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caractacus.bsky.social
Bill
@caractacus.bsky.social
420 followers 380 following 540 posts
He/him. Writer, editor, fact checker. Not a candy. https://ktepi.com/
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caractacus.bsky.social
www.washingtonpost.com/books/2025/1...
Review | Olivia Nuzzi tries and fails to save her reputation in ‘American Canto’
The flashy reporter who lost her job at New York magazine over a relationship with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. returns with a memoir light on gossip — and reckoning
www.washingtonpost.com
December 2, 2025 at 3:55 PM
Reposted by Bill
neilpollyticks.bsky.social
Alt text for those who need it. This is amazing.
Saved by Stoppard Sir, In 1993 my wife and I went to see the first production of Arcadia by Tom Stoppard (obituary, Dec I), and in the interval I experienced a Damascene conversion. As a clinical scientist I was trying to understand the enigma of the behaviour of breast cancer, the assumption being that it grew in a linear trajectory spitting off metastases on its way. In the first act of Arcadia, Thomasina asks her tutor, Septimus: "If there is an equation for a curve like a bell, there must be an equation for one like a bluebell, and if a bluebell, why not a rose?" With that Stoppard explains chaos theory, which better explains the behaviour of breast cancer. At the point of diagnosis, the cancer must have already scattered cancer cells into the circulation that nest latent in distant organs. The consequence of that hypothesis was the birth of "adjuvant systemic chemotherapy", ", and rapidly we saw a striking fall of the curve that illustrated patients' survival. Stoppard never learnt how many lives he saved by writing Arcadia. Michael Baum Professor emeritus of surgery; visiting professor of medical humanities, UCL r.
December 2, 2025 at 9:42 AM
caractacus.bsky.social
Remember when Joaquin Phoenix claimed he was pivoting to a rap career and made some weird talk show appearances that turned out to be part of a dumb movie? That was technically part of the press tour for a completely different movie (I had to look it up to even remember the title: Two Lovers).
November 30, 2025 at 10:46 PM
caractacus.bsky.social
Nothing says "visit our restaurant for a warm and personable experience" like boilerplate sales copy from The Quality Hospitality Collective.
November 30, 2025 at 10:23 PM
caractacus.bsky.social
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang on TV was always a big deal in my house, up there with The Wizard of Oz.
November 27, 2025 at 4:35 PM