@portraitinflesh.bsky.social is right, "ripx" is a horrible account and this is just bullying. As @jamesomalley.co.uk says, "biology is real, don't be an arsehole about it".

Despite everything, Twitter/"X" can still be a special place. Where else can you see two global legends in their respective fields - tennis and chess, in this case - exchange casual banter? A small thing, but worth cherishing.

The Telegraph manages to publish the worst opinions on Fleet St. With the Daily Mail still in existence and the presence of OJ & Simon Jenkins in the Guardian it’s a significant achievement.

I think I've just read the worst opinion column ever written. It's not just wrong, it's also terribly written - by a novelist! - with staggeringly feeble arguments. If I were Viktor Orbán, I'd be mortified to have defenders like this. If I were the @telegraph.co.uk, I'd be embarrassed to publish it.

I think we're being too hasty to dismiss Trump's excuse for posting that blasphemous meme. Jesus returned from the dead, saved humanity, and has been depicted by countless different actors... maybe He really IS the Doctor!

Pub landlady blasts 'tight-fisted' Labour MP for only ordering starter Karen Errington, the chef-owner of the Rat Inn in the hamlet of Anick, near the Northumbrian town of Hexham, didn't name the allegedly parsimonious politician.

"Hi, is that the Daily Mail? I was hoping you could let the entire country know my pub is run by a horrible cow, who spies on customers and rats them out to the press for doing nothing wrong whatsoever. No, there's no need to actually *tell* people to swamp me with one-star reviews, that's implied."

To be fair, there's surely only so much we could have achieved, independently, after we stopped being a superpower.

The thing about Israel/Palestine is that, *even if* you 100% side with Palestine, it's ultimately just a regional conflict, involving a few million people at most. Only the febrile and fetid imagination of antisemites, right *and* left, could make it the pivot around which all global politics turns.

I can't speak for anyone else, but I've found the Artemis II mission a real tonic. The first time in years I've felt as though humanity, working collectively, can aspire to *great* things, rather than spiralling deeper and deeper into an abyss of hatred, dysfunction and insanity.

Something on Twitter/"X" made me look up Gail Platt on Wikipedia, and I had to laugh at this intro. This is what happens, when you're a soap regular for decades on end: you accumulate spouses like a Hollywood A-lister. Steve McDonald has had just as many, I believe.

Passover, more than any other holiday, revolves around the deep, ancient connection between the Jewish people and the Land of Israel. I don't see how people like Owen Jones, who regard the modern state of Israel as inherently illegitimate, can partake without experiencing heavy cognitive dissonance.

Rote condemnations of settler violence aren't enough. We have to acknowledge that outrages like these are animated by *precisely* the same sort of mindless hatred that made Gazan militants and civilians butcher and rape thousands of Jews on October 7th, 2023. There must be no hierarchy of suffering.

To paraphrase John Waters: if you go home with someone, and they undress to reveal Mr Bean underwear, don't fuck them. Make an excuse and leave.

It's interesting, and revealing, how many people who like to claim expertise in "the Talmud" have never heard of tikkun olam, or "repairing the world", a core imperative in Judaism. That's why there are so many Jewish charities; they're not part of some nefarious scheme to get one over on the goyim.

Can confirm that Saturday night in that A&E is the definition of “challenging”. And doing it keeps her in touch with reality, which many MPs manage to avoid.

If working a shift as a qualified medical doctor is now "virtue signal[ling]", then that term really has become meaningless. It was originally coined to describe purely performative actions, entailing negligible personal effort or cost, but being an A&E medic is notoriously strenuous, and stressful.

I put a steaming hot apple pie on the windowsill, and not one wolf wearing a rolled up hat and patched dungarees floated over lifted by its nose

Disgraceful.

Not only do modern houses no longer have proper mouse domiciles, but you also never see a dog running off down the street with a long string of sausages in its mouth, pursued by a red-faced butcher in a blue-and-white striped apron, *or* a cat smugly making off with an entire fish. I blame wokeness.

Someone on Twitter/"X" asked for people's favourite original songs from TV or film. Here's "Under Your Spell", from Buffy's musical episode: an erotically charged love song from one woman to another, no small thing in 2001; almost every line has a plot-related double meaning; it's just a great tune.

Where is criticism of Israel "all but banned"? If that were the case, surely Israel-haters might occasionally shut up about it.

For those who haven't encountered it before, that "Voltaire" quote actually comes from Kevin Alfred Strom, a late twentieth century neo-Nazi and child sex offender. But, even if Cleese doesn't know that, the image of a Magen David on a hand crushing people doesn't leave much room for doubt, does it?

OK, this truly is beyond a joke, now. John Cleese is sharing outright Nazi material on Twitter/"X", alongside the increasingly paranoid, hysterical anti-Muslim material. He's such a cultural titan, it really would be good to know what's actually going on, here. He is eighty-six years old, after all.

In one of his books, Terry Pratchett describes a hammy actor as having a voice you couldn't order coal with, because it'd turn up as diamonds. You'd think such a thing couldn't exist in real life, but that would be to reckon without the legendary Matt Berry. Lovely supercut from last night's Oscars.

Jesus Christ. Not even Reform, but the party for people too racist for Reform, as endorsed by the world's most notorious white nationalist. What happened to you, John Cleese? If it really is just advanced age, then I hope someone who loves him intervenes, sooner rather than later. So painful to see.

Oh yeah, it's not quite THAT big. Except the fridge, but we're not a chocolate-in-the-fridge household.

"I only hate the vast majority of Jews" really isn't the killer comeback these people seem to think it is.

UPDATE: when I gave my mum the big Toblerone - which was indeed absolutely fucking massive - the first thing she said was, "I could assault someone with this!" But she's assured me she won't actually do so. It might damage the chocolate, after all, and we couldn't be having that.

A lot of people seem to struggle with the idea of Israel having central religious, cultural and historical importance to Jews, yet can easily grasp, for instance, why Mecca and Medina are important to Muslims, or Bethlehem and Rome are to Christians. It's a very tiresome form of selective stupidity.

Interesting, I'll have to ask her what she thinks.