Still trying to think of something to rhyme with Ekitike

Reconnections Saturday 23 August 2025 In the dog days of late summer I have reflected on the reasons I started to write. It was the pandemic. We were locked in the house for our own protection from coronavirus. …

BLOG - Reconnections

laurathompsoncom.wordpress.com/2025/08/25/r...

Still incredulous that a person supported by Beyoncé, Taylor Swift and Lady Gaga could not win anything they wanted. But then I spend a lot of time with British teenagers.

On the plus side, at least Rebecca Long Bailey is not Prime Minister

amp.theguardian.com/food/2024/no...

Pay boost for millions of workers next year Chancellor announces pay rise for over 3 million workers next year, as National Living Wage rises by 6.7%.

Over 3 million workers will receive a pay boost after the Chancellor confirmed the National Living Wage will increase from £11.44 to £12.21 an hour from April 2025.

A budget for the low paid and young workers?

www.gov.uk/government/n...

View from Blackfriars bridge

View from Blackfriars bridge

The Woman Who Helped Send a Spacecraft to Europa, Jupiter’s Icy Moon A frozen “ocean world” is the likeliest place in the solar system to foster alien life. Louise Prockter and her colleagues persuaded NASA to send a mission there.

www.newyorker.com/culture/pers...

Where am I?

However do we do her justice? Great effort, though I can’t bear it

Maggie Smith: no one could touch her fierce charisma and comic timing For all the laughter she evoked, some of her most piercing work was in tragedy

My thoughts and remembrance of the late, impossibly great Maggie Smith. Written for obviously sad reasons, in a tearing hurry.
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www.standard.co.uk/culture/tvfi...

I don’t post on Twitter any more but I keep the account because there are people there I may not find again. Are you judging me for that? Just testing the outer reaches we must be nearly at the perimeter there

When your school friend says they are going to see Sisters of Mercy this evening and you remember wearing trench coats and then find the last person whose coat you borrowed on Facebook and they also live in Washington DC. That conversation.

It’s another British multimillionaire’s solemn farewell tour – how ever will we cope? | Marina Hyde Pimlico Plumbers founder Charlie Mullins has had it up to here with the UK’s taxes, and he is determined to make sure every one of us knows it, says Guardian columnist Marina Hyde

There is very little I miss from the Other Platform.

Except, on a Saturday morning, Marina Hyde. At her scathing best today, on a multimillionaire announcing relocation to the twin cities of Marbella and…Dubai.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Full house on Front Row tonight. David Benedict and and Catherine McCormack in to review Van Gogh, Garth Greenwell’s latest and Ian McKellen in The Critic. And Paddy O’Connell announcing the shortlist for the National Short Story Award. Plus mystery guest, embargoed until Paddy spills the beans!

Taylor Swift endorses Kamala Harris for president in post signed ‘childless cat lady’ In an Instagram post published minutes after the US presidential debate ended, Swift said ‘the simplest way to combat misinformation is with the truth’

This endorsement may be as important as the Harris/Trump debate

www.theguardian.com/music/articl...

Name that band

I have not been accused of anything on this platform in nearly a year. However, I have been messaged by someone pretending to be Brad Pitt and someone pretending to be Jason Mamoa, who wanted to know if I had seen him in Aquaman.

Past Lives really is a beautiful, understated film

Computers were a mistake.

We camp in South London twice a year - loads of green space in the south of the city. Would you adding me to the urbanists list?

Gift of the artist

Ellsworth Kelly, Colors for a Large Wall, 1951

https://botfrens.com/collections/14377/contents/1135955

Are AI chatbots influencing our memories?

www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...

Bidenomics Without Biden Kamala Harris is selling the administration’s policies without trying to defend its record.

How can an incumbent present themselves as a change candidate? Harris is attempting to pull the table cloth off the table and leave the teacups on. Will it work?

www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...

READ: Harris and Walz’s exclusive joint interview with CNN | CNN Politics Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz sat down exclusively with CNN Thursday for her first interview since ascending to the top of the Democratic ticket.

Transcript of Harris and Waltz first television interview in the 2024 election.

www.cnn.com/2024/08/29/p...

Beautiful place - there’s a theatre? And a town called Lemonadidos which has a little cafe selling… lemonade. Or it did 25 years ago

If you don’t want to read more US content look away now as I’m going to Florida in October, which I am likely to mention. Not specifically to attempt to change voter intentions.

Might go wronger

Tonga is represented by an athlete in the discus who has also competed at Paralympic level in table tennis. Perhaps table tennis is so frustrating to be any good at you just end up throwing things. Preceding an extraordinary 140 strong team from Ukraine. Good luck to all #Paralympics

But yet Cameron gave same speech for a decade?