Coates is Odd This Day
@oddthisday.bsky.social
“Meticulously researched” niche drivel https://mulberryhall.medium.com/
Blimey *updates ‘to read’ list*
TFW two recent but very different interests overlap: read in Roger Lewis' biography of Peter Sellers last night that the actor was in the frame for a planned sci-fi film in the late '60s called The Alien written by ... Satyajit Ray, who was also going to direct. 1/3
January 10, 2026 at 1:12 PM
Blimey *updates ‘to read’ list*
The automata, especially, are marvellous
I‘m on my nonsense again. This week’s Six Things:
– The secret world of animal sleep
– Sentences are getting shorter. Yes.
– The Measure of Things
– Earth
– Rustic automata
– a horrible, horrible game
open.substack.com/pub/levparik...
– The secret world of animal sleep
– Sentences are getting shorter. Yes.
– The Measure of Things
– Earth
– Rustic automata
– a horrible, horrible game
open.substack.com/pub/levparik...
Six Things, Volume 142
Sleep | Sentences | Measures | Earth | Automata | 2025
open.substack.com
January 10, 2026 at 12:42 PM
The automata, especially, are marvellous
Reposted by Coates is Odd This Day
Today is the 381st anniversary of William Laud being the most recent Archbishop of Canterbury to suffer a violent death 🧵
January 10, 2026 at 10:24 AM
Today is the 381st anniversary of William Laud being the most recent Archbishop of Canterbury to suffer a violent death 🧵
Reposted by Coates is Odd This Day
Are these...are these COW TOOLS?
Composition by Joaquín Torres-García, 1938
https://botfrens.com/collections/212/contents/137614
https://botfrens.com/collections/212/contents/137614
January 10, 2026 at 8:50 AM
Are these...are these COW TOOLS?
Reposted by Coates is Odd This Day
me to the greenhouse glass: you better not be pulling that rococo shit
the greenhouse glass:
the greenhouse glass:
January 10, 2026 at 8:52 AM
me to the greenhouse glass: you better not be pulling that rococo shit
the greenhouse glass:
the greenhouse glass:
Reposted by Coates is Odd This Day
Here is a video of a frozen creek that had begun to thaw, and the water was flowing beneath the thin ice on top. I took this because it was soothing and wonderfully bloopy and I wanted to listen to it for hours. You are all welcome to enjoy it, too. Let your brain settle here and rest for a moment.
January 10, 2026 at 4:57 AM
Here is a video of a frozen creek that had begun to thaw, and the water was flowing beneath the thin ice on top. I took this because it was soothing and wonderfully bloopy and I wanted to listen to it for hours. You are all welcome to enjoy it, too. Let your brain settle here and rest for a moment.
Reposted by Coates is Odd This Day
Oh this is good. This is very good.
January 9, 2026 at 11:52 PM
Oh this is good. This is very good.
Now reading Yvonne Innes’ ‘Dip My Brain In Joy’
January 9, 2026 at 5:41 PM
Now reading Yvonne Innes’ ‘Dip My Brain In Joy’
Reposted by Coates is Odd This Day
Is it really a year since I had my HOT LADDER moment on Bluesky? (yes)
January 9, 2026 at 11:22 AM
Is it really a year since I had my HOT LADDER moment on Bluesky? (yes)
Maritime history news today, in that it’s the 220th anniversary of the laying to rest of Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, 1st Duke of Bronte, KB in a marble sarcophagus (which three centuries earlier had been intended for Cardinal Wolsey) in the crypt of St Paul’s Cathedral 🧵
January 9, 2026 at 9:15 AM
Maritime history news today, in that it’s the 220th anniversary of the laying to rest of Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, 1st Duke of Bronte, KB in a marble sarcophagus (which three centuries earlier had been intended for Cardinal Wolsey) in the crypt of St Paul’s Cathedral 🧵
Reposted by Coates is Odd This Day
Things are awful, so a little treat for the real Crush-Heads. It is now eleven years since I got this printed in the Metro.
January 8, 2026 at 4:54 PM
Things are awful, so a little treat for the real Crush-Heads. It is now eleven years since I got this printed in the Metro.
Reposted by Coates is Odd This Day
S! T! Oo! G-E-S! Stooges to entertain you!
Your regular reminder that 'Lust for Life' - era Iggy Pop was indistinguishable from Melvyn Hayes.
January 8, 2026 at 6:00 PM
S! T! Oo! G-E-S! Stooges to entertain you!
This is just lovely
BBC Four - Remembers..., Samuel West Remembers... Prunella Scales
Samuel West introduces a night of BBC programmes celebrating his mother, Prunella Scales.
www.bbc.co.uk
January 8, 2026 at 12:59 PM
This is just lovely
Reposted by Coates is Odd This Day
This is AMAZING.
If you've not seen it, I highly recommend Stephen Tobolowsky's (best known as Ned Ryerson from Groundhog Day) story on working with Seagal: youtu.be/5cUNU8GkMso?...
I'd also add that Executive Decision is his only decent post-Under Siege movie with a most un-Seagal like element to his role.
I'd also add that Executive Decision is his only decent post-Under Siege movie with a most un-Seagal like element to his role.
Stephen Tobolowsky on working with Steven Seagal | Cut
YouTube video by Cut
youtu.be
January 8, 2026 at 12:07 PM
This is AMAZING.
Reposted by Coates is Odd This Day
Probably one of the best road safety adverts from TfL.
If you've never seen it before - I can guarantee you will watch it twice.
If you've never seen it before - I can guarantee you will watch it twice.
January 8, 2026 at 11:58 AM
Probably one of the best road safety adverts from TfL.
If you've never seen it before - I can guarantee you will watch it twice.
If you've never seen it before - I can guarantee you will watch it twice.
Graham Chapman would have been 85 today, which seems as good a time as any to remind ourselves of this Barry Cryer anecdote about the times when he and Chapman were writing material together for Ronnie Corbett
January 8, 2026 at 9:28 AM
Graham Chapman would have been 85 today, which seems as good a time as any to remind ourselves of this Barry Cryer anecdote about the times when he and Chapman were writing material together for Ronnie Corbett
Reposted by Coates is Odd This Day
Well, obviously this should be revisited for the 79th anniversary of David Bowie’s birth
“David, who shall we invite to the wedding?”
“Bono. Ono. Eno.”
“I love you, you unstoppable conceptual bastard.”
“Bono. Ono. Eno.”
“I love you, you unstoppable conceptual bastard.”
January 8, 2026 at 7:15 AM
Well, obviously this should be revisited for the 79th anniversary of David Bowie’s birth
I’ve found myself thinking recently about the scene in Godfather Part II when people celebrate the fall of Batista in Cuba by taking baseball bats to parking meters. Specifically, when thinking about things like this and the acts of erasure that people will want to carry out when… the time comes
![Cherry pickers at the Kennedy Center [sic] in Washington as an extra name is added to the building](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:vckf3haopb3yncclmf7o2m3f/bafkreiaftzy43i7cfwuep7wwlhps52c4ieztbttg7hdplxfesvbr7suspm@jpeg)
January 7, 2026 at 6:07 PM
I’ve found myself thinking recently about the scene in Godfather Part II when people celebrate the fall of Batista in Cuba by taking baseball bats to parking meters. Specifically, when thinking about things like this and the acts of erasure that people will want to carry out when… the time comes
Reposted by Coates is Odd This Day
“Are you serious about this writing business?” Kurt Vonnegut asked Salman Rushdie. “Then you should know that the day is going to come when you won’t have a book to write, and you’re still going to have to write a book.”
I wrote this about when writers stop writing:
I wrote this about when writers stop writing:
Is silence golden? When writers choose to stop
Novelist Julian Barnes’s retirement highlights how rare it is for a writer to choose to fall silent
www.irishtimes.com
January 7, 2026 at 4:37 PM
“Are you serious about this writing business?” Kurt Vonnegut asked Salman Rushdie. “Then you should know that the day is going to come when you won’t have a book to write, and you’re still going to have to write a book.”
I wrote this about when writers stop writing:
I wrote this about when writers stop writing:
I was about to start one of these calling for the government to leave Twitter, but you can’t do it anonymously, so if anyone doesn’t mind getting doorstepped by GB News, or have children who might get harassed at school/university, let me know. I have wording you can use...
Petitions - UK Government and Parliament
Official online petitions in response to issues of the day, listing the number that got a Government response, and those that have been debated in the House of Parliament
petition.parliament.uk
January 7, 2026 at 1:52 PM
I was about to start one of these calling for the government to leave Twitter, but you can’t do it anonymously, so if anyone doesn’t mind getting doorstepped by GB News, or have children who might get harassed at school/university, let me know. I have wording you can use...
Reposted by Coates is Odd This Day
Ah, 7 January – or as it’s otherwise known, 88th anniversary of the time Samuel Beckett was stabbed by a pimp on the streets of Paris in the small hours, causing him to meet his soulmate and giving rise to the phrase (and recipe) ‘assassination custard’ 🧵
January 7, 2026 at 9:58 AM
Ah, 7 January – or as it’s otherwise known, 88th anniversary of the time Samuel Beckett was stabbed by a pimp on the streets of Paris in the small hours, causing him to meet his soulmate and giving rise to the phrase (and recipe) ‘assassination custard’ 🧵