2006 internet: RSS feeds, forums, communities of hobby blogs, where people post about interior design, fashion, and music for free

2026 internet: sponsored content, paid partnership, buy my merch, try my supplements, invest in my crypto, click link in bio to unlock the secrets of life for $30

long stretch of worked roman stone on Hadrian's Wall.

If you ask someone today to name the builder of Hadrian's Wall, they would give you a funny look. But historical memory is odd, and right up to the 1800s we forgot who built it.

Until in 1840 John Hodgson, an obscure Northumbrian clergyman, published the LONGEST footnote in history... 1/22

Issue 9: A holiday that is predicated on staying up two hours past my bedtime is no holiday for me, but here we are. It was that prolonged, flat, cheerless week that follows Christmas. My own existence seemed infinitely stagnant, relieved only by work on another book. Those interminable latter days of the dying year...

I hadn’t intended to send another newsletter in 2025, but I got to thinking about New Year’s and ended up compiling a set of quotes about the holiday. I hope yours is restful. Mine will end at 10.

I plan to spend a considerable amount of time "radiating a divine inertia"!

Remembering such happy meals at Petersham Nurseries - birthdays and other celebrations made special by such wonderful food and surroundings. Thank you Skye Gyngell ...

From the Nobel Committee today:

“Democracy depends on people who refuse to stay silent, who dare to step forward despite grave risk, and who remind us that freedom must never be taken for granted, but must always be defended – with words, with courage and with determination.”

Despite everything else going on, France last night honoured Robert Badinter, the former justice minister who ended the death penalty in 🇫🇷 in 1981. He entered the Panthéon in a moving moment of national tribute that the French do so well

RIP, Robert Redford.

Terence Stamp and Julie Christie in ‘Far from the Madding Crowd (1967)

The new plaza at Paddington Square has let us see this lovely GWR building from 1935.

#BigButterflyCount

View of a section of a shallow, wide gorge rimmed on both sides with hazel and alder trees. In the middle of the picture, boulders and bedrock rise sharply to create a narrow, shaded ravine, looking like the entrance to some fantastic temple. Beyond this gate, the gorge continues illuminated by penumbral light.

In the Western Norwegian fjords, occasionally you come upon natural structures that seem left by some long-vanished culture.

Mavis Cheek's Amenable Women tells the story (in fiction form) wonderfully.

7/7 Memorial, Hyde Park, London.

Two eel ships on the Thames, between Paulus Warfe and Qeen Hythe, from Hollar's 1647 "Long View of London." You know they're the eel ships because they're labeled "the Eel Ships." This is a rather long thread, and so the alt-text will be greatly diminished today. It takes a while to write narrative alt-text, and I don't have it in me to do a 14-post thread. I'd have to plan ahead for that, and I certainly am not that guy.

It's Tuesday. You're dragging yourself through the world, one cup of coffee at a time. Can nothing liven up this day?

How 'bout a thread of eel ships on maps? These maps are what got me into eels in the first place!

"Cool!" you say. "But wait...what's an eel ship?"

Well...
1/14

Ask your MP to put reproductive rights into law The right to make decisions about our families and bodies is not protected by law. The 1967 Abortion Act allows people to seek abortion under certain circumstances but abortion otherwise remains a cri...

We need 500 more people to email their MP to hit 10,000 emails before the vote tomorrow.

The next handful of hours are crucial.

Make sure your voice is heard and tell your MP: dicriminalise abortion
goodlaw.social/f2eef3

Robin Hood Gardens façade at the V&A East Storehouse. © Mikey Massey / Wallpaper*

Robin Hood Gardens: A Ruin in Reverse at La Biennale di Venezia, 2018. © Francesco Galli

Robin Hood Gardens pictured in 2016. © Luke Hayes

Ahead of the opening of V&A East Storehouse next weekend, here’s a first view of one of the most anticipated yet controversial exhibits: the three storey section of facade salvaged from Robin Hood Gardens in Poplar, East London.

Designed by Alison & Peter Smithson, opened in 1972, demolished 2025.

London is home to the world’s greatest museums.

This weekend we’ve seen another open—the revolutionary V&A East Storehouse.

City Hall has invested £600m in East Bank, which has created 2,500 jobs and delivered a £1.5bn economic boost.

Polzeath to Greenaway and on towards Daymer in ideal weather.

The American Library Association praises servic of Dr. Carla Hayden, decries 'unjust dismissal' of Librarian of Congress. [Image of Dr. Carla Hayden standing in the stacks in a library]

NEW: ALA salutes Dr Carla Hayden for her exceptional service to the nation as the Librarian of Congress. We are deeply disappointed in Dr Hayden's abrupt & unjust dismissal last night, an insult to the scope & breadth of her work.

Read ALA Pres. Cindy Hohl's statement: www.ala.org/news/2025/05...

Cornish tin was sold all over Europe 3,000 years ago, say archaeologists British team says new study ‘radically transforms’ understanding of bronze age trade networks

Tracking down the Cassiterides - the ancient Tin Islands: A British-led group of archaeologists have analysed the composition of bronze artefacts from across Europe, tracing the tin in these objects dating to more than 3000 years ago to Cornwall and Devon...
www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

View of stage set (UN table) at the play Kyoto

COP delegate lanyards at the Kyoto play.

Intense and emotional, brilliant storytelling, with great performances - Kyoto at Soho Place.

Bluebell bank in the garden

Loved this self-portrait of Eileen Agar at the National Portrait Gallery today.

Spring walk on the Newham Trail in Truro.

Three little children sit around a kitchen table rolling out and cutting the characteristically shaped dough. Their concentration is intense.

Making hot cross buns

Artist: Harry Wingfield (1971)
#GoodFriday

Lessons to learn from US collapse: support local news, support investigative reporting, keep your public broadcasting going.

Mae Jemison wears a bright orange NASA space suit and holds her helmet for a photo

Since we’re all talking about it I want to blow up a real female space pioneer, Mae Jemison, an actual astronaut. She’s a graduate of Stanford and Cornel Medical School, served in the peace corps, started an educational nonprofit, and worked for the CDC researching vaccines. That’s a woman in space

Maybe some Galt Post Office stamps would be equally good!