(I was on the train when I wrote that: now home with the book - it is "a blow on the side of the mouth").

No better place for it. Especially if it's Zennor Head.

Post-war British poetry (a lot of WS Graham). I gave up during the first year with imposter syndrome and did a TEFL course - no regrets. I once ventured an interpretation of something from 'Kitchen Poems', and got two words of feedback: "sentimental rubbish". He meant his poem, not my essay.

Absolute banger.
In a similar vein, I find the title "Unanswering Rational Shore" hilarious. The reader cannot say they have not been warned.

What an amazing description that is.

Yes, an email from Ian Heames (I'm on a list) while at IATEFL.

Still there are phrases that have knocked around in my head for years, like "a blow on the throat /strike harder / it is important to be lyrical and joyous", or "causing the forest to fail softly / by watching leaves turn". RIP 2/2

This is so similar to my own thoughts about Prynne. I was briefly a baffled graduate student of his. Baffled as well mostly by his poetry, but oddly compelled to return to it from time to time, scratching a surface, making tiny inroads here and there. 1/2

No, that's the bloke from Eraserhead.

Hang on. That's sitting, isn't it?

Well, it's early days.

I mean, this must surely be just a run of rotten luck, rather than any alternative explanation, right? bsky.app/profile/byli...

But surely this is just one bad apple.
Well okay, maybe two.
Today. So far.
bsky.app/profile/hope...

Super Hand from Peep Show in a street explaining "the secret ingredient is crime"

More to the point Krapp's Last Tape with Harold Pinter as Krapp is on the BBC iplayer, so everyone should go and watch it and marvel.

After a while, the door slowly opened. And it was Beckett himself, tall, frowning, penetrating stare. The visitor was awestruck, and failed to say a word. After about a minute, neither of them having spoken, Beckett, his facial expression unchanged, slowly closed the door.
FIN

A third-hand story, but apropos of the anniversary. An EFL author I once worked with had a friend who studied in Paris in the mid-80s. A huge admirer of Beckett, he plucked up the courage to go to Beckett's apartment - the address was quite well-known - and ring the bell. 1/2

Just working on my article "The decline in nominative determinism in world-class sprinting: from Usain Bolt to Gout Gout"

BBC4 not R4

Funnily enough it's on R4 this evening. Pinter doing the spoooools.

Apparently this inspired an experimental craft brewery in Perth, Australia to create a kangaroo meat stout.
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You can really taste the hops.

Mercer's Meat Stout, 1940 - The Skittish Library Here’s a curious advert I stumbled across in The British Newspaper Archive – it’s for Mercer’s Meat Stout. “Tastes good, does you good.” Now, I’ve heard of milk stout (Ena Sharples springs to mind), b...

Brewed using real offal, apparently. skittishlibrary.co.uk/mercers-meat...

I deleted it because I thought it looked a bit pretentious and then rewrote it because I decided that didn't bother me. I didn't see your reply!

KRAPP: Spiritually a year of.profound gloom and indigence until that memorable night in March, at the end of the jetty, in the howling wind, never to be forgotten -
REASSURING VOICE: Better Help's qualified therapists can help you to stop dwelling in the past

Incredible.

Cardiacs - A Little Man and a House and the Whole World Window. (Album sleeve with monochrome daisy design).

This appears to be AI-generated rubbish

The Farmers Arms. Sheep with scythe, like some ovine angel of death

Greatest ever pub sign, 10/10 (St David's, Pembrokeshire)

Borshch, sour cream, spoon.

Borshch looks so pleasing.

Villainous mustachioed guy from Hot Fuzz in front of a picture of himself

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