JD Vance defends Trump amid spat with Pope Leo: ‘Stick to matters of morality’ Catholic vice-president effectively tells Leo to stay in his lane after pope criticized the White House over the Iran war

Because apparently war, war crimes, cruelty, starvation, poverty, and threats to “destroy a civilisation”, do Not qualify as “matters of morality” with the US vice president

Mafalda Volume 2, to be published in Fall 2026 by Archipelago Books

This is the cover of volume 2 of my translation due out later this year

You can find out from the 1947 Berkeley high School yearbook

18th century Tristram Shandy (Sterne)
19th century An Ideal Husband (Wilde)
20th century At Swim-two-birds (Flann o’Brien)
21st century The Glorious Heresies (Lisa McInerney)

Another week goes by, and this has now reached 98,000 signatures!!!! 🎉🎉🎉

On now to 99,000.

Once again, I ask any woman reading this, who is disgusted at the treatment of trans women in the U.K., to please sign it at the link below👇, then pass it on.

Every signature counts.

Notinourname.org.uk

But NYLON is accepted

Hmm. I honestly can’t think of anything – "'S Wonderful!” was written for Astaire and later recorded by Kelly; and Fred was only in “Easter Parade“ because Gene broke his ankle, but I’m stumped

“The Goalkeeper's Fear of the Penalty” was used for Wim Wenders’ film.“Putting the Boot In” by Dan Kavanagh (Julian Barnes) begins: “There are too many ways of breaking a footballer's leg. Too many, that is, from the footballer's point of view. Others may find the freedom of choice encouraging.”

The latter is first cited by Captain Cook. Before the calque, it was described in the West as painting, scarring, or staining

The military sense is from Dutch “taptoe”, from tap "faucet of a cask""So called because police formerly visited taverns in the evening to shut off the taps of casks"

Body ink is from from a Polynesian noun (such as Tahitian and Samoan tatau, Marquesan tatu "puncture, mark made on skin").

Night Night, and Fuck You - The Massachusetts Review A Review of Night Night Fawn (One World 2026) by Jordy Rosenberg. Among many human beings it is customary—has been, for a long time, in all kinds of places—for the act of giving birth to convey upon t...

An utterly brilliant review of a book that I must read as soon as physically possible

barbellionprize.org

Wondrous!

The award for Best Short Fiction goes to:

Godzilla as a Young Man Named Mike by EM Faulds

And I don’t even want to think about Elizabeth Taylor in the film adaptation of sometimes “a little night music”

Lucille Ball insisting on singing her own parts in “Mame” more than gives her a run for her money

The Observer Book Club with Margaret Busby YouTube video by The Observer UK

Margaret Busby, here interviewed by @timadamswrites.bsky.social , was one half of the publisher Allison and Busby, who published a lot of impressive fiction, including the work of Tom Mallin, whose novels were a very exciting find for me many years ago.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=17Wh...

Make a series of Ursula LeGuin’s:
“The Earthsea Cycle”
“The Left Hand of Darkness”
Octavia E. Butler’s “Lilith's Brood”
Anne McCafferty’s “Dragonriders of Pern”

Make! New! Things!

Not just Indiana! Dolly contributes to the Book Bug programme so that every kid under 5 in the Scottish care system gets a free book every month

There are a lot of people writing and teaching short stories these days. I would hope that collections like this one get studied, not least to provide contrast to the American style.

I'm a big Kawabata fan and this may now be among my favourites if his, just behind Master of Go.

If he believes that he could start showing it by resigning

Cover of Fight Like A Girl #2. Art by Oisin McGann. Image is of a brown-skinned girl in light armour wielding a Very Big Sword. She is surrounded by images of other things she might use to fight, not all of them obviously weapons.

Cover of The Sea-Stone Sword. Art by Jay Johnstone. Image is a silhouette of a pirate through which can be seen a sunken pirate galleon.

For Trans Day of Visibility we note that we are a proudly trans-owned company. Several of our anthologies contain stories by trans authors. Most recently, Fight Like A Girl #2 has 3 stories by trans women and a pro-trans story by a cis woman. Also we have two books by Joel Cornah who is non-binary.

A little bit long – it runs to almost 2 hours – but all of Hong Kong cinema, later Japanese cinema, Sam Peckinpah, Tarantino et al begins here in 1966

There's nothing queer in not supporting trans folx's rights. Everyone who benefitted from using the critical language of queerness to advance careers (actors, artists, influencers, academics ...), speak up!

#rejecttransbill2026

As a parallel read, can I suggest Simon Raven’s “Alms for Oblivion” cycle which I think of as the antithetical counterpart to “a dance to the music of time“

A black and white photograph of comedy duo Dr Evadne Hinge and Dame Hilda Bracket

Preorder details below!