(And otherwise I couldn't care less about cars...)

Half the taxi drivers in our area drive Toyota Auris hybrids because they are so reliable, and I have not regretted buying one that was already a few years old on a lease five years ago. No major repair costs so far & also makes you smug when petrol prices are high and a full tank goes much further.

Slushy brand called ‘Sir Lush’

‘I can assure you I am *not* drunk as a lord, officer… I’m only…’

Some very convincing sounding scams going around pretending to be Amazon.
Saved by the solid advice: hang up and call the company claiming to be calling you directly yourself.

The Old Sardine Tin of Respectability A history of mischief in little poetry magazines

I wrote about the tradition of being mean in the back of little poetry magazines

A reminder that we did this.

(And had to pay Mirror Group Newspapers for the copyright of the text, one of the finest rights payments I’ve ever approved.)

PETERBOROUGH STANDARD - Friday, April 18th, 1980 The memories live on CROWLAND'S Silver Jubilee committee was finally wound up on Thursday evening with a presentation ceremony at the library.. The Jubilee fund, described by chairman Frank Parnell as 'one of the finest efforts in Lincolnshire', fremony at the library. The Jubilee fund,. described by chairman Frank Parnet s 'one remony atremony are sony at the library. The jubremony at the library. Tremony at remony at the library. Thrremony at tremony at the liremony at the libraremony at the library. Theremony at the library. The Jubilee fund, described by chairman, Frank Premony rremony at the remony aremony at the libremony atremony at tremony at the library. Tremorremony at the library.remony at the library. The Jubilee fund, described by chairman Frank Parnell as 'one of the finest efforts in Lincolnshire', fn he latched onto a through ball. Although be was hauled down by the keeper he still managed to stroke the ball home. But for the second week running Durant had to leave the field injured, this time suffering eye trouble. The winning goal was another 25-yard shot - again from Blackstones' central defender - coming from their second chance of the game. Gary Cooper, recently signed from Old Boys, had a good debut.

Well, happy thrremony at tremony at the liremony at the libraremony at the library day to all who celebrate

That’s a lovely bit of Muldoon

Fred Cuming was considered one of the finest landscape painters of his generation. Much of his work celebrates southern English coastlines; the sea and skies of Hastings, Rye or Camber as here, illuminated by dawn, dusk, or glowing moonlight.

Basically it's Christopher Tolkien's world now and we all have to live in it

Huh! L Ron H sounds like a Cambridge poet

One of the nice things about the forthcoming edition of The Poems of Sylvia Plath is that the editors note when she underlines the dictionary definition of words that appear in her poems. Seems Tom Cruise does the same thing for his films.

Thinking of compiling an anthology of readers’ verse from regional newspapers called County Lines

Pity King Charles didn’t marry Britt Ekland

Weirdly, it reminds me of both the actual run-down shopping arcade in Great Yarmouth and the replica Victorian street in the Yarmouth history musem

Yes, they have been running annually for a few years now, so I hope will continue! They are always advertised this time of year, and the archivist is very happy to respond to queries about the holdings (there's lots in the AVC boxes).

As sure as eggs is eggs

No offence to any colleagues or chickens who might be reading

As an academic who also keeps chickens, I feel this

Book highlight that says: "A not-wholly-unfair analysis of academic publishing would be that it is an industry in which academics compete against one another for the privilege of providing free labour for a profit-making company, which then sells the results back to them at monopoly prices."

Enjoyed reading "The Unaccountability Machine" by Dan Davies: at turns thoughtful and hilarious. Goes deep into cybernetics, history, neoliberalism, and accounting (!).

A friend sent me this quote which is pretty funny and on target unless you're an academic; then the joke is on you (and me).

Just treat it all as a lark

'When the lark's lay shall lack its thrilling charm'!

I suspect he was probably just free associating from Spice GIRLS to Something BOYS, and missed the Backstreets

Pretty much a perfect illustration of Rog's motto: ‘Conservatism is an instinct rather than an idea.’

Seems a good day to remember that, in his book An Intelligent Person's Guide To Modern Culture, Hungary's favourite right-wing thinker Roger Scruton implied that the Pet Shop Boys made a 'minimal contribution' to their own records. They successfully sued him for libel. news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/enterta...

'it will light up again' -- classic Sammers

'I WOULDN'T MOW THERE IF I WERE YOU'

The responses to my reviews I remember/most appreciate are those where the writer has said something like ‘thanks for that — and a fair point’. Including the time Simon Armitage said on Desert Island Discs that a critic (me) once got him bang to rights on the overuse of commas in last lines…

A label that says "herbaceous cloche"

Think I've found the name for the detective in the series of gardening crime novels I'm currently not writing.