Scott Wortley

Reading for 2026: Dumas - The count of Monte Cristo. It's really good. consistent page turner despite the length. The most recent Penguin translation is excellent. It zips along, without the ornate nature of the 19th century translation. More complex than it gets credit for when abridged as a kids'

Well done to harry kane on following in the tradition of the Montgolfier brothers and winning the gold balloon.

Little seen British comedy is about to be shown on Film 4. The ITV2 film preservation scheme saw the original print saved for the nation and now Hot Fuzz can be seen by all

Very good from Lord Sales on purposive interpretation

Interesting thing on 4 extra today. The sort of thing you wouldn't just come across on sounds without the curation of a public service broadcaster

i see another Kenyan athlete has failed a drugs test

Andy Burnham is urging us to stock up on essentials such as tinned food, water, toilet paper and Amol Rajan Connection live tour tickets.

I am old enough to remember Roberto Unger being referred to in jurisprudence lectures by Neil MacCormick as someone from the left challenging legal orthodoxies.

heard a thing the other day about Leone Ross and she sounded a very interesting novelist. Anyone read her that could give me a sense of the best place to start?

Did my interpreting signs lecture today in which I analyse laughter in the manner of dissecting a frog - not pretty and the frog dies.

www.jkrowling.com/opinions/an-...

This cause is close to my heart - please sign: you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/sa...

What is this Hot Fuzz of which you speak? It ia so obscure that I have never heard of it. By the title, I imagine it is some philosophical musings centred on the staff of a barbershop in a warm climate somewhere; maybe the Caribbean?

A treat for film fans tonight as Film 4 has obtained and broadcasts the little seen British comedy film, Hot Fuzz. Rescued from a skip by a film preservation company known as ITV2 Film 4 have curated a special performance this evening at 9 pm

TV news

Alexei Sayle's Stuff (20th October 1988). "Well, we apologise for the absence of Alexei Sayle in this week's edition of Alexei Sayle's Stuff. We're attempting to right the problem, but in the meantime the programme will continue in Leslie Crowther only".

Future 'Only Connect' round where these are going to be put up and the contestants are going to be asked what connects them all: FREE MARGARITA NEGRONI PIŇA COLADA

oh

Will he go electric by the time he gets to the Usher Hall?

Alexei Sayle's Stuff (19th October 1989). A lot more work goes into the production of each episode of Stuff than you might expect.

ah, the Coventry market musical

!!!

Was on the train this morning and some bloke with glasses started recording a social media video disrupting everyone else in the carriage. Cheeky sod.

I have excellent taste and as such the music I listen to is absolutely brilliant so why wouldn’t everybody want to hear it anyway?

I always listen to my music in quiet coaches on trains because you can hear them better there.

reform has lost a scottish MSP through resignation, and it isn't the one everyone had money on.

Gentleman? Scholar? Acrobat? The pink panther exposed.

having had kids go through scottish school education recently, and seeing the end results within the university sector I merely note that in chess analysis the comment on this would be "???????????????"

BBc2 has north by northwest and where eagles dare on today.

Remember the covid? Mad wasn't it? #hedidlengthsnotlaps

Quite a statement

UK parliament nerd friends - might anyone have the gift sop "Asbo Bear" in their collection? This is for research...

Peoples of Bluesky, please attend carefully. The message that follows is vital to the future of you all... I've reviewed RTD's new book 'The Queerest of Folk: a life in television' for Notes from Behind the Sofa. notesfromb3hindthesofa.substack.com/p/doctor-who...

I'm gonna get an AI baby and make it look like Alvin Sng, then I will tell his "wife" that me and Alvin Sng have a baby and that baby can read better than her husband and she will divorce him and get an AI husband which will hit even more different, I reckon x

(Here in full at the LRB: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v3...)

"(8) The problems of Albertine are (from the narrator’s point of view) a) lying b) lesbianism, and (from Albertine’s point of view) a) being imprisoned in the narrator’s house."

"(4) On a good 19 per cent of these pages she is asleep." >

"(2) Albertine’s name occurs 2363 times in Proust’s novel, more than any other character." (3) Albertine herself is present or mentioned on 807 pages of Proust’s novel." >

A niche Carson choice, but our personal favourite = The Albertine Workout. Some excerpts below (and a link):