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Paul Fairie @paulisci.bsky.social · Nov 22

Washington DC scandal, 100 years ago today

Poor Girl Jilted For Rich Old Lady

GIRL BREAKS LRG IN LEAP OUT OF SENATOR'S WINDOW

--Washington Times, 22 Nov 1924

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Paul Fairie @paulisci.bsky.social · Nov 22

There should be more stuff like this in newspapers again.

Caption: Photo diagram showing how Miss Clara Miles jumped from the office window of Senator Irvine L. Lenroot of Wisconsin when his secretary, John C. Dugan, who was her escort, urged her to escape following a knock on the door by the Senate Office Building police.

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Roxane Gay @roxanegay.bsky.social · Nov 22

This echo chamber nonsense is predicated on the notion that bigotry is a valid perspective. It isn’t. Grow up! Think better!

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Sarah Churchwell @sarahchurchwell.bsky.social · Nov 21

Hi @washingtonpost.com thanks for telling me I should resubscribe because you promise to hold power to account.

Sadly the reason I canceled my sub was because you’ve already broken that promise. Before they even took power. Shame on you.

Signed a sometime contributor as well as former subscriber.

Screenshot of a Washington Post email asking me to resubscribe on the basis they will “hold power to account,” which would be funny after Bezos killed their endorsement of Harris if the consequences weren’t the world domination of billionaires, the destruction of democracy, the loss of Ukraine and Palestine, any chance at fighting the climate crisis, and the now-all-but-inevitable rise of a chaotic mix of anarcho-fascistic, theocratic neofeudalism in a post-environmental wastescape.

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Sarah Churchwell @sarahchurchwell.bsky.social · Nov 22

“The problem with Fox News: It won’t broaden our horizons.”

“The problem with Truth Social: It won’t broaden our horizons.”

“The problem with the Manosphere : It won’t broaden our horizons.”

Come back to us when you’ve fixed their echo chambers.

The Globe and Mail @theglobeandmail.com · Nov 22

Opinion - The problem with Bluesky: It won’t broaden our horizons: In the wake of Donald Trump’s election win, the social-media platform has enjoyed a surge of new users looking for an alternative to Elon Musk’s X. But will it be useful, if it just creates an echo chamber for the left?

The problem with Bluesky: It won’t broaden our horizons

In the wake of Donald Trump’s election win, the social-media platform has enjoyed a surge of new users looking for an alternative to Elon Musk’s X. But will it be useful, if it just creates an echo chamber for the left?

www.theglobeandmail.com

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Mark Vent @markvent.bsky.social · Nov 22

Hi!

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Mark Vent @markvent.bsky.social · Nov 22

Look amazing Alec! I'm diving in as I type - starts not far at all from where I used to live ;)

Mark Vent @markvent.bsky.social · Nov 22

The Wolves Are Running! can't wait for a rewatch all these years later.

Mark Vent @markvent.bsky.social · Nov 22

you gotta use your body and your brain if you wanna win the game ...

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Mark Vent @markvent.bsky.social · Mar 22

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Mark Vent @markvent.bsky.social · Mar 22

I mean Gremlins was fine - but it didn't really have any kind of narrative arc did it? these are gremlins, gremlins are horrible & chaotic, film ends with gremlins being horrible & chaotic. less an arc more a flat line.
Ghostbusters had narrative, characters, fun, scary/jeopardy (for its age range)

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Simon Mayo @simonmayo.bsky.social · Mar 11

This is terrific from @gralefrit.bsky.social

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Joel Morris @gralefrit.bsky.social · Mar 11

Really enjoyed doing this podcast for Dan (QI / No Such Thing As A Fish) Schreiber.

My two favourite topics - comedy and the strange - colliding. Got a chance to talk about life, the universe and everything, as well as the book…

https://pod.link/1687199754/episode/026995dcbd9ac34886ef2f588fad7e7a

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Mark Vent @markvent.bsky.social · Mar 5

if you write it - we will buy it 💜

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Mark Vent @markvent.bsky.social · Feb 21

Neil Armstrong's first step on the Moon - was his second favourite step - his favourite was stepping on some steps that Jesus may have stepped on in Jerusalem.

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Mark Vent @markvent.bsky.social · Feb 8

Once upon a morning dreary, while I slumbered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore
While I nodded, clearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my window for
a hotel biscuit, only this and nothing more.”

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Mark Vent @markvent.bsky.social · Jan 24

answer 65p a litre and sit there glaring whilst they do the conversion!

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Bert’s Books @bertsbooks.bsky.social · Dec 29

If you have a bookshop near you, make sure to pop in regularly and check that your favourite bookseller has enough water and is being taken for regular walks

(Or just buy a book on their website)

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Julia Carrie Wong @joolia.bsky.social · Dec 4

Are they calling it “long-awaited” because they think we will forgot that 10 days ago Israel said Hamas’s HQ was in the basement of a hospital in northern Gaza? Cause we did not forget it was like last week ffs.

NYT push alert: “Breaking News
Israel has begun an invasion of southern Gaza, images show. The long-awaited ground operation could decide the fate of the war with Hamas.”

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Paul Fairie @paulisci.bsky.social · Dec 5

This needs to be a movie.

Life was just a routine round of milk bottles for milkman Richard Atkinson until a wild moment when he yielded to an impulse to join the Foreign Legion.

Now he's facing trial for theft after a crowded 8 weeks which took him from Canterbury to Paris to Sidi-Bel-Abbes to Oran & back to Canterbury.

When the impulse struck, a court was told, Atkinson:

Parked his milk truck in the street, pocketed the day's proceeds and took off for Paris.

Lost his money in Paris & joined the Legion.

Was sent to Sibi-Bel-Abbes, Algerian HQ of the legion, where he was issued equipment & sent to Fort Mascara to fight Algerian rebels.

Made his way to Oran stowed away on a German ship bound for Marseilles & arrested on arrival as a deserter from the legion.

Escaped from his guards enroute to Paris & got to the British embassy, where he was given papers for his return to England.

Pleaded guilty to taking $19.60 -- the proceeds from the milk sales on that first day.
--Beaver Valley Times, 1 Jan 1957

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Ray Newman @raynewman.bsky.social · Dec 5

From Nigel Kneale’s introduction to the 1973 Folio Society edition of ‘Ghost Stories of M.R. James’, illustrated by Charles Keeping. 📚

“These are personal and secret terrors made appallingly substantial, hallucination but tangible. The skeletal shapes retain the strength to catch and kill. It is not the soul they threaten but the body – or the brain, with madness... Often they possess the most basic threat of all-they can change their shape and nature. This stirs a dread that must go back to our primitive past, that if we cannot identify our enemy we are lost. He will kill us before we know him. It gives rise to the myths of the werewolf, sometimes man sometimes beast, and of the unidentifiable vampire.”

A grimacing, gruesome skull creature emerging from grey slime.

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Mark Vent @markvent.bsky.social · Nov 15

[whatever]-as-a-service ...

Software
TV
Film
Books
Theatre
Music

AND even paying for these things doesn't guarantee you no f*cking adverts

as they say ... Games gone.

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Mark Vent @markvent.bsky.social · Nov 15

nor has it even remotely worked I'd add.

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All Hallows’ Steve @qqzm.bsky.social · Nov 15

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