Beyond the Fringe - from the 'Aftermyth of War' sketch. YouTube video by frogandpeach1

Ministers being sent out on the media round for matters Mandelsonian. m.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5YW...

I spent some time recently with a Paw Patrol enthusiast who turned into a Bacchant at the slightest hint of the theme tune. Nor was I persuaded by their account of what sounds like police propaganda.

Meet ‘Two Epilogues’ Tolstoy.

ZipporahFilms | Discover Frederick Wiseman Documentaries Explore award-winning documentaries by Frederick Wiseman, showcasing the intricate tapestry of American institutions and social dynamics.

‘In lieu of flowers, the family and Zipporah Films kindly request that you support your local PBS affiliate or independent bookstore in Frederick Wiseman’s memory’ zipporahfilms.com

We don’t need to grant online attention to every egregiously racist utterance in 2026

That makes complete sense – and reminds me to get my DVDs and Blu-rays out of storage this holiday.

Would absolutely listen to test match commentary by the groundsmen.

‘Palestine 36’ has an astonishingly graceful disclaimer at the end of the credits. Also, good to see Orde Wingate played as a psychopath, though the long hair was unnecessary.

I haven’t had reason to pass through King’s Cross today, which I normally do, so this is merely anecdotal, it’s true.

The people with the wheelie suitcases have left. London is mine.

The Odyssey | Official Trailer YouTube video by Universal Pictures

The tone of The Odyssey trailer suggests that Matt Damon won’t be spending much time chez Calypso or with the Phaeacians. But that’s okay; I felt very relaxed about Briseis (Rose Byrne) killing Agamemnon during the sack of Troy. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mzw2...

Untameable Saki One hundred years after Saki's death in the Great War, his stories are still wickedly funny

“In story after story, epicene young men, difficult children, or wild beasts set out to shake up the stifling complacency around them”

@hekale.bsky.social on Saki’s fierce, funny, & wicked fiction

Hector Hugh Munro (1870–1916) – Saki – b. 18 Dec
🎂🧵
💙📚
1/8
www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/culture/4360...

I'm Kenyan. I Don't Write Like ChatGPT. ChatGPT Writes Like Me. I'm calm. I'm calm. I promise.

This is very good, via @marta-zboralska.bsky.social (and I say that as the daughter of someone who was learning the King’s English in the 1930s.) open.substack.com/pub/marcusol...

Art history is too important to be the preserve of the privileged The subject is endangered at A level just as it couldn’t be more essential or universal. Helen Barrett makes the case for its survival in British schools

"Art history gives you tools to interpret the visual world and makes you more of a critical viewer of political messages, advertising and a barrage of social media images. It’s dangerous if you can’t examine these things critically".

apollo-magazine.com/art-history-...

Aaja Nachle HD (1080p) | Bally Sagoo | Monsoon Wedding YouTube video by Aman Malhotra

youtu.be/9S0Rufo26I0

Exclusive: British newspaper spoke to the wrong de Blasio, not an ‘imposter’ How a Long Island vintner, with the help of ChatGPT, prompted a transatlantic journalistic debacle.

Outstanding www.semafor.com/article/10/2...

I thought ‘private residences’ might be spinnable. Let’s see what happens.

New rule of thumb: if it appeared in a National Front manifesto or poster from the 1970s, it will turn up again soon.

Number of children homeless in England the highest since records began - Shelter England Number of children homeless in England the highest since records began

The number of children homeless in England is the highest since records began.

england.shelter.org.uk/media/press_...

London considers lowering affordable homes target to spur house building Developers complain that 35% goal is too high and makes schemes unviable

The FT on the subject – the mayor should not agree to this www.ft.com/content/dab0...

A leaked memo, a Maga-style hat and a trail of broken pledges – it’s Labour’s great housing betrayal | Aditya Chakrabortty Ignore the bombast: Steve ‘build, baby, build’ Reed’s boast looks likely to end in targets more pathetic than they are now, says Guardian columnist Aditya Chakrabortty

This is really important on housing in London (and the FT has also reported on the government thinking about letting developers off the 35% affordable housing requirement) www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

‘Cyrano de Bergerac’ has this covered.

Incroyable.

Hew Locke and the Empire’s new clothes On the eve of a major US survey, the artist talks to Fatema Ahmed about decorating statues and the ornamental side of the British Empire

Where do objects come from? No, where do they *really* come from? I spoke to Hew Locke for the October issue of @apollo-magazine.com about small boats, decorating statues and why Empire needs new clothes. apollo-magazine.com/hew-locke-pa...

Can Liberalism Be Saved? The legal scholar Cass Sunstein argues for a more expansive definition of an ideology under threat.

In which Isaac Chotiner interviews a bowl of jelly and the bowl of jelly has a small realisation at the end. www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a...

Miner miracle In paintings such as The Communist, a Political Meeting, the Welsh painter Evan Walters captured the hopes and fears of working-class communities, writes Patrick McGuinness

Glad to be in this month's Apollo, writing about Evan Walters's The Communist (c.1932): colour, ideas, Wales. Also mentioned: chapels, gospels and preachers (including the Manic Street variety), & being sceptical of rhetoric, like the little chap at the front.
apollo-magazine.com/evan-walters...

Doesn’t seem that inchoate to me, unfortunately.

I’m not either of those, but Pieter the Elder dropped the ‘h’ and his descendants put it back. Mentions of members of the family close together can look strange – but some people mind a lot (as I once learnt the hard way).