Bikes are cool. Easy to get around, cheap, convenient, lots of parking opportunities, fun to ride. They're also pretty easy to maintain yourself - one of the biggest benefits of bikes and something I've always wanted to like but in reality, dreaded. Even the simple acts of oiling & tensioning the chain felt like a draaaaaaaaaaaaag. Until today. Whilst doing brake maintenance, I somehow found a strange kind of peace and calmness in the mundane act. Screwing screws, tightening cables, making sure…

Double Maths First Thing is “Ruining Christmas” Hello! My name is Colin and I am a mathematician on a mission to spread the joy and delight of mathematical thinking and practice. I’m currently experiencing the joy of being told by Helen Arney that she liked I Like The Pope. Helen Arney liked my song! The whole Pseudorandom Ensemble show at MathsWorld was a blast, and we were glad to have Helen warm the crowd up for us. (She’s working on a musical about Cambridge’s first all-female fire brigade,…

🚴 Morning commute to the office. Happy to have gone by bike again.

September 23, 2026 Always a favorite post for me! It takes HOURS and HOURS to find things that even come close to the “new” colors, but it’s always weirdly fun… I’m a weirdly fun woman! First, a painting that I’ve seen a few times in the last few weeks, which reminded me of these colors: Just a random art gift, from me to you! What’s the point of an accent color, anyway? For me, when you have all of the core colors of your wardrobe chosen, and you own sufficient neutral things to be able to get…

Desert Brat 2026-09-23

Power Cat 2026-09-23

I don’t know if the owner recognises me but he is asking a lot of questions. How is the focaccia? Is the wine okay? What do I think of the menu, the pasta, and the pizza? I answer, mostly, in nods and half smiles, telling him on one occasion, half-jokingly, that I am difficult to please. Sophie says that my face is incapable of lying. He tells me that he wants the truth, and, quite brazenly, that he wants “the worst reviews in the world now so that they can get better”. Okay, the focaccia needs…

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Sharlene from Real Life Reading that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries. Exit Party by Emily St John Mandel – very exited to have my hands on this new…

Here are more "perfectly OK" photos, nothing amazing, but good enough that they could theoretically be used in a brochure or booklet. There's the Moonliner, no longer sponsored by TWA. In just a year or so, Douglas will begin their three-year sponsorship... one of those subtle changes that really showed the evolution of Tomorrowland as it shed its 1950s past. Of course, by the end of 1966, the entire land was drastically altered, in the best possible way, with the New Tomorrowland opening in…

Constantine (2005)

Despite having overflowing bookshelves and a mountainous TBR, I still always seem to amass multiple copies of individual titles, and today’s book is a good example of that. Back in the 1990s (I think…) I read and loved Sarah Orne Jewett‘s “The County of the Pointed Firs and other stories” and it’s sat on my shelves ever since. I’ve often intended to revisit it, but it took the reissue of just “The Country of the Pointed Firs” stories in a Penguin Archive 90 edition to nudge me back to her…

Source Daugherty’s fascinating biography, which reflects impressive research in the Cormac McCarthy Papers at Texas State University, is very well told and filled with astute judgments about McCarthy’s 12 novels. Although Daugherty declines to elevate one part of his oeuvre over the other, the lesson of the biography—and the work—is clear. The cultural South may have been McCarthy’s home, but the West was his muse. Cormac McCarthy’s Midlife Crisis An interesting piece on McCarthy.

I didn't know until recently. Desktop mode still has a way to go, before it's ready for day-to-day use -- but it's a step in the right direction.

House of Odysseus – Claire North Menelaus, and Helen, arrive on Ithaca. Penelope has to work out how to save her Kingdom from takeover, and Orestes, Telemachus and her maids from death. Part Two of The Songs of Penelope, narrated by Aphrodite, Goddess of Love. Waiting for Part Three to become available at the library…. Author page: House of Odysseus – Claire North

Brent Simmons, the creator of the NetNewsWire, on Mac toolbars:I am in particular not a fan of how Mac toolbars look. I don’t like the full-height sidebars and I especially don’t like the Liquid Glass buttons.I'm with Brent on this one. Those bubbly buttons in the toolbars may look okay-ish on iOS and iPhone Duo, but they feel completely alien on Mac.

I was recently talking with friends who play Pokemon Champions about my earlier blog post about Pokemon trading. They were trying to trade some Pokemon online* and wanted to make sure they were using the system effectively. If you read my previous post, you know that you can use a single rare Pokemon as a token of exchange between different shinies. That Pokemon is currently Eternal Flower Floette. Because Z-A is the most recent Pokemon game, the hardest-to-get Pokemon in that game is now the…

It was a rather special weekend because The Boy, our firstborn Sun & Air, carved time from his busy working / parenting schedule to come on his ownio to visit his agéd parents. We didn't have a fatted calf about the places but I did buy some rasherses and sausinges and we had breakfast for lunch à trois on Sunday. Nothing like reddit/r/FryUp, mind! Either side of our Bunter Blowfest, we planted out 3 pot-bound exotic trees . . . for posterity, like. In normal chat and catchup, nobody is…

Deusdedit was the fourth doge of Venice, ruling from 742 to 755, but we know little more about him than of the previous doges and the "magistri militum".

Mr BW writes: It was now time for a bit of dismantling and destruction. First, sorry, came the end of...

Refresher: Brad, Frank-N-Furter, and Riff Raff are in the laboratory when the monitor reveals Dr. Scott entering the castle. To skip a chase scene, Frank activates the Triple Contact Electro Magnet, drawing Dr. Scott’s wheelchair on a comically twisty route through the castle to the magnet. (Look close and you’ll see both the wire pulling Jonathan Adams and the carpet separate when he gets near the top.) It’s hard not to linger on the litany of ways this defies physics and…you know…reason, but…

It’s the first half of the 19th century. France has just had its July Revolution, once again replacing a king with an emperor, or a king with a king, or, well, someone with someone or something else. Steam technology is proliferating, factories are replacing workshops, railways are spreading across the world. The USA is buying slaves by the shipload, a pandemic is sweeping across Europe, and Karl Marx is a teenager. People are watching wondrous, seemingly godlike technologies become commonplace…

Last year when my lovely ScaleTrains GP30 arrived I was incredibly excited to test out N-possible couplers…But this is not a photo of one. Rather I’ve gone backwards to go forwards and fitted Micro Trains 1015.In my search for the holy grail of reliable non-bouncing operation they seemed to offer some potential but recent trials have continued to frustrate - whereas I’ve managed to get my 1015 fitted stock working, even at slow speed switching; cars no longer bounce off down the track rather…

Bye, mountains!

Hello, mountains!

An Israeli election is coming up, and while the polls remain tight, the betting edge seems to be that an opposition bloc led by Gadi Eisenkot will be able to oust long-reigning incumbent Bibi Netanyahu (though -- despite protestations to the contrary -- likely not without help from Arab parties).This is a result that would not be unwelcome amongst American Jews. Netanyahu has a dismal -27 favorability gap, with two-thirds of American Jews hoping he gets replaced after the next election. It's…

Five of HRP's six royal palaces are in London. It costs £120 to visit them all. Tower of London £37.00 Hampton Court Palace £29.00 Kensington Palace £19.00 Banqueting House £10.00 Kew Palace £25.00 TOTAL £120.00 Take up HRP membership and you can get that down to £89. But by playing the long game I've managed to visit the lot for less than £20. I saved the most expensive until last. Tower of London £1.00 Hampton Court Palace £7.75 Kensington Palace £0.00 Banqueting House £0.00 Kew Palace £10.00…

Editor’s Note: Matthew Chicoine interviewed Dr. Robert Shaffern, via phone on August 21st, 2026. Some of the questions/answers have been rearranged, edited, and paraphrased to provide the best reader experience without losing any integrity of the answers given. What makes your account of Peter’s life different from those already written? One of the main things … Continue reading An 1113 Word Interview with Dr. Robert Shaffern about Saint Peter The post An 1113 Word Interview with Dr. Robert…

There is nothing quite as comforting when the cooler months roll around as a good old-fashioned Boiled Dinner - a true Maritime and New England classic that's been loved for generations. This humble one pot meal starts with salty meat simmered low and slow until tender, creating a rich cooking liquor that infuses the eating vegetables with deep, nostalgic flavour.Simple ingredients, gentle cooking, and timeless tradition come together to create a dish that's plain, hearty, and incredibly…

To our Jewish readers: Sorry, we're a bit late on this—chalk it up to being ill—but G'mar Chatimah Tovah. We do not know if an exclamation point is appropriate on the (belated) occasion of such a solemn holiday, so we're sticking with a period. Trump Threatens Iran with Annihilation If you haven't studied World War II fairly closely, you may not be aware of exactly how much most Americans loathed the Japanese back then. There was Pearl Harbor, or course, followed by a brutal 4-year war during…