Discovering this, on the advice of @jonathancoe.bsky.social, was a life-changing experience. The first book I'd save from my burning library.
English FA president, Debbie Hewitt, paid a quarter of a million USD per year for saying "yes, great idea" in Gianni Infantino's Fifa Council, pictured with some friends in NYC last night. It's not just Infantino who is the problem.
From Oliver Sacks's "Musicophilia", which I'm re-reading with great pleasure. This passage reminded me of playing keyboards at a gig in Berlin for a (quite well-known) singer who managed the astonishing feat of singing a cover of "See Emily Play" a semitone sharp throughout.
Congrats to the Beeb and thank you to @privateeyenews.bsky.social for this silly/wonderful headline.
I have no idea what kind of game Gustavo Dudamel is playing adding his name to this monstrosity, given whom he owes his career to Chavez and Maduro, and that he'll probably be performing in front of Trump and/or Vance and/or Rubio. Or maybe I have a good idea of why.
Brueghel the Elder, "Hunters In The Snow". More than a painting, a whole universe.
Apologies for buggering up the ALT text, not for the first time. Here we go again!
The Royal Belgian Football Federation has published a - very strongly worded and argumented - statement after Fifa's decision to suspend Falorin Balogun's automatic ban for one year, making him eligible for the USMNT's R16 match v. Belgium. Merci à @samindrakunti.bsky.social!
Oh. With thanks to @migueldelaney.bsky.social for the heads-up.
Paid a visit to my friends of @theclientele.bsky.social in North London, where they are recording a new album. The two songs I heard there were magnificent, worthy of what is the best band to have emerged from this country in the last two decades.
"Soccer" is fine. "Soccer" is not American for "football". "Soccer" is a perfectly acceptable word which has been used for well over a century all over the world, starting in England, including by this Scottish gentleman, who knew a thing or two about association football. #moveon
It is a prerequisite of New Zealand Test teams that they should field at least one player who could be related to Jacques Brel.
When "right" is wrong. Did anyone think this "goal" was offside when it was "scored"? According to the letter of the current law, it is. The problem, here, is the isolation of a single, ephemeral moment in a continuum - a continuum in which Iran derived no advantage from Khalilzadeh's position.
You have to admire how Solbakken doesn't give a flying puffin about this game.
The cover of the latest edition of WSC. It is now 1,236 days (and counting) since Manchester City was charged of multiple violations (129 rather than 115) of Premier League rules.
I've set up camp at the British Library and ain't moving from here any time soon. It was that or
C'est officiel! The FC Apicoles has produced its first batch of honey, in hives paid for by the sale of their replica shirts. To mark the occasion, big fiesta at the club's ground in Liège on 24 July. A tree will be planted for each beer sold (proper Belgian beer, not what they sell at the WC).
Polymarket - blacklisted and illegal in most European countries and in many US states, but backed by the Trump family - has now processed (deep breath) over $3bn of trades on a single market, the winner of the 2026 World Cup. Three billion USD.
PUBLIC INTEREST POST Travelling by Tube in London today (or tomorrow or, gah, Friday)? These are the lines which have air-conditioning in the cars. The Elizabeth Line and the Overground, not featured on this map, should be added to the list. Courage to us all.
It looks as if I'm only a teeny-weeny bit "right-wing" - though I don't see it as a contradiction for a social-democrat to have libertarian impulses too. Note: the only question which puzzled me was related to religion, as I'm a secular Roman Catholic and...well, yes and no!
I often wondered if this was where the creators of the X-Files found the name of Gillian Anderson's character - this book was a best-seller when published in 1950.