Some days, one can say only that one was inspired

I'm having both flashbacks & foreboding about this, for various reasons. We could be at war by Thursday.

Ladies & Gentlemen, the President of the United States

If I were a batter, I'd find Issy Wong a bit intimidating, I think

What a time to be alive

Of those of us of a certain age, I can't be the only one having flashbacks to a certain prince in 1982

Oh, come on. Who’s writing this script?

This really doesn’t sound great

I guess he’s really a sugar son

The Times exposé on Farage’s latest dodgy, undisclosed sugar daddy is obviously taken from a script from a BBC spy drama

Jews, reading about what the Lefebvrists believe in the wake of Pope Leo's excommunications

A consensus seems to be developing on my use of “pillock” to describe Boris Johnson running over an 8-year-old boy in a rugby PR event

I think the survey is silly, but I’m not going to reject anything that equates me with someone this hot.

It is a noble profession

I do not blame the teams. At all. When you design a competition this way, you should expect the teams to respond rationally.

Goose gif: Awkward for whom?

Just at the moment, I'm feeling good about my choice of summer travel destination

There’s a very good politics podcast over here, with very serious political journalists, with exactly that as the title

They chose…wisely Anyone needing an explanation may ask the Dean, @rmfifthcircuit.bsky.social

Republican judges auditioning for higher office isn’t new

I was going to say that people sometimes make up amusing answers when they don't know the right answer, but I'd bet these two decided that making a joke was preferable to getting it right (perhaps because some right answers are worth zero points in Learned League).

I thought a few of you would appreciate this entry in the Learned League (trivia competition) "best wrong answer" contest. I think the majority of competitors are American, and the questions have a US bent (e.g, there's an "American history" category and a "World history" category).

UPDATE Good news. We’re now predicted to top out at only 97 Fahrenheit. Until this century, England almost literally never got that hot. But it’s several degrees from record territory these days. And getting down to around 20 C overnight is quite helpful

Do I hear giggling coming from the direction of Tehran?

Started/going (from Ha'aretz, one week ago & today)

This site was built by furries, trans people, & people who engage in discourse about Alf's penis. The rest of us are here on sufferance. (For non-Americans of a certain age who haven't been exposed to the discourse, this is Alf)

San Diego #1 & #2. Dennis Connor represents another part of the San Diego communities, but I wouldn’t say he embodies the spirit of sports.

If you don't think racism still affects people's judgment & behavior in the US, I remind you of all the (white) people saying in 2016-17 how great it was that Donald & Melania were going to "restore class to the White House" after the Obamas.

Students of the Refugee Convention: it turns out that "refouler" really is a normal French word