Reading

Created
Tue, 25/11/2025 - 01:05
One of the predictions I made many years ago was that Long Covid would slowly cripple workforces. Covid still exists, and that we deliberately don’t try to count cases any more doesn’t change that. This is typical of our handling of all problems. We just pretend they don’t exist and won’t have serious consequences if […]
Created
Mon, 24/11/2025 - 19:34
Beamish Street (above, top left to bottom right) cuts across Campsie like a knife wound, only instead of blood, a spurt of discount stores, fresh produce markets and newsagents has erupted into the populace. A news-hungry populace. Seriously, there are no fewer than three newsagents active in a very small area here, with at least […]
Created
Mon, 24/11/2025 - 06:49
Week-end Wrap – Political Economy – November 23, 2025 by Tony Wikrent   Trump not violating any law ‘He who saves his Country does not violate any Law’ Trump Stuns By Saying ‘I Don’t Know’ When Asked Directly NBC’s Kristen Welker ‘Don’t You Need to Uphold the Constitution?’ Joe DePaolo, May 4th, 2025 [mediaite.com] “Riots […]
Created
Sat, 22/11/2025 - 08:27
After three decades of creating ruin and disaster across the globe, Larry Summers is finally being pushed from the lofty heights of power and prestige. The proximate cause of his downfall are recently released emails between Summers and suicided arms dealer/sex trafficker/intelligence asset/money launderer Jeffrey Epstein. The emails show the married, middle-aged Summers going to […]
Created
Sat, 22/11/2025 - 05:00

Over the river and through the woods,
To Grandmother’s house we go;
At the airport on time, which is good cause the lines
Are moving super slow.

Over the river and through the screens
Then stuck at security
I’ve been patted down and thrown to the ground
Due to my lithium battery.

Over the river and through the woods
I’m looking around for food
Everything sucks and costs twenty bucks,
Guess I’ll just slam some booze.

Over the river at Hudson News
Flipping through the magazines
The book that I bought is a bit overwrought
With a dearth of good sex scenes.

Over the river, now on the tarmac
To Grandmother’s house we wait
The flight is delayed, our nerves are all frayed
As we taxi around the gate.

Over the river and very hungry now
The food cart scuttles past.
How incredibly rude that the smell of food
Only wafts in from first class.

Over the river and through the woods
My family’s in four different rows
My seatmate smells vile, and he puked in the aisle
Then I watched him clip his toes.

Created
Sat, 22/11/2025 - 01:00


A quarterly column, steady as ever.

- - -

Books read:

Love’s Labour: How We Break and Make the Bonds of Love—Stephen Grosz
Affairs: True Stories of Love, Lies, Hope and Desire—Juliet Rosenfeld
The Light Years—Elizabeth Jane Howard

Books bought:

Working the Room: Essays and Reviews, 1999–2010—Geoff Dyer
Zero at the Bone: Fifty Entries Against Despair—Christian Wiman
Uncle Willy and Other Stories—William Faulkner
Cue the Sun!: The Invention of Reality TV—Emily Nussbaum

- - -

It’s Epigraph City out there. Just about every nonfiction book I have started over the last couple of months begins with at least one of the little bastards, often two. Love’s Labour by Stephen Grosz goes with a Rilke and an Iris Murdoch:

Created
Sat, 22/11/2025 - 00:29
What the governments of the Global North don’t care about, they don’t measure. By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 21st November 2025 I began by trying to discover whether or not a widespread belief was true. In doing so, I tripped across something even bigger: an index of the world’s indifference. I already knew […]
Created
Sat, 22/11/2025 - 00:00

Dear colleagues,

I just wanted to reach out and let you know that I’m officially done saying sorry. As a woman, I feel the flippant use and misuse of this word gives away my power, if that makes any sense. If you have any free time this week or next, or even in the next couple of weeks, feel free to read the rest of this email to understand further. If not, no worries at all—I’m sure you’re extremely busy this time of year.

My near-addiction to apologizing has been around as long as I can remember. Trigger warning: My dad wasn’t very emotionally present during my childhood, if it’s okay for me to bring that up. Not to make this whole thing about me, but seeking his approval has caused a lot of people-pleasing, codependent tendencies to manifest in the way I communicate. I’ve obviously gotten over most of them, but this “sorry” habit will be the last one to go.

I feel like I just talked forever. I would love to hear about your stuff, too, if you ever want to chat about anything. I’m here for you whenever you need me, just let me know.

Created
Fri, 21/11/2025 - 20:07

History, as the saying goes, doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme. As we approach the Labour Government’s decisive Budget, and an abstract debate rages around the future of welfare spending in the UK, a brilliant piece of historical research published this summer sheds new light on the catastrophic impacts of previous cuts to support […]

Created
Fri, 21/11/2025 - 19:00
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November 21st, 2025: Probably I've eat