the funny thing about sending jd vance out to do sensitive diplomatic negotiations is he has literally no experience. like, none whatsoever. he doesn't even have related experience in lawmaking or some executive role.

i think people have forgotten that vance is quite possibly the least experienced person to *ever* serve as vice president of the united states

Anyway all this also reminds me of one of my great teachers at school who randomly heard some people speaking Hungarian, thought it sounded beautiful, taught himself the language and then went on to become one of the most renowned Hungarian-English literary translators.

Feel like Fischer’s quote from the review of Martin Amis’s Yellow Dog could be put to use here.

This is actually very funny.

Brett Lee Feat Asha Bhosle - You're the One for Me [with lyrics] YouTube video by smaih1

The other late-career highlight of Asha Bhosle's was of course "You're the One for Me", the 2006 duet she made with the Australian fast bowler Brett Lee (a song much better than it has any right to be, but which isn't exactly a classic):

Asha Bhosle & Kronos Quartet - YSMH: Songs From Burman's Bollywood (2005) (Full Album) YouTube video by melramos2

One of Asha Bhosle's late-era highlights was You've Stolen My Heart, the album of recordings she made with the Kronos Quartet, of her late husband RD Burman's songs. The whole thing is available on Youtube (below). I was fortunate enough to see the 2005 concert they played together at the Barbican.

The quality of subtitling on streaming services is astonishingly bad, you have to go to *more* effort to have subtitles this bad.

Pork shoulder - came out very nicely.

How's things btw?

HBD!

He’d need *a lot* of honey to get over that.

Screenshot from Meater app

Screenshot from inkbird app

Yeah, Lidl mini Kamado, bought a couple of years ago. It’s small but was £70, bargain. Meater Bluetooth thermometer (pic 1) and the thing wired in at the bottom is an Inkbird fan controller which allows me to adjust the internal temp fairly easily.

A picture of a mini kamado smoker with various wires coming out of it

Friends fear etc etc

For me Amnesiac is the towering achievement, though The Bends (obviously outside the 30-year rule) is the one I've listened to the most, even in the last few years.

at my first book launch I gave three of my closest friends minus ones (they could look at the guestlist before I sent the invites and remove one person each), think it should be a more widespread practice

Sitting next to an American tourist at the National (theatre, not band) who is texting a group called Chad, Zack (sons, I guess, with the most Neal Stephenson on-the-nose names possible) and the most recent message is a ChatGPT preview banner entitled “Shih Tzu Cleaning Issues”. I’m fascinated.

Hahaha. I was there for that. Didn’t realise it had been recorded/released.

Sideways toaster - weird

Imagine we'll see a lot of this stuff coming up in the next few years: Right-wing parties who created uneasy political coalitions by taking advantage of hyper-online shut ins realising they can't really control or contain them. Also a reason why they'll become very pro regulating social media

Haha, the initial reply from the voice in my head to Ste's original point (which I was too cowardly to reply in text) was: Sure, "get to 9 seasons before losing an actor" but *what a spectacular way to break your duck*.

That's a fair shout, I hadn't thought about it like that. Also I realise I was a decade out and the sort-of "first" Homer was born in 53, not 63.

But the age thing is absolutely bizarre, yes. There was one where Homer and Marge are "courting" to a soundtrack of Nirvana, who didn't exist when H&M first appeared on TV and who definitely weren't around when the original versions of the characters (Homer born 1963 IIRC and Bart 1978) were 16yo.

I had the same experience. Son got into them, watched through all the good ones, then kept going, and I was surprised (occasionally being in the room while a newer ep was on) how it's improved a little from the nadir.

"In response to the BBC's continued refusal to commission a new series of Bonekickers, shipping movement in the Strait of Hormuz must be stopped immediately."

If I could change almost any recent fact of British political history, it'd be to have Jeremy Clarkson lead the remain campaign.

We'd have won by a landslide.

A lot of people saying “Tom Skinner” to this and yet when we had our version of the Ames Straw Poll (Strictly Come Dancing) he got voted off the first week and then had a meltdown.

An image of "earthset" showing the far side of the moon with a shadowed earth in the background

Earthset images.nasa.gov/details/art0...

Actual far-side-of-Moon image from Artemis, now genuinely released by Nasa

That image: images.nasa.gov/details/art0...

Whole load of images: images.nasa.gov (hit "Newest Uploads" button at the top)

A picture of Ken Livingstone with a phone to his ear

Haha, is there more Artemis toilet news?