mass-murder citizens. Some inappropriately call it "Tank Day." Starbucks commemorated Tank Day with a sale on tank tumblers. It gets much worse...

At a No 10 briefing today we heard about the government's commitment to "a whole-of-society response to antisemitism”. Asked if this might involve the government leaving X, where antisemitism is not only rife but monetlised, were were told it is "something we always keep under review." So: no.

No mention of any attempt to tackle hate content on X, Facebook etc, with much broader reach than student demos?

Peter Stefanovic@peterstefanovic.bsky.social · 3mo ago

BREAKING: “We will now expect universities to publish the scale of the problem on their campuses as well as the specific steps they have taken to clamp down on it. There will be zero tolerance for inaction” Keir Starmer is hosting No 10 summit to tackle antisemitism

I get a lot of AI slop book marketing emails, but this is the first time I have ever been . . . mistaken for Jane Austen.

Had a dream last night where there was a new series of Blackadder with Blackadder as the UK Ambassador to America, and now feel this needs to be made.