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Spinky’s Mama @spinkysmama.bsky.social · 7m

As did Aldous Huxley.

Spinky’s Mama @spinkysmama.bsky.social · 4h

For the exact opposite phenomenon: Sebastian Payne claims that he failed to get selected as a Conservative candidate for Parliament because he mispronounced Bromsgrove.

After painstaking linguistic analysis, @cooraysmith.bsky.social and I decided he could have said ‘Bromsgrovay’.

Merriam-Webster @merriam-webster.com · 16h

What’s the word where you’re from that, when pronounced exactly as it looks, identifies a tourist immediately?

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Spinky’s Mama @spinkysmama.bsky.social · 4h

I treasure a (really nice) American talking about Loogaborooga*

I then asked him about Ar-Kansas, in a practical demonstration of instant karma.

*Loughborough

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Spinky’s Mama @spinkysmama.bsky.social · 4h

Torn between really, really wanting to get Sylv’s reaction and the moral implications of provoking an 81 year old into apoplectic fury.

Stephen Graves @stephengraves.co.uk · 5h

A surprisingly large number of them think the way to connect with Gen Z is "dress like Sylvester McCoy's Doctor Who."

A screen grab of a Times article. The photograph depicts three men and a woman - according to the caption these are Charles Amos, Rhys Benjamin, Daniel Campbell and Glesni Reece.

Charles is in tweeds and a fedora, Rhys sports a combover and a question mark pullover as worn by the seventh Doctor Who. Daniel wears a blue "Make Britain Great Again" baseball cap. Glesni, unlike the others, is not wearing an outlandish costume, just a black tailored jacket over a white blouse.

Text reads:

Meet the young Tories dreaming of a bright blue future
The Conservatives know they have a problem with Gen Z voters. At the party conference, The Times met a new breed of activists who are embracing the challenge

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Reposted by Spinky’s Mama

James Cooray Smith @ Psychic Paper @cooraysmith.bsky.social · 12d

For paid subscribers, but with a taste and the option to opt in, it‘s Planet of Fire over @ psychic paper. buttondown.com/cooray_smith... (There are also links to unpaywalled pieces further up this feed.)

Planet of Fire

“Fire! I want you to burn!” I wound up with a VHS copy of most of Planet of Fire in early 1990. It was an unlikely choice for only the sixth story I had even...

buttondown.com

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Reposted by Spinky’s Mama

James Cooray Smith @ Psychic Paper @cooraysmith.bsky.social · 20h

For paid subscribers, but with a taste and a link to a free piece and the chance to opt in. Can't say fairer than that.
buttondown.com/cooray_smith...

The Mind Robber

“It's too bad that all these things can only happen in my dreams. Only in dreams. In beautiful dreams.” In 1990 BBC Video really accelerated their Doctor Who...

buttondown.com

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Spinky’s Mama @spinkysmama.bsky.social · 21h

Now wondering what would happen if we got the full David Brunt treatment for The Young Ones and Fawlty Towers.

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Spinky’s Mama @spinkysmama.bsky.social · 21h

Both Nigel Planer and Ben Elton have new memoirs out, so there may be more blanks filled in.

I’d love to read Lise Mayer’s account, like Connie Booth on writing Fawlty Towers.

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Spinky’s Mama @spinkysmama.bsky.social · 21h

“Wait, you can just go and visit my beloved Geoff?”
“Yes, but you can’t come too because of some plot.”

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Spinky’s Mama @spinkysmama.bsky.social · 22h

It’s been nearly 25 years. I should have got over it. But I haven’t.

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Spinky’s Mama @spinkysmama.bsky.social · 22h

The 1996 OFAH ending is so perfectly satisfying that it pays off a throwaway event in the first episode. Del tells off Rodney for keeping receipts, which is why they can establish ownership of the Harrison watch.

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Spinky’s Mama @spinkysmama.bsky.social · 22h

Thinking about my different reaction to Donna not being rich in The Star Beast to the Trotters in the 2001 OFAH.

It’s for similar reasons (rich characters don’t have the same plot opportunities), but I don’t feel cheated because Donna chose to give away her money and she gets her memories back.

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Spinky’s Mama @spinkysmama.bsky.social · 23h

This is a fantastic read, now available for less than the price of a Dairy Milk. A meditation on liminal spaces with everything from the Yalta Agreement to the variations in Taytos.

Lewis Baston @lewisbaston.bsky.social · 1d

You can get my book Borderlines in electronic form for an amazing 99p at the moment; at a time when politicians are fetishising borders, why not look at them in a bit more detail, and get the view from Europe’s borders? www.amazon.co.uk/Borderlines-...

Borderlines: A History of Europe in 29 Borders

Borderlines: A History of Europe in 29 Borders eBook : Baston, Lewis: Amazon.co.uk: Books

www.amazon.co.uk

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Spinky’s Mama @spinkysmama.bsky.social · 23h

Donald Sinden was a friend of Lord Alfred ‘Bosie’ Douglas and one of the mourners at his funeral.

rax ‘levon honkers’ king @raxkingisdead.bsky.social · 1d

you ever think about those real weird overlaps. like tennessee williams might have listened to the ramones

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Spinky’s Mama @spinkysmama.bsky.social · 23h

Winston Churchill could have watched ‘All Roads Lead to Rome’, episode 2 of the Doctor Who story ‘The Romans’. But almost certainly didn’t.

rax ‘levon honkers’ king @raxkingisdead.bsky.social · 1d

you ever think about those real weird overlaps. like tennessee williams might have listened to the ramones

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Spinky’s Mama @spinkysmama.bsky.social · 1d

Especially after the Mace incident 😬

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Spinky’s Mama @spinkysmama.bsky.social · 1d

I saw him around MHCLG when he was doing advisory work in 2018. When he’s in a room, you *know* he’s in the room.

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Spinky’s Mama @spinkysmama.bsky.social · 1d

Drop something skeletal.

The Slimby picture from the 2005 series of the BBC spoof 80s documentary Look Around You. To the left, a roaring black bear. To the right, the top half of a human skeleton.

The Slimby Slimming Picture is a unique slimming accessory designed for use with Slimby Shake.

IMPORTANT

READ BEFORE PROCEEDING

The Slimby Slimming Picture is not suitable for minors.
The Slimby Slimming Picture is not a toy.
Do not view the Slimby Slimming Picture if you are pregnant.
Never show the Slimby Slimming Picture to a dog.
Do not view the Slimby Slimming Picture if you are already on a slimming diet.
Do not exceed more than 4 viewings in 24 hours.
Do not view the Slimby Slimming Picture if you or anyone in your family has a history of mental health problems.
Do not attempt to view the Slimby Slimming Picture whilst driving, operating heavy machinery or balancing on an uneven surface.

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Spinky’s Mama @spinkysmama.bsky.social · 1d

That the head coach driver at our school escaped a German POW camp with a ‘concealed’ penknife, by yelling at the guards “Let me out or I’ll touch you with the pooey end!”.

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Reposted by Spinky’s Mama

Lewis Baston @lewisbaston.bsky.social · 1d

You can get my book Borderlines in electronic form for an amazing 99p at the moment; at a time when politicians are fetishising borders, why not look at them in a bit more detail, and get the view from Europe’s borders? www.amazon.co.uk/Borderlines-...

Borderlines: A History of Europe in 29 Borders

Borderlines: A History of Europe in 29 Borders eBook : Baston, Lewis: Amazon.co.uk: Books

www.amazon.co.uk

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Spinky’s Mama @spinkysmama.bsky.social · 1d

Why not guess which of me and @cooraysmith.bsky.social is exasperated and which of us is leaping around decapitating Cybermen in the Death Zone?
*THHWAP*

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Spinky’s Mama @spinkysmama.bsky.social · 1d

“Ah, my new grey Heattech’s arrived. Just going to put it on.”
“Checking the fit?”
“And some…other things.”

a naked man is standing in front of a rocky hillside .

Alt: The Raston Warrior Robot from the 1983 Doctor Who story The Five Doctors, a figure clad in a grey unitard and silver helmet on a rocky hillside, leaps into the air and vanishes.

media.tenor.com

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Spinky’s Mama @spinkysmama.bsky.social · 2d

There’s probably a Reform task force dedicated to talking Truss out of defecting.

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Spinky’s Mama @spinkysmama.bsky.social · 2d

I wonder if it’s linked to your ‘Go Outside!’ phenomenon. In 2010 the opposition is reacting to Government policies by setting out their own agenda. In 2025 the opposition is marinating in X and responding to whatever’s thrown up by its algorithm (not helped by the Government still being there).

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Spinky’s Mama @spinkysmama.bsky.social · 2d

I have much to say in response, but will encapsulate it into “that prick is Pope-spraining again like he’s St Thomas Aquinas and not the second banana in Rosary Stars Praying the Gospel”.

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