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# THOMPSON, blog.

Marvel at the mental contortions of our self-imagined betters.

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## Posts

- [It Was Raining Outside And They Were Promised Sandwiches](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2018/07/it-was-raining-outside-and-they-were-promised-sandwiches.html) - Sshh. Art is happening. Today it’s the art of Ms Nika López, seen below, as she “establishes an intimate relationship” between herself and nature. Specifically, an indoor pile of dirt. Thereby, of course, permitting us to behold, You see, Ms López describes her mission as nothing less than “expanding the consciousness of human beings.” As will
- [Bravely, I Cope With Rejection](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/06/bravely-i-cope-with-rejection.html) - In the comments, John draws attention to this item from Personnel Today, a publication for the inhabitants of HR departments, regarding recruitment criteria for the Royal Air Force: I’m assuming, perhaps charitably, that the word “useless” was with reference to meeting “diversity” targets. The word in question was deployed by former head of recruitment Elizabeth
- [Pretension Is Not A Gender](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/06/pretension-is-not-a-gender.html) - Speaking of educators who say things like this: Here’s another one for the collection. This time from Mearns Academy, a secondary school in Aberdeenshire: I’m guessing that the chap speaking means more than two. But hey, he’s a professional educator. We must make allowances. Because acknowledging reality will, evidently, get you kicked out of class.
- [The Words ‘Genie’ And ‘Bottle’ Come To Mind](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/06/the-words-genie-and-bottle-come-to-mind.html) - Further to this rather telling incident, a footnote of sorts, via the Telegraph: Not the Moon, obviously. Just a moon, a generic moon. With a cape. Readers of a certain age may recall pupils being sent home for wearing trainers or an inappropriate skirt. I remember overhearing a discussion regarding the selective enforcement of dress
- [Regurgitation Is Heard](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/06/regurgitation-is-heard.html) - Or, “How You Identity.” A professional educator, Mrs Donna Starkey of Rye College, East Sussex, attempts to impart her new and shiny knowledge. Two schoolgirls prove troublesome: Threats of further ideological correction ensue. Apparently, the recorded exchange was prompted by a pupil claiming to identify as a cat, and the two girls, heard above, expressing
- [Friday Ephemera (682)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/06/friday-ephemera-682.html) - She does this better than you do. || Birds and sheep. || Today’s words are bee cartridges. || Larger forces were at work. || Incongruous Dalek. || Daylight. || Those load-bearing arguments. || Compression test. || The robbery attempt did not go entirely to plan. || Plot twist. || Plot twist 2. || Today’s other
- [Gardening Gone Wrong](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/06/gardening-gone-wrong.html) - Because you’ll only complain otherwise, I bring you performance art: I’m reading the catalogue and press release. Bear with me. Send sandwiches. Needless to say, the accompanying prose is quite extensive. The words “sustainable heterotopic space of discourse” crop up, obviously, and which, as you can imagine, is an enormous help. Quite how one might
- [I Don’t Think She’s Handling the Menopause Very Well](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2013/10/i-dont-think-shes-handling-the-menopause-very-well.html) - Once again it’s time to poke a stick in the mental bog of performance art. And so readers are invited to sample the aesthetic wares of Rocío Boliver, an “underground cultural icon” whose career spans musical performance, video, raves and “porno-erotic texts.” Ms Boliver describes herself as “a 56 year old woman living in the
- [A Rustling In The Bushes](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2017/09/a-rustling-in-the-bushes.html) - Four years ago, when art professor Elizabeth Stephens filmed the documentary Ecosexual Love Story, in which she and her partner licked trees, I could just stop there, really. the term “ecosexuality” was still somewhat unknown. If, by some chance, the term is unfamiliar, Annie Sprinkle and Beth Stephens… authors of The Explorer’s Guide to Planet Orgasm… describe
- [Playtime Is Never Over](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/06/playtime-is-never-over.html) - Speaking of schooling, and lifted from the comments: A message, indeed. I’m assuming the campy paper fan is a fundamental aspect of his “full authentic self.” Evidently, our fearless educator has determined that any gay kids in his class - or rather, kids who may turn out to be gay on hitting puberty – need
- [Is The Fondling On The Test?](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/06/is-the-fondling-on-the-test.html) - Via Nikw211 in the comments, some classroom incongruity: https://twitter.com/robbystarbuck/status/1667760341357297665?s=20 To paraphrase, but only very slightly: Not a good look, really. Presumably, the conceit is that any gay pupils will somehow feel affirmed - rather than, say, mortified, or made complicit in something that’s naff and contrived, a vaguely weird imposition. And note that the teacher
- [Friday Ephemera (828)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/08/friday-ephemera-828.html) - Confounding house numbers, 1961. || "Dad, you can carry big rocks." || Dawn upwardsness. || It's possible they went too far. || The formidable Miss Whiplash. || Boy Wonder, big pants, Batman in a jam, 1943. || "Photography not permitted." || Japanese people encounter Marmite. || Mole relocation. || For manly striding. || "White empiricism"
- [And Lo, An Enraged Male](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/08/and-lo-an-enraged-male.html) - Or, Discourse Was Attempted: Perfectly normal. pic.twitter.com/AShv6sF3b0 — Gay Not Queer (@Gaynotqueer1) August 2, 2026 Now, ladies. About your changing rooms... Update: Our Bellowing Man-Witch shouts, theatrically, "I am the villain of this world," as if he were a martyr, presumably in some attempt to elicit sympathy and thereby compliance. But in a non-trivial sense,
- [New Neighbours](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/08/new-neighbours.html) - Brendan O'Neill on life in an age of euphemism: An assault. All cheered on by ladies of a certain kind. Says Mr O'Neill, At which point, the reliably ludicrous LBC presenter James O'Brien comes to mind. With all of the earnestness he could conjure, Mr O'Brien described the intruders as akin to "climate refugees... moving
- [Friday Ephemera (827)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/07/friday-ephemera-827.html) - Blind taste test. || Lateral motion surplus. || Suboptimal scenario. || More magic cardboard. Previously. (h/t, Stephanie) || Adhesion detected. || The H-Man, 1958. Is there nothing atomic radiation can't do? | Seeing, doing finger-math. (h/t, Tacky Raccoons) || Note to self. || The strange, grim tale of Britain's "Hannibal the Cannibal." (h/t, Neatorama) ||
- [Reheated (133)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/07/reheated-133.html) - Because some things bear repeating, some items from the archives: It's A Laugh-A-Minute Lifestyle. In which we ponder polyamory and supposedly "non-hierarchical" relationships. Well, Soil Is Sort Of Brown. Gardening is all about the “crisis in white identity,” says sociology lecturer. Wherever Possible, Avoid Mad People. Science fiction events, Mexican snacks, and the algebra of
- [Well, Soil is Sort of Brown](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2014/08/well-soil-is-sort-of-brown.html) - Worthy of the Guardian, but found in the Telegraph: It is the softly spoken radio show that provides good-natured help and advice to thousands of gardeners every week. So regular listeners to Gardeners’ Question Time may be horrified to discover it has been accused of peddling racial stereotypes. According to an academic, the sedate Radio
- [A Lot Of Art Was Swinging About](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/07/a-lot-of-art-was-swinging-about.html) - I know, I know. I've been starving you of culture and refinement. Allow me to correct that scandalous oversight: The Western Europe you were talking about? 🫪😁 Two million euros spent on a dance performance by naked black people. "The Belgian government spent two million euros on an event aimed at protesting the era of
- [Wherever Possible, Avoid Mad People](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2015/04/wherever-possible-avoid-mad-people.html) - For instance, people such as these: Stevenson College is apologising to its students for serving Mexican food during [a science fiction event]. In a letter sent out to students, the college apologised for having “a Mexican food buffet,” while also featuring spaceships and aliens. Wait for it. The college received complaints saying the combination was racist
- [New Ideological Hemlines Announced](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/07/new-ideological-hemlines-announced.html) - Please update your files and lifestyles accordingly: Elite opinions change fashion faster than elite wardrobes. When you express a luxury belief, you are communicating your level of education, your income, and your sociopolitical sympathies. It is an expression of what the sociologist Pierre Bourdieu called cultural capital. You… pic.twitter.com/1UgebJRJT1 — Rob Henderson (@robkhenderson) July 23,
- [Friday Ephemera (826)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/07/friday-ephemera-826.html) - Modern problems. || They're behind you. || Do you want to buy a belt? || King of the combover. || Life in a one-loo village, 1970. || An archive of tangible media, from magnets and grooves to coatings and pins. (h/t, Things) || An archive of punch cards. || An archive of vintage cycling publications.
- [A Test Of Patience](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/07/a-test-of-patience.html) - A car is reported stolen. Police arrive. Liveliness ensues: Bodycam footage has just been released of police visiting an American campus last year following the report of a car theft. Unfortunately for them, the first person they meet is a cross-dressing student, who throws repeated and aggressive tantrums over his gender identity. pic.twitter.com/ividCN5VkI — ripx4nutmeg
- [Please Stop Objecting To The Assault Of Your Person](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2021/07/please-stop-objecting-to-the-assault-of-your-person.html) - Robert Schmad spots more Clown Quarter contortion: An assistant professor at Appalachian State University recently argued that enforcing behavioural standards in public high schools is rooted in racism and unfairly affects Black students. In the article “‘Press Charges’: Art Class, White Feelings, and the School-to-Prison Pipeline,” [assistant professor of art education, Dr] Albert Stabler writes that the desire to punish
- [The Inadequate And Resentful Should Not Be Put In Charge](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2019/04/the-inadequate-and-resentful-should-not-be-put-in-charge.html) - Professor Child’s presentation was not explicitly concerned with space exploration or Mars, which is not surprising since her area of expertise is indigenous education and history. She told us that indigenous people have travelled extensively – specifically, by canoe – and mentioned some indigenous people who travelled to Europe in earlier eras, though not by
- [The Clown Quarter Now Has An Engineering Division](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2017/12/the-clown-quarter-now-has-an-engineering-division.html) - Toni Airaksinen notes an interesting expansion of the Clown Quarter ethos: The leader of Purdue University’s School of Engineering Education recently declared that academic “rigour” reinforces “white male heterosexual privilege.” “One of rigour’s purposes is, to put it bluntly, a thinly veiled assertion of white male (hetero)sexuality,” she writes, explaining that rigour “has a historical
- [Reheated (132)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/07/reheated-132.html) - Because some things bear repeating, some items from the archives: The Clown Quarter Now Has An Engineering Division. Rigidity and stiffness, and other sins. A Synonym For Spite. Creeping on schoolgirls deemed a right, a basis for applause. A Mere Sliver Of His Brilliance. I bring thee art. No, don't thank me. An Alien Presence.
- [An Alien Presence](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2017/01/an-alien-presence.html) - Ned Resnikoff, senior editor of the leftwing publication ThinkProgress, encounters a tradesman: So far, so good. Then things get a little odd. We seem to have taken a leap, a bold one. Er, okay, then. Inevitably, Mr Resnikoff goes on to confess his "privilege" as a white man, specifically, Yes, I know. Everyone remember where
- [A Mere Sliver Of His Brilliance](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2016/10/a-mere-sliver-of-his-brilliance.html) - Mr Philip Fryer is, it says here, a Boston-based artist who “explores concepts of mortality, chaos and order, the body as a circuit, and the omnipresence of sound,” and whose work “draws connections between mortality, queer identity, chronic illness and memory decay.” Well, indeed. Obviously. In the all-too-brief video below, filmed at Boston’s Proof Gallery in
- [Friday Ephemera (825)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/07/friday-ephemera-825.html) - You want one and you know it. || Why dogs don't rule the Earth. || Frog washing scenes. || For ladies so inclined. || Not toilets, it turned out. || Mortal remains. || Mighty tash deployed. || Have you dried yours? || Some diversity occurred. || His rights, you hear. (Rights not specified.) || Scenes
- [Zack Ford Is A Grown Man](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2019/07/zack-ford-is-a-grown-man.html) - You can tell from his outpourings: As someone who writes about Trump and his subordinates every day, I need every reprieve I can find from the ongoing toxic demise of our country, including in my personal social media. But my decision today to unfriend this individual was no simple purge; I am significantly emotionally wounded.
- [Grass Not In Fact Greener](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/07/grass-not-in-fact-greener.html) - Via Pst314 in the comments, a tale of suboptimal decisions: Says the cross-dressing man in the floral pinafore. This American man, pretending to be a woman, fled the US for the Netherlands for "asylum." Now he regrets it because of all the Muslim migrants who violently target him. You can't make this stuff up.pic.twitter.com/MBizjmHa3A —
- [Reheated (131)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/07/reheated-131.html) - Because some things bear repeating, a few items from the archives: Daddy's Baggage. Raising boys, the progressive way. I Have Some Reservations. "Real witches" offer progressive parenting advice. Feeding On Failure. Academics whose paycheque depends on propagating misery. The Unspanked Spread Joy. On fabulist “identities,” and malice with impunity. Weepy And Hysterical. Lecturer in “critical
- [Weepy And Hysterical](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2018/10/weepy-and-hysterical.html) - Men, listen up… Join me, with due diligence and civic duty, and publicly claim: I am sexist! In the pages of the New York Times, a philosophy professor named George Yancy is gushing his little heart out: It is hard to admit we are sexist. I, for instance, would like to think that I possess genuine
- [Daddy’s Baggage](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2022/04/daddys-baggage.html) - After turning 2 years old, my son, Avishai, started demanding that he only wear tractor shirts, and my mind spiralled into darkness. So writes Jay Deitcher, a social worker and therapist, a declarer of pronouns, and, it seems, someone accustomed to the aforementioned mental spiralling: I catastrophised worst-case scenarios, imagining a world where he fell
- [Clientele](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/07/clientele.html) - It occurs to me that if you’re running a “trans-owned LGBTQIA+ bookshop and coffee shop” – “queer books, queer haircuts, queer coffee” – yes, queer coffee - and your patrons have to be reminded, via "guidelines displayed on each table," of how to behave like even minimally civilised people, then you may want to seek
- [Feeding On Failure](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2022/04/feeding-on-failure.html) - Dr Erec Smith, an Associate Professor of Rhetoric at York College of Pennsylvania, on educators who would prefer minority students not to be understood, or indeed successful: [W]hat is perhaps most troublesome about [“anti-racist” educator, Asao] Inoue’s statement is that he is projecting negative emotionality onto students because of something—their desire to learn standard English—that
- [Friday Ephemera (824)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/07/friday-ephemera-824.html) - Plenty boom. || At last, weeble chess. || The autonomous bins of tomorrow. || Snug but not impossible. || Meaty treat. || Choices were made. || Random malice, a possible series. || Sweet dreams. || On the Throne: 100 Years of the Toilet, 1984. || Engine trouble detected. || Someone stole his truck. || On
- [I Have Some Reservations](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2022/10/i-have-some-reservations.html) - From the pages of Scary Mommy, where ladies of a progressive bent share their fever dreams, Could Witchcraft Make You A Better Parent? Real Witches Say ‘Yes’ I suspect the word real is creaking under the strain there. Other creaking may occur during our travels. Still, the author of the piece, Annie Midori Atherton, is
- [We’re All In This Together](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2021/08/were-all-in-this-together.html) - The University of Utah has formed an “Anti-Racism” committee which will be tasked with “improv[ing] the overall campus climate regarding issues and events of racism across all intersections of identity.” The video, however, only mentions one race. It’s an “intergroup dialogue,” you see, spanning “all intersections of identity and bias.” And in which only one notional group is
- [Reheated (130)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/07/reheated-130.html) - Because some things bear repeating, a few items from the archives: Breeze Around The Knees. Male Guardian columnist wears skirt, awaits applause. Night Terrors. Empowered feminist and former educator is tormented by her own mind. Display Purposes. Progressive parenting, with bonus crack and badger. Perhaps The Cardboard Has Magical Properties. San Francisco public transport, where
- [Please Suspend Your Disbelief](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/07/please-suspend-your-disbelief.html) - She plays a Greek soldier, you know. After viewing this video, I very much doubt Page will be shown walking in The Odyssey. pic.twitter.com/UQBH4xdRjm — Gay Not Queer (@Gaynotqueer1) July 7, 2026 A mighty warrior. And a skilled deceiver. And as this is fundraising week, which keeps this place here, do feel free to make
- [Breeze Around The Knees](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/01/breeze-around-the-knees.html) - In politically-charged fashion news: Why yes, since you ask, I am reading the Guardian. Specifically, a piece by Mr Phineas Harper: Possibly because it tends to look contrived and rather silly, even when celebrities do it. A contrivance that suggests, not so much a high-minded “dismantling” of “gendered fashion,” or “a small step towards gender
- [Night Terrors](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2020/09/night-terrors.html) - Like lots of women I know, I have anxiety. And, like lots of women I know, my anxiety manifests itself in ways that are unique to me. Namely, my strongest attacks occur in my sleep. In the pages of Scary Mommy, a publication all about “empowerment,” Michaela Brown shares a tale of adversity and heroism: The
- [Friday Ephemera (823)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/07/friday-ephemera-823.html) - This vehicle is reversing. || Downside detected. || Big spider. || Squid roll. || Satie on a bondoneon. (h/t, Elephants Gerald) || There was, alas, some screaming. || Compatible skillsets. || Crossing of note. || "We did not come here to coexist." || "And I'm still laughing," says she. || The thrill of wrapping. ||
- [Something About the Tone](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2014/06/something-about-the-tone.html) - Peter Matthews, an Urban Studies lecturer with an interest in “urban inequalities,” questions the “rosy image of mixed communities.” And yet he wants to ensure more of us live next door to “the poor and marginalised.” When trying to create a better social mix, the focus is almost always on deprived areas. Aren’t the posh
- [Sir, Why Do You Want Babies To Suck Your Nipples?](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/07/sir-why-do-you-want-babies-to-suck-your-nipples.html) - And in modern-hellscape news: A terribly modern grievance, I think you'll agree. Very now. This is where we are, people. Everyone remember where we parked. You see, Mr Buckley wanted to "have the experience of breastfeeding.” Hence the novelty breasts. Mr Buckley is also indignant that a woman, a mother of three and a breastfeeding
- [Those Happy Fat People](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/06/those-happy-fat-people.html) - In academic news: Says the website of the University Heath Service: Much like fatness, in fact. Weight stigma in athletics. I'd better write that one down. The site also stresses the importance of "body positivity," which is, Well, losing some of that excess weight would probably help on that front. Less crippling self-consciousness. Less sweating
- [Struggling With The Obvious](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/06/struggling-with-the-obvious.html) - Mr Burkett tries to explain something to Cathy Young: It means quite straightforwardly that natives have less political power, because their votes are a smaller share of the overall electorate. Newcomers do not merely “coexist” alongside you. They form political coalitions. They vote. Even physical space in a city is to some… https://t.co/jAoNacBKWX — wanye
- [Friday Ephemera (822)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/06/friday-ephemera-822.html) - The diamond knuckle dusters you've always wanted. || Always carry a spare. || Behind those high-tech specs. || Sales pattern detected. || Street panto. || Not a good place to lose forward momentum. || Incoming. || Incoming 2. || Decorum at customs. || A brief guide to vocal fry. (h/t, Elephants Gerald) || Barbecue scenes.
- [Reheated (129)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/06/reheated-129.html) - Because some things bear repeating, a few items from the archives: Discontinued Lines. I know. Cuckoldry. That'll save the world. Their Inner Loveliness. Antifa’s Transgender Enforcement Wing bare their sweet little souls. Inserting Diversity. On racially incongruous casting and other wonders. Let's Be Alone And Unhappy. On the difficulties of satisfying progressive women. For those
- [Let's Be Alone And Unhappy](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/11/lets-be-alone-and-unhappy.html) - I paraphrase, of course. Though not, I think, wildly: Yes, from the pages of Vice, it's a men-are-the-problem-and-therefore-unnecessary article. Because we haven't had one of those in weeks. Lesbian relationships being entirely free of aggravation and disappointment, you see. With rates of failure and divorce twice that of heterosexuals, more than double that of gay male
- [Discontinued Lines](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/03/discontinued-lines-2.html) - "Open borders" advocate Nicholas Decker shares his thoughts on totally progressive fatherhood: So far, so good. If not exactly newsworthy. Perhaps a twist is coming, some needless contrivance. Ah. There we go. Not sure if watching is involved. It seems we're expected to follow Mr Decker's lead, into that glorious tomorrow, where cuckoldry is ascendant,
- [Downside Detected](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/06/downside-detected.html) - And in Bay Area news: From the article in question: According to Oakland Police Department, car break-ins are down by some 37% from the previous year and significantly lower than the preceding decade, in which reported break-ins, or "bipping," reached an impressive 30,000 per year, or around 82 break-ins each and every day. With some single
- [Imagine Being This Bint](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/06/imagine-being-this-bint.html) - I bring you the deep thoughts of Ms Lily Kaplan. Or more precisely, the thoughts of her peers and educators, regurgitated wholesale in a Valley-Girl vocal fry: Angry Leftist woman publishes negative review of a restaurant because she thinks it's too "White" She says it gives off vibes of "racism, misogyny, and ped*philia" because two
- [Friday Ephemera (821)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/06/friday-ephemera-821.html) - This is one of these. || Closer to the Almighty. || Ad location of note. || He wants to talk to the ladies. || A live map of the London Underground. || Paper-scroll-based in-car navigation system, 1931. || Icarus. || Enoch and Jonny and Dick, 1971. || In terms of immigration, discernment matters. || "A
- [Thrashing Out The Issues](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/06/thrashing-out-the-issues.html) - Time for an open thread, I think. But first, Yes, let's squeeze in another visit to the Guardian's Dining Across the Divide series, in which "strangers from across the divide" - albeit strangers with, very often, eerily similar opinions and a common choice of newspaper - "discuss the divisive issues of our time" and attempt
- [Unmentionable Variables](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/06/unmentionable-variables.html) - Lifted from the comments, a reminder, were one needed, that you don't despise the media anywhere near enough. In this case, it's Flemish public television - not unlike our own BBC - and one guest's realisation that any discussion of rising intolerance and a growing enthusiasm for violence against women must arrive at certain predetermined
- [Friday Ephemera (820)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/06/friday-ephemera-820.html) - He's having his creases attended to. || Incoming. || Mop-related drama. || Secret snail business. || Let's just say choices were made. || A bathtime temptation. || Today's word is parenting. || More joys of public transport. || Like professional wrestling, but in libraries. || I think we need clarification, ladies. || Today's other word
- [An Ability To Ignore Dissonance](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/06/an-ability-to-ignore-dissonance.html) - Lifted from the comments, this feat of self-knowledge: https://t.co/NK6ZXsV5cq pic.twitter.com/kRryCjRo8X — Overeducated Gibbon (@MostlyMonkey) June 9, 2026 "How little they understand us," says he. Sorry, he/him. Because pronouns in bio, obviously. Again, cue the meme. But remember, dear reader, the routine and often vehemently announced antipathy of so many progressives towards people of pallor -
- [Facial Theatre](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/06/facial-theatre.html) - From the comments - which of course you're reading - a phenomenon to ponder. A small but telling feature of our unrelentingly progressive times. It began with this exchange from Question Time, the BBC's flagship political debate programme, in which Green Party candidate Sarah Wakefield struggled with causality. Specifically, the apparently alien notion that a rapidly
- [Friday Ephemera (819)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/06/friday-ephemera-819.html) - The robots are coming. || The fight against gravity did not go well. || When good girls go bad! || Discourse was attempted. || Inadequate product detected. || England's most villagey town. || I'm guessing she ain't happy. || The progressive retail experience, parts 730, 731 and 732. || Peeping spotted. || Peekaboo. || On
- [Strange Construal](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2015/07/strange-construal.html) - Or, Socialists Watch TV, Hallucinate Wildly. Lifted from an old comments thread about fretful eco-piety, some thoughts on the 70s sitcom The Good Life and its message as construed by a Guardian reader and another fellow leftist. Specifically, its role as some kind of moral lodestone for the modern anti-capitalist: Listen to Tom on one of
- [Reheated (128)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/06/reheated-128.html) - As I'm a little under the weather, some items from the archives: Their Happiness Hurt My Feelings. The intersectional perils of Zoom meetings. With mad people. Strange Construal. On 'anti-capitalist' lifestyles and a misremembered sitcom. Literary World Unveils Doomsday Machine. Underwhelming artists threaten to strike, world continues turning. For those craving more, this is a pretty
- [Literary World Unveils Doomsday Machine](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2016/01/literary-world-unveils-doomsday-machine.html) - This just in: Amanda Craig, novelist, quoted, approvingly, in the Guardian. At risk of being vaguely practical - yes, I know, it's the Guardian - one does have to wonder how long this theoretical strike would have to last in order to have any discernible effect. I mean, novelists generally work quite slowly, with books
- [Just Happens, You See](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/06/just-happens-you-see.html) - Another glimpse into the mind of the scrupulously progressive: Because, says Mr Gold, our pronoun-stipulating essayist, a sense of connection with one's home, one's territory, one's ancestry and how one came to be, is "utterly arbitrary." A thing of no importance, unworthy of consideration. Says he, or he/him, "The only sensible form of government is
- [Friday Ephemera (818)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/05/friday-ephemera-818.html) - I think it looks pretty good, actually. || Love machine, ladies. || Bling thing. || Contraband detected. || On transgender Reddit, euphoria abounds. || Balls and blocking. || On atomic weapons and bomb-like objects. || For lovers of glamour, those Hollywood vibes. || From 1981: Does Woking Want a Sex Shop? || On tiny tessellations
- [Odd Doings Down Under](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/05/odd-doings-down-under.html) - Where employers must accommodate impossible pregnancies: A lot of people have struggled to believe me when I say that the Australian Human Rights Commission is giving pregnancy protections in law to men who claim to be woman, because it’s so stupid it’s hard to believe anyone would say it. Enjoy: pic.twitter.com/IveqVhN9KG — Sall Grover (@salltweets)
- [Mr Blue Sky](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/05/mr-blue-sky.html) - A question is asked and answered: Highly neurotic, antagonistic, passive-aggressive. Borderline. https://t.co/xFEKa2jooG — J.D. Haltigan, PhD 🏒👨‍💻 (@JDHaltigan) May 24, 2026 Bluesky is, it has to be said, a strange, unhappy place. One where everything, but everything, is fraught, problematic and seething with complication. Including grilled cheese sandwiches and the paranormal: Readers may recall previous
- [The Hum Of Mental Feedback](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2017/04/the-hum-of-mental-feedback.html) - Further to this item, here’s more news of diversity down under: “I’m sorry, you can’t come here. It’s a multicultural playgroup.” And so it’s not for the likes of you. And so, we have a "multicultural playgroup" that's all about "diversity" and "celebrating difference," and which turns away four-year-olds and their mothers for being "too
- [Shakedown, Down Under](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2017/03/shakedown-down-under.html) - SJW Nonsense reports from Australia’s Clown Quarter, where jokes about absurdity will be punished absurdly: On the 28th May 2013, an incident took place in a computer lab on the campus at the Queensland University of Technology. A student, Alex Wood, and two friends walked into the computer lab, hoping to use a computer. A university
- [Boutique Suffering](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/05/boutique-suffering.html) - In the comments, Pst314 and Dicentra steer us to new realms of niche woe: An exchange of views ensues. In which, Ms Taylor Lorenz, an "online culture journalist," struggles with causality. Including the seemingly difficult concept that a heavy reliance on delivered takeaway, and the mindset that implies, may have some bearing on how little
- [Friday Ephemera (817)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/05/friday-ephemera-817.html) - Misstep to remember. || A Trip to the Planets, 1963. || Trial and error. || Cleaving scenes. || Question asked. || Camouflage insufficient. || You must listen without questioning. || Not-so-small small intestines. || Teens. || Yes, it will be on the test. || Bra testing of note. || Briefly airborne. || A binary was
- [Bathroom Rumblings](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/05/bathroom-rumblings.html) - Via the comments, and the pages of Gay Community News, more attempts to justify the odd and improper: Ah, a glimmer of realism, one might think. Perhaps the fever is passing. Or put another, less dramatic way, cross-dressing men will be excluded from ladies' toilets. And yet. You see, not being allowed to violate the
- [Incongruous Men](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2022/07/incongruous-men.html) - Further to the eye-widening incident mentioned in the later paragraphs here, another taste of trans ideology in Canadian women’s shelters: At first, Jane says she’d just tried to avoid Max [a pseudonym], who she described as being over 6’ tall and obviously male. But just weeks after arriving, Jane says she caught him in the
- [When Two People Argue](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/05/when-two-people-argue.html) - The results can be... revealing: You see, caring about your family, your ancestors, your lineage, your children, is “actually absurd,” apparently. And by implication, some kinds of context – where you came from, say – are to be scorned as worthless. An earlier, related exchange comes to mind: One more time: I'm guessing that's some
- [Friday Ephemera (816)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/05/friday-ephemera-816.html) - A mighty roar. (h/t, Elephants Gerald) || A licking of the lips. || For maximum plunging. || Lomanstraat, Amsterdam. || An exercise in truck alignment. || A brief guide to the origins of Islam and jihad. || Battle strategy of note. || An hour of department-store bossa nova. || Meanwhile, in Bradford. || Hers is
- [Reheated (127)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/05/reheated-127.html) - For those craving "queer theory," some items from the archives: Your Host's Idea Of Hell. I suffered, so now you must. They Call it "Queering" History. Tudor history, as seen through the welding goggles of wokeness. Our Betters Stroke Their Pets. The hounds of love. Only Doing It For The Betterment Of Us All. On
- [A Shoebox Under The Bed](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/05/a-shoebox-under-the-bed.html) - Lifted from the comments, a revealing choice of words: Also, while there is nothing wrong… Again, a revealing tone, I think. Mr Yglesias, since you ask, is currently said to earn around $1.4 million a year, chiefly from his 18,000 Substack subscribers. It therefore seems quite likely that he has savings and investments of some
- [Your Host’s Idea of Hell (3)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2019/05/your-hosts-idea-of-hell-3.html) - My teeth… have written on my body and have been written on by my body. My canines speak volumes. My incisors have something to say. My bicuspids beg to be theorised. My molars desperately want to be understood. This story of my teeth is important because my straight teeth have not always been the way
- [Friday Ephemera (815)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/05/friday-ephemera-815.html) - "They can strip a man to the bone in 30 seconds." || She just wants to get in her room and eat and put this behind her. || Big fellah. || Facilities. || The word holding caught my eye. || Igor Sikorsky, 1945. || Captures something, I think. || A night at the opera. ||
- [I'm In Charge Of What You Can Say Because I'm So Humble](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/05/im-in-charge-of-what-you-can-say-because-im-so-humble.html) - I paraphrase, of course. Though not, I think, wildly: The alleged harms of debate and the citing of statistics are not mere rudeness or a failure to flatter, but "lasting psychological damage." Because statistics can do that, apparently. What might constitute controversy in the minds of such implausibly delicate creatures is not made clear, though
- [Background Check](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/05/background-check.html) - For all entertainment and cultural consumption: I hate to break it to you, but everyone is “problematic.” Human beings are flawed. If they weren’t, literature and art would not exist. You’ve been duped by an ideology that will happily rob you of all joy and complexity in life and art. https://t.co/kLY3CGmnMo — Joseph Massey (@jmasseypoet)
- [Land Of The Before Times](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2020/04/land-of-the-before-times.html) - As we confront the reality of COVID-19, the idea of living self-sufficiently in the woods, far from crowds and grocery stores, doesn’t sound so bad. From the pages of Outside magazine, the romance of the primitive: I’m on my way to meet Lynx Vilden, a 54-year-old British expat who, for most of her adult life,
- [Friday Ephemera (814)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/05/friday-ephemera-814.html) - Bait. || Old boiler. || Balloon surgery. || Coming through. || Choices were made. || Something is missing. || Incoming. || Question asked. || How to glue Styrofoam to fabric, and answers to other glue-related questions. || Just like a guitar, but with really hefty magnets. || Rather more leg than I was expecting. ||
- [Modern Woes](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/04/modern-woes.html) - Lifted from the comments, some beverage-related economics news: This is like the entire left versus right debate on markets pic.twitter.com/5PlEn1uWS5 — wanye (@xwanyex) April 29, 2026 What things actually cost is “incredibly rightwing,” apparently. As Rafi says in reply, The inability to grasp how things work is quite remarkable. There's an air of imperviousness. And
- [Reheated (126)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/04/reheated-126.html) - On a theme of Very Modern Education, some items from the archives: The Psychology of "Social Justice" Is A Thing To Behold. Don't learn to spell, just insult potential employers. Says leftist professor. They Feed On The Young. On San Francisco's taxpayer-funded Woke Kindergarten. Not Entirely Similar. What your children are being taught and why
- [Not Entirely Similar](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/09/not-entirely-similar.html) - For those with an interest in recent history, and indeed surrealism, a catalogue of progressive cancel culture. Among the sins punished with both swiftness and eyebrow-raising severity - questioning the benefits of rioting; questioning overt racial favouritism at the University of California, Los Angeles; saying that George Floyd wasn't actually a moral exemplar; liking tweets
- [A Performance Art Sampler](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2016/03/a-performance-art-sampler.html) - In which the students of Ms Sandrine Schaefer, a winner of the Boston Institute of Contemporary Art’s Foster Prize, stagger beneath the knee-buckling weight of their own immense talents. From Ms Phoebe Warner, an aspiring educator of children, and her exercise in gratuitous, somewhat masochistic thigh abuse, to the cryptically-named Fatty Spice, a Twitter poet and graduate
- [Heavy-Set](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/04/heavy-set.html) - Because you look starved of culture, I bring you the formidable figure of rap sensation Dajua Blanding, known to her admirers as Dank Demoss: What's her rap name? pic.twitter.com/OvrfklCc0R — TaraBull (@TaraBull) April 26, 2026 Bonus points if you spotted the location of madam's phone. Keen-eyed readers may recognise Ms Demoss from her previous adventures
- [Friday Ephemera (813)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/04/friday-ephemera-813.html) - At last, toilet lasers. || The alphabetical clock. || Today's words are bear suit insurance fraud. || In Chinese car-making news. It's voice-controlled and comes with a fan. || Amenities on high. || Chopped ham and eggs. || A map of cheese. Semi-hard buffalo cheese, Mongolian horse cheese, it's all in there. || Four minutes
- [Spendable Encouragement](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/04/spendable-encouragement.html) - The time is upon us when I rashly appeal to the better nature of my patrons, with a reminder that this establishment is made possible by the kindness of strangers. If you’d like to ensure this place exists a while longer and remains ad-free, there are three buttons below the fold with which to monetise
- [Today's Word Is 'Dentistry'](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/04/todays-word-is-dentistry.html) - Lifted from the comments, which you're reading of course, Christopher Rufo spies more dolts and liars in dumb academia: And yet, none of these post-colonial theorists want to "decolonize" electricity, antibiotics, and other oppressive constructs of the Western world, in order to return to the authentic indigenous ways of the darkened teepee and dying from
- [Friday Ephemera (812)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/04/friday-ephemera-812.html) - The cabinets, in fairness, were fully transformed. || Engine trouble. || Timesaver. || Moves in sync with your, er, pedalling motion. || More than is strictly necessary. || The machine uprising, day 13. || Drivers, look away now. || Not reading the room. || Merry England. || Mouth and trousers. || How all women walk
- [Reheated (125)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/04/reheated-125.html) - On a musical theme, some items from the archives. Don't Oppress My People With Your White-Ass Folk Music. Sheffield academics spend £1.5M to "decolonise" folk singing. Little Harmony, Plenty Colon. Decolonise Choir is all about healing and coexistence. No white devils allowed. Have You Tried Less Tiresome Music? On rap, the 'N' word, and dumb
- [Don’t Oppress My People With Your White-Ass Folk Music](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/06/dont-oppress-my-people-with-your-white-ass-folk-music.html) - In crushed-by-niche-culture news: A mere £1,485,400, since you ask. A gnat’s eyelash. For an issue of such fundamental importance to the turning of the world. Whew. I was getting worried there. Obviously, activities that are chiefly indulged in by white people - in this case, folk singing - must be deemed suspect and found problematic
- [Telepathy Not A Thing, Women Hardest Hit](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2020/04/telepathy-not-a-thing-women-hardest-hit.html) - For Mother’s Day I asked for one thing: a house cleaning service. In the pages of Harper’s Bazaar, Gemma Hartley bemoans the chore of getting her multiple bathrooms cleaned by someone else. Actually, the clean bathrooms are, it turns out, a secondary concern: The real gift I wanted was to be relieved of the emotional
- [Transgender Toe Dysphoria](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/04/transgender-toe-dysphoria.html) - I thought that might get your attention. And now, in the interests of raising awareness and fostering sensitivity, in the name of visibility, I bring you the travails of the modern cross-dressing man: You've heard of foot fet!sh but are you prepared for transgender toe dysphoria pic.twitter.com/kIuJTGsjxV — Exulansic (@TTExulansic) April 12, 2026 You see,
- [Unto Others](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/04/unto-others.html) - Lifted from the comments, which you're reading of course, this strikes me as broadly accurate: Much of the content here that’s about crime, antisocial behaviour and recreational malice is informed by a fairly visceral dislike of expectations of exemption and immunity – and actual immunity – from normal moral consequences. Consequences that I would expect to
- [Being Real, She Says](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/04/being-real-she-says.html) - As illustrations go, this one is worthy of note: There are many things to dislike about progressivism, even just from a purely aesthetic point of view, and so we spend a lot of time on here ridiculing it on that basis, but it’s important always to remember that the main problem with progressivism is that
- [Stigma, You Say](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/04/stigma-you-say.html) - Via the comments, and from the land of unfinished thoughts: Housing is a human right and evictions are an act of policy violence. My HELP Act would give a lifeline to families facing eviction and vital resources during this time of crisis. pic.twitter.com/RyU1dkBe05 — Ayanna Pressley (@AyannaPressley) April 3, 2026 Ms Ayanna Pressley, a congresswoman
- [Have You Tried Less Tiresome Music?](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2022/03/have-you-tried-less-tiresome-music.html) - I have questions, dear reader. Important, probing questions. Are you unenthused by hip-hop tracks about “police brutality and racialised oppression”? Does rapping about poverty and “the woes of Black Americans as artists” not render you giddy and enthralled? Do you not delight in endless repetition of the word nigga? I ask because we’re told, by
- [Friday Ephemera (811)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/04/friday-ephemera-811.html) - Not ball, rock. (h/t, Elephants Gerald) || On bats and regurgitation. || Tidy, yes, but tricky to remove. || In case of fire. || Nommy-nommy-nom. || Nommy-nommy-nom 2. || So how was your day? || Wiggling. || When they do this, I'm pretty sure you're supposed to break their ankles. || Alum. || Last days
- [Nightmare Scenario](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/11/nightmare-scenario.html) - Laughed, not sorry: And from the replies. Consider this an open thread. Share ye links and bicker.
- [But What If Your ‘Whole Self’ Is, Frankly, Aggravating?](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2022/10/but-what-if-your-whole-self-is-frankly-aggravating.html) - And back in the world of contrived racial grievance, Job postings and corporate ‘About Us’ pages often include a statement about the company fostering an environment where employees can bring their ‘whole selves’ to work. But how often do these claims reflect reality? At risk of being difficult, I have questions about the premise. For
- [Your Host’s Idea Of Hell (4)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2019/08/your-hosts-idea-of-hell-4.html) - So, anyway, in the nightmare, I’m trapped at the Atlanta National Convention of the Democratic Socialists of America, which is currently underway, and where the gathered superior beings keep triggering each other. Most notably, bottom right: To recap: Mr Sensory Overload declares his pronouns and brings up “a point of privilege” – about how
- [Reheated (124)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/03/reheated-124.html) - Because some things do bear repeating, a few items from the archives: The Struggle To Find Fault. On Calvin and Hobbes - and progressive journalists who find it "problematic." Let's Do It, But In A Way That's Less Likely To Work. In which we poke through the Parenting pages of the Guardian. Manicurist's Nightmare. Cross-dressing
- [Zoe Just Knows](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2015/08/zoe-just-knows.html) - The Guardian’s Zoe Williams confidently declares, Miscarriage culture is, from a feminist perspective, an amplification of the shame involved in being female in the first place. Setting aside the notion of there being an entire miscarriage culture, I don’t follow Zoe’s leap to “shame in being female” as the obvious emotion of the moment. Grief,
- [Friday Ephemera (810)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/03/friday-ephemera-810.html) - Robo-bike. || Place your bets. || Come, see her box and the base of her tongue. || Suboptimal. || Modernity, baby. || On asymmetrical multiculturalism, a short thread. See also. || The machine uprising, day 12. || Getaway car. || A guide to chopstick gaffes. || She's energising her genitals. || More joys of public
- [And Infinite Tissues](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/03/and-infinite-tissues.html) - Devil Himself to pass within mere miles of council staff workplace, sandbags deployed, weeping ensues: Although Mr Farage's brief presence in the city will have "no direct impact" on Council staff, Leeds City Council human resources chief, Mr John Ebo, has assured pre-emptively traumatised employees that they will be comforted with "wellbeing network chats." "Safe
- [Friday Ephemera (809)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/03/friday-ephemera-809.html) - And then, quite suddenly, the drugs kicked in. || Discourse was attempted. || Wakawakawaka. || He kept it well hidden. || For when you have to leave quickly. || Free-love nest. || At last, a Bob Ross diorama. || Confidence in wrongdoing. || Boat fence. || "Why would they make the box shinier if it's
- [Poison Is Queen](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/03/poison-is-queen.html) - And in questionable circumstances news: Today's word is ballsy. Apparently, the house cleaner was scoring the pills. Consider this an open thread. Share ye links and bicker.
- [World Of Womanliness](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/03/world-of-womanliness.html) - Three snippets on a theme. First up, because we've been starved of irony, some news from Brazil: Because when you think of the dignity of women, you immediately picture drag queens. Mr Hilton, a member of the Socialism and Liberty Party, has responded to his critics - people suggesting that perhaps the president of a
- [Friday Ephemera (808)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/03/friday-ephemera-808.html) - The magic is forever. || Hear her roar. || Unforeseen obstruction. || Scenes of a runaway sled. || Keeper of secrets lets slip. || Some tilting occurred. || I bring cleavage. || Eight thousand voids (and counting). || Frankly, I question his motives. || A great symbolic moment of the twenty-first century. || "Take your
- [What Did The Lichen Say To You?](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/03/what-did-the-lichen-say-to-you.html) - And in academic news: The class, since you ask, is Ecofeminist Poetry & Poetics. Taught by a Professor of English, Brian Teare, who will, we're assured, situate relationships and encourage re-feeling. Professor Teare will also reveal, in ways somewhat mysterious, how "chattel slavery, imperialism, industrialisation, settler colonialism, and militarisation" can be understood - and righteously
- [Reheated (123)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/03/reheated-123.html) - On the subject of space exploration, some items from the archives: The Inadequate And Resentful Should Not Be Put In Charge. A "diverse group of thought leaders" opine on space travel. It does not go well. Those Aboriginal Telescopes. On the stupefying flattery of aboriginal mythology. You Will Pretend It Has Great Value. At Montreal’s
- [In Space No-One Can Hear You Scream](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2022/08/in-space-no-one-can-hear-you-scream.html) - “Decolonizing” the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence (SETI) could boost its chances of success, says science historian Rebecca Charbonneau. From Scientific American, obviously. You see, Increasingly, SETI scientists are grappling with the disquieting notion that, much like their intellectual forebears, their search may somehow be undermined by biases they only dimly perceive—biases that could, for instance,
- [Those Aboriginal Telescopes](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2020/11/those-aboriginal-telescopes.html) - Developments down-under – specifically, from a press release by Australia’s national science research agency, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation: The 64-metre telescope is located on Wiradjuri country in central west New South Wales, approximately 380km west of Sydney. It received the name Murriyang, which represents the ‘Skyworld’ where a prominent creator spirit of
- [These Things We Have Seen](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/03/these-things-we-have-seen.html) - Via pst314 in the comments, more wonders from the world of education: You're intrigued, I can tell. The specific purpose, lest there be doubt, being classroom urination. Which is apparently a niche activity, a buzz of sorts. Among grown men who are entrusted to shape young minds. Finding pleasure in the small things. Perhaps a
- [Friday Ephemera (807)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/03/friday-ephemera-807.html) - Little Daphnis making waves. || Like he's doing it with his mind. || Look away now. || On the near-continual laying of eggs. || The thrill of testicles. || Big piles of enrichment. || Hairdressing... for Men? || Mixed messages. || Symbolism. || The ice king of Boston. || You know, I'm beginning to think
- [There Was An Attempt To Impart Information](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/03/there-was-an-attempt-to-impart-information.html) - To people of a progressive leaning: These protesters have pitched a tent on private property over a city issue, and the owners called them in for trespassing. The “leader” tells the police she's the liaison and they need to go through her so she can relay information back to them. The problem is, she’s not
- [You Can Keep The Wire](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/03/you-can-keep-the-wire.html) - An awkward moment: A truck entered an automatic car wash with a large spool of wire still in the bed, and the spinning brushes quickly turned it into complete chaos. pic.twitter.com/DrVstYIkMa — Clown World ™ 🤡 (@ClownWorld) March 2, 2026 Update, via the comments: The, um, incident, since you ask, occurred in Goldsboro, North Carolina:
- [She’s Seething With Empowerment](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2017/02/shes-seething-with-empowerment.html) - Meanwhile, in the world of the well-adjusted Guardian columnist: It was July 2014, Nashville Tennessee. I was walking into a gas station for a bottle of water when the man behind me stepped up to open the door for me. With that act of kindness, something inside me snapped and I flew into a blind rage.
- [Because It Can Be Done](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2021/02/because-it-can-be-done.html) - For those in search of a lockdown project, how to make toilet-paper moonshine. “I’m going to be turning toilet paper into drinkable alcohol.” Via Elephants Gerald. Also, open thread. Share ye links and bicker.
- [Friday Ephemera (806)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/02/friday-ephemera-806.html) - Winter scenes. || Smooth walking. || At last, self-sorting chairs. || Laughed, not sorry. || Nail job. || The Bank of England gold vaults. || But she still had to film herself, obviously. || Bigger than yours. || Are you edible? || 32 times a day. || 21 minutes of morons being tased. || Blessed
- [And What was Your First Clue?](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/02/and-what-was-your-first-clue.html) - In educational news: No, wait. Let's not rush to conclusions. However, I think we can walk towards said conclusions at a fairly steady pace. Since you ask, Because naffly suggestive pseudonyms are exactly what you hope for at a kindergarten. In this case, at Mildred B. Poole Elementary School. The educator in question, whose actual
- [Reheated (122)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/02/reheated-122.html) - On a theme of leftist librarians, some items from the archives: Can You Not Feel The Progress? Middle-school librarians want 11-year-olds to know that whoring is empowering. The Librarians Will Save Us. Ivy League librarians demand things, struggle with logic, causality. Don't Oppress My People With Your Public Libraries. I bring you the mental exertions
- [Can You Not Feel The Progress?](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2022/05/can-you-not-feel-the-progress.html) - You know, I don’t recall my middle school’s library being quite this edgy: A concerned middle school teacher in Loudoun County, Virginia couldn’t let the comments of fellow school employee Stefany Guido slide after reportedly hearing her say some students — the majority of which are 11-13 years old — could be considered “sex workers.”
- [The Librarians Will Save Us](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2020/12/the-librarians-will-save-us.html) - A group of 13 “abolitionist librarians” from Ivy League universities… is demanding that their colleagues “immediately begin the work of divesting from police and prisons.” […] The group wants Ivy League librarians to “explicitly name policing itself as the problem” and take actions that will lead to the “complete abolition of law enforcement.” Something-something “white supremacy”
- [Land Of Mandatory Make-Believe](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/02/land-of-mandatory-make-believe.html) - Canada, I mean. Following this eye-widening farce, in which a mentally ill woman claimed to be crushed and psychologically violated by a haircut booking form, I bring you a vision of things to come: And thus a pretext for legislative punishment and financial ruin. Because you must defer to the claims of people whose perceptions
- [Hair Crisis](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/02/hair-crisis.html) - And in absurd, wearying narcissism news, a new realm of human suffering has been discovered: Well, ladies' haircuts generally take longer. And this has to be scheduled accordingly. No laughing at the back. Being a made-up cartoon character is a serious business. Naturally, this reminder of reality had to be punished, at length, and so,
- [Friday Ephemera (805)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/02/friday-ephemera-805.html) - Chicken detected. || Heirloom discussed. || Today's word is dexterity. || Switches and reels, 1979. || Bang to rights. || Because we're doing axes now. || Little Miss Biohazard. || Bumping and grinding. || She gets that they're confused. || She's not even kidding, you hear. || Chillin' at the gym. || Alan. || And
- [Regarding Tattoos](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/02/regarding-tattoos.html) - Some theories, in a sequence. First up, Dr Daisy Dixon, a philosopher of art at Cardiff University: my theory is that a reason these men don’t like tattoos on women is because it’s an outward sign of creative agency and self-ownership - it signals that the woman’s body is hers and no one else’s -
- [Appetites](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/02/appetites.html) - Via Pst314 and Aelf, more adventures in super-niche identities: The queer rainbow. How terribly jolly. All sparkles and ponies. He has all of the badges. See how they catch the light. Not children, just beings. And no, he doesn't mean seventeen-and-a-bit. Eight and upwards, since you ask. These being Very Modern Times, victimhood is invoked:
- [Only Looking](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2015/10/only-looking.html) - Writing in the Independent, consultant psychologist Glenn Wilson reminds us of the benefits of, er, paedophilia: In my studies of the Paedophile Information Exchange in the 1980s, many members admitted sexual feelings for children which they had been able to contain or turn to social good. Some gravitated toward occupations such as schoolteacher or social
- [Friday Ephemera (804)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/02/friday-ephemera-804.html) - Coming through. || Rocking and bobbing. || Revealed at last, why women take so long in the bathroom. || Lube. || Concerning lung balsam. || Defend yourself with jazz chords. || On Medieval cats. || Moving house, 1965. || I'm tempting you with art. || I'm sure you're feeling at ease now. || A series of
- [Nineteen Years](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/02/nineteen-years.html) - And yet, bewilderingly, this place is still here. Which is a half-decent excuse to remind patrons that this luminous establishment is made possible by the kindness of strangers. If you’d like to ensure this place exists a while longer and remains ad-free, there are three buttons below the fold with which to monetise any love.
- [Indigenous Land Acknowledgement](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/03/indigenous-land-acknowledgement.html) - Lifted from the comments, more pretentious agonising: Or, Landscape Paintings Now Deemed Problematic, Racist. Above, John Constable’s Hampstead Heath, circa 1820. Beware its morally corrupting influence. The problem, we’re told, is that paintings from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries are “leaving very little room for representations of people of colour.” And obviously, even the past
- [Border Control](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/02/border-control.html) - A reminder, should one be needed, that we live in an age of ironies: WATCH: Community defenders stop an out of state vehicle at the filter blockade, run the plate through a database, and confirm whether the vehicle is affiliated with abductors before letting it through. pic.twitter.com/20ygmoclDt — jerrynmn1 (@jerrynmn12) February 2, 2026 “Papers, please.
- [Friday Ephemera (803)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/02/friday-ephemera-803.html) - Tastes like chicken, I'm told. || "The ladders have since been replaced with stairs." || He's smouldering, I think. || Today's word is daylight. || Setting the bar quite low, I fear. || Go with what works, I guess. || Let's go to Pilates. || The progressive retail experience, parts 699 and 700. || "On
- [Inserting Diversity](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/02/inserting-diversity.html) - From the comments - which you're reading, of course - some rumblings on racially incongruous casting in period dramas. It began with this item, shared by Aelf, on the BBC's enthusiasm for over-representing minorities in its dramatic programming, including ahistorically, in period dramas, and to a degree one might consider wildly improbable and therefore distracting.
- [Friday Ephemera (802)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/01/friday-ephemera-802.html) - The machine uprising, day 11. || How to catch a human. || Fully automated to save time and effort. || "I love me," says she. || When you have a CT scanner and a whole bunch of animals. || I think there may be something under the house. || Incoming. || Suboptimal scenario. || Big thing
- [When Pretending Just Won't Do](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/01/when-pretending-just-wont-do.html) - Lifted from the comments, on a theme we've touched on many times - namely high-trust societies and those who struggle with the concept: This is not what “high trust” *means*. High trust is not something that you can personally manifest. It doesn’t care about your emotional reaction to events. You cannot instantiate a high trust society
- [Imitating Litter](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/01/imitating-litter.html) - I fear we've been neglecting the arts. We must correct that immediately, lest we be mistaken for heathen savages. And so, via Mr Treesong, here's Los Angeles choreographer Shoji Yamasaki and his mimetic convulsions: Shoji Yamasakı is a pertormance artist behind the ongoing project Littered Mvmnts. He studies trash caught in the wind, and translates
- [Friday Ephemera (801)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/01/friday-ephemera-801.html) - How to warm your car, or possibly a friend's. || Some might call it karma. || "When I've been pulled over before," she said. || Fun with Goffin's cockatoo. || The gentle touch. || Quit griping, they had it worse. || Engaging maximum girliness. || He also loves his girlhood. || Scenes of lively tilting.
- [Display Purposes](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/07/display-purposes.html) - Or, And This Is Mommy’s Snatch. Yes, I’m reading Scary Mommy, where exclamation points abound, and where ladies of a progressive leaning share their political radicalism. In this case, Ms Kate Auletta, the publication’s editor-in-chief, is thrilling us with tales of her domestic nakedness: It seems, then, that the nudity is not so much shared,
- [Reheated (121)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/01/reheated-121.html) - Because I'm in a giving mood, some items from the archives: Levelling. On the ideological gratification of thwarting clever children. Your Guilt Has Been Determined By Pantone Colour Chart. Welcome to our School of Dental Medicine, you filthy white racist. The Put-Upon And Marginalised Finally Get A Word In. Come, let us peek at the
- [Your Guilt Has Been Determined Via Pantone Colour Chart](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2021/01/your-guilt-has-been-determined-via-pantone-colour-chart.html) - “There were so many students who came into the school with no preparation for the conversation about race or racism. They knew nothing about white privilege and white supremacy,” social policy professor Amy Hillier said. It’s a dental school, by the way. For dentists. Regarding that "conversation about race or racism" of which Professor Hillier
- [Well, This Is Embarrassing](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/01/well-this-is-embarrassing.html) - From Minneapolis, where vigorously progressive protesting is very in right now: 🚨🇺🇸 ANOTHER FIGHT IN MINNEAPOLIS - MISTAKEN IDENTITY TRIGGERS CHAOS Another street fight just broke out after someone was falsely accused of being a “Nazi.” Sheriff’s deputies pulled up fast, but then someone in the crowd shouted, “he’s one of us.” Source: @BGOnTheScene https://t.co/PDZ9wlnufV
- [Not A Load-Bearing Worldview](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/01/not-a-load-bearing-worldview.html) - Or, An Expert Speaks. In which a Senate hearing on drug safety takes a somewhat surreal turn: Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO): “Can men get pregnant?” Dr. Nisha Verma: "I'm not really sure what the goal of the question is." Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO): “The goal is just to establish a biological reality... Can men get
- [Friday Ephemera (800)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/01/friday-ephemera-800.html) - For a second, I thought it was chicken. || Intriguing meat. || Less difficult than it seemed. || For whumping. || It weighs 60 tonnes and arrived 80,000 years ago. || They do this better than you would. || On heels at the beach. || "A less crazy candidate," says she. || The 100 most
- [Issues Of Earth-Rumbling Import](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/01/issues-of-earth-rumbling-import.html) - Meanwhile, at Boston University, enormous thoughts are being had: The she in question is Professor Megan Elias. Oh, and she's talking about food. Obviously. The question "what is queer food?" is, we're told by Professor Elias, "a question that's coming up a lot lately." If only among academics desperate for an angle, an excuse for
- [He Was Drying Himself, But Quite Vigorously](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/01/he-was-drying-himself-but-quite-vigorously.html) - Remember that thing, the thing that never happens? Well, by now you know the drill: ⚠️GRAPHIC⚠️ Man pretending to be a woman caught m*sturbating in the women’s bathroom with women present “I’m allowed to be in here… I’m a transgender.” https://t.co/gBdrwePPGd — Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) January 5, 2026 Or, How dare you bigots object
- [Friday Ephemera (799)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/01/friday-ephemera-799.html) - Some stability issues. || Sea bunnies. || Today's word is breakdancing. || Senator invokes the biology of make-believe. || It's absolutely essential, says she. || It's a pull-and-blow kind of thing. || A collection of found cassette tapes (of variable quality). (h/t, Things) || Ah, simpler times. || Sprite, Australia. || As a lifestyle influencer,
- [Worldview Bought Wholesale](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2026/01/worldview-bought-wholesale.html) - Or, Bint Regurgitates. As we gingerly lower our buttocks into the hot bath of 2026, let's kick things off with a super-confident listing of white-devil inadequacy: People have lots of theories about what causes this, but consider, for example, the claim that white people don’t use seasoning because we’re afraid of seeming too ethnic. This
- [Erotic Wallpaper](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2009/04/erotic-wallpaper.html) - Dr John at Obscene Desserts steers us to a compendium of furnishings found in 70s Danish porn. It’s quite safe for work, though the transgressive retro décor may inflame the senses. Brace yourselves.
- [Your Standards Are Holding You Back](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2019/03/your-standards-are-holding-you-back.html) - Via Rafi, a peek into the world of Brooklyn hipsterdom, where the “unsung heroes of the new new left” – who are “culturally potent” and “extremely online” - gather at a loft party in search of love, and to announce how radical and fabulous they are: The roster tonight is heavy on extremely online political-media
- [The Year Reheated](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/12/the-year-reheated-13.html) - In which we marvel at the mental contortions of our self-imagined betters. The year began with Europe’s ongoing experiment in massive, indiscriminate immigration – in which crime news is airbrushed of details one mustn’t register, and ludicrous progressive women perform please-don’t-rape-me dances. And in which those on whom this experiment is being conducted, the indigenous
- [Tidings](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/12/tidings-16.html) - Proctor's Farm, painted by Peter Brook: As is the custom here, posting will be intermittent over the holidays and readers are advised to follow me on X, or subscribe to the blog feed at the very bottom of the page, either of which will alert you to anything new as and when it materialises. Though
- [Manicurist's Nightmare](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/12/manicurists-nightmare.html) - Some low-grade cross-dressing drama, complete with finger-wagging: Always the eyes pic.twitter.com/upjZNy9H4z — shellshock (@shellshockkk) December 17, 2025 Are you not persuaded? Mr Zara Paquette, our vision of loveliness, has been featured here before, when barking his commands to the actress Keira Knightley, as if she would be watching and dutifully taking notes. Like a good,
- [Friday Ephemera (798)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/12/friday-ephemera-798.html) - "Is that a pile of bird shit?" and other pressing questions. (h/t, Elephants Gerald) || Yes, but can you do it with bees attacking you? || The bollards of Islington, 1976. || How to clean your marmot. || Two half-hours of Hancock, 1961. || Oddly, I'm not getting a sense of goodwill. || Cloudflare error
- [He Big Mad](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/10/he-big-mad.html) - Lifted from the comments, a small snapshot of our times: Angry bloke on Threadshttps://t.co/u6xVHvoYqr pic.twitter.com/HOV30JB2IX — 𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚛𝚕𝚎𝚜 𝙶. 𝙷𝚊𝚛𝚝 🇮🇱 (@charles_hart) October 18, 2025 There's much that could be commented on - the raging at the innocuous, the dishonest use of the word hate, the projection, the nails and five o'clock shadow combo, the theatrical
- [Reheated (120)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/12/reheated-120.html) - From the archives, some immensely progressive ruminations on race: Too Pale-Skinned For Comfort. At the University of London, some competitive, if unconvincing, umbrage. Wokeness and Woo, Together Again. On undancing white people. And their racist chairs. World of Woo. A confession of pallor, and therefore inherent wrongness. Clown Quarter Contagion. At Birmingham University, all is
- [Wokeness And Woo, Together Again](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2020/01/wokeness-and-woo-together-again.html) - Time for another tug on the teats of super-woke theorising: White people ‘can’t dance’ because white-ness is a traumatized state that is disconnected from the body. Set aside those thoughts of ballet, Footloose and MGM musicals. We must press on. Colonization/Westernization has profoundly impacted the way we move our bodies. Just think about even this
- [Too Pale-Skinned For Comfort](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2017/01/too-pale-skinned-for-comfort.html) - TomJ steers us to another of academia’s identitarian dramas: Black students’ progress is being stalled by university tutors who are “60-year-old white men” and “potentially racist,” according to students at the School of Oriental and African Studies (Soas) in London. In a report called Degrees of Racism, the student union demands that “all academics must
- [Friday Ephemera (797)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/12/friday-ephemera-797.html) - When Karens collide. || Carelessness. || He's a butterfly. || I'm sure the blue hair is entirely unrelated. || A breakthrough in butter spreading. (h/t, Elephants Gerald) || A philosopher speaks. || Hair salon scenes. || Ladies, she will take him. || "It's so amazing to buy tampons," says he. || She can't get her
- [All-Terrain, You Know](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/12/all-terrain-you-know.html) - Consider this an open thread. I'll set the ball rolling. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Tiffany Smith (@tiffandemma11)
- [Those White Devil Blues](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/12/those-white-devil-blues.html) - From academia, that hothouse of social progress: Ah, the arts. Where it's all thou-shalt-not. Not really in the spirit of what music is, methinks. Sort of, "You only get to sing this if we think you look right. Because appearance - specifically, your racial classification - is what matters." And hey, who wouldn't love a
- [Inadmissible Hair](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/08/inadmissible-hair.html) - Or, Not Neurotic Enough. From Vancouver, via Alex Zoltan, an attempt to attend a "2SLGBTIAQ+-friendly" outdoor theatre is derailed by some cultural-sensitivity complications: A woman in Vancouver was denied access to a "2SLGBTIAQ+-friendly" outdoor theatre because her hair violated the venue's "Code of Conduct Cultural Appropriation policy." pic.twitter.com/reB5DbDtL1 — Alex Zoltan (@AmazingZoltan) August 15, 2025
- [A Catchable Madness](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/03/a-catchable-madness.html) - Or, The Cronenberg Chronicles. Below, Peter Boghossian and Mia Hughes, author of The WPATH Files, discuss the twisted history of transgender ideology. Topics touched on include the audacious propagation of pseudoscience; social contagion and the capture of institutions; experiments on children; and the psychology of doubling-down. It's two hours long and dense with detail,
- [Catching Their Good Side](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/03/catching-their-good-side.html) - Speaking of spite as progressive pseudo-piety: Odd message to send, really. For people who imagine themselves the good guys in their own mental drama. Lifted from the comments, which you're reading, of course. Consider this an open thread. Update, via the comments: Rafi adds, Yet apparently it needs saying. And setting aside for a moment
- [Friday Ephemera (796)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/12/friday-ephemera-796.html) - Salmon and something else. || They're such a joy, I'm told. || And now we rain destruction upon the audience. || Incoming. || Close enough. || "You're not okay," says she. || Office Christmas party, 1970. || Just be careful in the basement. || He's the non-binary final boss. || She has a Ouija board.
- [The Thrill Of Shopping](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/12/the-thrill-of-shopping.html) - With the season of good cheer bearing down upon us, like the walls of the Death Star trash compactor, patrons are reminded that any Christmas shopping done via this Amazon UK link, or via the widget in the sidebar, results in a small fee for your host at no extra cost to you. Readers are
- [Somehow Overlooked](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/12/somehow-overlooked.html) - Some elaboration on an item from Friday's Ephemera: Liberals do this very weird thing where some deranged, violent criminal sticks a gun in your face and demands your wallet, but the wallet only has $20 in it, so from then on they’ll minimize the crime by describing it as, “stealing only $20.” This is so
- [It’s Petty When It Happens To Someone Else](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2019/11/its-petty-when-it-happens-to-someone-else.html) - Currently, 17 percent of American homeowners have a smart video surveillance device, and unit sales are expected to double by 2023… The popularity of these devices has led to the “porch pirate gotcha” film genre, a sort of America’s Funniest Home Videos of petty crime. In the pages of The Atlantic, our sympathies are solicited. Though not for the
- [Scenes From The Zombie Apocalypse](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/06/scenes-from-the-zombie-apocalypse.html) - In the comments, Dicentra shares the video embedded below: *stands in front of car* *impedes* *damages car* *driver decides to continue on their way* *gets run over* ‘i’M a ViCTiM!!!!!!’ Hope you never recover. 😁 pic.twitter.com/fnoAeu9FTz — Amiri King (@AmiriKing) June 16, 2025 A wider perspective here: WARNING: Graphic. A protester is run over by
- [Stupefying Effects](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/10/stupefying-effects.html) - Scrolling through X, formerly Twitter, two items caught my eye. The first, from the publication laughingly referred to as Scientific American, where we are told, in no uncertain terms: I’ll give you a minute to process that. Let it roll around your mind. And do note the loaded, rather question-begging word inequity. The second item,
- [Friday Ephemera (795)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/11/friday-ephemera-795.html) - It did not go entirely to plan. || Totally normal. || Itsy-bitsy. || Mrs Critchfield has a backyard business, 1953. || On the Batman effect. || Today's words are body language. || Boasting of overcharging people based on their race. || Boob correction and other minor fixes. || Or maybe you could use a good
- [Make Way For The Activist-Wanker Caste](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2022/10/make-way-for-the-activist-wanker-caste.html) - As the activist delight in vandalism and traffic obstruction has cropped up in the comments, along with their bizarre rationalisations, I thought it might be worth revisiting some earlier rumblings on the subject. For instance, It’s interesting just how often “social justice” posturing entails something that looks an awful lot like spite or petty malice, or an
- [Your Children Will Participate In My Psychodrama](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2022/03/your-children-will-participate-in-my-psychodrama.html) - I as a student did NOT want to know about my teachers’ personal lives. From the comments following this, in which Mr Jo Brassington, a teacher of small children, considers it “so important” to parade around the classroom, looking “cute,” in painted nails and make-up. Mr Brassington is, he says – or they says, because
- [And These Are My Knickers](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/02/and-these-are-my-knickers.html) - Yuliah Alma on a suboptimal substitute teacher: When not conscripting middle-school children into his cross-dressing psychodrama, and presumably being thrilled by the thought of 11-year-olds seeing him in various states of undress, while discussing “kink” and sexual positions, Mr Lamere tells us, “I’m not a predator, I’m just a woman who happens to be super
- [An Audience For His Fetish](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/11/an-audience-for-his-fetish.html) - Readers may recall this chap here, a cross-dressing educator - the one who records classroom videos of himself faffing about with his wig while expecting applause for his feats of fake-hair management: This clearly female teacher has a deep voice, do you think it’s from smoking? pic.twitter.com/CGoFhMXy1C — Dr. Jebra Faushay (@JebraFaushay) May 15, 2025
- [Her Fascinating Self](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/11/her-fascinating-self.html) - From the Guardian's lifestyle pages, some exquisite sensitivity: Being so special, you see. It's all rather high-gear, positively operatic. Like I said, for an opening, it's pretty rich stuff. The one being so immensely special, so rapturous and ecstatic, is Ms Miranda Luby, a lifestyle journalist who “writes regular opinion columns… about life as a
- [Friday Ephemera (794)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/11/friday-ephemera-794.html) - Regarding wrinkles. || He speaks Russian. || Not quite grasping the convention. || No, I don't think that's something I'd care to normalise, thank you. || She's trying out her new labels and has self-diagnosed as an amputee. || She won't be elaborating on that statement. || About your bottom. || The sounds of suburbia.
- [Reheated (119)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/11/reheated-119.html) - Some items from the archives: Don't Oppress My People With Your White-Ass Folk Music. White people strum banjos, have fun. Fretting ensues at University of Sheffield. An Inexplicable Dislike. On media mendacity and self-congratulation: Catching Their Good Side. On spite as progressive pseudo-piety. I Know, Let’s All Film Our Mental Breakdowns. An election occurs. Cue
- [She Has Queer Temporality](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/06/she-has-queer-temporality.html) - And is therefore much more special than you. In this hour-long podcast, Hannah McElhinney and her equally self-preoccupied associate Rudy Jean Rigg - "teacher and creative" - can be heard blathering at length - and sometimes seemingly at random - about “queer temporality” and “how LGBTQ+ people experience time differently to straight and/or cisgender people.”
- [An Inexplicable Dislike](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2022/12/an-inexplicable-dislike.html) - At Carleton University’s School of Journalism and Communication, a panel of journalists and media professionals declare their priorities. The full two-and-a-half-hour video, which begins with a land acknowledgement and rumblings about “settlers” and their “racial guilt,” and “white supremacist colonial mindsets which we have internalised both collectively and individually,” can be endured here. Following this
- [Friday Ephemera (793)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/11/friday-ephemera-793.html) - He has a beer coat. || Bond medley. || Blocks of ice versus very hot shapes. || Air conditioner crisis. || Car dealership scenes. || I'll catch the next one, thanks. || Incoming, two views. || Livestreaming drama. || Dating drama. || Treadmill with wheels. || Loo location of note. || Feeling the rug. ||
- [Victimhood Invoked, Victory Lap Indulged In](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2022/09/victimhood-invoked-victory-lap-indulged-in.html) - TIME spoke to Gender Queer author and illustrator Maia Kobabe about eir work, the efforts to restrict access to eir writing, and what ey make of the current cultural moment. Captain, your signal’s breaking up. I’m getting a lot of static. Must be solar flares. That, or dangerously high levels of pretension caused by the
- [Like Inception](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/11/like-inception.html) - But with late-in-life cross-dressing. Make it stop 🤣 pic.twitter.com/3gTboejRnf — Binky (@TheOnlyGuru) November 11, 2025 No, don't go. Put down those car keys. Consider this an open thread. Share ye links and bicker.
- [More Is Also More](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2018/04/more-is-also-more.html) - Well, that was... bold. And tremendous fun. And that sound you hear is Marvel’s Kevin Feige adding another three floors to his giant bejewelled house. There may be spoilers in the comments.
- [They Follow You Round The Room](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2022/05/they-follow-you-round-the-room.html) - What was I saying...? Oh yes. Open thread. Share ye links and bicker.
- [Yet It Keeps On Happening](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/11/yet-it-keeps-on-happening.html) - More items regarding that Thing That Never Happens: A tale of paedophilia, pretending, and legal priorities: That's violating his own ten-year-old son and then distributing evidence of his crimes to likeminded individuals for purposes of titillation. Should things be unclear. The professor, our esteemed intellectual, recommended that Mr Buckingham, who now wishes to be referred
- [Subordinates](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/11/subordination-baby.html) - Or, Assume The Position. A point made in the comments and possibly worth repeating: From what I've seen over the years, the word ally is typically used, by the people who rush to use it, to mean something like advocate, or mouthpiece, or supplicant, or puppet. There's no discernible interest in, or expectation of, reciprocation;
- [Do Not Feed The Narcissists](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2016/09/do-not-feed-the-narcissists.html) - Some people are just really hard to please: When they showed up carrying racial protest signs to the university’s annual DePauw Dialogue on Wednesday, the audience started applauding. “Stop fucking clapping!” some protesters yelled, a student who was near the commotion told The College Fix. They later complained about the applause on social media. The
- [Friday Ephemera (792)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/11/friday-ephemera-792.html) - There are reasons not to do this. || Not entirely unrelated. || Her list may be longer than yours. || You'd never tire of it. || It's a good-news-mad-news thing. || The thing that isn't mentioned. (h/t, Aelfheld) || Modernity, baby. || "It's the butter situation" and other worries, 1959. || How often do you
- [Reheated (118)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/11/reheated-118.html) - While I take a short break, here's an attempt to distract you with some items from the archives: The Importance Of Plumbing. A tale of tax, utopia, and human faeces. Peer-Reviewed, You Say. On self-other paradigms and situated bodies. Have You Tried Storing Them Upright? On crime, incarceration and dubious conclusions. Footwear Enthusiast. Cross-dressing bedlamite
- [The Importance Of Plumbing](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/04/the-importance-of-plumbing.html) - A tale of tax, utopia, and human faeces: The fragrant sentiments above, mouthed by Danish couple Flemming Hansen and Mette Helbæk, concern their creation, in Sweden, of a "forest resort" named Stedsans, one met with much acclaim: Dish magazine hailed the project as "Seasonal, sustainable, organic, artisanal, waste-free, foraged." While readers of EasyJet Traveller magazine were
- [Grapes Deemed Sour](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/11/grapes-deemed-sour.html) - From the pages of Vogue, where upscale ladies probe the issues of the day: Specifically, That's the issues of their day, of course, not necessarily yours. The author of the above, Ms Chanté Joseph, formerly of the Guardian and a stipulator of pronouns, has a theory to share. "Quite culturally loser-ish." I'm guessing the intended
- [Endless Possibilities](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/10/endless-possibilities.html) - The great political divide - Guardian-style: Yes, an "always Labour" politics teacher clashes with a GP who votes "Labour every general election." No crockery was thrown, you'll be astounded to hear. To spare you the unbearable suspense, both dislike Mr Trump. That's pretty much it. Both ordered cocktails and had "a really positive experience" chatting
- [Friday Ephemera (791)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/10/friday-ephemera-791.html) - At last, a camera for your toilet bowl. || And lo, her chakras were aligned. || Can cleaning your car increase its value? || I have questions regarding the décor. || On elephants' toenails. || On self-knowledge and its absence. || At last, a miracle breakthrough. || The British in Benidorm, 1983. || Meanwhile, in
- [Such Details Are Beneath Her](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2015/05/such-details-are-beneath-her.html) - Readers of this blog will, over the years, have marvelled at the outpourings of one Polly Toynbee, the Guardian’s foremost social commentator and hand-wringer in chief, a woman voted “the most influential commentator in the UK” and whose views regularly grace the programming of the BBC, for which she was formerly a newsroom social affairs
- [The Progressive Anxiety](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/10/the-progressive-anxiety.html) - Lifted from the comments, Mr Burkett ponders crime and its apologists: A thread ensues. Regarding the consequent conflictedness and anxiety, all that progressive wrongness, these three posts include some fairly vivid illustrations of the phenomenon. Among which, a claim that more theatre for schoolchildren would somehow deter the kinds of creatures who repeatedly and gleefully
- [Friday Ephemera (790)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/10/friday-ephemera-790.html) - And lo, his chakra was awakened. || He's their king now. || With utmost care. || Drinking coffee from a cup made of coffee. || How to repel customers. || Hey, ladies. || Hot and lumpy. || A project for the weekend - requires patience and a jumping spider. || She calculates your privilege in
- [Reheated (117)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/10/reheated-117.html) - Because you deserve no less, some items from the archives: Big, Squeaky Clown Shoes. Syracuse University hires healer. "Moon sessions" ensue. Vote For The One With The Mental Health Problems. Green Party leader with fabulist pronouns upset by captioning failure. You Will Pretend It Has Great Value. At Montreal’s Concordia University, physics must be "decolonised."
- [Vote For The One With The Mental Health Problems](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2022/09/vote-for-the-one-with-the-mental-health-problems.html) - Canada’s interim Green Party leader, a dysmorphic woman who expects everyone else to refer to her as “he” and “they,” but also sometimes “she,” apparently at random, was recently rendered tearful and distraught by an electronic caption: On Saturday, September 3, at a public media event kicking off the Green Party of Canada’s leadership contest,
- [Big, Squeaky Clown Shoes](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/02/big-squeaky-clown-shoes.html) - Come, let us peek at progressive academia: Lower those eyebrows, you cynical bigots. Stop it at once. See, multiple art degrees. And moon sessions. And – and – “intuitive energy work.” Why, she’s the fourth emergency service. Ms Schenandoah, it turns out, is a Faithkeeper of the Wolf Clan, and skilled in ways of healing
- [Friday Ephemera (789)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/10/friday-ephemera-789.html) - Cleavage. || Big Derek and the haunted Sheffield nightclub, 1970. || American driver versus British roundabout. || At last, a rotary keyboard. || And in women's volleyball news. || It goes on forever. || Yoga, you say. || How to get shot. || The 10 drunkest countries. || Dubious PhDs, from queer captioning and the
- [Overheads](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/10/overheads.html) - Or, Return of the Honesty Box. With domain renewal looming, along with umpteen other behind-the-scenes expenses, now seems a good time to remind patrons that where you are right now is made possible by the kindness of strangers. If you’d like to ensure this place exists a while longer, and remains ad-free, there are three
- [A Sense of Proportion](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2015/09/a-sense-of-proportion.html) - Building a scale model of the planets and their orbits is harder than you’d think. Via sH2.
- [A Giant Stone In The Sky](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2018/03/a-giant-stone-in-the-sky.html) - A short film by Alex Gorosh and Wylie Overstreet. Previously and related.
- [Not Reading The Room](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/10/not-reading-the-room.html) - From the Stage pages of the Guardian, a reminder of which concerns - and by extension which citizens - simply don't matter: As if the issue weren't already foremost in a great many minds, perhaps due to unhappy first-hand experience. Note, too, the conflation of migrants and refugees. As if those arriving in vast numbers,
- [Elsewhere (182)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2015/10/elsewhere-182.html) - Douglas Murray on mass immigration and Simon Schama’s Question Time slip-up: In that use of [the intended put-down] ‘suburban’, Schama showed something a lot of us had suspected – which is that for a certain type of globe-trotting international celebrity, any concern for borders, national identity and cultural continuity are not just beneath them, but
- [Friday Ephemera (788)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/10/friday-ephemera-788.html) - I am the night. || High winds, some swaying. || Hot and spicy. || Hooves, leather, crossbow bolts and other vulture treasure. || Digitised Da Vinci. || Don't pull that face, it's trans scholarship. (h/t, Pst314) || You're drawing the Moon all wrong. || For likes, you know. || Owl versus socks. || Swingers. ||
- [A Simple Thing, Made Worse](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/05/a-simple-thing-made-worse.html) - Lifted from the comments, a little elaboration on an Ephemera item from yesterday. Specifically, an everyday scene from Ruislip, Greater London: Queuing means the old, small and weak are treated fairly. Not all cultures queue. I saw this living abroad. pic.twitter.com/XAXOY5n5uq — Larry Lemon (@larrylemonmaths) May 13, 2024 Note that the would-be bus passengers, the
- [Women Hold Sign, Quietly, Pinocchio Gets Upset](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/10/women-hold-sign-quietly-pinocchio-gets-upset.html) - From the comments, scenes from Smith College, Massachusetts: A woman reacted to a banner stating "Women are adult human females" by calling the group holding it "fascists."pic.twitter.com/8w8oikJX76 — Thomas Sowell Quotes (@ThomasSowell) October 6, 2025 It turns out that when you try to pretend away fundamental realities, as if wishing made it so, any reminder
- [Reality Will Do That](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/10/reality-will-do-that.html) - Lifted from the comments, via pst314: Ms Watson, now not so young herself, tells us, The specifics of this pressure, allegedly pervasive, overpowering and entirely social in nature, are unclear. No examples are forthcoming. The physical realities of reproduction are, however, less mysterious. The idea that Ms Watson, or likely anyone she knows, any of
- [Reheated (116)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/10/reheated-116.html) - Some items from the archives. A Cross-Dressing Special. His Tiny, Delicate Hands. The erotic adventures of a strapping madam. The Pretending Can Get Competitive. He identifies as a disabled woman. It's activism, apparently. There's Something To Be Said For Inhibition. Look away now. This Is Your Captain Speaking. Argentina's first transgender pilot uses cockpit to take
- [Pantomime](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2017/09/pantomime.html) - Speaking of sociology and its clown school connotations: I will gladly sow gender confusion in kids. It’s my duty to. So says Colin Cremin, a sociology lecturer who uses the workplace - and his colleagues and students - in order to indulge his transvestite kink: While I’m delighted to contribute to the breaking down of
- [Friday Ephemera (787)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/10/friday-ephemera-787.html) - Intimate moment detected. || Danger zone. || So how was your day? || Shower scenes. || We'll never know if he escaped. || Almost ripe. || The mist would help no end. || An average of 29. || Crunchy ant cheese. You heard me. || Modernity, baby. || Our betters smile. || He "took some
- [But We Can All Feel Pious While Freezing In The Dark](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/09/but-we-can-all-feel-pious-while-freezing-in-the-dark.html) - In discussions of Net Zero, I've previously mentioned the pleasingly hard-nosed energy analyst Kathryn Porter. Here she is being interviewed by the chaps at Triggernometry: This Isn't Science, It's Ideology - Kathryn Porter Watch the full episode with @KathrynPorter26, right here on X. pic.twitter.com/SLQB9l9Evb — TRIGGERnometry (@triggerpod) September 28, 2025 It's ninety minutes, but time
- [Just Surrender to the Will of Clever People](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2015/05/just-surrender-to-the-will-of-clever-people.html) - When it comes to authoritarian presumption, it seems that leftist intellectuals just can’t help themselves: Is having a loving family an unfair advantage? Should parents snuggling up for one last story before lights out be even a little concerned about the advantage they might be conferring? So asks ABC’s “educational broadcaster” Joe Gelonesi, before turning
- [If You Notice Our Dishonesty, We Will Punish You](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/09/if-you-notice-our-dishonesty-we-will-punish-you.html) - I paraphrase, of course. Though not, I think, wildly: Sorry, still pondering the Swissness of wind instrument repairman. Well, he's not wrong. We could, I suppose, list things like pelvis shape, skull shape, bone density, Q-angles and whatnot, and we could mention the very high accuracy of sex determination via forensic examinations based on such
- [Friday Ephemera (786)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/09/friday-ephemera-786.html) - Dry hard. || Columbo: the board game, 1973. || No longer oppressed by shoes. || Today's word is logistics. || At last, transparent stairs. || "Do not be disrespectful," says bewigged man barging into women's toilets while filming himself. || On the "dynamic authenticity" of Mr William Shatner. || Unrequested motion. || Models of the
- [Reheated (115)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/09/reheated-115.html) - From the archives, some items of possible interest: Where Perversity Is Status. In academia's Clown Quarter, being happily married is "white supremacy." I Axe You. The appearance of morony is hailed as an achievement. At a university. It's Trivial When The Victim Is Someone Who Isn't Me. Habitual car theft is “a victimless crime,” says
- [Bright Lights, Big City](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/11/bright-lights-big-city.html) - Lifted from the comments, it turns out that Transport For London is advertising assisted suicide. They seem to be giving it quite a push: Westminster Death Tunnel sponsored by @dignityindying pic.twitter.com/fW0mbtqVRc — Fleur Elizabeth (@fleurmeston) November 25, 2024 Very on-brand, I'd say. Almost too on-the-nose. I mean, if London’s buses and tube network were suddenly
- [Recurring Urges](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/09/recurring-urges.html) - As noted here many, many times, progressives often have a wildly inaccurate conception of the criminal demographic and of the psychology and motives in play, as expressed by the criminals themselves. A conception so inaccurate, one might call it perverse. On the subject of prison and its occupants, Inquisitive Bird shares some corrective statistics while poking at
- [Friday Ephemera (785)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/09/friday-ephemera-785.html) - I believe this is called making biscuits. || Tape bowing ensemble. || Big thing incoming. || It's a Bay Area vibe, man. || Heavy breathing detected. || Deed. || I was unaware of Amish weed. || World Diddling Championship, 1974. (h/t, Mr Snowdon) || Fondling the faucet. || I think these ladders must be faulty.
- [Validation, You Say](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/09/validation-you-say.html) - And from Australia, more thing-that-never-happens news: And for some, validation trumps all else. Because of our thrillingly modern sensitivities, Mr Harper - who favours the name Autumn Tulip Harper - is currently being held in a prison for women. The details of the case are, I should add, particularly vile. Consider this an open thread.
- [Your Children, Their Politics (2)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2020/10/your-children-their-politics-2.html) - Further to this and this, Max Eden reveals what “prioritising equity” actually looks like: [T]he Ohio Department of Education kicked off this school year by promoting… its recommended “Anti-Racist Allyship Starter Pack,” a resource for social studies teachers… It’s not clear whether anyone from the ODE reviewed these articles in full before recommending them. But
- [Get Them While They’re Soft And Yielding (3)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2018/03/get-them-while-theyre-soft-and-yielding-3.html) - If you missed it in the comments, here’s a little creepiness from schools in British Columbia: When [parent] Kansas Field Allen heard about the posters, she was shocked. She asked her son to take photos of them so she could post about it on social media and get feedback from her peers. “I’d say 95 per cent of the people
- [There Was An Attempt To Buy Instant Coffee](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/09/there-was-an-attempt-to-buy-instant-coffee.html) - Specifically, in a London branch of Sainsbury's: Coffee in case in Sainsburys store in London ( saphling ) pic.twitter.com/rEEE1LpEpH — London & UK Street News (@CrimeLdn) September 13, 2025 It does, I think, capture the absurdity of where we are. For those blissfully unfamiliar with the phenomenon above and how it came to be, broader
- [Friday Ephemera (784)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/09/friday-ephemera-784.html) - A project for the weekend, requires detergent sprinkles. || Oh, I dunno, a little picky, methinks. || Improbable levitation. || Why, what did you see? || So how was your day? || You don't get to, says she. || She's looking for the perfect liberal. Note obligatory pinching of fingers. || "Sneaking... Mum's underwear," says he. ||
- [Reheated (114)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/09/reheated-114.html) - From the archives, some items of possible interest: No Escape From Now. On historically accurate casting - and its opponents. Ladylike Behaviour. And in transgender-sex-offender-urine-hurling news. Have You Tried Storing Them Upright? Crime, incarceration, and dubious conclusions. Little Harmony, Plenty Colon. Attention, music lovers. Has your singing been decolonised? You May Need To Write This
- [The Violation Of Others](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/09/the-violation-of-others.html) - And in expensive and statusful education news: It's protest, you hear. Albeit of a gratuitous and self-serving kind. Because in order to titillate pinhead students and their pinhead lecturers, you need to frame selfishness and moral squalor as sexy and upscale, and ever-so daring. It's "radical ethics," you see. Unlike modish Manhattan universities that applaud
- [It’s a Fascist Groove Thang](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2013/12/its-a-fascist-groove-thang.html) - Ugh. Am felled by Man Flu, the deadliest flu of all. However, further to this discussion, I feel compelled to share this. If I don’t make it through the day, tell them I died heroically and handsomely. In an ocean of snot. Update: In the comments, svh notes that Laurie’s article, which denounces the modern campus
- [The Penny Hasn’t Dropped](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2011/01/the-penny-hasnt-dropped.html) - Over the past few months I have become, and remain, deeply embedded in the student movement in the UK and Europe. Many of the young people who feature in the piece – on whose activities I’ve been keeping meticulous notes, and who are of a similar age and political attitude to myself – have since
- [Lifestyle Advice](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2016/06/lifestyle-advice.html) - Laurie Penny – yes, ‘tis she – wants to expand our minds with her deep knowledge of marriage: More women are living alone or without a partner than ever before, and the question on the table once again is not how to have a better marriage, but whether to have one at all. I suppose
- [No Escape From Now](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/07/no-escape-from-now.html) - In the pages of British Vogue, Ms Hanna Flint is dismayed that new adaptations of works by Emily Brontë and Jane Austen have, How very dare they. Says Ms Flint, Richness and relevance, and imagination, being determined by race, of course. I'm not at all sure what historical inclusivity might mean, given the racial demographics
- [It's A Laugh-A-Minute Lifestyle](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/09/its-a-laugh-a-minute-lifestyle.html) - Theirs is a "non-hierarchical" relationship, so the whole cancer thing didn't count when there's third-party shagging to be had: Readers may recall the numerous polyamory ‘cope’ videos we've seen here over the years, in which clearly neurotic and unhappy people try to convince themselves, and us, that they’re totally cool with their chosen lifestyle miseries.
- [Friday Ephemera (783)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/09/friday-ephemera-783.html) - Well, at least her phone was okay. || Hers may be the biggest I've ever seen. || Hoovering of note. || I vote for the magic bucket. || "Over 80% of Canadians live within 100 miles of the US border." || Oh look, bubbles. || Bristol's bonfire kids, 1962. || Not unfair. || Nommy-nommy-nom. || A
- [Her Teacher Took Great Interest](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/09/her-teacher-took-great-interest.html) - Miki Lorren, a one-time tomboy, "a gay woman living in the conservative south," has some thoughts: If you watch one thing today, make it this. I’m so glad for this marvellous girl. But it was a close call, as she explains. “You’re just a Tomboy” pic.twitter.com/GZgXwEDJrO — James Dreyfus (@DreyfusJames) August 29, 2025 Note the
- [Or Maybe See If He Needs Help](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/09/or-maybe-see-if-he-needs-help.html) - Just a thought. Imagine that, the first thing that came to that low iq mind was to whip out his phone and hit record, instead of trying to render aid. pic.twitter.com/eA3OlwG7LT — Liberacrat™️ (@Liberacrat) September 1, 2025 Consider this an open thread. Share ye links and bicker.
- [Friday Ephemera (782)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/08/friday-ephemera-782.html) - Big beast incoming. || Interspecies battle of wits. || Cheeeldren of the night. || Eight literally dark days in history. || Trajectory detected. || Trajectory detected 2. || Gratuitous gesture. || A gathering of dragons. || Hot and steamy jiggling. || The joy of budgeting, 1957. || Suboptimal driving mindset. || It's a "joyful noise"
- [Friday Ephemera (781)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/08/friday-ephemera-781.html) - You want one and you know it. || They watched the wheels leave without them. || Meet the cosmologists, 1963. || At last, humanoid robot kickboxing. || Bearing gifts. || He was hiding in the girls' toilets. Previously. || Apparently, the hormones widened his eyes and made his glasses grow. || Neighbour of note. ||
- [Reheated (113)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/08/reheated-113.html) - I expect to be busy elsewhere for much of this week, so, to soften the blow, the trauma of it all, here are some items from the archives: Come One, Come All. An experiment in self-annihilation. Their Inner Loveliness. On the psychology of Antifa's Transgender Enforcement Wing. How To Invalidate Your Own Vocation. On the
- [Some Big Boys Made Me Do It](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/08/some-big-boys-made-me-do-it.html) - Apparently, and this may be news to you, littering isn't a moral shortcoming of the people actually dropping the litter: Which seems awfully convenient, for a certain kind of person, if not entirely convincing. Litter - and its inegalitarian distribution - is a topic we've touched on before. From which, this came to mind: Also,
- [He Saw It Through A Different Lens, You Know](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/08/he-saw-it-through-a-different-lens-you-know.html) - From the pages of Metro, some highly emotional news: I'll give you a moment to steady yourselves. What with the brutality of it all. Namely, a supermarket aisle with - and I quote, Apparently mere proximity to such a thing - again, a shelf of houmous in a supermarket - can traumatise grown men of
- [Explaining Civilisation](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/07/explaining-civilisation.html) - And in thriving multiculturalism news: Exactly zero men who would loiter near schools to harass or sexually assault young girls will be deterred by a power point presentation. If that’s not innately unthinkable to you, no amount of talk will make it so and you simply have no place in civilization. https://t.co/5Beehg9EGK — Hunter Ash
- [Dancing As Instructed](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2022/09/dancing-as-instructed.html) - Both literal and ideological: I love to dance, but I’m a bit picky about music. If Motown is playing, I’m guaranteed to have a transcendent in-my-body experience, whereas electronic dance music is hit and miss. I was, however, determined to shake and sweat and twitch, and so I did. My new friend danced beside me,
- [The Sound Inside Their Heads](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/06/the-sound-inside-their-heads.html) - From happy-clappy Portland - on day 21 of the ongoing intifada: A Portland resident confronts Antifa for blaring music past midnight at the ongoing ICE facility occupation: "I'm coming back every night and I'm breaking your sh-t. We the people need sleep. You're worse than ICE, terrorizing us every night. Go f-ck yourself." pic.twitter.com/gpDBdPYiuP —
- [Friday Ephemera (780)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/08/friday-ephemera-780.html) - All the fun of the fair. || A ride to remember. || Batman in a jam. || Her eyelash curler broke and her underwear keeps going missing. || "Mom, guess what?" || He wants to talk about greed. || Game over. || Incoming. || Nommy-nommy-nom. || The engineering of Mount Rushmore. || Just checking what
- [The Blurting](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2019/09/the-blurting.html) - Neo notes a phenomenon that may be familiar to some of you: We’ve previously mentioned bizarrely emphatic and incongruous outbursts, the relevance of which to ongoing, often mundane conversations was hard to fathom, and which seemed driven by a compulsion to signal some imagined piety or status. A more subtle and common example occurred in
- [Reheated (112)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/08/reheated-112.html) - For newcomers, some items from the archives: The Wellbeing Of Burglars. Because burglars are special and deserving, unlike you. Only Suckers Pay Their Way. Or, my activist lifestyle should be subsidised by others, the less important. Peer-Reviewed, You Say. Poking through the wreckage of academic literature. Scenes From The Zombie Apocalypse. There is, it turns
- [His Fabulist Pronouns Were Nonetheless Observed](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/08/his-fabulist-pronouns-were-nonetheless-observed.html) - And in don't-mention-the-mental-illness news: I should perhaps point out that it doesn't get better as we go on. As I was saying. I suppose we could take a moment to ponder the fact that there are creatures, cross-dressing middle-aged men, for whom it is necessary to conjure court orders to deter them from attending nurseries,
- [Friday Ephemera (779)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/08/friday-ephemera-779.html) - Dexterity detected. || Dog relocation device. || Heck yeah. || Recording studio clients. || Incoming. || Incoming 2. || Actual Cardassian TV/VCR combo, only $495. || Mr Pelzer's book list. || Look away now. || Being a belligerent moron, she couldn't help herself. || Maximum womanhood. || Big stick. || Droppings. || Using the wrong holes.
- [Like Encouragement And Gratitude, But Spendable](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/08/like-encouragement-and-gratitude-but-spendable.html) - Yes, it's time to remind patrons that where you are right now is made possible by the kindness of strangers. If you’d like to ensure this place exists a while longer, and remains ad-free, there are three buttons below the fold with which to monetise any love. Debit and credit cards are accepted. If what
- [Infinite Forgiveness](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/08/infinite-forgiveness.html) - Lifted from the comments, some thoughts on empathy - or more specifically, ostentatious pseudo-empathy, as practised by so many of Our Progressive Betters. It began with a discussion of this lady here, a triumphant, practised shoplifter, and other, likeminded beings whose proximity might not be desired: Woman who filmed herself shoplifting from a store and
- [Friday Ephemera (778)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/08/friday-ephemera-778.html) - Design flaw detected. || r/Deathladders, a collection of unconvincing support apparatus. || Revving and regret. || V8 street bike. || A tale of Lake Cow Bacon: "Broussard insisted that the creatures were naturally tame and their meat was delicious." || James Bond comic books from India. (h/t, Tacky Raccoons) || Like aerial ballet. || When
- [Reheated (111)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/07/reheated-111.html) - For newcomers, some items from the archives: Any Widening Of The Eyes Will Result In Detention. Teacher Appreciation Week, but with ludicrous wigs and big rubber tits. His Heterosexuality Did It. The crushing terror of "white supremacy" in middle-school maths class. Explaining Civilisation. To those seemingly unfamiliar with the concept. For those craving more, this is
- [Her Values](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/07/her-values.html) - From the pages of Business Insider, more progressive-woman-lifestyle news: What those values might be will, perhaps, become clear, if only by implication. That's the article's headline. The star of this drama is Ms Cindy Sheahan, a former real-estate agent. Judging by the tone and triumphant photograph, I'm guessing we're supposed to regard Ms Sheahan as some
- [Friday Ephemera (777)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/07/friday-ephemera-777.html) - Discourse was attempted. || It's all in the tongue, I'm told. || A little snug. || Incoming. || Incoming 2. || Instant immortality, 1970. || A map of light pollution. || On why we might not want to detect, or be detected by, an alien intelligence. Previously, on relativistic weapons. || Splashes in a vacuum.
- [And Chest-Puffing Ensued](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/07/and-chest-puffing-ensued.html) - Time, I think, to dip a toe in the world of academia. Specifically, some lively rumblings on the relative importance of electricians and sociology lecturers. I suppose you could start here, with this, but there are plenty of tangents and pith, and moments of slightly comical indignation. Among those moments, this one: Societies lived without electricity for
- [Lie Like We do, Children](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/07/lie-like-we-do-children.html) - And in classroom surrealism news: Because a mentally ill, self-harming woman, one seemingly forever on the verge of tears, is now a “positive example of masculinity.” A role model for primary-school children.
- [Friday Ephemera (776)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/07/friday-ephemera-776.html) - Food preparation of note. || Possible downside detected. || Shall we dance? || Aerodynamic simulations. || "Diversity would be great... I just don't think I could live anywhere where there's, like, one group of people." || Hyenas deterred. || Today's word is organised. || I believe the term is hoe. || Bespectacled woman brings language
- [Reheated (110)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/07/reheated-110.html) - For newcomers, some items from the archives: Black Women Climb Hill. The defining triumph of our time. Progressive Dining Protocol. When the neurotic eat out. Radical Farce. On Vanessa Engle’s three-part documentary series Lefties. Deleted Scenes. Laid-back driver meets wound-up cyclist. Strangeness ensues. For those craving more, this is a pretty good place to start. Oh, and consider
- [And This Is The Kind Of Sex I Like To Have](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/07/and-this-is-the-kind-of-sex-i-like-to-have.html) - Or, Please Don't Bore Our Staff And Customers With Your Weird Compulsions. In which Madam applauds herself for her own feats of self-preoccupation: Woman refuses to be professional at work and it's your fault for being uncomfortable, conservatives. You made her turn down this job. pic.twitter.com/qW4vBsfSkr — Σ𝕏ulansic 🦎 (@TTExulansic) July 15, 2025 Madam apparently
- [Have You Tried Using Cheese?](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/07/have-you-tried-using-cheese.html) - And in brief British heatwave news: It was a month-long experiment. Behold your taxes at work. And before you ask, Oh, and should you be tempted: Do let us know how it goes. Should clarity be required, this is not some miraculous property of yoghurt, even of Greek yoghurt at 10% fat. It's merely a
- [Not Entirely Arbitrary](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/05/not-entirely-arbitrary.html) - Lifted from the comments, a difference of worldview: From subsequent rumblings in the linked threads, Some replies bemoan patriotism and a sense of affinity with one's country, while others denounce "supremacist systems and the myth of meritocracy." At which point, readers may object that being born in a relatively congenial part of the world is
- [The Person That He Is](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/07/the-person-that-he-is.html) - Lifted from the comments, which you're reading, of course: Said the man flashing his arse to elementary-school children. Consider this an open thread. Share ye links and bicker.
- [Friday Ephemera (775)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/07/friday-ephemera-775.html) - His hobbies, ladies, are mushroom picking and cooking. || A boom in the ceiling. || Glass relocation. || Red ones. || Despite the paralysed arm. || Dirty protest. || Discourse was attempted. || Dumbledore and Gandalf watch Harry Potter. (h/t, Elephants Gerald) || Look, it's intersectional science, people. || A test of human patience. ||
- [Undone By Her Radical ‘Do](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2015/08/undone-by-her-radical-do.html) - Annah Anti-Palindrome is recounting a tearful tale to readers of Everyday Feminism: I remember being ten years old and grieving my girlhood – that short period of time when I was allowed to exist without a preoccupation of my physical appearance constantly looming in the front of my mind – a time when my self-esteem wasn’t rooted
- [The Mouthing of Bollocks](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2015/11/the-mouthing-of-bollocks.html) - Via the pages of Everyday Feminism, Rachel Kuo instructs the dull masses on how to avoid “cultural appropriation” while eating: When we talk about “ethnic” food, we’re not referring to French, German, or Italian cuisine, and definitely not those Ikea Swedish meatballs. I suspect few people think of German cuisine as particularly mysterious and alluring. There
- [Lofty Beings](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2016/03/lofty-beings.html) - In the pages of Everyday Feminism, creative colossus Katherine Garcia is attempting to justify her suboptimal life choices and their suboptimal consequences: I am – and always have been – a daydreamer. There is proof of this in my school records, which contain copious notes from teachers, commenting on the disproportionate amount of time I
- [Reheated (109)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/07/reheated-109.html) - For newcomers, some items from the archives: Know Your Readership. In which I flick through the pages of Everyday Feminism. She'll Ruin The Leather. I bring eruptions of creativity. Ever Decreasing Circles. A sociology professor speaks. A Big, Hairy Princess. It's his ladies' changing room now. For those craving more, this is a pretty good place to start.
- [We Can Only Aspire To Their Mental Heights](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2017/09/we-can-only-aspire-to-their-mental-heights.html) - A Harvard-educated sociology professor named Crystal Fleming - whose areas of expertise include “critical race theory” and “mindfulness and spirituality” – wishes to share her wisdom. Specifically, that we shouldn’t judge people who smash the windows of local stores and loot multiple pairs of trainers while the owners of said stores are distracted by an
- [His Tiny, Delicate Hands](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/07/his-tiny-delicate-hands.html) - And speaking of not-at-all unbalanced cross-dressing men: That would be this chap here, Mr Sasha Yates, whose behaviour didn't appear to concern the progressive ladies who rushed to his defence to ensure he kept his job after initial complaints. And thereby kept his access to the schoolgirls’ changing rooms, where a bewigged Mr Yates paraded
- [This Little Red Light Keeps Flashing](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/08/this-little-red-light-keeps-flashing.html) - A tale of a girls’ tennis team, a locker room, and a high-school hiring dispute. First, the view from afar, all rather fragrant and elevated: And, The words “transphobia” and “hate” were of course deployed. And now the view from close quarters: See? All totally innocent and above-board. Not weird or creepy at all. Oh,
- [His Womanly Tenderness](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/07/his-womanly-tenderness.html) - Meanwhile, in the world of not-at-all-unbalanced cross-dressing men: Wait for it. Do take a moment to steady yourselves. Darts and blowpipes authorised. No other possibilities being, it seems, conceivable. Sharp-eyed readers will be shocked to learn, A busy social life. Lots of hobbies. Oh, and musical performance. He does that too. At the time of
- [Because You'd Never Tire Of It](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/07/because-youd-never-tire-of-it.html) - Attention, rail commuters. I bring fresh hell. Britain is an embarrassment. wtf is this? pic.twitter.com/nfD17EHtu7 — Hazel Appleyard (@HazelAppleyard_) July 5, 2025 You see, And remember, if you're gay, everything is about TRANSVESTISM, VAMPING AND GLITTER. Oh, and for those of you mystified by the chanted number, Should you see something untoward during your journey.
- [Friday Ephemera (774)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/07/friday-ephemera-774.html) - It says commercial waste, but frankly I have doubts. || Suboptimal scenario. || Suboptimal scenario 2. || Yes, but they could be a little bigger. || Beach glamour. || Actual rollercoaster of emotion. || Smouldering sex kitten. || Not that much. || There's something to be said for planning. || On misplaced politeness. || At
- [Friday Ephemera (773)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/06/friday-ephemera-773.html) - He has a level-10 wizard staff. || "Fuck white supremacy," screamed the mentalist bint. (Or, when they can't help but show you who they are.) || Shots fired. || Video Phones Are Here, 1993. || 53,000 photographs of airline meals. || Road manners. || The rise and fall of alien abduction. Previously. || Buckle up,
- [Striving For Diversity](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/06/striving-for-diversity.html) - And so you must be excluded: It means they’re holding you responsible for their out-of-control feelings and they’re hoping you’re tolerant and kind enough to let them call you intolerant and unkind. It’s a pathetic power move from life’s losers meant to turn your own morals against you. It’s one of the… — Porkulence (@Porkulence)
- [Reheated (108)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/06/reheated-108.html) - For newcomers, more items from the archives: What You Wish For. Embezzlement, magic blackness, and intersectional complications. May Contain Drama. Culture for the implausibly delicate. Levelling. When cleverness is unfair, inegalitarian, something to be corrected. For those craving more, this is a pretty good place to start. This blog is kept afloat by the tip jar
- [Saddle Monkeys](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2019/04/saddle-monkeys.html) - Should we stop using the word ‘cyclist’? So asks Laura Laker in the pages of the Guardian, thereby adding to our collection of classic sentences from said newspaper. This is promptly followed by another contender: As the repair man rummaged around in my gas oven, I tried to explain something to him about cyclists. Which
- [What You Wish For](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/08/what-you-wish-for.html) - Via pst314 in the comments, some intersectional complication: The company's founder, Brandon Anderson, is alleged to have embezzled a quarter of a million dollars to fund a "lavish" lifestyle, including an extensive designer wardrobe, international travel and glamorous holidays, and the renting of several mansions. Evidence of which was proudly uploaded to Facebook. Bling, as
- [Two Approaches To Life](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2021/06/two-approaches-to-life.html) - Ms Kelly’s outlook, seen below, seems rather fraught and a tad contrived. And so, if a friend or colleague is trying to lose weight, which isn’t always easy, and this friend or colleague makes visible progress, then, naturally, you shouldn’t encourage them. Lest they press on and become happy. You see, according to Ms Kelly,
- [The Amazon Vanguard](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2015/03/the-amazon-vanguard.html) - An agony of sorts, spotted by Julia and several others during the National Union of Students’ currently ongoing Women’s Conference: No, you mustn’t laugh, says the Independent’s Andrew Griffin. Because clapping in support can break a woman in half: And what could possibly be funny about a room full of “mindful” feminists doing jazz hands every
- [Headdesk, She Replied](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2013/07/headdesk-she-replied.html) - While we cower in the shadow of Laurie Penny’s mind, here’s another bite-size agony for our ongoing series: The article Laurie finds so inspiring – Racism is to White People as Wind is to the Sky – can be found here. Its profundities include, In the outpourings of grief and anger about the Zimmerman verdict, I’m
- [A Dull Hum of Distant Agony](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2013/10/a-dull-hum-of-distant-agony.html) - You see, those bitchy women are only bitchy because of capitalism. Saddened by the happiness of children. Because the Shard is “a function of late capitalism” and “a symbol of unjustifiable luxury.” Hyperbole makes it true. “Fuck rich white men.” But black totalitarian wannabes who charge $20,000 an hour – they’re super-awesome. Goddamn white folk,
- [Heed Ye, O Heed Ye, the Agonies of the Left](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2015/09/heed-ye-o-heed-ye-the-agonies-of-the-left.html) - When badmouthing maleness goes horribly wrong. White woman’s burden. Poltergeists and Martians also spared. Hegemony, or at least someone’s windows, yeah? She’s decided you can’t decide. You are free to remain immobile. I denounce the ableism. Adorable feminist says clever things. Well, unlike the other thing, it allows you to posture with little physical risk.
- [The Agonies of the Left Are Not To Be Laughed At](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2014/01/the-agonies-of-the-left-are-not-to-be-laughed-at.html) - Brace yourselves, dear readers. Colette is positively trembling with feminist rage. What, you ask, could make a person so upset, so swollen with indignation? I fear we need a trigger warning before you click below. Deep breath. Be brave. Via Pootergeek, who had this exchange with the tweeter
- [Dumb, Yes, But Fashionable](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/06/dumb-yes-but-fashionable.html) - From the world of cinema and pretentious agonising: The world is big and different people will be interested in different things, but this seems like a really stupid thing to think about for more than two seconds https://t.co/qWAKhVNMKG — wanye (@wanyeburkett) June 20, 2025 The implications of Mr Boyle's modish piety, presumably unintended yet implied
- [Friday Ephemera (772)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/06/friday-ephemera-772.html) - Relax with a little gardening. || She felt the important thing was to self-narrate. || Mom, I suspect, was not home at the time. || One for the anatomy quiz. || Men With Long Hair, 1967. || The floor is lava. || Ploppy chocolate. || For armchair tourists, a walk around Pall Mall and St
- [Drag Queen Incongruity 2](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/06/drag-queen-incongruity-2.html) - Further to this, which some of you are still processing - understandably, I suppose - I do have more. Complete with wearied question: Who actually enjoys this? Serious question, who enjoys watching this stuff? It’s not even a morality question or whatever. It’s who the hell finds this entertaining? https://t.co/f3sA7wytqx — Gary (@plzbepatient) June 18,
- [You May Need To Write This Down](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/09/you-may-need-to-write-this-down.html) - Natasha Biase brings niche pornography news: To summarise: Opportunist female porn models who pretended to be men pretending to be women, to thereby rake in lots of cash, have annoyed actual men who pretend to be women, including men who pretend to be women while making pornography. See, I bring you the wonders of the
- [Drag Queen Incongruity](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/06/drag-queen-incongruity.html) - A possible series: North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service wants to know what you think of this. If you want to let them know, details in replies. pic.twitter.com/ytLqqbVH0I — Gay Not Queer (@Gaynotqueer1) June 14, 2025 According to the North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service: Lest anyone assume that fire engines don't turn up to the
- [Finding Love in the Uncanny Valley](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2014/04/finding-love-in-the-uncanny-valley.html) - At last, a tumblr devoted to gay male partners who look remarkably similar. Just his type. “Because what’s sexier than dating yourself?”
- [I Question The Causality](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/06/i-question-the-causality.html) - Lifted from the comments, a teacher tells us things: Oh, honey. No. https://t.co/cPpIjk02Rv — Overeducated Gibbon (@MostlyMonkey) June 11, 2025 A thread ensues, from which: Consider this an open thread. Share ye links and bicker.
- [Friday Ephemera (771)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/06/friday-ephemera-771.html) - Don't forget to mow the lawn, she said. || Today's word is inadvisable. || Niche meme for sci-fi/farming enthusiasts. || Art thou not enriched? || The thrill of living in the Barbican, 1972. || Make-believe at the BBC. Or just misreporting. || Transporter malfunction. || Our artistic betters opine. || Today's other word is payback.
- [Reheated (107)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/06/reheated-107.html) - From the archives - and from the golden age of the Guardian - some examples of improbable agonising. The Cupcake Menace. Women, we're told, are being mentally injured by small baked goods. As commenter sk60 quipped in reply, Two Balls Bad, No Balls Good. On being oppressed by suburban barbecues, where, it turns out, the Patriarchy
- [Friday Ephemera (770)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/06/friday-ephemera-770.html) - Hold on tight. || Wok tossing scenes. || Random-ass cheese umbrage. || Birthday cake of note. || Behold, a greeting from a ladies' bathroom. || Himalayan rhubarb. || Boo. || "The problem is most people don't have a vacuum chamber." Or, how to fill a Klein Bottle. || The progressive dining experience, parts 38 and
- [Incompatible Pretending](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/06/incompatible-pretending.html) - Mr Muldoon steers us to a tale of colliding make-believe: A very modern headline, I think you'll agree. They have training courses, you know, and websites, and a federation. We're all learning things today. Ms Howard, it turns out, is a "second-generation witch," following in the mystical footsteps of her mother, "a high priestess" who "ran
- [The Bullet Holes Were A Clue](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/06/the-bullet-holes-were-a-clue.html) - Lifted from the comments, a bedlamite drama in three parts: Crazy Lady Arrested For Destroying Tesla pic.twitter.com/P4Iy9dCJhR — Clown World ™ 🤡 (@ClownWorld_) June 1, 2025 In which, madam talks about her rights. “They shouldn’t even have those cars.” Part 2: Part 2 pic.twitter.com/ABKPL9A8vI — Clown World ™ 🤡 (@ClownWorld_) June 1, 2025 "He's a piece
- [It Says ‘Poison’ In Large Red Letters](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2021/05/it-says-poison-in-large-red-letters.html) - And yet they say you must gargle it. In her blueprint, [Tigard-Tualatin School District Director of Equity and Inclusion, Zinnia Un] describes the new oppressor as an amalgamation of “whiteness,” “colour-blindness,” “individualism,” and “meritocracy”… For Un, they are the values of white society, the primary impediment to social justice. What is the solution to pathological
- [This Shimmering Oasis](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/05/this-shimmering-oasis.html) - Patrons are reminded that where you are right now is made possible by the kindness of strangers. If you’d like to ensure this place exists a while longer, and remains ad-free, there are three buttons below the fold with which to monetise any love. Debit and credit cards are accepted. If what happens here is
- [Have You Tried Storing Them Upright?](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/05/have-you-tried-storing-them-upright.html) - From the Telegraph, on crime, incarceration, and dubious conclusions: Readers will note the odd implication that the level of serious criminal behaviour at any given time should somehow conform to the amount of prison space you have at that time. As if the moral gravity of a criminal act, and likelihood of recidivism and danger to the
- [Jamfest of the Lost](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2007/09/jamfest-of-the.html) - The ever-vigilant Zombie documents the convergence of Saturday’s Power to the Peaceful Festival and 9/11 Truth March in San Francisco. Behold an unsightly collision of Maoists, vegans, conspiracy theorists and the Cannabis Action Network. Together at last. There are photos and clips galore. Oh, and take care to avert your eyes from the ill-fitting tights
- [In Search of Foreign Signals](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2009/12/in-search-of-foreign-signals.html) - Cuban television sets photographed by Simone Lueck. When all media is state owned and private satellite dishes are forbidden... ...in order to avoid “destabilizing, subversive content”... ...television viewing can be a subject of some passion. Via Beaucoup Kevin.
- [She Should “Just Be Able To Have” Things](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/11/she-should-just-be-able-to-have-things.html) - Via Mr Muldoon in the comments, umbrage is detected: The circle of life can be summed up like this: you’re born, you work, pay taxes and then die. Following generations repeat the process. This girl gets it. pic.twitter.com/ReKTY65ofy — Dr. Jebra Faushay (@JebraFaushay) November 12, 2023 As this chap quips in reply, And this one,
- [Reheated (106)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/05/reheated-106.html) - For newcomers, some items from the archives: For Buoyancy, Perhaps. An encounter with the incongruous. Don't Look Directly At It. The Progressive Retail Experience. And the contortions it requires. Steal From Them, Not Me. A stolen phone, a worldview in snapshot form. I Know, Let's All Film Our Mental Breakdowns. An election occurs. Cue meltdowns and
- [Friday Ephemera (769)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/05/friday-ephemera-769.html) - Hippo expresses displeasure. || For the hungry among you. || So how was your day? || It was, alas, a very long drive. || Logo outrage. || An athletic use of the buttocks. || Obstruction of note. || Today's word is ambitious. || FBI artefacts. || "It seems like here in Portland there is this super-big
- [Peer-Reviewed, You Say](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/05/peer-reviewed-you-say.html) - And in whatever-the-hell-this-is news: Because environmentalist politics is all about the joy. Ah, those self-other paradigms. And situated bodies. Of course. Naturally, the planet is also assigned with novelty pronouns - BE/BER - because, well, because. Such is the radical heft of the Journal of Lesbian Studies. Where other topics of deep pondering include "lesbian-dog relationalities and
- [Any Widening Of The Eyes Will Result In Detention](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/05/any-widening-of-the-eyes-will-result-in-detention.html) - Lifted from the comments, a reminder of Teacher Appreciation Week: This clearly female teacher has a deep voice, do you think it’s from smoking? pic.twitter.com/CGoFhMXy1C — Dr. Jebra Faushay (@JebraFaushay) May 15, 2025 To which Chow Bag replies, A not unreasonable question, all things considered. Regarding Mr Look-At-My-Fabulous-Hair-Extensions, I suppose the obvious issue is the self-absorption of our
- [Friday Ephemera (768)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/05/friday-ephemera-768.html) - Scenic toilet. || Hot cube. || Camera-manning. || Less complicated methods may be available. || Somewhat lacking in elbow room. || Lippy fish. || News flash. || Easily done, I guess. || A tribute to the barf bag. || Unwelcome wobble. || Are you bringing the vulva energy to worldwide contentions? || Liveliness incoming. ||
- [Not Entirely Cost Effective](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/05/not-entirely-cost-effective.html) - In transmutation news: I know, I know. We'll be glittering beings, richer than God, with hats and shoes and mattresses all made of gold. Ah. Bugger. And I suppose there's the small matter of the electricity bill, running costs, maintenance, staffing, and so forth. Roughly $1 billion a year. You may resume your dreary, humdrum
- [Reheated (105)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/05/reheated-105.html) - For newcomers, some items from the archives: Telepathy Not A Thing, Women Hardest Hit. Empowered feminist exhausted by hiring servants, planning holidays, brushing daughter's hair. Apocalypse Averted With Collective Juddering. We will save the planet with jive, quickstep and Viennese waltz. Their Happiness Hurt My Feelings. The intersectional perils of video conferencing. With mad people. Passionate
- [Their Inner Loveliness](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/05/their-inner-loveliness.html) - Some elaboration on a couple of items from Friday's Ephemera - in which Antifa's Transgender Enforcement Wing bare their sweet little souls. The following scenes were filmed by Katie Daviscourt at a University of Washington event on safeguarding women's sports against mentally ill men: "It would be so beautiful to see your bodies hanging from the tree"
- [Bad Souls And Bedlamites](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2018/12/bad-souls-and-bedlamites.html) - “Are you willing to die for YouTube shit? That’s what’s gonna come, man. Death is coming to you, dude. Real shit. Feel that energy? That’s why your heart’s pounding.” At an Antifa gathering in Seattle, Andy Ngo makes new friends. “I’m known to do this shit for real,” an antifa protester said to me. “Are
- [Friday Ephemera (767)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/05/friday-ephemera-767.html) - A compendium of near misses. || The thrill of automation. || Taken: The Musical. || Snugger than thou. || Augmented-reality surgery. || The machine uprising, day 10. || Bigger than yours. || How to scare children. || I have a question for the ladies. || Modern slutting woes. || You want one and you know
- [And Everything Shall Be Made, Badly, Out Of Wool And Bamboo](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/05/and-everything-shall-be-made-badly-out-of-wool-and-bamboo.html) - I paraphrase, of course: I'll give you a moment to process that one. Why, yes, I am reading the Guardian. Why do you ask? Via Mr Worstall. Also, open thread. Share ye links and bicker.
- [How To Invalidate Your Own Vocation](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/04/how-to-invalidate-your-own-vocation.html) - Via Muldoon in the comments - and the pages of Psychology Today - the evaporating standards of "affirmative psychotherapy": Sharp-eyed readers may have registered the seeming absence of curiosity, of enquiry - say, regarding very common causes of the phenomenon in question. Readers may also wish to ponder the inevitable tensions between affirmation and investigation - and to place bets on
- [Aversions](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/05/aversions.html) - A thread of possible interest: This is followed by a non-trivial observation: On this latter point, should an example prove helpful, readers may wish to revisit the unconvincing contrivance of Guardian columnist Zoe Williams - specifically, her scolding of those who'd prefer not to have sociopathic neighbours – say, the kinds of creatures who blast out loud
- [School In the Morning](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/05/school-in-the-morning.html) - From the recent batch of Ephemera - Chloe makes these videos because he wants you to relax: “Chloe”, a man who identifies as transgender, makes ASMR videos dressing up in women's and girls' clothing. One depicts a violent abduction and torture fantasy. Some videos are aimed at children. Chloe is allowed to use facilities for women
- [Did You Feel A Tingle?](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/05/did-you-feel-a-tingle.html) - For enthusiasts of ASMR videos: I’m not really into AMSR, but these gorgeous gals make it enjoyable. If this 𝕩 thing doesn’t work out for me, maybe I’ll jump on this train. pic.twitter.com/ecuAL9wfqF — Dr. Jebra Faushay (@JebraFaushay) May 5, 2025 Previously: Dear, sweet Chloe wants you to relax. No refunds. Credit note only. Also,
- [Significant, You Say](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/05/significant-you-say.html) - A man named Silvia, a self-described "multi-talented and eclectic trans artist," struggles with convention: At which point, readers may wonder whether the struggle is with something more fundamental - say, adulthood, of which the potential for lifelong commitment - something serious - something much like marriage - is generally considered a feature. Silvia, we're told,
- [Thrilleur](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2008/10/thrilleur.html) - With Halloween almost upon us, I feel it’s time to share François Macré’s multitracked a cappella rendition of Thriller. Be sure to wait for the Vincent Price monologue. (h/t, Coudal)
- [Techno, Annotated](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2011/03/techno-annotated.html) - Readers, it’s time to acquaint yourselves with the work of Dr Graham St John, a Research Associate at the University of Queensland’s Centre for Critical and Cultural Studies and “an anthropologist of electronic dance music cultures, festivals, and movements.” Dr St John’s scholarly projects include Performing the Country: Culture, Identity and a Post-Settler Landscape, “a study of contemporary
- [The Thrill of Scaffolding](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2011/03/the-thrill-of-scaffolding.html) - Workers on the Forth Rail Bridge, North Queensferry, 1996. Photographed by Peter Stubbs. Tail rudder of a B-36 bomber being repaired by mechanics at Carswell Air Force Base, 1951. Photographer unknown. Via Scaffoldage, home of “skeletal archiporn.”
- [Friday Ephemera (766)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/05/friday-ephemera-766.html) - Scenes of a kind I'm struggling to categorise. || Six Greenlandic ice cubes, only $100. || For the detectives of tomorrow, a crime-scene doll's house. || That's exactly how I would've done it. || Dressing for pleasure. || Question asked, answered. || Question asked, answered 2. || When you're an asshole. || Some bending, thumbs
- [Reheated (104)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/04/reheated-104.html) - For newcomers, some items from the archives: Perhaps The Cardboard Has Magical Properties. It's a San Francisco vibe, so doing the obvious is out of the question. Members, You Say. The thrills of modern gym membership. The Unspanked Spread Joy. On fabulist "identities," and malice with impunity. It's Trivial When The Victim Is Someone Who Isn't
- [Perhaps The Cardboard Has Magical Properties](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/04/perhaps-the-cardboard-has-magical-properties.html) - Lifted from the comments, where WTP alerts us to more fun times for commuters in the San Francisco Bay Area: ❓ Did you know ❓ You can ask any station agent for BART’s free bystander intervention cards, which you can use if you’re experiencing or witnessing harassment in stations and trains. Here’s how they work
- [Friday Ephemera (765)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/04/friday-ephemera-765.html) - Inhaling scenes. || An unthrown stick. || Neighbourly drama with bonus fire. || I remain unconvinced. || Not a parent, you say. || Suspension test. || Pacemaker of note. || Hairpiece of note. || The progressive retail experience, parts 625, 626 and 627. || Pole dancer. || There's something to be said for unclean glass. ||
- [Hurling Their Bodies into the Void](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2009/08/hurling-their-bodies-into-the-void.html) - Make way for Raquel Welch. She brings disco from the future. From the 1970 TV special, Raquel!, in which Ms Welch displayed her various talents, including duets with Tom Jones and Bob Hope and a recitation of Tennyson’s The Lady of Shalott. Via Coudal. And here’s Miss Brigitte Bardot performing Serge Gainsbourg’s Contact, circa 1968. The dress
- [Concurring](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/04/concurring.html) - And in crime-news news: There's no way @7NewsAustralia thought they could post this with the comments off and not have anyone say something. Is this clip farming? pic.twitter.com/ADp8nx9jfV — What’s News!? (@Whats_Newsss) April 21, 2025 I have to say, I didn't see that coming. Via Rod Dreher. Consider this an open thread. Share ye links and
- [Friday Ephemera (764)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/04/friday-ephemera-764.html) - Any port in a storm. || Hot pursuit. || Not quite the intended optics. || Nicotine and oestrogen. || When brave knights battled snails. || You want one and you know it. || She's not happy. || Helping hands required. || House-trained. || He likes to lick them. || Close enough. || You may need
- [His Heterosexuality Did It](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/04/his-heterosexuality-did-it.html) - Via Toni Airaksinen, more from the hothouse world of pretentious agonising: The curriculum writer in question, Michael Lolkus, is keen to let the world know that he champions "equity- and social justice-oriented instructional practices." "Whiteness," it turns out, is something to be chided and "decentred" in favour of "ethnomathematics investigations." "The lens of whiteness" we're told, will
- [Friday Ephemera (763)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/04/friday-ephemera-763.html) - Incoming. || Ladies look away, I bring secret manly wisdom. || When justice is swift. || Those crunchy waves. || You want one and you know it. || An unlovely monkey. || All part and parcel of life on the range. || Retreat seems in order. || A fare to remember. || A mere $1.7
- [A Cunning Ruse](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/04/a-cunning-ruse.html) - And in somewhat surreal crime news: Despite his efforts to feign girlishness and his use of the name Madison, Mr Alec Ray Craig, aged 27, found himself in the care of the Albany Police Department and Linn County Court, where fabulist pronouns are scrupulously observed by all parties: Because in matters of this kind, what
- [Reheated (103)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/04/reheated-103.html) - For newcomers, some items from the archives: But Paying Attention Is Hard. Mathematics is "saturated in whiteness." Selfish inadequates hardest hit. Only Suckers Pay Their Way. On the fare-dodging hipsters of San Francisco. The Bollocks Is Bolted On. Come, marvel at the world of politically radical tableware. For those craving more, The Year Reheated is a pretty good
- [But Paying Attention Is Hard](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/01/but-paying-attention-is-hard.html) - Toni Airaksinen pokes a stick at some contrived agonising: This "intellectual trauma" is, you'll be shocked to hear, entirely the fault of "whiteness" and "heteromasculinity." As we're in the realm of the excruciatingly woke, the terms violence and trauma are of course misused and deliberately misleading. The supposed violence and trauma, then, is actually an
- [Friday Ephemera (762)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/04/friday-ephemera-762.html) - Mongolian rave scene. || Not sure if it's the shoes. || What... are you? || Just a few weeks. || "Why does he have no pants on?" || She's certain that's what he's doing. Or, when your opinions are determined by status, not reality. || "Ecolesbianism asks: what if our interspecies relationships are lesbian too?"
- [Try It Now, They Said](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/04/try-it-now-they-said.html) - New hosting, fewer bumps. At least, that's the theory. There may be some minor behind-the-scenes tinkering left to do as the hosting changes propagate, but the bulk of the unpleasantness is now behind us. Consider this an open thread. Share ye links and bicker.
- [Friday Ephemera (761)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/03/friday-ephemera-761.html) - Street food. || Lumpfish. || Crab versus grape. || Woman versus sofa-bed. || Boneless. || Just like blogging. || A collection of cartographic objects from the thirteenth century onwards. (h/t, Things) || It's a lot to unpack. || Aspiring to cliché. || She, not he, was deemed a "risk to the public." || The Unspanked
- [Ladylike Behaviour](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/03/ladylike-behaviour.html) - And in transgender-sex-offender-urine-hurling news: The chap in question - known, by himself, as "Sophie Koko" - originates from Kazakhstan and boasts an extensive history of sexual offences, numbering over fifty. His leisure activities - outside of bottling his own urine and then spraying it on children - include searching out articles about his crimes and
- [Shoe-Sizing Trauma](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/03/shoe-sizing-trauma.html) - Lifted from the comments, a tale of niche woe: What in the hell?🙄Shoe sizes aren’t transphobic, they’re reality Men’s feet are wider, women’s narrower. The shoe size is a number given to a shoe of a certain length AND width. Women and men’s shoe sizes are on different scaling systems. It’s about the fit, not
- [Friday Ephemera (760)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/03/friday-ephemera-760.html) - Low-altitude ejection. || Helping hand. || Letterbox cakes. || His name is Mr Amazon and he just happens to be carrying his burglary tools. || A tale of stolen testicles. || Hairy sausage. || How to build a tiny laundrette. Or a tiny bathroom inside your bathroom. || A brief history of the manicule. || "Major UFO
- [The Unspanked](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2019/11/the-unspanked.html) - “Look at you shaking, you little bitch!” From the Land of Let’s All Talk About My Feelings, behold our betters at large: "You don’t know me…” “YOU’RE WHITE!” Update, via the comments: And in case you were wondering, A total of five campus police were eventually called to the scene, and the conservative students
- [A Synonym For Spite](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/03/a-synonym-for-spite.html) - Another day, another drama involving the changing rooms of schoolgirls - and another illustration of how wokeness - all that progressive piety - can be a mask for other motives: And hey, what could possibly go wrong? Ah. Quite right, one might think. Oh. "You wicked girls will undress in front of this weird, cross-dressing
- [Friday Ephemera (759)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/03/friday-ephemera-759.html) - Hot gasses. || Algae and turtles. || Ah, that would explain the cones and tape. || "It had three tentacles and started tapping on my window." || Not in fact a dog. || Ditto. || Definitely pregnant. || The progressive retail experience, parts 618, 619, 620, and 621. || She advises on mental health and
- [This Thing Is Powered By Cash](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/03/this-thing-is-powered-by-cash.html) - Patrons are reminded that this shimmering oasis is made possible by the kindness of strangers. If you’d like to ensure it exists a while longer, and remains ad-free, there are three buttons below the fold with which to monetise any love. Debit and credit cards are accepted. If what happens here is of value, think
- [Oversharing](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/03/oversharing.html) - Lifted from the comments, two scenes of very modern divulging. First up, a behatted chap informs us that "women have many features." In describing such features, much is revealed: "People criticize me for dating a trans woman. Saying that I am a homosexual for doing so." Does this make him gay? pic.twitter.com/OR1a965u6U — AmericanPapaBear (@AmericaPapaBear)
- [My Mashed Potato is Telling Me Something](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2009/07/my-mashed-potato-is-telling-me-something.html) - “Something important.” Via APoD.
- [First Contact](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2009/11/first-contact.html) - It’s the car horns that do it. Related: My Mashed Potato is Telling Me Something.
- [The Wellbeing Of Burglars](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/03/the-wellbeing-of-burglars.html) - Lifted from the comments, an illustration of progressive ethics. Or, How dare you defend your home and loved ones from sociopathic intruders with long criminal histories: The bill's sponsor, Rick Chavez Zbur, claims, "The bill’s goal is to prevent wannabe vigilantes... from provoking violence and then claiming self-defense after the fact." Which suggests that finding intruders in your home,
- [Friday Ephemera (758)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/03/friday-ephemera-758.html) - The machine uprising, day 9. Previously. || Incoming. || In a choice of colours. || Lively scenes. || Pineapple sea cucumber. || The quiet part. || Snow clearing of note. || Neighbours of note. || Nommy-nommy-nom. || Modernity, baby. || She doesn't want to give birth to any little Nazis, you see. || Take Me Out
- [Coping Well, I See](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/03/coping-well-i-see.html) - I bring scenes of composure, grace, and emotional maturity: This is what terminal and peak TDS looks like: Liberals are the most vile, hateful, insufferable and toxic species on earth. pic.twitter.com/bbYyUC6XMw — Liberacrat™️ (@Liberacrat) March 4, 2025 And who here hasn’t spent their evenings crafting voodoo effigies of people with whom they disagree politically? Not
- [Friday Ephemera (757)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/02/friday-ephemera-757.html) - Incoming. || Incoming 2. || Substantial component. || I have questions. || Drywall toast, a project for dads everywhere. || He doesn't practise a relationship model. || Odd dog. || Our Betters deploy adhesive tape. || Children of privilege gather in woods, howl about their chains. || Patient of note. || The dog ate her
- [Stealing the Proles](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2013/04/stealing-the-proles.html) - Readers who followed this recent thread on Margaret Thatcher and her critics may enjoy Martin Durkin’s documentary, available on 4oD here, Margaret: Death of a Revolutionary. Durkin’s film not only offers a useful history lesson, it’s also a nimble shredding of quite a few leftist myths. Its highlights include contributions from Madsen Pirie, who really ought
- [For Buoyancy, Perhaps](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/02/for-buoyancy-perhaps.html) - Lifted from the comments, a tale of self-satisfied inclusiveness from Edmonton, Alberta: The mother and her 14-year-old daughter had visited the Bonnie Doon Leisure Centre for an afternoon in the pool. However, their plans were derailed by an encounter with the incongruous: For the innocent and unworldly, that's fake rubber boobs. Generally of ample proportions, as
- [Hair Dysphoria](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/02/hair-dysphoria.html) - New frontier of human suffering discovered and declared: Has anyone else experienced Green Hair Dysphoria? I’m working thru my own hair issues and conflicted about green dye or blue? Shave my head or no? What is my gender? I don’t even know! I need a safe space STAT. pic.twitter.com/1ldj2AhMFZ — Dr. Jebra Faushay (@JebraFaushay) February
- [Friday Ephemera (756)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/02/friday-ephemera-756.html) - Incoming. || Please update your X-Files. || Feeling all girly. Previously. Related. || The Atom Men and the Highlanders, 1958. || So, anyone for cake? || Carpathia. || Sprinklers of note. || The thrill of British place-name pronunciation. And yes, by God, it will be on the test. || From 1977: Is punk rock a
- [Reheated (102)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/02/reheated-102.html) - For newcomers, some items from the archives: Our Betters Make Plans. The World Economic Forum’s Ida Auken wants to correct your primitive lifestyle. You're Reading The Comments, Right? On Scientific American, where wokeness is ascendant. Logic, not so much. They Feed On The Young. "Removing barriers to learning," the San Francisco way. The D-Words. On supposedly
- [They Feed On The Young](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/02/they-feed-on-the-young.html) - From the San Francisco Chronicle, one for the Everything It Touches pile: Now, now. We must resist the urge to pre-judge. Though they ain’t making it easy. Take that, barriers to learning. Achieved, one assumes, by not bothering to suspend pupils who are seriously disruptive or habitually violent, a policy embraced by other progressive fiefdoms.
- [His Hypothetical Partner](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/02/his-hypothetical-partner.html) - From that organ of Our Betters - the New York Times Magazine - a question of throbbing import: Because intimate relationships, even love, must, it seems, have political utility. It's like dating, but For The Cause. However, Again, note the subordination of attraction, love, a lifelong bond, to a predetermined political goal. Readers are welcome
- [Do Not Date Bedlamites](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2015/08/do-not-date-bedlamites.html) - Melissa Fabello shares her interracial dating advice with the chronically fretful readers of Everyday Feminism: While interracial dynamics always add a layer of work to romance, it’s important to note that I’m white. Because when you’re a white person in an interracial relationship, there’s this whole – ohhh, ya know – white supremacy thing hanging in
- [Progressive Dining Protocol](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/02/progressive-dining-protocol.html) - From the realm of the tightly-wound and twitchy, how to eat out while being a needy, neurotic, self-dramatising pinhead: You can go into any restaurant and ask to be served by an ally or trans positive person. And you can leave if the restaurant is playing Fox News. Most importantly, you can smugly eat chips
- [Friday Ephemera (755)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/02/friday-ephemera-755.html) - Boobs in a jam, an obliging nudge. || Rice grain Gojira. || I'm no expert, but I don't think that's a guitar. || Feel the deep wisdom of her third eye. || Driving with intuition. || How to shrink your lungs. || Laughing while pregnant. || Little helpers. || The progressive retail experience, parts 609, 610,
- [May Contain Drama](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/02/may-contain-drama.html) - Or, Shakespeare For The Tremulous And Neurotic: No laughing at the back. Readers will doubtless recall the Chichester Festival Theatre warning patrons that its production of The Sound of Music, one of the most famous and widely-seen musicals in the world, would contain references to Nazis. Which, for some, would apparently come as a surprise.
- [Eighteen Years](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/02/eighteen-years.html) - And this place is still here. Do help yourself to cake. For newcomers, here's a pretty good introduction to what goes on here. If you like... that, well, there's plenty more. Oh, and open thread.
- [Friday Ephemera (754)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/02/friday-ephemera-754.html) - Toilet-related suspense. || The slightest of smiles. || Surprisingly upright. || Dinner and a show. || Abundant condiments. || Place your bets. || Cops and robbers. || A beginner's guide to nuclear physics, explained with Fuzzy Felt. (h/t, Elephants Gerald) || A brief history of Super Glue. || I think this makes him King of
- [Scenes From Current Year](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/02/scenes-from-current-year.html) - A possible series on a theme of belated pushback. I'll set the ball rolling with this, lifted from the comments. Fat Man With Far Side Glasses Takes Down Flag: Queer, trans teacher with they/fae/she pronouns films himself removing the progress pride flag from his classroom following President Trump's EO. SO👏MUCH👏WINNING👏pic.twitter.com/Kh5Q5Xy4gM — Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok)
- [What, These Knockers Here?](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/02/what-these-knockers-here.html) - In academic news, Yasmin Benoit, "model and award-winning asexual activist," announces her new position and wants you to notice her cleavage: I'm honoured to announce that I've been given a visiting position at @KingsCollegeLon! We're going to be conducting research into asexuality together & our first academic paper will be coming out this month! I'm
- [Reheated (101)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/01/reheated-101.html) - For newcomers, some items from the archives: Hard To Tell If It's Going Well. The thrill of atomised dairy products. New Niche Indignation. On transgender dinner parties, where competitive upset is the sweetest dish. Sudden-Onset Womanhood. On gender-bending Bond and other modern wonders. Big City Dreams. On London's struggling artists. Terms I use loosely. Our Betters
- [Our Betters Issue Threats](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/01/our-betters-issue-threats.html) - Behold the latest milestone in fearless resistance: Tiktoker says she will ruin your car if you support Trump and eat at a Mexican restaurant pic.twitter.com/DTqrVcAQdj — Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) January 26, 2025 Because vandalising the cars of random strangers is progressive piety now, the very measure of heroism. Oh, and note the implied conflation
- [Friday Ephemera (753)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/01/friday-ephemera-753.html) - Just a bit of a bump. || Boiling water is hard. || How to build an omni-directional bike. (h/t, Elephants Gerald) || Bills above. || The adventures of Rupert the Bear. || Because he has been deemed more important than you, ladies. || Dinner and a show. || I'm guessing it tickles. || Good to
- [I Know, Let's All Film Our Mental Breakdowns](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/01/i-know-lets-all-film-our-mental-breakdowns.html) - As Mr Trump unboxes his kettle in the White House, I'm going to offer this reminder of the meltdowns and moon-howling that greeted his election victory. Such were the feats of pretension and competitive neuroticism, some kind of historical document seems in order. Among those traumatised was the novelist and Guardian contributor Francine Prose, whose mental
- [Unreliable Narrators](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/01/unreliable-narrators.html) - Via the comments, some elaboration on an Ephemera item from Friday, specifically, this feat of contrivance: Tiktoker blames capitalism for looters and suggests we should have compassion for these criminals instead of law enforcement dealing with them pic.twitter.com/xh89bARkpE — Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) January 13, 2025 To which, Darleen replied, Dicentra added, not unreasonably, The kinds
- [Reciprocal Principles Are Above Her Pay Grade](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2020/06/reciprocal-principles-are-above-her-pay-grade.html) - Via Min in the comments, Arlene Dávila, a professor at NYU and founding director of the Latinx Project, believes that looting, theft, and destruction are all part of this essential tapestry of protest. She writes, “Anyone surprised that protests include looting of luxury stores in Soho & elsewhere doesn’t know the 1st thing about racial
- [Friday Ephemera (752)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/01/friday-ephemera-752.html) - I did not see that coming. || A not entirely compelling arrangement. || The next part of the plan is unclear to me. || Incoming. || A collection of Doctor Who title cards. || Mathematics and the Moon. || This is one of these. || An inexact landing. || Autonomous bus, China. || A brief history
- [Don't Look Directly At It](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/01/dont-look-directly-at-it.html) - And in the world of The Progressive Retail Experience: From Fortune magazine: During the lengthy interview quoted above, Walgreens CEO Tim Wentworth hints at the development of "creative" solutions for customers demoralised by unimpeded thieving and the subsequent lockdown status of many stores. Paying customers, a seemingly shrinking demographic, will, we're assured, be offered a "better...
- [Dominion Over All Things](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/01/dominion-over-all-things.html) - Consider this an open thread. Share ye links and bicker. Oh, and in travel news, I bring you this: maybe maybe maybe byu/Zorrodelaarena inmaybemaybemaybe
- [Shower Scenes](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/01/shower-scenes-2.html) - And in can-anyone-else-smell-paedophilia? news: Pictures of mentally ill, self-mutilating men. In kindergarten settings. To facilitate discussions. With pre-school children. Strange is a good start. Other descriptors are available. Should any readers be trying to think of reasons not to raise an eyebrow, it should be pointed out that roughly half of sexually dysmorphic male prisoners –
- [Anthropological Snippets](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2022/06/anthropological-snippets.html) - Three items presented for your betterment: First up, “Kids and kink can coexist at Pride in a totally fine way,” we’re told. You see, exhibitionist displays of fetishes – say, transvestism, sadomasochism, nipple clamps and cock rings - constitute a “justice space” and “kids and youth voices are vital to justice movements.” “Kids,” we learn,
- [Shower Scenes](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2010/01/shower-scenes.html) - The paintings of Alyssa Monks.
- [And Lo, There Came A Great Bunching Of The Panties](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2017/08/and-lo-there-came-a-great-bunching-of-the-panties.html) - “Everyone is allowed to share their opinion. I just hope he gets fired for it.” Regarding the ongoing ‘Google memo’ saga, I thought I’d lift the following from yesterday’s comments: To recap. A Google software developer with a PhD in biology writes a polite, conciliatory and politically centrist memo suggesting that there’s a leftist groupthink problem in the
- [Rotatable Apparatus](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/01/rotatable-apparatus.html) - Or, The Thigh Straps Were To Ensure Comfort. One for ladies of child-bearing age: And so, obviously, This patented invention from 1963 was designed to help women give birth easily 📹Hashem Al-Ghaili pic.twitter.com/VBrlB6N1L7 — Game of X (@froggyups) January 11, 2025 I can tell you're impressed. The net and bell combo is a lovely touch. "In
- [Friday Ephemera (751)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/01/friday-ephemera-751.html) - Wind instrument of note. || Let's just say mistakes were made. || Just one or two drinks during lunch. || The demands of glamorous dining. || On thin wings and flying faster than the speed of sound. (h/t, Elephants Gerald) || Stroppy and incoming. || Not as easy as it looks. || Adventures in large
- [Come One, Come All](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/01/come-one-come-all.html) - Speaking of "diversity" and its wonders, Heather Mac Donald ponders Germany's ongoing experiment in self-annihilation: There follows a horror-show catalogue of incompetence, dishonesty, and inassimilable monsters, with criminal records of prodigious length, pious newcomers calling for the murder of "every critic of Islam," and in which the word machete crops up quite a lot. A dark
- [Rendered Tearful By The Undertakings Of White People](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/01/rendered-tearful-by-the-undertakings-of-white-people.html) - It turns out that the University of Nottingham and Nottingham Trent University have much to offer the pretentious and racially neurotic: As is the custom, an operatic tone is adopted and victimhood is feigned and deployed as a credential, a basis for deference. Though particulars of any credible harm, any actual modern-day "racism," are thin on
- [Complications](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2020/11/complications.html) - “It is both possible and impossible to appreciate rap music as a white fan,” [Associate Professor of Philosophy at Florida Southern College,] H.A. Nethery said. Okay then. The professor added that rap is a “gift” to white people which “exposes the opaque white-racist self through the inducement of double consciousness within [the] listener.” Good to
- [At All Costs, Paraphrase](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2018/01/at-all-costs-paraphrase.html) - Or, A Demonstration Of Patience. “You’re saying we should organise our societies along the lines of the lobsters…” In this largely unedited video, Channel 4’s Cathy Newman interviews Jordan Peterson. I use the word interview quite loosely. In fact, I propose a drinking game, in which you take a shot of tequila every time Ms
- [Friday Ephemera (750)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2025/01/friday-ephemera-750.html) - Incoming. || Incoming 2. || Machine uprising, day 8. Previously. || Please deposit keys in secure storage box. || Load-bearing rave balcony. || Improvised theatre deemed insufficiently gay. || Gather sandbags, passports, and be ready to sell the house. || He's a hugger. || Width issue. || When starfish attack. || "The owner serves customers while moving like
- [The Year Reheated](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/12/the-year-reheated-12.html) - In which we marvel at the mental contortions of our self-imagined betters. The year began with a male Guardian columnist, Mr Phineas Harper, announcing his plan to heroically advance “gender equality” via the medium of self-absorption and by wearing a pleated skirt. Guardian readers were invited to believe that the sight of Mr Harper “dancing
- [Tidings](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/12/tidings-15.html) - Or, He's Put Tinsel On The Tip Jar. Konkon's Yawn, photographed by Tak. As is the custom here, posting will be intermittent over the holidays and readers are advised to follow me on X, or subscribe to the blog feed at the very bottom of the page, either of which will alert you to anything new as
- [Reheated (100)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/12/reheated-100.html) - For newcomers, some items from the archives: Powder Room Scenes. He's a transgender activist, so there's nothing to worry about. The Kind Of Creature You've Chosen To Be. An "independent thinker" applies make-up, smashes patriarchy. Let's Do It, But In A Way That's Less Likely To Work. Guardian columnist plans to "redefine the family unit." Complications
- [Tongue Action](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/01/tongue-action.html) - From the pages of Bon Appétit, where Brooklynite pronoun-stipulator Isha Maratha is determined to overshare: Ms Maratha’s first time, in Boston, during college orientation, is recounted in some detail: If anyone’s getting aroused by this, I’m fetching the hose. If madam’s outpourings seem a bit much, be assured things do not get better on that
- [The Wrong Colour Students](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2018/10/the-wrong-colour-students.html) - Contrasting invitations, spotted in the central lobby at Evergreen State College: The college in question has of course been mentioned here before.
- [The Bleeding Unobvious](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/12/the-bleeding-unobvious.html) - And in radical menstruation news: I suspect sharp-eyed readers can guess where this is going. Readers may wish to ponder whether listing special sex-based requirements - taking time off work, every month, for days, and still expecting to be paid, for instance - is the ideal basis for asserting the obviousness of workplace gender equality.
- [Friday Ephemera (749)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/12/friday-ephemera-749.html) - Bathroom visitor. || His bouncy shoes. || Nail-biting scenes from a Japanese bed-making competition. || Chompy-chompy. || Saying more than I think they realise. || The Ashmolean advent calendar. || You have not died of dysentery, a game for all the family. || Tidiness at all times. || Tiger Sweat, Torso, and other male cosmetics,
- [Levelling](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/12/levelling.html) - At Vanderbilt University, an honours programme intended to accommodate academic giftedness has been denounced as "inherently exclusionary." Having now been identified as an affront to "equity," an unforgivable wickedness, the programme is of course being shut down: And so, instead of all that problematic academic rigour, all those challenging tasks that not everyone can complete,
- [Doing It For The Kids](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2021/03/doing-it-for-the-kids.html) - Apparently, the way to “help our black students develop positive racial identity” is to ensure that as many of them as possible leave academia sounding uneducated – indeed, unintelligent – and unable to write in an adult manner, and therefore have trouble finding employment, thus leading to plenty of exploitable resentment. I paraphrase, of course, though
- [Only Suckers Pay Their Way](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/12/only-suckers-pay-their-way.html) - I paraphrase, of course. Though, judging by this piece in the San Francisco Standard, not by much: Or, my activist lifestyle should be subsidised by others, the less important. Ah, that community spirit, a triumph of fairness over selfishness, in a city of good people. Good people who steal as a matter of routine. Because when it
- [Friday Ephemera (748)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/12/friday-ephemera-748.html) - Interspecies attraction of note. || The oxygen tank is, I suppose, an innovative touch. || Not new, but evergreen. Related. || At last, drinkable mayonnaise. || More adventures in modernity. || "How can anything made of matter be that cold?" || Bold artistic breakthrough. || The litter bins of Disneyland. || The chair bodgers of
- [Reality Is An Inherent Problem](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/08/reality-is-an-inherent-problem.html) - I paraphrase, but not by much: It started, since you ask, with chappie being annoyed by the existence of a cruise ship. Says he, Readers will note that the word wasted is doing some heavy lifting there. That the building of said cruise ship paid the wages of thousands of people, in several cities, for years,
- [Our Betters Make Plans (2)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/06/our-betters-make-plans-2.html) - The World Economic Forum’s Ida Auken wants to correct your primitive lifestyle: Embrace the upgrade, you filthy savages: This is Ida Auken (WEF Young Global Leader) who wrote: “Welcome to 2030. I own nothing, have no privacy, and life has never been better.” Here she is wanging on about using your neighbour’s car. pic.twitter.com/tbKT5MJzTR —
- [For Having The Wrong Politics](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/12/for-having-the-wrong-politics.html) - Lifted from the comments, an excerpt from the Joe Rogan Experience, a discussion with investor and tech developer Marc Andreessen: Forward this video to friends & family to understand just how evil the government has been pic.twitter.com/XgRnikMK6J — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 29, 2024 The complete three-hour discussion, which I recommend making time for, can
- [And In Shoe-Related News](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/12/and-in-shoe-related-news.html) - This just in: Yes, I know. It's a lot to unpack. How many of those incidents were shoe-related, or involved insulted Barbie dolls, is unclear. According to the Kleine Zeitung, the unnamed perpetrator, aged sixty and dubbed Franz, attacked his 81-year-old carer, punching him repeatedly and, When subsequently appearing in court, Franz decided against wearing heels,
- [Friday Ephemera (747)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/11/friday-ephemera-747.html) - Suboptimal situation. || Suboptimal situation 2. || Skilled or lucky? || Grab that cloud. || A bedlamite scolds you for your lack of piety. || Choices were made, a thread. || Adventures in modernity. || Cigarette lighter versus molten glass. || Divine intervention. || This is one of these. || Career path. || Coping strategy.
- [The Brains Of The Operation](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/11/the-brains-of-the-operation.html) - From Chicago, crime news: No, really: Happily, the hunch paid off: The ways in which the criminal mind differs from your own have been noted here before.
- [Just Like Us, You Say](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/01/just-like-us-you-say.html) - Further to previous rumblings on the subject of crime, another small but noteworthy point: Why, it’s almost as if antisocial tendencies were not neatly confined to only one form of expression. This reply to the above is not, I think, entirely trivial: Part of the reason that they were so desperate to cancel Live PD
- [Steal From Them, Not Me](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/11/steal-from-them-not-me.html) - Lifted from the comments, a worldview in snapshot form: I filmed a liberal activist trying to retrieve her iPhone back from the homeless that possibly stole it. She encouraged them to sell anything they steal from “rich scum” but that she’s “nice” and “honest” and needs it back. She told @tarafaul503 and I she won’t call
- [Friday Ephemera (746)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/11/friday-ephemera-746.html) - Incoming. || I don't know if you want one, but they're out there somewhere. || Suboptimal situation. || Hazards of cooking. || Failure to comprehend. || Hard to refuse. || A five-year pregnancy. || Singaporean punishment, a poll ensues. || The thrill of ballpoint pen alignment. || Publicly funded healthcare. || "Vaginally presenting" persons. ||
- [A Big, Hairy Princess](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/11/a-big-hairy-princess.html) - As a measure of where we are, culturally - and of the levels of pretending currently expected - this rather captures something: How terribly modern. How fashionably unhinged. Moments later, the two girls returned, hurriedly, explaining in whispered tones that, “There was a man in the shower with us.” Ms Tyrrell promptly told the girls to
- [Those Non-Reciprocal Pieties](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/11/those-non-reciprocal-pieties.html) - Regarding the recent Māori theatrics in the New Zealand parliament: Interesting. Are we indigenous Danes also more spiritually and culturally connected to our land than the recent immigrants? https://t.co/4WzK6HOr2g — Jonatan Pallesen (@jonatanpallesen) November 16, 2024 Oddly, no reply was forthcoming. Update, via the comments: On those connections to the land: Today's word, since you ask, is
- [Friday Ephemera (745)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/11/friday-ephemera-745.html) - Today's word is proximity. || How to make the day exciting. || The wallet wins, I think. || House fire, interior view. || The thrill of saving up for one. || And every submarine should have one. || "Did you hear the music playing?" || Mushroom colour atlas. || Screw the kids, she gets to
- [Symbolic Beverage Crisis](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/11/symbolic-beverage-crisis.html) - Mr Destiny, who is, I gather, some kind of deep thinker, a moral colossus of the left, is apparently unable to make a mug of hot chocolate: My Uber driver brought me my hot chocolate today on bike. It took 45 minutes to get here, and this is what happens as soon as I pick
- [Flatter, Mythologize, Rinse, Repeat](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2014/10/flatter-mythologize-rinse-repeat.html) - Yes, I know, we’re all missing this blog’s unofficial mascot, Ms Laurie Penny. What with her recent elevation to loftier moral planes in the bosom of academia, where she will soon be anointed a “leader in journalism.” Luckily, over the weekend, commenter svh spotted a review of Ms Penny’s latest book – this one – in
- [Footwear Enthusiast](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/11/footwear-enthusiast.html) - And in shoe-related news: Yes, I know. Another entry for our Thing That Never Happens file. But first, a flashback: Don't ask. A pattern repeated upon his release, and hence a second, present-day appearance in court. But this time, with added kinks and complications: Because this is where we are now. Or where the Germans
- [Crypto Hitlers, Everywhere!](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/11/crypto-hitlers-everywhere.html) - Because I like to bring comfort to those in distress, How To Avoid Tears And Pretentious Agonising: Well, you’d think that repel invaders and uphold the most basic of laws wouldn’t be too much to ask of a government. And yet. And at this terribly difficult time, for some, do spare a thought for this
- [Friday Ephemera (744)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/11/friday-ephemera-744.html) - Dublin man. || Oh dear. || Best not to dawdle, I think. || Your bedroom buddy. || His is bigger. || Theirs is bigger, too. || Houseguest. || A game about making wigs (and buying hair, and drones, and a war against hats). Previously. || It was a day of ups and downs. || Alas,
- [The Progressive Dance](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/11/the-progressive-dance.html) - Lifted from the previous post, an excruciatingly obtuse discussion about wangs and women’s changing rooms. In which the very patient Warren Smith attempts to tease sense from a self-styled 'Harris voter'. Again, I say obtuse, but it’s more a matter of practised dishonesty: Responding to the exchange above, Rafi adds, not unfairly, Mr Harris Voter
- [Be Still, My Beating Loins](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/11/be-still-my-beating-loins.html) - For seekers of the erotic and forbidden: Consider this an open thread. I'll start the ball rolling with an excruciatingly obtuse discussion about wangs and women's changing rooms. I say obtuse, but it's more a matter of practised dishonesty. Share ye links and bicker.
- [Friday Ephemera (743)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/11/friday-ephemera-743.html) - Suboptimal scenario. || Evolved for smartphones. || How to make a simple thing needlessly complicated, parts 1, 2, and 3. || Bedtime snacks. || Large objects. || Incoming. || Incoming 2. || For recreational purposes. || Pyramid building redux. Previously. || Mortal remains. || Hallucinate in mud, 1969. || There was smoke, some shouting. || Meanwhile, in Japan.
- [Reheated (99)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/10/reheated-99.html) - For newcomers, some items from the archives: A Failure To Affirm. Romantic complications of a very modern kind. It's Trivial When The Victim Is Someone Who Isn't Me. Habitual car theft is a "victimless" crime, says Nora the socialist. The Thrill Of Word-Policing. Assistant professor wants to censor the "violent" language of astronomy. Consider this an
- [Great Darkness Foretold](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/10/great-darkness-foretold.html) - A tightly-wound progressive gentleman offers lifestyle advice: It all sounds terribly exciting. Leftist shares his plan if Trump wins this election. This is a whole new level of delusion… pic.twitter.com/BYYqVAL8T9 — Amala Ekpunobi (@amalaekpunobi) October 26, 2024 Update, via the comments: Martin D adds, not unfairly, Ah, yes, but there's a sweet role to play,
- [Metaphor In Flesh](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2018/11/metaphor-in-flesh.html) - Or, The Mao-lings’ Unhappy Id Spills Out In Portland. “You’re inherently violent,” screams an unhinged blue-and-purple-haired woman named Hannah McClintock, while repeatedly spitting on people and trying to punch them in the face: Captured on video by Andy Ngo, who, needless to say, has more. Elsewhere in the video: “I don’t feel safe with
- [If You Film Us Being Violent, Violence Will Happen To You](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2016/11/if-you-film-us-being-violent-violence-will-happen-to-you.html) - Further to yesterday’s post and lifted from the comments, via sH2, a warning from anti-Trump protestors to Portland’s local press: Or, “Do as we say and no-one gets hurt. Apart from the people we’re going to hurt while you’re not filming us, obviously.”
- [Friday Ephemera (742)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/10/friday-ephemera-742.html) - Because you chose the Hades Funeral Service. || All-terrain bed. || Hey, it's a job. || Somewhat bigger than expected. || Slimline solution. || Nommy-nommy-nom. || Down on the farm. (h/t, Mark) || Minimal effort detected. || Close enough. || Ladies, look away now. || Ladies, look away now 2. || Answers on a postcard, please.
- [The Unspanked Spread Joy](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/10/the-unspanked-spread-joy.html) - Or, His Unbeaten Ass. Yesterday, at UC Berkeley, that fiefdom of Our Betters, detransitioner and "former trans kid" Chloe Cole invited students to discuss the realities of sexual transition, a procedure she very much regrets. However, expressing regret, or doubt of any kind, is apparently an outrage, a wickedness to be punished. And hence the grinning chap
- [Deleted Scenes](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/10/deleted-scenes.html) - Readers will, I think, recall this eye-widening altercation, shared in the Ephemera of October 11, between a laid-back driver and a rather wound-up cyclist. The latter being a candidate, as Mags put it, for the title of World's Most Annoying Human Being: Average cyclist interaction in Utah. pic.twitter.com/od5i6a9dSX — Dr Manhattva (@Manhattva) October 9, 2024 If
- [The Much More Difficult Thing](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/10/the-much-more-difficult-thing.html) - A small point, but with a bigger point lurking behind it: I think there’s obviously a lot of truth to the idea that kids benefit from having desirable behavior modeled for them, but the demand to have it appear in media is a cheap substitute for the much more difficult thing that actually works https://t.co/fsgKMLao5s
- [Friday Ephemera (741)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/10/friday-ephemera-741.html) - How the pyramids were constructed. || Overstepping. || Incoming. Or down-going. || Because it can be done. || Big woman, six-five. || Oh delicate Rose. || I'm guessing the dog is the brains of the outfit. || "A week after the boys' detention, their families vanished." || Sea view of note. || About this high. || Smoke, some shouting.
- [Reheated (98)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/10/reheated-98.html) - For newcomers, some items from the archives: Don't Oppress My People With Your Expectations Of Politeness And Basic Consideration. A tear-inducing tale of racial victimhood. Not Entirely Arbitrary. On the non-random nature of who you are. Impermissible Thoughts. Ontario teachers' union forbids "right-wing" opinions, endorses deception. Consider this an open thread. Share ye links and bicker.
- [Black Women Climb Hill](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/10/black-women-climb-hill.html) - Attention, people of the world: In the New York Times, Megan Specia reports on a staggering feat of racial fortitude: Or, Black Women Climb Hill. Specifically, a hill in the Yorkshire Dales National Park. Yes, I know, it's emotionally overwhelming, the defining triumph of our time. There are photos and everything. Note the use of the
- [The White Outdoors](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2020/12/the-white-outdoors.html) - The British countryside remains a distinctly white and often intimidating place for BAME communities. So says the Guardian’s north of England correspondent, Nazia Parveen. The British countryside being the preserve of the white middle classes is a perception that is backed by stark figures, with ethnic minorities often deterred from heading into the outdoors due
- [Friday Ephemera (740)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/10/friday-ephemera-740.html) - It's a big, deep funk machine. || "But you can't be drooling," said the cross-dressing pervert. || Apocalypse digs. || Callers in the night. || It has 140,000 neurons. || Neptune. || Incoming. || Outgoing. || Daring escape. || Garden seat of note. || Theremin sink. || Yours for £575,000. || Flyless. || Hefty cuts. || Hinges of
- [This Is My Shocked Face](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/10/this-is-my-shocked-face-2.html) - Readers will, I think, recall Mr Sasha Yates, the cross-dressing high-school sports coach with an interest in teenage girls' panties. The chap so loudly championed by ladies of a progressive bent, despite numerous complaints regarding Mr Yates' inappropriate behaviour. Progressive ladies who denounced the "hate" and "transphobia" of those expressing concerns, while ensuring that Mr Yates
- [She's Taken It Upon Herself](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/10/shes-taken-it-upon-herself.html) - Not a lady, but a they-dy, obviously: This is what happens when you hire woke. When they tell you who they are, believe them. pic.twitter.com/gk4EGnahps — Catch Up (@CatchUpFeed) September 5, 2023 As an employer, the person paying for this privilege, you'd never tire of that. Previously and entirely unrelated: Following which, I added: Oh,
- [Verboten Realities](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/10/verboten-realities.html) - Lifted from the comments, here's an interview with Professor Amy Wax. Topics touched on include academia's practised unrealism, declining competence, and the seeming irrelevance of whether a thing is true: The discussion, at 24:45, of who gets to define extremism - and, very much related, The Party Of Shoplifting - is, I think, entertaining and
- [Friday Ephemera (739)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/10/friday-ephemera-739.html) - For some reason, I wasn't expecting the bra. || Bar tab of consequence. || Bracing scenes. || Brush thoroughly. || Sky potholes. || Spillage of note. || Stalin's longevity serum. || How jellyfish hunt. || It's not hijinks, it's an attempt to harass and dominate. || Disruptive customer detected. || Uncanny resemblance. || The thrill
- [You Look Like You Need Some Art](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2018/05/you-look-like-you-need-some-art.html) - And 8 minutes should do it. Specifically, 8 minutes of Ms Sandrine Schaefer, whose Pace Investigations No. 7, seen in edited form below, “asks how one copes with acceleration and deceleration while enduring institutional mediation, shared space, and other external forces.” Well, obviously. This immense artistic work, “repeats 15 times consecutively over 6 hours and
- [It's Been "Queered," You See](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/10/its-been-queered-you-see.html) - Time to run a finger along academia's cutting edge: Book those tickets now, ladies. Time is short and you've so much to learn. You will, needless to say, be taking instruction from "agents of self-knowledge production" who will fearlessly and heroically "expand traditional narratives about madres / mothering as an action, an embodied experience," and
- [We Can Rebuild Him](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/09/we-can-rebuild-him.html) - From the fun-time world of the sexually dysmorphic: Wise words, as Transgender Reddit goes, from the replies to this: According to our height-conscious chappie, it's all about "just being myself." And his self is apparently a shorter person than the person he actually is: And hey, who wouldn't want a "controlled breaking" of their legs? Which
- [Tall Tales](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/09/tall-tales.html) - Lifted from the comments, a spot of anthropology. In which, a progressive woman seeks irritation, some cause for concern - and, with effort, finds it: What’s amusing about these displays of woke piety is, I think, the eerie uniformity, the contrivance, the same weird psychology. Ms Jeffery, the editor-in-chief of Mother Jones, is not only
- [Wolf, They Cried](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2013/09/wolf-they-cried.html) - Lifted from the comments following this, here’s an item that may have been missed. Roger Kimball takes a look at the “thriving cottage industry” of staged “hate crimes” and pantomime victimhood: Last month the Daily Caller reported on an incident at the ostentatiously “progressive” Oberlin College in Ohio. This time the anti-black messages circulating around
- [Friday Ephemera (738)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/09/friday-ephemera-738.html) - At last, the ever-changing pronoun pin you've always wanted. || Loud chomping, heard from below. || The thrill of personal airbags. || Suboptimal situation. || Still a bear, madam. || Man cave, not bear cave. || He was not entirely cooperative, and then there was the business with the machete. || How to remove those
- [The D-Words](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2022/01/the-d-words.html) - Lifted from the comments, a technological feat: Traffic cameras in Chicago disproportionately ticket Black and Latino motorists. Readers are invited to spot the word that’s doing the heavy lifting. It appears 1o times in the article quoted above, excluding variations. The red-light and speed cameras are, we’re told, “distributed roughly evenly among the city’s Black,
- [She Feels Unclean](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2020/03/she-feels-unclean.html) - In the pages of the Observer, a new niche agony is detected: Is it ever acceptable for a feminist to hire a cleaner? Needless to say, it starts off quite dramatically, The day my cleaner used to visit, I would return home in the evening to the smell of Dettol mixed with Tania’s sweat, to
- [Honesty Box](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/09/honesty-box.html) - With the nights drawing in - and with bills for renewing hosting, domain registration, security, and so forth all upcoming - it's time to remind patrons that this rickety barge is kept afloat by the kindness of strangers. If you’d like to help it remain buoyant a while longer, and remain ad-free, there are three
- [Just Like You](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/08/just-like-you.html) - Speaking of crime and punishment, here’s a thread on prison and recidivism. In short, we’re told – by a civil rights lawyer who claims that “cops and prisons are killing us all” - that neither custodial sanctions nor more lenient attempts at correction have much impact on rates of reoffending. This is then presented, by
- [Criminal Trajectories](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/09/criminal-trajectories.html) - Further to our lively rumblings on crime and recidivism, including recent comments, Inquisitive Bird has some relevant data: That would be this incident here. The gentlemen in question met their maker after colliding head-on with a lorry, while driving down the N7, at more than twice the speed limit, in the wrong direction. Their car, a
- [Friday Ephemera (737)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/09/friday-ephemera-737.html) - At last, a walking coffee table. And how to build your own. || Incoming. || Close enough, buddy. || Close enough 2. || 70s cop show. || Tongue action. || Nommy nommy nom. || Attention, peasants, I bring thee art. || Rob Henderson on wokeness, the media, and luxury beliefs. || Hey, it's a job. ||
- [Dishonesty On Demand](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/09/dishonesty-on-demand.html) - Or, The Wig Is Doing A Lot Of Heavy Lifting. In the clip below, Calgary trans activist Victoria Bucholtz, aka Karla Marx, has words - deep, manly words - with Jennifer Johnson, a conservative politician. Ms Johnson had previously upset activists, and much of the Canadian media, by describing the classroom propagation of trans activist ideology -
- [An Interest In Children](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/09/an-interest-in-children.html) - And in unrepentant pervert news: That would be this chap here, mentioned previously. The chap for whom three months of masturbation constitutes "research," the basis for a PhD. And given the not uncommon consequences of childhood molestation, Mr Andersson's use of the words healing and worship may strike readers as somewhat perverse. When this unobvious
- [Only Looking (2)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2022/06/only-looking-2.html) - And in, er, child-molestation-fantasy news: A professor of Ethics at Oslo Metropolitan University in Norway has called to legalise AI-generated child pornography, claiming that paedophilia should be seen as an innate sexuality that requires destigmatisation. Ole Martin Moen, a gay man who identifies as “queer,” currently serves as a member of the advisory board on
- [Friday Ephemera (736)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/09/friday-ephemera-736.html) - You want one and you know it. || I have questions. || A question of manners. || So, do you come here often? || Down to a dribble. || Another everyday cleaning complication. || Jiggling was seen and pondered. || Perhaps larger breasts would draw attention away from the hands. || Arctic research projects, some
- [Unauthorised Jam Consumption](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/09/unauthorised-jam-consumption.html) - And other modern dramas. First, from the comments, where Clam warns, Regarding this: What grates, I think, is the routine overstepping of boundaries, the casual insult. Judging by the transgressive sandwiches, to which the note is attached, it seems the child was prevented from eating and, presumably, publicly embarrassed. A while ago, one of my
- [Misery and Joy](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2007/11/misery-and-joy.html) - Climate Resistance has an entertaining piece on Guardian regular George Monbiot’s earnest disapproval of the Top Gear motoring programme and its deplorable exuberance. The rest. Other reasons why Top Gear is more entertaining than Monbiot’s Guardian column can be found here, here and here. Update: Mr Monbiot’s indignant curtain twitching continues in today’s Guardian. Humourless
- [A Kinder, More Caring World](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2017/06/a-kinder-more-caring-world.html) - A telling exchange, one of many: “It essentially sounded like you were being held hostage. If you wanted to go to the bathroom, you had to go with two escorts – is that true?” “Erm, that’s what the students felt was true. I was going to go to the bathroom regardless and they wanted to
- [Respect Me, You Motherfucker](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2017/06/respect-me-you-motherfucker.html) - More from Evergreen State College, where Professor Naima Lowe, an instructor of “video and performance art” who claims expertise in “emphatically poetic gestures,” demonstrates her gift for professional conduct: YOU are the motherfuckers that we’re pushing against! You can’t see your way outta your own ass! Context and background here and here. Via Darleen. Update: Apparently,
- [They’re Stealing Our Black Essence](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2017/05/theyre-stealing-our-black-essence.html) - Meanwhile, in the world of deep thoughts and scholarly devotion: A new video has surfaced of students this past week at Evergreen State College yelling and ranting about everything from “racist white teachers” and “white-ass administrators” to “black power!” during a so-called “meeting” with President George Bridges and other college administrators. Apparently, the activists are not pleased that
- [Discontinued Lines](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/09/discontinued-lines.html) - In the pages of the Los Angeles Times, Jade Sasser, an associate professor of Gender and Sexuality Studies at UC Riverside, informs us, She then asks, somewhat bizarrely, Bringing another person - specifically, a baby - into a society in which people don't always agree on every subject is a new and terrifying scenario, apparently. One
- [Radical Farce](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/09/radical-farce.html) - In the comments following this, on the proposed reality show Zoe Meets The Murgatroyds, Nikw211 replied, Vanessa Engle's three-part documentary series Lefties, aired in 2006, is still among my favourites. With a mix of archive footage and modern-day interviews, the leftism of the 70s and 80s is captured in all of its staggering glory. For
- [No, Wait, Hear Me Out](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/09/no-wait-here-me-out.html) - Lifted from the comments, an idea for late-night viewing. First, some context is in order, but do let me know what you think. It began with some rumblings on common progressive attitudes regarding crime and recidivism. Not least a practised unrealism and the failure to acknowledge just how different the mental landscape of the criminal
- [Shush, Daddy’s Being Fabulous](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/08/shush-daddys-being-fabulous.html) - From the forthcoming film by Vaishnavi Sundar, Behind The Looking Glass, about women whose partners, or fathers, have ‘transitioned’: "Your dad has fallen in love with himself, & there is no part for you in there where you are not just a prop." There is profound silence surrounding the lives of the children with trans
- [Don't Let Them See The Stubble](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/08/dont-let-them-see-the-stubble.html) - Lifted from the comments, via Mr Muldoon, a rather coy omission: Roxanne Tickle has won her discrimination case against the social media app 'Giggle for Girls', which blocked her from joining on the basis of being male. This is a step forward in ensuring transgender women are not discriminated against on the basis of their gender
- [Elsewhere (316)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/02/elsewhere-316.html) - Ashlynn Warta on “diversity” versus competence: Somewhat related, the third item here: There is a category tag – Problematic Competence - via which you can find many similar items. Also related, Heather Mac Donald on the stupefying effects of “disparate impact” ideology: And in other educational excellence news: Update, via the comments, where ccscientist adds,
- [Friday Ephemera (735)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/09/friday-ephemera-735.html) - You first. || For the latest eye-colour fashion. || Fortresses, palaces and perched churches, a thread. || Could you survive a nanosecond on the Sun? || Well, really. || Make way. || Well, you would. || Namibian waterhole livestream. || How to climb volcanoes. || Will Newquay ban beatniks? || Is language dumbing down? ||
- [Reheated (97)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/09/reheated-97.html) - For newcomers, some items from the archives: Your Standards Are Holding You Back. Dating platform for Brooklyn's hipster socialists is not entirely successful. The Put-Upon And Marginalised Finally Get A Word In. Come, let us peek at the Culture pages of the Guardian. Yes, But Where Are My Novelty Breasts? Convicted paedophile demands pampering, women's undies.
- [Long Live King Victor](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/09/long-live-king-victor.html) - Via Mr Muldoon, a guide to finding 'Pride' in the taxidermy collection of Manchester Museum: Have you found everything on our Pride Trail yet? 🏳️‍🌈 To Celebrate Manchester Pride we're shining a spotlight on stories in our museum that speak to today's LGBTQ+ community. Here's Nick with more about why there are so many more males
- [I Sense a Malign Presence](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2009/10/i-sense-a-malign-presence.html) - A while ago, on the subject of identity politics and competitive victimhood, I wrote: As if to illustrate this point, the Observer’s Andrew Anthony profiles Jane Elliott, a “diversity training” pioneer and Witchfinder General for the modern age: Note Elliott’s disregard for context, motive or objective criteria. “Perception is everything,” says she. By which she
- [His Creative Temperament](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/08/his-creative-temperament.html) - And in woke dining news: Setting aside the small matter of, er, assault and strangulation, readers may wish to ponder the notion, advanced by Mr Rivera and his numerous supporters, that white people, especially white people with blonde hair, shouldn't be allowed to serve Japanese food. At which point, I suppose I should mention this:
- [Friday Ephemera (734)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/08/friday-ephemera-734.html) - Wax and other objects. || Bodes well. || The science of bunnetics. || A little buffing should do it. || She doesn't give two shits. || She didn't like the look of it. || It's not cold, Mom. || Comets, catastrophes, and the oldest solar calendar. || Neater than yours. || On animating Akira. (h/t,
- [Your Affirmation Is Mandatory](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/08/your-affirmation-is-mandatory.html) - And he will "take note" of who does not obey: I expect Liberal MPs to march in the pride parade in Ottawa, even if they do it without party approval. I will take note of who does not. https://t.co/IPxXmgGH9b — Jake Landau (He/Him) 🇵🇸🇺🇦 (@JakeLandauTO) August 19, 2024 Mr Landau, since you ask, is a
- [Why Prometheus is Inexcusably Bad](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2012/06/why-prometheus-is-inexcusably-bad.html) - Above, Noomi Rapace tries to escape from a really shit film. Spectacular digital effects, of which there are plenty in Prometheus, are complicated, time-consuming and expensive. Likewise, impressive sets and cinematic hardware cost money. Orchestral scores and booming sound design aren’t cheap either. Had Ridley Scott dropped the ball in these departments, it might at
- [A Gathering Of The Pious](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2017/05/a-gathering-of-the-pious.html) - Lifted from the comments because… well, just watch: The video begins with [filmmaker, Ami] Horowitz interviewing a number of white people at a so-called “White Privilege Conference” in Kansas City, Missouri, and asking them if they believe that every white person is a beneficiary of “white privilege.” The white leftists say yes, with one lady saying
- [Friday Ephemera (733)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/08/friday-ephemera-733.html) - Gambling den of note. || From 1978, a brief guide to stuffed chine. || Cross-section of something familiar. || Not finding it didn't matter. || Meanwhile, in Wales. || Leaf sheep, also glows. || Now that the clock is ticking, name the countries of the world. || Humans next to enormous things, a thread. || Careful
- [Because Socialism is Never About Envy and Spite](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2013/05/because-socialism-is-never-about-envy-and-spite.html) - It has long since past the time when aggressive redistribution of wealth were government policy. So writes Guardian reader StevenMD, fuming on cue to a tale of sin and woe told by the paper’s Michele Hanson. Ms Hanson is upset because, Manchester’s stunningly beautiful Victoria Baths… built in 1906 for thousands of ordinary people… [has been] closed
- [You Know, For Kids](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/08/you-know-for-kids.html) - Further to this Rachel Zegler interview clip, recently doing the rounds, some thoughts from another “actress/activist”: https://twitter.com/primalpoly/status/1690863674183839744 Ms Belcamino is “an American actress, musician, writer, and social media personality based in New York City. She is best known for her political commentary and viral dances on Twitter.” She has a degree in mental health counselling.
- [It's Super Important](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/08/its-super-important.html) - Further to The Blurting, a footnote of sorts: "My Fox News dad makes everything political" https://t.co/JxaZvPwrSg — wanye (@wanyeburkett) August 15, 2024 Please update your files and lifestyles accordingly. Update, via the comments: The above, it seems to me, is not so much a declaration of values as a psychological profile. As Rafi says in reply,
- [Friday Ephemera (732)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/08/friday-ephemera-732.html) - Ample. || Secrets of the ladies' powder room. || Solve your problems with a septum piercing tattoo. || Close enough to fool 'em. || Close enough 2. || Incoming. || A political question from 1973: Should Hornsea have a nudist beach? || Goodness, she's got a big one. || Not half bad, all things considered.
- [An Unfamiliar Neighbourhood](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/08/an-unfamiliar-neighbourhood.html) - Lifted from the comments, and relevant to the ongoing liveliness, Peter Whittle ponders a recent, very rapid transformation: An animated chart of some relevance. Update, via the comments: Regarding the video above, this came to mind. Tim Newman on knowing your neighbours: Having re-read it, it’s not entirely inapt. Very much related to the
- [Reheated (96)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/08/reheated-96.html) - I’ll be taking a break for a few days, and so, to soften this terrible blow, here are some items from the archives: Role Models, You say. On the weirdly woke marketing of retailer John Lewis. Gardening Gone Wrong. Four women fondle straw, tongue moss. Bravely, I Cope With Rejection. Royal Air Force sidelines fitness
- [Ten Times, You Say](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/08/ten-times-you-say.html) - Not entirely unrelated to ongoing events: Mr Politano, by the way, is a “He/him. Bi/pan.” Just in case it wasn't clear that he's better than you. The subject of social trust - specifically, its erosion - has, of course, been mentioned here before. Update, via the comments: From the subsequent rumblings: It does rather call
- [The Bollocks Is Bolted On](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/07/the-bollocks-is-bolted-on.html) - Further to this, and also via Charlotte Gill, let’s visit the world of politically radical tableware. Specifically, Because this is what you need to know when taking a class in ceramics: We funded this. But remember, universities need more money 😉 pic.twitter.com/gKEbweQsVG — Charlotte Gill (@CharlotteCGill) July 29, 2024 For those deeply intrigued: Well, obviously,
- [Friday Ephemera (731)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/08/friday-ephemera-731.html) - Memorable watermelon. || Maybe it's a meat thing. || Monster competition, 1967. || Mirror for sale. || Two men with placards, an exchange of ideas ensues. || The thrill of watching dough. || Card game. || How to earn a doctorate in psychology. || She's got a big one. || Bouncy. || Just one job.
- [Little Harmony, Plenty Colon](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/07/little-harmony-plenty-colon.html) - Attention, music lovers. Charlotte Gill brings thrilling news: I knew you’d be keen. Naturally, all this healing and coexistence, all this righteousness and resistance, necessitates certain rules, indeed a manifesto: As Ms Gill observes, one eyebrow slightly raised: Ah, but, you see, it’s “the radical act of collective song.” The “radical act of joy.” And
- [Everywhere, All The Time](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/07/everywhere-all-the-time.html) - So, I've returned from my travels and I have questions. Among them, why is a planet-wide celebration of athleticism and uncommon sporting prowess being introduced with yet another tedious display of cross-dressing, oddly selective sacrilege, and self-satisfied obesity? Perhaps I’m missing something. By all means, illuminate me in the comments. Update, via the comments, where
- [Elsewhere (131)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2014/07/elsewhere-131.html) - Robert Stacy McCain on feminism’s mainstreaming of extremists: Any honest person who undertakes an in-depth study of modern feminism, from its inception inside the 1960s New Left to its institutionalisation within Women’s Studies departments at universities, will understand that without the influence of radicals — militant haters of capitalism and Christianity, angry lesbians who view
- [How Dare You Not Feel Oppressed](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2018/07/how-dare-you-not-feel-oppressed.html) - A sociology professor is not happy about this: [ Added via the comments: ] By failing to pretend that they’re oppressed at every turn, crushingly and invisibly, the Hispanic students are, we’re told, perpetuating “colourblind racism.” Which is to say, by choosing not to become irresponsible and neurotic, and instead getting a grip on their
- [This Is Your Captain Speaking](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/07/this-is-your-captain-speaking.html) - Brace for turbulence: Argentina's first transgender pilot has debuted the new uniform designed for the female pilots of the country's national airline. Traniela Campolieto announced his "transition" to passengers during a flight last year, after which one person tried to get off the plane. pic.twitter.com/v1h3Iyl128 — REDUXX (@ReduxxMag) July 20, 2024 And hey, every passenger
- [Friday Ephemera (730)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/07/friday-ephemera-730.html) - I do hope there's a word for this. || Honest hairdressing. || He didn't want to taste it. || Niche appetites. || Impossible mission. || I have questions. (h/t, Julia) || And in the world of "queer studies." || Watering hole. || Calm blue ocean. || Big chest. || Fit birds. || Her baking is
- [Penis Discourse](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/07/penis-discourse.html) - From transgender Reddit, a new niche woe. Specifically, And more specifically, We're all learning things today. Again, learning things. Ooh. So close. In subsequent replies, the similarly traumatising terms gock and bussy are also pondered, along with girldick and female penis. And yes, these will be on Friday's test. Other commenters suggest a policy of
- [Know Your Readership](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2016/07/know-your-readership.html) - Farnsworth M Muldoon steers us, once again, to the pages of Everyday Feminism: The urge to pull at your hair or pick at your skin – does this sound familiar to you or anyone you know? Can’t say so, no. Compulsively tearing out one’s own hair and ripping one’s own skin like an unhappy parrot,
- [Friday Ephemera (729)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/07/friday-ephemera-729.html) - It's all about a heightened awareness of the road. || Welding helmet of note. || Massage, drumming, and fire, together at last. || Skillz. || Not skillz. || I have concerns. || Assisting the encore, or lady not left hanging. || Surprisingly calm, considering. || Some clutter, toilet needs attention, £80,000. || I'm told it can
- [Their Teats Were Swollen With Human Kindness](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/07/their-teats-were-swollen-with-human-kindness.html) - And that’s a good thing. Because it’s time to remind patrons that this rickety barge is kept afloat by the kindness of strangers. If you’d like to help it remain buoyant a while longer, and remain ad-free, there are three buttons below the fold with which to monetise any love. Debit and credit cards are
- [Friday Ephemera (728)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/07/friday-ephemera-728.html) - Strange goings-on at number 40. || New fashion frontier. || They make more noise than I expected. || An archive of Amazing Stories, 1926-2005. || Third keeper of the TARDIS. || Cheeeldren of the night. || Now do the ceiling. || Incoming. || Not eggs. || How to announce your lack of worth. || "World
- [Reheated (95)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/07/reheated-95.html) - For newcomers, some items from the archives. Again, with a theme of sorts. You Will Pretend It Has Great Value. At Montreal’s Concordia University, even light is being “decolonised.” In Space No-One Can Hear You Scream. “Decolonising” the search for extra-terrestrial life. Or, the managed decline of Scientific American. Those Aboriginal Telescopes. On tongue-bathing the
- [Between The Thighs](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/07/between-the-thighs.html) - Speaking, as we were, of Clown Quarter academics and their relentless intellectual thrusting, I bring you this: “Digital media practices” sounds so much more scholarly than, say, tarts who use OnlyFans. Oh, and Instagram. Naturally, this is being done “through an intersectional feminist framework.” One that “centres lived experience.” So lofty stuff, and rigorous to
- [The Genitals Of Tomorrow](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/10/the-genitals-of-tomorrow.html) - Are you ready for a “genderqueer planet”? Of course you are. And obviously, you have questions. Thank goodness a teacher walks among us, a guide to what lies ahead. Meet Laura (formerly Lawrence) Jacobs, a man who describes himself as “trans and genderqueer-identified, kinky and non-monogamous,” and as a “lesbian” with “multiple intersecting identities.” And
- [Friday Ephemera (727)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/06/friday-ephemera-727.html) - She must've been able to see the beginning of space and time. || The smooth jazz noodling is the icing on the cake. || Incoming. || Suboptimal situation. || New "fatphobic" thing detected. || I believe the preferred term is selling ass. || The thrill of German syntax. || Good news, bad news. || Hiding
- [Don’t Oppress My People With Your White Devil Science](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2016/10/dont-oppress-my-people-with-your-white-devil-science.html) - In the video below, filmed at the University of Cape Town, members of the science faculty meet with student protestors who wish to “decolonise” the university and not pay their bills. During the meeting, one of the staff, one of the “science people,” points out that, contrary to claims being made by a student protestor,
- [Friday Ephemera (726)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/06/friday-ephemera-726.html) - So how was your day at work, dear? || Some difficulty with heels. || Some difficulty with language. || "Decolonisation" dilemma: "A University of Oxford museum will not display an African mask because the culture which created it forbids women from seeing it." || How the Dutch will take over the world. || My, how
- [Don’t Oppress My People With Your Big Hooped Earrings](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2017/03/dont-oppress-my-people-with-your-big-hooped-earrings.html) - Attention, all you white women: If you didn’t create the culture as a coping mechanism for marginalisation, take off those hoops[;] if your feminism isn’t intersectional, take off those hoops[;] if you try to wear mi cultura when the creators can no longer afford it, take off those hoops[;] if you are incapable of using
- [Reheated (94)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/06/reheated-94.html) - For newcomers, some items from the archives. Further to this recent item, readers may detect a theme of sorts. Don’t Oppress My People With The Way You Walk. Whitey’s hegemonic walking must be disrupted. Along with everything else. Don’t Oppress My People With Your Public Libraries. Librarian Sofia Leung rails against the White Devil and
- [Don’t Oppress My People With Your Norms Of Punctuality](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2020/01/dont-oppress-my-people-with-your-norms-of-punctuality.html) - From Tulane University, the very heart of White Devil Babylon - uptown New Orleans - student Shahamat Uddin - pronouns “he, him, his” - howls in protest: Punctuality centres whiteness. It is far easier for white men to get to work on time than Black people who are having to change their hair to fit
- [Don’t Oppress My People With Your Departmental Acronyms](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2021/02/dont-oppress-my-people-with-your-departmental-acronyms.html) - In the clown-shoe world of San Francisco public schools, honking ensues: The director of the district’s arts department told local ABC7 news that a decision has been made to change the name of their department, “VAPA,” which is short for visual and performing arts. The new name will be SFUSD Arts Department. “We are prioritising antiracist arts
- [Preference Expressed](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/05/preference-expressed.html) - Lifted from the comments, a small point, on suburban versus city living. And those who would prefer that you didn't have a choice: I went out on my porch last night and there was a guy milling about in front of my neighbor's house, sitting on their retaining wall, just, you know, hanging out on
- [Don’t Oppress My People With Your Expectations Of Politeness And Basic Consideration](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/06/dont-oppress-my-people-with-your-expectations-of-politeness-and-basic-consideration.html) - Lifted from the comments - which you’re reading, of course - an item deserving of a little more attention. The Atlantic is currently promoting an article from its archive, one selected by the editors as a “must-read,” a measure of the magazine’s importance to the progressive lifestyle. A choice that is perhaps more telling than
- [Friday Ephemera (725)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/06/friday-ephemera-725.html) - My first thought was coffee maker. || A manhole cover protrudes, a tiny beep is heard. || Big bunker bared. || A somewhat ungardenly garden. || Gruesome shoe death. || Oh, the glamour of Hollywood. || I hear tiny hooves. || Bag of soup transportation tip. || Ectoplasmic happenings. I did this one at school.
- [Our Betters Make Plans](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/06/our-betters-make-plans.html) - Attention, comrades. My fellow heroes, titans, thinkers of deep thoughts. It is time to map out the world of tomorrow: There are no post revolution theatre troops, only post revolution mine troops, comrade. pic.twitter.com/ACIref7r9r — Hegel Borg™️ (@xxclusionary) June 10, 2024 Because after the revolution, we will need accessible theatre. Presumably, to take our minds
- [The Crosswalk Will Be Mined To Protect It From Dirty Shoes](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/06/the-crosswalk-will-be-mined-to-protect-it-from-dirty-shoes.html) - In somewhat-surreal-modernity news: Sensitive readers may wish to look away now: Traumatic scenes of the desecration taking place can be found below: A group of five to six kids just starting doing donuts and creating skid marks on the Pride Mural. Right in front of me as we’re reporting on three people getting arrested for
- [Friday Ephemera (724)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/06/friday-ephemera-724.html) - Thin blue line. || At last, a third thumb. || Hollywood magic. || Sandals of note. || Just resting his eyes. || Prehistoric Women, 1950. || The progressive retail experience, parts 554, 555, and 556. || A miracle has occurred. || Arachnoid encounter. || Quality credentials. || A life of necessary extravagance, 1968. || Not yet,
- [Peddling Stupidity](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2007/04/peddling_stupid.html) - Or, the postmodern scholarship of “radical cyber-feminist” Carolyn Guertin. Thanks to the blogging psychoanalyst, Shrinkwrapped, I came across a doctoral dissertation called, rather implausibly, Quantum Feminist Mnemotechnics: the Archival Text, Digital Narrative and the Limits of Memory. The work in question, by “radical cyber-feminist” Carolyn G. Guertin, is apparently the basis of a forthcoming book
- [Fingering Profundity](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2015/12/fingering-profundity.html) - Because I know you hunger for a feminist poetry slam, here’s Anna Binkovitz sharing her inner being: No, don't thank me. All part of the service.
- [Reheated (93)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/06/reheated-93.html) - For newcomers, more items from the archives. Come, let us spend time with weirdly neurotic progressive men. Daddy’s Baggage. Two-year-old boy likes footballs, tractors. Father “spirals into darkness.” An Alien Presence. Senior editor of leftist publication encounters a tradesman. Panic ensues. Please Stop Objecting To The Assault Of Your Person. White educator denounces "white supremacist
- [Get Them While They’re Soft And Yielding (4)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2021/01/get-them-while-theyre-soft-and-yielding-4.html) - A third-grade teacher at R.I. Meyerholz Elementary School began the lesson on “social identities” during a math class. But of course. You see, for some primary-school teachers, conveying the basics of arithmetic and fractions isn’t sufficiently sexy or particularly statusful. Marxoid pronouncements on “power and privilege,” however, and sermons on how straight white men are
- [Friday Ephemera (723)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/05/friday-ephemera-723.html) - She would make love to them, selflessly. || Solemn oath, precious memories. || Cower in FEAR - the LASER is here, 1962. || Incoming. || She makes it work. || Incriminating stains. || Suspense. || Secret revealed. || Dating in Sardinia, 1964. || Blushing bride not blushing enough. || Some clenching of the buttocks. ||
- [Friday Ephemera (721)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/05/friday-ephemera-721.html) - Toilet-related innovation of note. || Urinal respect test. || How mice get into your toilet. || Well, you'd never tire of that. || The thrill of neatness. || Incoming. || Incoming 2. || Curious turtle, or perhaps territorial. || Classics of the internet, a possible series. || Ah, the British tradition of politely queueing. ||
- [Friday Ephemera (722)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/05/friday-ephemera-722.html) - Sex scene. || Soccer rethought. || An "activity book" for six-year-olds. || Our betters discuss crime. Alternative positions here, here, and here. || Keep 'em coming. || Cultural commentary. || Job candidate. || Don is a spankologist. || Downdraught detected. || If you don't date trans people, you're a "transphobe," but if you do, you're
- [The Bedlamite Contagion](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/05/the-bedlamite-contagion.html) - Quoted below, extracts from a conversation that in many circles would result in much hissing and flailing of limbs, but which, it seems to me, very much ought to be had: From the following video, in which Andrew Gold talks with the formidable Mia Hughes, author of The WPATH Files, about pseudoscience, malpractice, and experiments
- [Your Host’s Idea of Hell (2)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2013/06/your-hosts-idea-of-hell-2.html) - In my nightmare I’m sitting in this audience of socialists and communists, unable to leave, while other socialists and communists - more statusful socialists and communists - spend an hour telling me how “serious” they are, and how important and “dangerous” their ideas are. Amid references to Lenin, Marx, Gramsci and other totalitarian fantasists, I’m
- [Reheated (92)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/05/reheated-92.html) - For newcomers, some items for the archives, on a loosely health-related theme. The Very Best Of Hands. “Equity” woo comes to Canada’s Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons. Get Thee Behind Me, Mr Kipling. The trauma and violation of being offered a slice of cake. Trust Me, I’m A Witchdoctor. Guardian columnist denounces Western medicine
- [The Very Best Of Hands](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/12/the-very-best-of-hands.html) - Are you Canadian and feeling unwell? Fear not, I bring thrilling news. From Canada’s Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons: This report here. Apparently, it’s a “cultural shift which is necessary for the profession.” Because, we’re told, all medical workers – yes, all of them, across the entire country - “participate daily in the perpetuation of
- [Moral Inertia](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2009/08/moral-inertia.html) - In the Telegraph, Peter Whittle bemoans the failure to challenge anti-social behaviour: Indeed. The suspicion of not being able to count on backup from others no less inconvenienced will tend to inhibit efforts to assert basic civility. I recall one particularly miserable train journey during which a group of four teenagers amused themselves by throwing
- [Terms And Conditions Apply (3)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/05/terms-and-conditions-apply-3.html) - Further to this, touched on in the comments, Here's Helen Joyce on transgender overreach, exploited politeness, and belated pushback: Full interview below: An earlier, longer interview with Ms Joyce has been mentioned previously and can be found here. Consider this an open thread. Share ye links and bicker.
- [Into Himself](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/05/into-himself.html) - Time for a spot of downtrodden-minority news: The Vancouver Police Department, quoted above, are referring, rather coyly, to this chap here: Happily, passers-by assisted the alarmed mother, and Mr Beekmeyer, who was shirtless at the time, was overpowered and arrested shortly afterwards, before being charged with assault. Unlike the police and several news outlets, including
- [How Dare You Not Pretend](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2022/01/how-dare-you-not-pretend.html) - In the comments, Mr Muldoon steers us to the latest mental rumblings of Ms Laurie Penny: Ms Penny is, I think, referring to fellow feminist Julie Bindel, whose review of Laurie’s latest book is not entirely positive, and who chose not to refer to its author as a suddenly ungendered being. But the broader claim
- [And The Wonders You Can Do](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2017/05/and-the-wonders-you-can-do.html) - “As a queer artist I seek to create a temporal historical rupture,” says Texas-based performance artist Sarah Hill, while describing her - sorry, their - 2014 opus They Wonder. “During the performance,” we’re told, “I repeatedly spin around and around in circles.” The reason being that, as an artist and worker of profundity, Ms Hill
- [Friday Ephemera (720)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/05/friday-ephemera-720.html) - On cyclists, an illustrated poem. || The Electrocula, 1962. || Careful who you hire. Related. || 131,000 historical maps. || He's 43 and entering his Club Ho phase. || Alcohol may help. || The progressive retail experience, parts 549 and 550. || Road obstructed by wrong 'uns, cue dairy product. || The Greens. || Big
- [Petting Zoo](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2017/12/petting-zoo.html) - Some Nth-level virtue-signalling: "Come, look at the negroes, Martha." Via Farnsworth M Muldoon in the comments.
- [Being Reasonable](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2008/07/being-reasonabl.html) - In today’s Guardian, Marcel Berlins ponders burglary, self-defence and being reasonable. The problem, of course, is what constitutes reasonable force and who gets to decide. If you’re going to judge how others react in such a situation, and judge what is “reasonable,” you should first indulge in some pretty vivid empathy. Imagine you and your
- [Reheated (91)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/05/reheated-91.html) - As it’s a bank holiday here, complete with sunshine and tweeting birds, some items from the archives: You Will Not Notice Certain Things. The vindictive pretending of Canadian high-school teachers. An Inexplicable Dislike. Journalists invoke the “post-traumatic distress” of being disagreed with. The Riots, Summarised. Looting, mayhem, and media mendacity. Problematic Pallor, Part 362. An
- [Problematic Pallor, Part 362](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2021/10/problematic-pallor-part-362.html) - I want to share with people why I didn’t know I was white. Because I think a lot of people don’t know they are white. I bring thrilling news from academia: Professor of education and human development at George Washington University, explains how she needed “somatic embodied training” to “learn that she was white”. These
- [Friday Ephemera (719)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/05/friday-ephemera-719.html) - New, improved lesbian dating scene. || He's a therapist, obviously. || At all times, dignity. || Seismic calibration. || A clubland encounter. || Catnap of note. || A situation had arisen. || Educational scenes. || The thrill of automatic windscreen wipers. || Expand your vocabulary. || Her name is Dumpy and she's a big girl.
- [He Fondled It Suggestively](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/04/he-fondled-it-suggestively.html) - The tip jar, that is. Because yes, it’s time to remind patrons that this rickety barge is kept afloat by the kindness of strangers. If you’d like to help it remain buoyant a while longer, and remain ad-free, there are three buttons below the fold with which to monetise any love. Debit and credit cards
- [I Detect A Lack Of Forethought](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/04/i-detect-a-lack-of-forethought.html) - From Oklahoma City, the thrills and spills of public transport: Oklahoma City Police arrested an Embark passenger for attacking a bus driver while he was driving this past weekend, which sent the bus directly into the side of a building. The passenger was trying to get the bus to stop at a railroad track. pic.twitter.com/X9oxY61II4
- [Friday Ephemera (718)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/04/friday-ephemera-718.html) - Burly chap. || Rumble in the urban jungle. || "Somebody is probably in there." (h/t, Tim) || Suboptimal scenario. || Galvanic baths. || A decolonising dance with bonus string. || Our betters ponder their ancestors. || Nommy-nommy-nom. || Not everyone felt affirmed. || Trout restocking. || He's a teacher, you know. || It's a look,
- [When Your Opinions Are Social Jewellery](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2022/07/when-your-opinions-are-social-jewellery.html) - The TRIGGERnometry duo interview Rob Henderson, coiner of the term luxury beliefs: Luxury beliefs I define as ideas and opinions that confer status on the upper class, while often inflicting costs on the lower classes… The way that people used to demonstrate their social class was through material goods, through expensive items… Today, it’s not
- [Surnaming](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/04/surnaming.html) - A while ago, following this display of progressive parenting, I wrote, A quip that resulted in some rumblings on the topic of marriage and shared surnames, or the lack thereof. In the comments, Steve E noted, And Ray added, As I said at the time, I don’t have strong feelings on the subject, but it occurs
- [Our Betters In Love](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2019/12/our-betters-in-love.html) - Let’s turn to the pages of Slate, where left-leaning sophisticates mull the issues of the day. Among which, an obvious question for the woke and well-adjusted: I (35, male) started dating someone (33, female) recently that I’ve really enjoyed connecting with and have found a higher level of chemistry with than anyone else I’ve dated.
- [You May Clap When Moved](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2015/06/you-may-clap-when-moved.html) - I know, I know. I’ve been starving you of updates from the world of performance art. By way of apology, here’s a short yet challenging piece by a gentleman named Reed Altemus, captured for posterity at the Mobius art collective’s Something Else Fest in Cambridge, Massachusetts, earlier this month. Mr Altemus, who “lives with his cat,
- [Friday Ephemera (717)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/04/friday-ephemera-717.html) - Custom cars for rats. || Mouse trap. || Incoming. || Incoming 2. || Navigational error. || Nature and its wonders. || Also available in red. || "What's your job on the leftist commune?" "Pouring hot cocoa for folx in the reading alcoves." Also, "writing workshops," "therapist." || Related. || Also related. || Having it both
- [Reheated (90)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/04/reheated-90.html) - To keep you quiet, some items from the archives: Too Pale-Skinned For Comfort. Activist students conjure excuses, project wildly. Fashionable Malice. The University of Cincinnati peddles mental poison. But Why Aren’t People Rushing To Buy My Art? It’s like art, but much less so. The Clown Quarter Now Has An Engineering Division. Rigidity and stiffness,
- [The Unspanked Speak Of Points](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/04/the-unspanked-speak-of-points.html) - Regarding the obstruction by activists of the Golden Gate Bridge, a not unfair observation: My toddler’s new thing when I tell him to stop doing something is to respond, “I’m just , so I’ll be like, “get down off that chair” and he’ll say, “I just wanted
- [The Struggle To Find Fault](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/04/the-struggle-to-find-fault.html) - Lifted from the comments, which you’re reading of course: In the piece linked above, Ben Sixsmith responds to an attempt, by Lukas Shayo, to problematise a much-loved comic strip, one that must now, it seems, be fretted over as both “violent” and “sexist.” Readers familiar with the strip in question may wonder whether complaining in
- [Valid And Proud, You Hear](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/04/valid-and-proud-you-hear.html) - And in other this-never-happens news: He just wants to molest little girls, you see, while pretending to be a woman. Mr Katie Cruz, quoted above, is, he says, a role model for “trans kids,” and has been “working behind the scenes” to “reduce stigma.” That would be the stigma of being bent on child molestation
- [Friday Ephemera (716)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/04/friday-ephemera-716.html) - Vortex rings, Mount Etna. || Invisible drum kit. (h/t, Elephants Gerald) || A brief history of defenestration. || No good deed. || How to deal with insufferable, self-inflated wankers. || Heist movie. || Hygienic button-pushing. || Booty booty booty. || She has jam jars and takeaway boxes containing human brains. || A game of falling
- [When the Onion is Redundant](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2014/04/when-the-onion-is-redundant.html) - Ace’s headline pretty much sums it up: Selfless Crusader Against Income Inequality to Heroically Accept $225,000 for Nine Months of Sub-Part-Time Work from State-Funded Organisation to Occasionally Give a Few Quotes About the Scourge of Income Inequality. Hiring Paul Krugman, a Guardian contributor and the left-leaning owner of this humble abode, is part of the
- [But I Am Not Androgynous](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2015/12/but-i-am-not-androgynous.html) - Let’s call everyone “they”: Gender-neutral language should be the norm, not the exception. So writes Silpa Kovvali, an exquisitely progressive she-person, in the pages of Salon: We are forced to… give in and refer to our co-workers, students and friends as “he” or “she.” The result is that our language caps our ability to be
- [Reheated (89)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/04/reheated-89.html) - Some items from the archives: Crotch Funk As Art. Come, fellow aesthetes. Let us visit the Vienna International Dance Festival. You’ll Notice They All Wear Shoes. Militant nudists wave things. Or, “Mommy, what’s a cock ring?” Flatter, Mythologize, Rinse, Repeat. Because, admit it, you miss Laurie Penny. Vibeslayer. A song is pondered. Just Surrender To
- [You’ll Notice They All Wear Shoes](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2012/10/youll-notice-they-all-wear-shoes.html) - Or, “Mommy, What’s a Cock Ring?” Further to this comedic excursion from September last year, Zombie visits San Francisco’s latest radical nude-in, where a coalition of “nudists and leather folk” unveil their big ambitions: From the Castro District they seek to expand the nudity zone outward to all of San Francisco; if the movement gains
- [Crotch Funk as Art](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2012/05/crotch-funk-as-art.html) - Aesthetes that my readers are, you’ll no doubt be familiar with the name of Jan Fabre, a Belgian performance artist and “theatre-maker” who, we’re informed, “expands the horizons of every genre to which he applies his artistic vision.” Mr Fabre’s acclaimed efforts at horizon-expanding include Preparatio Mortis, a piece unveiled at the Vienna International Dance Festival
- [A Failure To Affirm](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/04/a-failure-to-affirm.html) - From the Reddit forum r/mypartneristrans, a tale of romantic complication: The feeling of being, shall we say, misled can do that, I suppose. Twist incoming. Oh my, a spotlight shared. Awkward. Or, “Woman who wants to pretend she's a gay man is thwarted by male partner now wanting to pretend he's a woman, resulting in
- [Friday Ephemera (715)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/04/friday-ephemera-715.html) - And then he gets indignant. || The Ogmios School of Zen Motoring. (h/t, Elephants Gerald) || An unhappy angle. || Notable ceilings. || Cheeeldren of the night. || Coffee time. || Worried cucumber. || Condiment cunning. || "What is in your freezer?" 1976. || They're made of British. || Because you demanded it, AI music.
- [No Relation](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2022/04/no-relation.html) - In diverse-identity news, Ex-soldier exposed her penis and used wheelie bin as sex toy in public. If you detect dissonance in the headline, you’re a very bad person, obviously. Chloe Thompson, 42, was caught rubbing herself on a public wheelie bin before using a sex toy on herself in an alley in Middlesbrough, Teesside, on
- [No Black Lights Were Available](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2020/07/no-black-lights-were-available.html) - New York Times contributor David Kaufman, writing here, wants us to know that he’s rendered distraught by “subtle streams of everyday racism that course through our homes, our workplaces, and the outside world.” An endless assault that “bombards people of colour.” People such as himself. It is, we’re told, time for a “cultural reckoning.” For
- [Reheated (88)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/03/reheated-88.html) - I expect to be busy for a few days. However, being a gracious host, I’ll leave you with some items from the archives: Marking Their Territory. Two radical identity groups struggle for toilet dominion. You’re Reading The Comments, Right? When wokeness is ascendant and apparently quite stupefying. The D-Words. On supposedly racist traffic cameras. No
- [The Put-Upon And Marginalised Finally Get A Word In](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/03/the-put-upon-and-marginalised-finally-get-a-word-in.html) - Time, I think, to better ourselves. Come, let us peek at the culture pages of the Guardian: That’s Perth, Scotland. Lest there be confusion. Bear with me. I’m setting the scene. Stoking your anticipation. White horse. Big horn. Again, big horn. Ah, tat. Brace yourselves for a full-on face-blast of culture: Such wonders you’ll behold.
- [Friday Ephemera (714)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/03/friday-ephemera-714.html) - Lifestyle choice. || Where would we be without great art? || Got skillz. || His grandpa “thinks I am his grandson’s girlfriend.” Allegedly. || The German tongue. || Common interest. || Incoming. || "Strong women," but no fitness test. || Fallen snow versus car. || Maximum fussing. || Meaty goodness. || White ghost apple. ||
- [Yes, But Where Are My Novelty Breasts?](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/03/yes-but-where-are-my-novelty-breasts.html) - Time for something grotesque, I think. Grotesque, but very of our times: I’ll spare you the grim details, but what Mr Sonia did to the victim, a thirteen-year-old girl, over several months, was sufficiently vile to repel over a dozen jurors, who said they would be unable to sit on a case so disturbing. Suffice
- [Where Perversity Is Status](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/03/where-perversity-is-status.html) - Academia’s Clown Quarter, I mean: The meaning of the term “marriage fundamentalism,” a term used repeatedly, isn’t made entirely clear, and its allegedly racist and life-crushing particulars are, inevitably, “hidden,” “invisible,” and conveniently vague – despite the loudly announced use of “an intersectional lens.” But it seems to mean something like the tendency of many
- [Don’t Be So Mean to the Titans of Tomorrow](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2011/10/dont-be-so-mean-to-the-titans-of-tomorrow.html) - Julia steers us to this exchange between the Independent’s Joan Smith and pocket radical Laurie Penny. In it, Laurie tells us that what we’ve seen unfold over the last few weeks (and laughed at quite a lot) are merely the “teething problems” of a “movement that is trying to do something so profoundly new and exciting with
- [Sparkly Bits](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2011/02/sparkly-bits.html) - Further to recent comments regarding Laurie Penny and her struggles with reality, let’s turn to the New Statesman, where, thanks to Laurie, “pop culture and radical politics” are given a “feminist twist.” This latest trend shows that female sexual shame remains big business. Which heinous trend would this be? Why, vajazzling, of course: The burgeoning celebrity craze for
- [Friday Ephemera (713)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/03/friday-ephemera-713.html) - I bring you art. || You are being educated. || Dating difficulty detected. || So, have you played dress-up with your robot vacuum cleaner? (h/t, Elephants Gerald) || Incoming. || How to clean your bat. || Crocodile hairballs. It's a thing, apparently. || Our betters assemble. || Celebrate Frozen Dead Guy Day at the International
- [But Don’t Call Her Neurotic](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/03/but-dont-call-her-neurotic.html) - Lifted from the comments, a tale of what can happen when love, or professed love, collides with designer agonising: Point of view: you just found out one of your favorite people in the whole world stopped masking and now you feel unsafe. Also, that person lives across the country pic.twitter.com/teIMYiPBUj — Dr. Jebra Faushay (@JebraFaushay)
- [Very Big Language](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2007/07/very-big-langua.html) - Further to yesterday’s post on Judith Butler and her opaque prose, I thought I’d add a few thoughts. One commenter, Dr Dawg, has argued that Butler is making a point, albeit badly: I think this misses an important point. The issue, I think, hinges on whether you regard the opacity of Butler’s statement, and of
- [I Don’t Deserve This Shabby Treatment](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2010/02/i-dont-deserve-this-shabby-treatment.html) - Dicentra steers us to an article by Jere P Surber, a professor of philosophy at the University of Denver. Professor Surber is explaining why the humanities incline so heavily to the left. In doing so, he reveals a surprisingly explicit note of personal and collective envy: Professor Surber feels undervalued by the base calculus of the market
- [Reheated (87)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/03/reheated-87.html) - As I’m otherwise occupied, some items from the archives: Already Broken. A radical young lady asks, “What do we eat during the revolution?” The Genitals Of Tomorrow. For readers in search of some below-the-belt upgrades. He Was Expecting Free Hits. He didn’t know he was in a gang, you see, so how dare you sentence
- [The Regurgitation Of Slogans](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/03/the-regurgitation-of-slogans.html) - Lifted from the comments, where Mr Muldoon directs us to, There is a dull mediocrity, a predictable trajectory: I think it’s fair to say that, whatever her creative limitations, Liberal Jane, aka Ms Caitlin Blunnie, does like her slogans. One might say incantations. Almost all of which have an air of self-satisfaction, as if some
- [Friday Ephemera (712)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/03/friday-ephemera-712.html) - Incoming. Apparently, surprisingly, no-one died. || His grilled cheese sandwich is more fiddlesome than yours. || It's a look. || It's a look 2. || She's healing her womanhood. || Regarding submarines in space. || Ruffian intercepted. || He's super-happy. || He wants your thoughts on his boobs. Includes obligatory head-tilt. || In Barnsley's NHS,
- [Impermissible Thoughts](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/03/impermissible-thoughts.html) - Via Uma Thurman’s Feet, some educational news: The particulars of which, we’ll get to in a moment. But in the meantime, do feel free to take a guess. Perhaps it could be the basis for a drinking game. The email to union members, sent by John Vince, the chief negotiator for Ontario Secondary School Teachers’
- [A Man In Uniform](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/03/a-man-in-uniform.html) - Lifted from the comments, via Mr Muldoon, a pretty good example of The Unreliable Narrator: Lt. Col. Bree Fram, a trans U.S. Space Force official spoke to the U.S. Air Force about inclusion and DEMANDED everyone to respect LGBTQ people and use pronouns. The world is laughing at us pic.twitter.com/I9gftUQWYX — Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok)
- [It Ain’t For Their Benefit](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/09/it-aint-for-their-benefit.html) - A short thread of possible interest, on a subject we’ve touched on before. If an illustration of crime would help, this one is quite vivid: https://twitter.com/TPostMillennial/status/1698701837912686973?s=20 The story here. Note the line, Update, via the comments: Regarding the video above, commenter anon a mouse suggests, Not, I think, unreasonable. Assuming one were interrupted while making
- [Friday Ephemera (711)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/03/friday-ephemera-711.html) - Ladies, do you recycle yours? || Well, I laughed. || The Electric Egg, 1942. || Juggling, from above. || "I've been bouncing for fifteen years." || "Liturgical Barbie with matching vestments." || Luckily, his balls took the brunt of it. || Bending water. || You have to warm it up first. (NSFW) || Feeding time. ||
- [Fake Tears And Hissing](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/02/fake-tears-and-hissing.html) - Here’s a tale for those who’ve wondered what happens when two Designated Victim Groups - both accustomed to deference - collide. Specifically, “Indigenous faculty members” at Wilfrid Laurier University, and the black Dean of the university’s social work department. That would be our aforementioned black Dean and self-styled “radical.” A radical who invokes the “burden”
- [Learning To Pretend](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/02/learning-to-pretend.html) - The Rabbit Hole demonstrates a test for AI wokeness and ideological distortion: Before you ask, Caitlyn Jenner himself does appear to regard averting nuclear apocalypse as the more pressing concern. Some questions were met with an equivalent of fudging: When presented with other questions - the particulars of which I’ll let you discover for yourself
- [Friday Ephemera (710)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/02/friday-ephemera-710.html) - Incoming. || The gathering of mussels. || "The marshmallow you never thought possible." || New Scientist bemoans “our negative views about cannibalism," blames racism, colonialism. || Related: human bodies are, it turns out, of “comparatively low nutritional value.” || Ask her about her nipples. || Not entirely sure what's happening, or not happening, here. ||
- [Role Models, You Say](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/02/role-models-you-say.html) - And in “inclusive” retailer news: So says James Bailey, Executive Director of John Lewis & Partners. Or, as an earlier John Lewis “Inclusion Report” put it, "inclusivity" will result in “a better connection to our customers.” Customers who will learn to “respect difference,” while freeing themselves of “judgement.” The project, it seems, is an educational
- [Friday Ephemera](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2021/10/friday-ephemera-5-5-5-1.html) - Leaf-blowing drama. || DIY policing. (h/t, Julia) || Needs more dress. || Near miss. || A masterclass in stealth redistribution. || He does this better than you would. || That’s exactly how I would’ve done it. || How deep are the oceans? || “Do you see this?” || Today’s word is oversharing. || An educator
- [It’s Trivial When The Victim Is Someone Who Isn't Me](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/02/its-trivial-when-the-victim-is-someone-who-isnt-me.html) - Habitual car theft is a “victimless” crime. Says Nora the socialist: Nora doesn’t think that a third conviction for car theft should result in incarceration. Because, and I quote, the victims “get new cars though.” They get new cars though — Nora Loreto (@NoLore) February 5, 2024 “I write books and I know things,” says Nora,
- [Powder Room Scenes](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/02/powder-room-scenes.html) - A territorial struggle of sorts: ⚠️EXTREMELY GRAPHIC AND DISTURBING⚠️ A trans activist using the women’s bathroom slides his phone under the stall to film a woman. These are the people who want to share a bathroom with your daughters. pic.twitter.com/T8NKAnK4Vk — Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) February 14, 2024 And remember, ladies, when a male bedlamite
- [Friday Ephemera (709)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/02/friday-ephemera-709.html) - Chesterton's bicycle. || It's a chair, it's an earthquake helmet. || A shovel is used. || Tiling issues. || Three sizes, five colours. || Incoming. || I'm not entirely clear on the rules. || Another fun way to pass the time. || It's an alternative approach. || Giving it to the man. || Big mirror.
- [Elsewhere (321)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/02/elsewhere-321.html) - At our glorious state broadcaster, that beacon of human progress: Hiring the very best, I see. Ms Queva has also denounced her employer as the “Bigoted Broadcasting Company.” Don’t worry. I’ve hired a truck to help shift the pile of ironies. Peter Saunders on forgotten knowledge, now all but taboo: Noah Carl on the “diversity”
- [Reheated (86)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/01/reheated-86.html) - I'll be busy for a few days, and so, some items from the archives: Let’s Do It, But In A Way That’s Less Likely To Work. In which we turn for wisdom to the Guardian’s parenting pages. But Can You Not See How Fascinating I Am? A tale of vomiting, tears, and unrelenting pretension. Terrifying
- [Friday Ephemera (708)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/01/friday-ephemera-708.html) - The robot did my lash extensions. || Transgender head-tilt, level nine. || When your local stores start closing because of looting, excusing the looters is the progressive thing to do. || Today's word is mentor. || Modernity is a helluva thing. || Nostalgic coffee table of note. || Bach's Coffee Cantata, 1735. || Identify birds
- [Your Host’s Idea Of Hell (5)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/01/your-hosts-idea-of-hell-5.html) - In the nightmare, I’ve been found guilty of something terrible – it was only a matter of time, I suppose - and am sentenced to an eternity of listening to this: Teacher candidates in Ontario are receiving top-notch training. Not. pic.twitter.com/CBGPLzdJ9k — Chanel Pfahl 🇨🇦 (@ChanLPfa) January 18, 2024 The speaker above, our bringer of
- [The ‘S’ Word](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/01/the-s-word.html) - Attention, heterosexuals. The way you self-identify is, it turns out, terribly oppressive: A Wheel Of Innate Sin For Which You Must Atone. Hours of fun. And that question-begging fatuousness won’t be internalised without a little prompting. Following the complaint, Mr Golash has replied that his disapproval of the term straight was directed at the entire
- [Friday Ephemera (707)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/01/friday-ephemera-707.html) - Incoming. || Incoming 2. || Incoming 3. || Early Chinese typewriter - with over 5,000 characters, not an easy thing to master. (h/t, Things) || Volcano tourism. || Dress in layers, they say. || Just in case you should need them, Controlled Demolition, Inc. (h/t, Things) || Daylight robbery. || Meanwhile, at Davos. || On
- [This Is Sparta](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2017/01/this-is-sparta.html) - Speaking of selfishness: Alas, the fatuous grandstanding and self-congratulation was halted for all of five seconds.
- [The Kind Of Creature You’ve Chosen To Be](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/01/the-kind-of-creature-youve-chosen-to-be.html) - Apparently, it’s outdated and oppressive for a young woman to be walked down the aisle at her wedding by her father. And so she can insult him and embarrass him by taking away that role. But of course it’s not outdated or oppressive for that same father to be expected to pay all of the bills
- [Perhaps A Bigger Purse](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/01/perhaps-a-bigger-purse.html) - Lifted from the comments: Man thinks his purse makes him a woman: Misgendered at Walmart~ #MentalHealthCrisis #Unhinged Gender ideology has made clothes synonymous with gender. Apparently, feminine colors and carrying a purse now define what it means to be a woman. pic.twitter.com/vwMCrIxZIE — L G B (@L__G__B) January 13, 2024 And so, you must accept
- [We Are Objects In Their World](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/05/we-are-objects-in-their-world.html) - In the comments, pst314 shares an uplifting, utopian spectacle for Portland’s commuters. What’s striking about such scenes, I think, is the eye-widening selfishness on display. Other passengers, other people, including children, are seemingly of no importance. Except, perhaps, as obstacles, or targets. And yet we’re told, often and at length, that those who repeatedly indulge
- [Friday Ephemera (706)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/01/friday-ephemera-706.html) - I always start my day this way. || I laughed and I'm not sorry. || The legend of Bum Farto. || "These holes are inhabited." || He wants to teach you a lesson, repeatedly, with an airhorn. || 1940s IT. || Taking sides. || "Too much cheese" finally achieved. || Tourist attraction of note. ||
- [The Other Majority Of The Time](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/01/the-other-majority-of-the-time.html) - No, don’t run away. She wants to tell you about herself: https://twitter.com/L__G__B/status/1744820452290138568 And remember, competitive complication is the name of the game. Also open thread. Share ye links and bicker.
- [The Thrill Of Word-Policing](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/01/the-thrill-of-word-policing.html) - Come, dear reader. Let us visit the publication now laughingly referred to as Scientific American. In particular, an “analysis” piece by Juan P Madrid, in which we’re told, Dr Madrid, an assistant professor at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, begins his attempt to persuade with a tale of poetic drama: I know. The
- [Friday Ephemera (705)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2024/01/friday-ephemera-705.html) - Judgement promptly validated. || Ice-cream scoop insertions and other medical emergencies. || Somewhat related: Things done to penises in 2023. || Recovered Kodachromes of New York in the Fifties and Sixties. (h/t, Lancastrian Oik) || Like conkers, I guess. || On crime and incarceration. || Question asked, answered. || Being so clever, he doesn't believe in
- [Think Big, Badly](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2019/07/think-big-badly.html) - In the comments, Mr Muldoon steers us to this item of possible interest: As the fat-positivity movement has gained momentum, so, too, have debates around how fat folks should lead healthy lives. [Sonalee] Rashatwar, though, considers how sizeism is affected by racism, misogyny, classism, homophobia, transphobia, and ableism, and she counsels people against intentional weight
- [Land Of The Giants](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2018/09/land-of-the-giants.html) - For those who missed it in the comments, behold Guardian World, where all things are possible: I'm sensing mixed messages. And so, on one page we’re reminded of some unhappy realities: Prof Jamie Waterall, Public Health England’s national lead for cardiovascular disease, said: “It’s worrying that so many people are at risk of dying unnecessarily
- [Thinking Like Children](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2020/06/thinking-like-children.html) - And expecting applause. In the pages of Vice, a moral lecture, delivered from on high: How to Talk to Relatives Who Care More About Looting Than Black Lives. As an exercise in question-begging and dense, self-satisfied presumption, it’s quite a thing, that headline. It’s very now. Among those of us deemed insufficiently woke and therefore
- [The Year Reheated](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/12/the-year-reheated-11.html) - In which we marvel at the mental contortions of our self-imagined betters. The year began with a tale of oysters and college lesbianism, via Bon Appétit magazine, in which Brooklynite pronoun-stipulator Isha Maratha was keen to overshare. For Ms Maratha, “My first time eating an oyster was an act of queer intimacy.” Indeed, we were
- [G-String Blues](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/12/g-string-blues.html) - Attention, unenlightened beings. You must continue doing the work until you are aroused by the fat, neck-bearded woman: https://twitter.com/HeidiBriones/status/1736776316782018968 Now shove that twenty bucks in her G-string, goddammit. Update, via the comments: John D adds, not unreasonably, Little Miss Hairy Neck does seem to be offloading the burden of her chosen profession. Sort of, “You
- [Tidings](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/12/tidings-14.html) - A fox’s first snow, photographed by Tak: As is the custom here, posting will be intermittent over the holidays and readers are advised to follow me on X / Twitter, or subscribe to the blog feed at the very bottom of the page, either of which will alert you to anything new as and when
- [Tidings](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2021/12/tidings.html) - Snowfall in Times Square. Filmed by Nomadic Ambience. As is the custom here, posting will be intermittent over the holidays and readers are advised to subscribe to the blog feed, which will alert you to anything new as and when it materialises. Thanks for another 1.5 million or so visits this year and thousands of comments,
- [Tidings](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2020/12/tidings-5.html) - From the archives, one of my favourites. Alex Gorosh and Wylie Overstreet’s short film about the Moon - and what can sometimes happen when people stop to look at it. Seemed oddly appropriate. If you haven’t seen it before, enjoy. https://vimeo.com/259818647 As is the custom here, posting will be intermittent over the holidays and
- [Friday Ephemera (704)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/12/friday-ephemera-704.html) - Doctor's note of note. || The designated drivers of yesteryear. || A discussion ensues. || Today's word is inadvisable. || "Dimples are highly valued." || 14,000 volts. || It's a ChapStick warmer. || How progressives destroy empathy. || A project for the weekend. || Interlopers or ingredients? || Going that extra mile. || But she wanted
- [Friday Ephemera (703)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/12/friday-ephemera-703.html) - Spider in car, some agitation. || The periodic table of tools. || Which party is the aggressor? || "Goes in a lady's handbag... ideal for picnics." || "Stay proud," he said. || “Children with liberal parents more likely to suffer from mental health problems.” || A possible explanation for why cyclists are unloved. || Local
- [Maybe It’s The Lighting](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/12/maybe-its-the-lighting.html) - We have, I fear, been neglecting the arts and their uplifting tendency. Let’s correct that immediately and thereby better ourselves: How kind. Now feast thine eyes upon it: I know. You're positively trembling with aesthetic rapture. According to the artist, and the Turner Prize judges, what we, the public, need, and indeed deserve, is a
- [Adhesive Not Included](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/12/adhesive-not-included.html) - Or, Wooing And Titillation, The Transgender Way. It has to be said that, until today, hot prosthetic pics is a series of words I’ve had little cause to use. But we must, I’m told, make an effort to keep up with The Current Thing, and thereby become engorged with sensitivity and whatnot. And so, from
- [Vacancy Announced](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/11/vacancy-announced.html) - Attention, dear readers. I bring you a chance to participate in a cosmic drama, to facilitate utopia. A godless heaven here on Earth. Specifically, do you know of any “artists and visionaries,” or people “good at spreadsheets”? Because there may be a job going, come the revolution: https://twitter.com/EITC_Official/status/1728611135157665922 I’m guessing the revolutionary catering is already
- [Don’t Forget The Gift Wrap](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/11/dont-forget-the-gift-wrap.html) - With the season of jollity and gift-giving bearing down upon us, like the crop duster in North By Northwest, patrons are reminded that any Amazon UK shopping done via this link, or for Amazon US via this link, or via the buttons in the sidebar, results in a small fee for your host at no
- [Already Broken](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/11/already-broken.html) - Margot, seen below, is a “nutrition counsellor.” She is “root-cause and system focussed.” Oh, and she has some questions: Turns out you can’t smash capitalism and agitate the proletariat without a solid meal plan. https://twitter.com/xxclusionary/status/1724596529896345861 “We can fight with our food,” says she. Bridge crossed, methinks. Update, via Mr Muldoon in the comments: Apparently, the
- [The Agonies of the Left: An Ocean of Tears](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2013/01/the-agonies-of-the-left-an-ocean-of-tears.html) - The freeloader’s manifesto. As rjmadden notes in the comments, replace ‘capitalism’ with ‘adulthood’ and all becomes clear. From the thinkers who brought us this: Saddened by the proles thinking for themselves. Saddened and baffled. Their fretting makes them better than us. The downsides of activism. Yes, of course. That should do it. Longing for uncomplicated
- [Friday Ephemera (702)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/11/friday-ephemera-702.html) - All the fun of the fair. || All the fun of the fair 2. || Today’s word is fulsome. || It has its own tracking ID. || Yeah, screw those ambulances trying to get to an emergency, says she. || The thrill of can openers. || Incoming. || When you're getting married and you want
- [Rules For Thee](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/11/rules-for-thee.html) - Lifted from the comments, an item you may have missed. In our discussion about The Activist-Wanker Caste and its signature disdain for reciprocation, I wrote: Well, sometimes an example of what you’re talking about comes along that seems almost too on-the-nose. Specifically, No, really. It turns out that Ms Lydia Gribbin, one of the five
- [Mashed Potatoes And Gravy](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/11/mashed-potatoes-and-gravy.html) - I gather today is some kind of national holiday over yonder, beyond the sea. I shall therefore wish American readers a jolly time. I’ll also share an educational lecture on the topic by Professor James O’Flannery: https://youtu.be/XEOV-SP_0OI?si=wKedH-owzitDvbne Among Professor O’Flannery’s other lectures is this one, on the Chinese Revolution, and which I strongly recommend.
- [Sudden-Onset Womanhood](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/07/sudden-onset-womanhood.html) - From the comments, where a question is asked - and promptly answered: https://twitter.com/TheCriticalDri2/status/1682085140204224515 Regarding which, John D replies, Ah, but then those of a progressive inclination couldn’t piggy-back their Current Year politics onto someone else’s work, established over many decades. Plus, there’s lots of self-congratulatory subverting to be done. All that signalling about how antiquated
- [They Call it “Queering” History](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/08/they-call-it-queering-history.html) - When you browse the website of Portsmouth’s Mary Rose Museum, looking for information on artefacts from Tudor England... and this is what you get: Because when you look at a sixteenth-century mirror salvaged from a warship belonging to Henry VIII, the first thing you want to know is how it might induce psychological crises in
- [Reheated (85)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/11/reheated-85.html) - As I’m pushed for time, some items from the archives: This Little Red Light Keeps Flashing. Bewigged pervert takes an interest in the panties of schoolgirls. Progressive women rush to his defence. They Call It “Queering” History. Tudor history, as seen through the welding goggles of wokeness. Sudden-Onset Womanhood. On sex-swapping Bond and other cultural
- [A Testing Of Boundaries](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/05/a-testing-of-boundaries.html) - Lifted from the comments, a small but telling thing: https://twitter.com/stillgray/status/1655248550849306624?s=20 Regarding which, sH2 replied, Well, indeed. We do seem to be witnessing an upsurge in such sly provocations, and almost always from the same kinds of people with the same kinds of views – an eerie uniformity. And so, Narcissistic Glitter Bint can invade someone’s
- [Bad Language](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/11/bad-language.html) - From the Telegraph, some healthcare news: Can you guess the offensive, verboten word? One might think that the employees having babies and therefore on maternity leave are, in fact, by definition, mothers. One might even think that a hospital, and a maternity hospital in particular, is a place where physical realities of this kind would
- [Friday Ephemera (701)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/11/friday-ephemera-701.html) - “I am not a cat.” || Nommy-nommy-nom. || Nude descending. || “Can you give me your phone, please?” || “This weird phenomenon.” || Big fellah. || Mastering a foreign tongue. || Maybe the melting is a bad thing. || Intriguing object. || “It brings them a sense of peace.” || Utopian scenes. Related. || Andromeda
- [New Niche Indignation](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/05/new-niche-indignation.html) - Come, let us dip a toe in the world of transgender Reddit – specifically, rFTMOver30 - where the sexually dysmorphic hunt for slips-ups, pronoun blunders, and tiny acts of transgression. As you might imagine, things can get quite competitive. First, a little background on the author of this particular woe: The struggle involves a devilish
- [She Said It, Not Me](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2015/02/she-said-it-not-me.html) - Polly Toynbee, that is: There is an instinctive bond between Guardian readers – we almost nod to one another as we read the paper on a train. Yes, I bet you do, Polly. I bet you do. Update: In the comments we’re also discussing this, spotted by Robert. Apparently, artists and writers are being “ignored
- [Reheated (84)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/11/reheated-84.html) - Because you deserve no less, some items from the archives: Their Happiness Hurt My Feelings. When your Zoom-meeting décor is deemed oppressive. Their Fevered Brows. Let’s visit the pages of Salon, where the delusional hyperventilate. But Why Aren’t People Rushing To Buy My Art? Deep thoughts, shifting paradigms, and heads wrapped in meat. Other feats
- [Heavy Water](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2020/05/heavy-water.html) - An open thread, in which to share links and bicker. But first, a little incongruity: https://vimeo.com/418805776 Wave by d’strict, Seoul, South Korea. Via Design You Trust.
- [I Hammer Culture Into Your Tiny Minds](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2014/07/i-hammer-culture-into-your-tiny-minds.html) - This time, by bringing you the vast artistic talents of Ms Jane Wang. Ms Wang is perhaps best known for hosting the Earthdance Music and Movement Jam in Plainfield, Massachusetts, where “dance and music dialogue together” every second Sunday of the month. Often to stunning effect. Ms Wang’s areas of expertise are of course numerous and include
- [Spider-Man’s Unwell Cousin](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2014/08/spider-mans-unwell-cousin.html) - Because I know you love it, here’s more “guerrilla art” on a bridge. Or more specifically, an “infiltration in public space.” This time the venue is Pier 66 at the 2011 Fountain New York Art Fair, where Canadian performance artist Martine Viale thrills and captivates passers-by, armed only with a carrier bag of bobbins and
- [Their Fevered Brows](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2020/01/their-fevered-brows.html) - Meanwhile, over at Salon, where the delusional hyperventilate, Mr Chauncey DeVega once again rails against Donald Trump. Today we’re being warned of his “political thuggery and mobster-style behaviour.” The current President is, we’re told, a “dictator.” The question is… whether anything or anyone is capable of stopping him. To embellish this tale of impending doom,
- [Their Happiness Hurt My Feelings](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2020/05/their-happiness-hurt-my-feelings.html) - Attention, woke citizens. During the current lockdown, do you feel a need to “challenge microaggressions” – those “verbal, behavioural or environmental indignities that communicate hostile, derogatory or negative racial slights”? Specifically, those committed during video conferencing? According to Michigan State University’s Amy Bonomi, director of the university’s Children and Youth Institute, and Neila Viveiros, associate
- [But Why Aren’t People Rushing To Buy My Art?](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2017/04/but-why-arent-people-rushing-to-buy-my-art.html) - Because I know you heathens are all starved of high culture, here are edited highlights of Shannon Cochrane and Márcio Carvalho performing their colossal work Untitled at the 2013 Miami Performance International Festival. For those who may be confounded by the profundity of the piece, a handy walk-through guide is available here. Said guide points
- [I Know, Let’s All Pretend That Behaviour Doesn’t Matter](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/11/i-know-lets-all-pretend-that-behaviour-doesnt-matter.html) - Lifted from the comments, a difference of opinion: https://twitter.com/wanyeburkett/status/1721690832657334282 As I posted in reply, A slightly different perspective: If an example of the aforementioned schtick is needed, this comes to mind: In the archives, you’ll find many variations on this theme. As when we were told – by Minneapolis City Council President Lisa Bender -
- [Friday Ephemera (700)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/11/friday-ephemera-700.html) - The thrill of smoking cannabis. (h/t, Dr W) || The thrill of boxing fragile objects. || Man explains lesbianism. || Helpful instructions. || The hunt for optimal toasting. (h/t, Elephants Gerald) || Artistic license. || Maybe the rattling is a good sign. || She may be a little bit racist. || Road users of note.
- [Not Really Worth The Effort, Love](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/11/not-really-worth-the-effort-love.html) - And in never-happy news: https://twitter.com/L__G__B/status/1721351510590648478 She’s “genderfluid,” you see, and “goes by all pronouns.” But if insufficiently pretentious people refer to her as she - i.e., accurately - this simply won’t do and scolding will ensue. And your “ally” status, which you’re supposed to crave and be willing to beg for, will be downgraded to
- [Behold My Virtue (3)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2009/02/behold-my-virtue-3.html) - Sunny Hundal is waving his credentials again: Hereabouts, Lily, Tilly, Joss and Leo are seen as self-preoccupied posh kids pretending to be radical by breaking into airports and disrupting the travel plans of thousands of passengers. And hence the alienation. Those unfamiliar with the theatrical fatuousness of Plane Stupid can marvel at their activities here.
- [Behold My Virtue (2)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2008/12/behold-my-virtue-2.html) - The Guardian’s Leo Hickman shares his wisdom on today’s security breach at Stansted Airport, courtesy of activists from the environmentalist group, Plane Stupid: My first reaction was to wonder whether those inconvenienced by this self-aggrandising display would be able to demand compensation from the airport’s security provider. Using a snowplough to shift protestors is faintly amusing, I
- [Friday Ephemera (699)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/11/friday-ephemera-699.html) - Safety measures. || Incoming. || She has a red mullet. || More beating needed. || His are bigger than yours. || The thrill of competitive bed-making. || Bin men fortified with beef and tea. || On fish and chips. || Today’s word is clientele. || He’s creating a persona that embodies who he is. ||
- [Our Betters At Large](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/11/our-betters-at-large.html) - Incoming plot twist: I’ll give you a moment to steady yourselves. What with the shock and all. Ms Xahra Saleem, formerly Yvonne Maina, is a co-founder of the activist group All Black Lives Bristol, and was hailed by Rife magazine as one of Bristol’s “most influential under-30s.” Ms Saleem’s merry band of megaphone-waving statue-topplers have
- [Don’t Oppress My People With The Way You Walk](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2021/05/dont-oppress-my-people-with-the-way-you-walk.html) - From the world of campus wokescolds, where innovation never ends: The opinion editor of the Northwestern University’s student newspaper recently published an article asserting that white people walk awkwardly on sidewalks because of their internalised racism. The editor, Kenny Allen, who is black, is quite confident on this point. Laying out the claims by University
- [Elsewhere (320)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/10/elsewhere-320.html) - Emil Kirkegaard on schooling and intelligence, and their limited relationship: And speaking of education: The specifications for said installation are quite detailed, including soundproofing, wall handles, and knee pads. For safety and comfort, one assumes. Heather Mac Donald on progressive evasions and the consequent cultivation of anti-white sentiment: We’ve been here before, of course. More
- [Beneath The Planet Of the Bedlamites](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2020/07/beneath-the-planet-of-the-bedlamites-2.html) - “It hurts people when they see a white man bouncing a brown baby on their lap!” Following this recent item on Robin DiAngelo and her lamentable bestseller White Fragility, some of you may have been wondering, “What kind of person is drawn to and internalises this neurotically demented horseshit?” Well. Via Karl in the comments,
- [Just Let Me Check Who I Am](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/07/just-let-me-check-who-i-am.html) - From the Telegraph, the thrill of modern high-street banking: If your eyebrows have even twitched ever so slightly, you’re a very bad person. Because the above is part of an “LGBT-friendly diversity measure,” endorsed by Stonewall, and is therefore beyond reproach. Indeed, it’s the very measure of moral sophistication. The cutting edge of corrected thought.
- [Friday Ephemera (698)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/10/friday-ephemera-698.html) - It prevents chafing. || Child relocation device. || At last, the chairs of Star Trek. Previously, the chairs of Doctor Who, and the chairs of Blake’s 7. || Seasonal, yes, but possibly a bit much. || The bouncy guy must have a job title. || Agreeable rubbing. || Girly girl, with parenting skills, and all
- [Broadcasting An Attitude](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/10/broadcasting-an-attitude.html) - And then acting all surprised. Via the comments, a conundrum for our times: https://twitter.com/TTEcclesBrown/status/1715716453738172737 In the comments, Jen replies, The above does seem to be yet another variation of, “I’ve chosen to send a round-the-clock provocative, anti-social message. Why are people noticing my round-the-clock provocative, anti-social message?” And when someone, a supposed adult, goes out
- [Friday Ephemera (697)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/10/friday-ephemera-697.html) - Plot twist. || “She literally rolled her eyes at me.” || I’ll just leave this here, I think. || Clowns and collisions. || Living space. || “I wish you guys didn’t do this.” Or, the progressive retail experience, parts 508, 509, 510, and 511. || Press conference scenes. || Super excited. || Sporting commentary of
- [Terrifying Objects](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/10/terrifying-objects.html) - And in lofty academic news: Because victimhood is currency and status, and therefore terribly competitive. The particulars of that “interconnected nature” are, sadly, not disclosed. Instead, the word “intersectionality” is deployed as some self-explanatory justification, both for the expansion of the museum and, one assumes, the additional funding. The Museum of Sexist Objects is, it
- [A Rich Seam Of Suckers](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2020/06/a-rich-seam-of-suckers.html) - Matt Taibbi on Robin DiAngelo and her pernicious bestseller White Fragility: DiAngelo isn’t the first person to make a buck pushing tricked-up pseudo-intellectual horseshit as corporate wisdom, but she might be the first to do it selling Hitlerian race theory. White Fragility has a simple message: there is no such thing as a universal human experience, and
- [The Word You’re Looking For](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/10/the-word-youre-looking-for.html) - Come, let us turn to the pages of Men’s Health, where Zachary Zane, a “sex writer, author, and ethical Boyslut,” answers “pressing sex questions with thorough, actionable advice.” “Boyslut,” by the way, is, Not just open, but very, very open. You see, Hundreds of people. Of all genders. Hold that thought. Now, on to the
- [Friday Ephemera (696)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/10/friday-ephemera-696.html) - Drummers attempt to speak. || Some activity around the breasts. || Bubble. || Place your bets. || At last, a pre-weakened handrail. || Restraightened rebar, structural properties uncertain. || You know, there may, just may, be a party upstairs. || Purr. || The progressive retail experience, parts 506 and 507. || On crime and incarceration.
- [Insufficient Kink Detected](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2020/05/insufficient-kink-detected.html) - Wisdom of the woke: So, to recap. You should, like, totally get Big Sexy with whomever - even people you aren’t attracted to, apparently - but if your sexual and romantic appetites are insufficiently niche and radical, and more or less in line with mainstream leanings, then you should probably assume that there’s something wrong
- [I Blame Those Evil Towel Conglomerates](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2022/02/i-blame-those-evil-towel-conglomerates.html) - From The Independent, a new moral crisis: A plus-size content creator and traveller who said seatbelts on planes cause “emotional damage” is now sharing tips on how to avoid the trauma. It occurs to me that the thing causing the annoyance – sorry, emotional damage – is not in fact the seatbelt, or asking for an extender. If, say,
- [Insert Coin For Dancing Monkey](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/10/insert-coin-for-dancing-monkey-5.html) - With domain renewal looming, along with other behind-the-scenes overheads, now seems a good time to remind patrons that this rickety barge is kept afloat by the kindness of strangers. If you’d like to help it remain buoyant a while longer, and remain ad-free, there are three buttons below the fold with which to monetise any
- [I Laughed And I’m Not Sorry](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/10/i-laughed-and-im-not-sorry.html) - Currently doing the rounds, The late Norman Rockwell depicts Modern America: Oh, there's more. Not all of it savoury. Update, via the comments: There’s some discussion below about the aforementioned unsavoury content – the anti-Semitism and so forth. I did wonder about whether or not to link to the full selection, or what I assume
- [Friday Ephemera (695)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/10/friday-ephemera-695.html) - An aggravating tool for aggravating tools who talk too loudly. || Fly the skies in style and comfort. || British Seaside Simulator. || And then, quite suddenly, sadness happened. || Assorted bendy rivers. || Fat Bear Week is upon us. || The state of British cooking, with Mr Vincent Price (1972). || Entirely unrelated, substance
- [The Perils Of Panto Season](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/10/the-perils-of-panto-season.html) - Further to this, and lifted from the comments: https://twitter.com/OldRoberts953/status/1706269504345428267 The New Rules Of Pretending, illustrated here, aren’t entirely coherent, even if one were willing to play along. On the one hand, fat, screeching drag queens are supposedly comedic and a kind of jolly panto, something exaggerated and silly, and suitable for children. Something to make the
- [He Was Expecting Free Hits](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/10/he-was-expecting-free-hits.html) - Readers may recall this unhappy scene, mentioned here, part of a spree of racially targeted Seattle home invasions: https://twitter.com/roddreher/status/1696600588929179797 In a more cheering turn of events, the perpetrators, five black men and one black teenager, were recently apprehended and charged with no fewer than fourteen similar crimes, the victims of which were all of East
- [Milestones Of Human Advancement](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2022/09/milestones-of-human-advancement.html) - Number four. The discovery of fire. Consider this an open thread. Share ye links and bicker.
- [Friday Ephemera (694)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/09/friday-ephemera-694.html) - The secret life of cats. || I’ll be back. || About bordellos. (h/t, o4p1) || The thrill of barrel relocation. || Pair of 1960s Star Trek Tribbles, $2,000. (h/t, Things) || Her thighs are too powerful, you see. || Some gentle sponging may be needed. || Today's word is influencer. || Question asked. || Dining
- [And In Machete-Wielding-Educator News](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/09/and-in-machete-wielding-educator-news.html) - Readers may recall this item from four months ago: I was of course referring to Ms Shellyne Rodriguez, an art teacher at Hunter College, New York, and whose activities include menacing students whose views diverge from her own, shouting profanities at said students, vandalising their property, and chasing people down the street armed with a
- [Members, You Say](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/09/members-you-say.html) - Some more this-never-happens news, this time at a gym in Monroe, Georgia. We’ll start with the gym’s profession of modish piety: In short, female customers who perceive incongruity, discomfort, and possibly danger should simply ignore those perceptions. Danger, it seems, is something one can now just pretend away. Needless to say, reality begs to differ:
- [The Year Reheated](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2022/12/the-year-reheated-10.html) - In which we marvel at the mental contortions of our self-imagined betters. The year began with a lesson in pronouns and pretending, or dishonesty-on-demand, courtesy of the suddenly ungendered Laurie Penny – now, it seems, a they, depending on who’s nearby and how fashionable they are. And so, we pondered animal pronouns, clown pronouns and
- [Bucket, Spade, Sunblock](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/09/bucket-spade-sunblock.html) - Sensitive readers may wish to brace themselves. Consider this a trigger warning. Next week, for the whole week, and for the first time in a long time, I will be away on holiday. A proper holiday, elsewhere, doing other things. I realise that for some of you this may be crushing news. Be brave. Dry
- [Friday Ephemera (693)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/09/friday-ephemera-693.html) - “It doesn’t like my wife.” || AI deepfake translation demo. (h/t, Damian) || Insufficiently adhesive. || How to immobilise bees. || Bees and string. || Acid bassline generator. || It’s a job. || Or you could just brush. || Enrichment opportunity. || Stoopin’. || Nice save. || I can imagine your surprise. || Foodstuff disagreeable.
- [Cosmetics Were Applied](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/09/cosmetics-were-applied.html) - One for the totally-balanced-educator files: https://twitter.com/libsoftiktok/status/1701343971371311378 Those pre-school children are in good hands, clearly. Ms Duffy’s pronouns, since you ask, are they and them. Update, via the comments: Rafi adds, Well, it would be nice – refreshing, even – if these people worked out their serious mental health issues on their own time. Rather than,
- [Turns Out This Thing Is Interactive](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/05/turns-out-this-thing-is-interactive.html) - From the comments, some items you may have missed. We’ll kick things off with some kicking off, care of commenter Mr Farnsworth M Muldoon: Curious how when you hear of yet another educator being intolerant, childish, or wildly unhinged, you don’t need to ask what their politics might be. Speaking of unhinged: When you get
- [Reheated (83)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/09/reheated-83.html) - Some items from the archives, on a loosely historical theme. Perfecting The Species. Professor James O’Flannery’s educational tour of the Chinese Revolution. Magical Beings. On replacing natural history with aboriginal woo. My Kingdom For A Time Machine. Julie Bindel tempts us with the “good old days of the feminist collective.” Don’t Oppress My People With
- [Uprising](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2009/06/uprising.html) - Poking about in the archives, I unearthed the second episode of Vanessa Engle’s excellent documentary series, Lefties. Titled Angry Wimmin, the film traces the rise of radical feminism in a grim Britain of the 1970s. As a record of social history it’s interesting stuff. The revolutionary politics of shoes, for instance, is quaintly entertaining, and the
- [My Kingdom for a Time Machine](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2015/07/my-kingdom-for-a-time-machine.html) - The left should revisit the good old days of the feminist collective. So says the Guardian’s Julie Bindel. Our fearless scribe is pining for the days of “anti-hierarchical collective working” in the twilight of the Seventies. When, coincidentally, she was young. “In many ways collective working was successful,” says she, though the basis for this
- [Perfecting The Species](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/05/perfecting-the-species.html) - For devotees of the farcical and grotesque, a spot of history: In the following video, quoted above, Professor James O’Flannery concludes his lively, somewhat unorthodox three-part lecture series on the Chinese Revolution. Or, to borrow one of his chapter headings, Our Turn Fuck Up World. https://youtu.be/1XrgTdRSH00 Needless to say, given the subject matter, some
- [Friday Ephemera (692)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/09/friday-ephemera-692.html) - A reminder that modernity is a helluva thing. || “Poverty simulation event.” The venue, obviously, is a country club. || Incoming. || Question asked. || It’s low-calorie. || Closer to the boss, I guess. || Ungodly bathroom debate. || Because it’s an open wound. || His name is Jezebel Lilith Eve and he is a
- [And In Lingerie News](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/09/and-in-lingerie-news.html) - I was previously unfamiliar with the concept of bra euphoria: Resulting, it seems, in hasty purchases and consequent discomfort. And so, At which point, I should add that these bra-related dramas are from transgender Reddit, where passions run high, and agonies abound: And, And, This latter detail is mentioned for the purposes of calibrating bra
- [Perhaps It Was Revealed To Him In A Dream](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/07/perhaps-it-was-revealed-to-him-in-a-dream.html) - Further to recent rumblings on assumptions of racism, this caught my eye: https://twitter.com/SwipeWright/status/1685883012519448576 Today’s word is mindset. Mr Dettlaff – sorry, Professor Dettlaff – has a PhD in social work and “formerly served as Dean of the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work.” He uses the term “white supremacist” quite freely, and entirely without irony.
- [Visitors In The Night](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/02/visitors-in-the-night.html) - Time for some thoughts on crime. From the pages of the Guardian: Being a Guardian contributor, the author, Ms Anna Spargo-Ryan, a resident of Melbourne, is of course conflicted. Her feelings, it turns out, are something of a tangle. We’re told of the uncontrollable shaking, the shattered sense of safety, the fear for a missing
- [Friday Ephemera (691)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/09/friday-ephemera-691.html) - Convenient chicken. || Yes, but it was classroom wine. || Contains cloves, ginger, nutmeg. || The thrill of extruded meat product. || I think it may be the lighting. || Personal space negotiation. || Travel by bus, they said. || Scenes of collective biscuit relocation. || Marbling of note. || Nommy-nommy-nom. || I'll take the
- [Not That Kind, You Peasants](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/08/not-that-kind-you-peasants.html) - “But why do you think this is happening?” https://twitter.com/simonjedge/status/1693186865883468131?s=20 Update, via the comments: Before replies were disabled, “loathing your own audience” was a suggestion offered repeatedly and with varying degrees of liveliness, along with “woke nonsense” and variations thereof. The word bubble was used more than once. However, a handful of outliers - often academics
- [Why Don’t You Welcome Further Degradation?](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/08/why-dont-you-welcome-further-degradation.html) - In the comments, Nikw211 steers us to the pages of the Observer, where Ms Martha Gill has some thoughts on shoplifting. First, some setting of the scene: And, All rather grim. If not entirely surprising to readers familiar with this blog’s Progressive Retail Experience series. The collection to date, some 495 entries, can be found
- [Not That Kind Of Diversity](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/08/not-that-kind-of-diversity-2.html) - Variations in human ability continue to frustrate those who would perfect us: You see, if a problem can’t be solved, the next-best thing is to hide it: The genius of the “equity-focussed” policies, also being advanced in California and elsewhere, is that they are likely to have negative consequences for both ends of the ability
- [Free Hits](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2016/09/free-hits.html) - Katherine Kersten on racial discipline quotas in schools - and their ugly consequences: On [superintendent Valeria] Silva’s watch, the city’s high schools have become menacing places where gangs of out-of-control teens prowl the halls, and “classroom invasions” by students settling private disputes are commonplace. Today, fights that “might have been between two individuals” can grow
- [Friday Ephemera (690)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/08/friday-ephemera-690.html) - “Hold the top of the tip and shake all the filling down.” As one does. || Snugly fitting pieces. || They’re just checking your air filters. || Ancient artefact. || I did not know that ladies had four breasts. || Big teats ahoy. || Brains trust at large. Previously. || Pregnancy of note. || Continue
- [An Unconvincing Basis For Applause](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/08/an-unconvincing-basis-for-applause.html) - I’d suggest that this is precisely what raises doubts as to Ms Ashley Markham’s fitness to be a school principal in charge of 12-year-olds. https://twitter.com/libsoftiktok/status/1693721735638479150?s=20 To boast of abandoning reality at the drop of a hat – and by extension, coercing others to be unrealistic too – and to boast of creating an environment in which
- [Friday Ephemera (686)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/07/friday-ephemera-686.html) - Toenail clipping of note. || Are your pants chainsaw-retardant? || Can't quite put my finger on it. || The thieving did not go to plan. || “Got pork for lunch on Sunday?” || A brief history of the British police box. || I’m told all ladies do this. || “What about this says ma’am to
- [Friday Ephemera (689)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/08/friday-ephemera-689.html) - You want one and you know it. || Well, this is embarrassing. || The thrill of bread-making. || New rhino emerges. || “What kind of meat you got?” || Polyamory tips: Imagine them embracing you instead of that other sad tramp. || Designer piano. (h/t, Things) || Passing fashion. || Coastal retreat, £25,000,000. || Enrichment
- [Let’s Do It, But In A Way That’s Less Likely To Work](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/08/lets-do-it-but-in-a-way-thats-less-likely-to-work.html) - Come, huddle round. Let us poke at the Guardian: The parenting pages. Let’s start there. Providing the sperm. A joyous and maternal turn of phrase. Also of note, the idea of wanting a baby, but with only a third or a quarter of the responsibility. A kind of low-commitment parenting. Bodes well. Eleanor Margolis, the
- [He Has An Affirmation Mirror](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/08/he-has-an-affirmation-mirror.html) - Apparently, it’s a thing: And because you want to know: Not merely a woman. He is women. Update: via the comments: Mags notes this, And replies, Well, it is an odd thing to be proud of. A bit of a stretch, really. It’s not clear to me why autogynephiles should be entitled to pride any
- [But Can You Not See How Fascinating I Am?](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/08/but-can-you-not-see-how-fascinating-i-am.html) - From Montreal, via the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, another feat of unrelenting pretension: The proud author, Ms Julia Wright, a student at McGill University, is, we learn, a them - a paranormally ungendered being. And all is not well: As one might, all things considered. Well, as possibilities, the words neurotic and aggravating come to mind.
- [I’m Assuming They Haven’t Been Up All Night](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/08/im-assuming-they-havent-been-up-all-night.html) - https://twitter.com/breeadail/status/1688246465942970368 Oh, and while you’re here, a gentle reminder that any shopping done via the two Amazon links in the sidebar results in a small fee for your host at no extra cost to you. Readers who crave other, more immediate ways to support this blog are directed to the donate and subscribe buttons just
- [Complications Multiply](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/08/complications-multiply.html) - Come, let us browse transgender Reddit, where all is not well, and the natives are restless. You may want to bring sandwiches and a flask of something: It’s a special moment. An entirely new complication has been detected. A new source of umbrage. For some, it must be like striking oil: I know. Don’t worry, it
- [Friday Ephemera (688)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/08/friday-ephemera-688.html) - On the subject of impatience. || The sound of flanging. || Fashion statement. || Today’s word is influencer. || Cliffhanger. || We will catch you. || How to clean your particle accelerator with a ferret. || Not his first rodeo. || Requires more rubbing. || Just think of it as recycling. || Truck driver of
- [Friday Ephemera (687)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/07/friday-ephemera-687.html) - Yes, but on the upside, it could’ve been vomit. || Careful now. || Nommy-nommy-nom. || On elephants. (h/t, Elephants Gerald) || An archive of LEGO instruction booklets. (h/t, Things) || This guy here: “But I do love all people.” || Oh dear, how embarrassing. || Good to know, I guess. || He does this better
- [Reheated (82)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/07/reheated-82.html) - For newcomers and the nostalgic, some items from the archives: How To Create A Low-Trust Society. These things thou shalt not notice. Trust Me, I’m A Witchdoctor. The thrill of prehistoric healthcare. His Skin Just Won’t Come Off. The bedlamite academic – a case study, one of many. She Doesn’t Do Toilets. Guardian columnist bemoans
- [Her Restless Mind](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2020/10/her-restless-mind.html) - Time for another visit to the pages of Scary Mommy, a publication for progressive mothers, and where Ms Christine Organ has a problem: For years, I’ve known that I have trouble sitting still, that I find projects and things to fret over. I need to literally schedule time to binge watch TV, and I multitask like a freaking
- [Ladies, Avert Your Eyes](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/07/ladies-avert-your-eyes.html) - From 1849, a tale of terror and suspense: What followed, unsurprisingly, was quite stressful. Among the words used are enormous size. What was I saying? Oh yes. Consider this an open thread.
- [Erasing History](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2007/07/erasing-history.html) - Over at Samizdata, Perry de Havilland has a few thoughts on recent efforts by the Commission for Racial Equality to have Hergé’s Tintin in the Congo removed entirely from the shelves of British booksellers: Tintin in the Congo has been moved to Borders’ adult graphic novel section and can be bought online here. Predictably, sales
- [Serpents](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2009/12/serpents.html) - Two galleries of snakes photographed by Guido Mocafico. Click to embiggen. Mocafico’s book, Serpens, is available here and here.
- [Countermeasures](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/07/countermeasures-2.html) - Lifted from the comments, which you’re reading of course - Just Stop Oil loons encounter rival group Just Stop Pissing Everyone Off: https://twitter.com/PolitlcsUK/status/1681952708968734726 Update, via the comments: Note the conceit, aired via bullhorn, that their ‘protests’ – physically obstructing thousands of people, including emergency vehicles, for hours, and doing it over and over again –
- [Elsewhere (319)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/07/elsewhere-319.html) - Jennifer Lahl and Kallie Fell on “queered” health care: Ah, but “highly gendered” and “offspring-focussed” health care – for pregnant women and their babies – makes it “challenging” for sexually dysmorphic women who wish to be perceived as men, even while heavily pregnant. In short, “Screw the wellbeing of the baby, the inhibited lactation, and
- [Yet Prompt Payment Is Expected](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/07/yet-prompt-payment-is-expected.html) - In case you missed it in the comments, I bring news of a dream employee. You see, she’s not at all entitled. It’s just that the world must revolve around her: https://twitter.com/libsoftiktok/status/1679565386314919937 I think we can assume that madam’s professed “time blindness” – which apparently precludes the use of the reminder function on her phone
- [Answers On a Postcard, Please](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2015/06/answers-on-a-postcard-please-3.html) - The Guardian’s Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett – she of the ill-fitting hair - asks, Are we too selfish to live like hippies? Herself a child of what she generously terms “communal living” – specifically, an “Islington house furnished from skips” – Ms Cosslett allows her mind to drift back, way back, to the heady days of
- [Big City Dreams](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/07/big-city-dreams.html) - The Observer reports on London’s struggling artists: We’ll get to that creative critical faculty in a second. We’ll get to that too. The cost of renting a studio in which to be abuzz with creativity is, we’re told, a major issue: Ah yes, the engine room. Powering the city of London with their ceaseless shovelling.
- [Bar Tabs And Tokens Of Esteem](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/07/bar-tabs-and-tokens-of-esteem.html) - Yes, it’s time to remind patrons that this rickety barge is kept afloat by the kindness of strangers. If you’d like to help it remain buoyant a while longer, and remain ad-free, there are shiny buttons below the fold with which to monetise any love. Debit and credit cards are accepted. If one-click haste is
- [Her Loveliness Revealed](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2019/05/her-loveliness-revealed.html) - Here’s an idea! Change your parents’ bad voting habits by refusing to breed. In the pages of Slate, Christina Cauterucci, whose enthusiasms include “gender and feminism,” wishes to share her wisdom: The prospect of harnessing one’s sexual and reproductive powers for social good is a tempting one. So, I’d like to present what I humbly
- [Friday Ephemera (685)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/07/friday-ephemera-685.html) - The thrill of Scotland. || Snaking and mortar. || Interspecies teamwork gets results. || Today’s word is suboptimal. || Bus crash-testing. || Fly the skies in comfort. || He’s in a lesbian relationship. || He’s called Knickers, you know. || A machine’s dream of 1920s Star Trek. || “Dissipates heat, conforms to body.” || Feel
- [He's Ready For His Close-Up](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/07/hes-ready-for-his-close-up.html) - As readers may imagine, I do have some sympathy with this view: https://twitter.com/CBHeresy/status/1675561146634338305?s=20 Note, in the background, the prominent reminder to the class – a countdown to the teacher’s birthday. Because, obviously, it’s all about him and acknowledging his fabulousness. But then, it so often is. Update, via the comments: Mike D adds, It has
- [Maybe Not Deft, But Certainly Bold](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2021/12/maybe-not-deft-but-certainly-bold.html) - The dishonesty, I mean. Speaking of which, he’s doing it for the students, you know. And he sometimes turns up to class in full drag. To make it a “safe space.” https://twitter.com/libsoftiktok/status/1467981470765490178?s=20 Update, via the comments: Regarding the second item, Jen quips, “Liar, liar, pants on fire.” Ah, but you see, it’s “a place for
- [Your Children Will Tell Me How Pretty I Am](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2022/06/your-children-will-tell-me-how-pretty-i-am.html) - Further to recent rumblings in the comments: “How do I look today?” https://twitter.com/EITC_Official/status/1533543290951192576?s=20 Because, naturally, it’s all about him. Oh, and let’s not forget the educational importance of those TikTok leggings. https://twitter.com/EITC_Official/status/1524515447952928771?s=20 Needless to say, one of many. Update, via the comments, where Joan adds, “Shirt –‘we are activists’ - is from my school...” Indeed.
- [The Riots, Summarised](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2011/08/the-riots-summarised.html) - “A disorientated and bleeding teenager on the streets of London. A gang pretend to help him, and then mug him.” Captures the ethos, I think. Meanwhile, our pocket-size revolutionary Laurie Penny - who of course has “no problem with principled, thought-through political ‘violence’” - is telling her readers: “Violence is rarely mindless. The politics of a
- [Friday Ephemera (684)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/06/friday-ephemera-684.html) - I thought it was a sandwich. || Choose your weapon. || Thief deterred with wetness and warmth. || And the winner is. || Today's word is irony. || “Euphoria overload, gotta spinny.” || The good, the bad and the gayageum. || Good to know, I guess. || Houseguest of note. || Hold space to fly
- [They Come To Teach Us](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2017/08/they-come-to-teach-us.html) - And behold their glittering minds: “You shouldn’t even have an opinion about this.” The above exchange was filmed at the Boston Free Speech Rally, August 19. A longer, even more educational version, with lots of additional shoving and liveliness, is embedded below the fold. And remember, these Children of Marcuse, the ones demanding “empathy” while
- [Reheated (81)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/06/reheated-81.html) - For newcomers and the nostalgic, some items from the archives: Pantomime. Sociology lecturer wants you to be disconcerted by his stockings. Let’s Do That Thing That Doesn’t Work. In which resentful narcissists give really bad advice. The Bedlamite Solution. He’s a campus counsellor and he’s here to help. Only Doing It For The Betterment Of
- [The Bedlamite Solution](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2021/10/the-bedlamite-solution.html) - The new student counselling director at Middlebury College has vowed to use “more inclusive” methods to treat student mental health, including a focus on white supremacy and social justice. Ah. I think I see the problem. Alberto Soto, who received his PhD. in counselling psychology from Brigham Young University, told the Middlebury Campus newspaper that…
- [There’s Something To Be Said For Inhibition](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/06/theres-something-to-be-said-for-inhibition.html) - I miss the concept of shame. As social correctives go, it was underrated. Apparently, we’ve arrived at a stage of civilisation in which chunky middle-aged men dress as women and then deliberately piss themselves in public, on camera, as an erotic high, before sharing the recording on social media and awaiting likes. Which is to
- [Friday Ephemera (683)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/06/friday-ephemera-683.html) - And how was your day at work, dear? || Swamp thing. || Stairwell situation. || Nommy-nommy-nom. || Nommy-nommy-nom 2. || Grim poll, scroll down. || Lumpy mud. || Flapping detected. || Attractive and practical. || A problem arose, a solution occurred. || A reminder to be careful who you hire. || The progressive retail experience,
- [Friday Ephemera (681)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/06/friday-ephemera-681.html) - Admit it, your mind went there. || Meet the girls. || Houseguest of note. || Turns out it could go either way. || Quite the grip. || Good to know. || Greetings, fellow women. || Sudden weight gain. || The woodpecker’s tongue. || The Great Chicken War. (h/t, Mark) || Repeat after him. || I
- [Clown Quarter Contagion](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2018/08/clown-quarter-contagion.html) - In the comments, Farnsworth M Muldoon steers us to this unhappy development: Male, pale and stale university professors are to be given “reverse mentors” to teach them about unconscious bias, under a new Government funded scheme. Under the project, white men in senior academic posts will be assigned a junior female colleague from an ethnic
- [Trying It On](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/06/trying-it-on.html) - And in ladies’ changing room news: Trying it on is indeed a phrase that comes to mind. At which point, readers may note how Mr Firico’s professed “non-binary” status doesn’t mean that he’d be content in the men’s changing rooms, as an option, with either being fine, and instead grants, in his mind, an entitlement
- [Friday Ephemera (680)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/06/friday-ephemera-680.html) - Nommy-nommy-nom. || Scenes from Quebec’s Museum of Civilisation. || Strange doggo. || Dogs, as understood by artificial intelligence. || He does this better than you do. || Bathing suit. || Brum brum. || The erotic arts. || Tickle my hindquarters. || Best to give it some clearance, I think. || Romancing detected. || New rules issued
- [Rise Of The Bedlamites](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2018/06/rise-of-the-bedlamites.html) - Andy Ngo on paying the price for other people’s intersectional piety: [Portland bakery owner, John] Blomgren’s chronology matches and corroborates [his employees’] version of events. However, having established that his staff had done nothing wrong did not alter Blomgren’s decision to fire them. “In this situation it doesn’t really matter that the two staff members
- [Friday Ephemera (679)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/05/friday-ephemera-679.html) - A rather tense situation. || His is bigger than yours. || Taste the rainbow. || Not today, baby. || British policing, circa 2023. || Meanwhile, in Germany. || “We don’t use gendered language in this household.” || And how was your day at school? || When getting dressed has to be, like, super-duper complicated. ||
- [The Pain Of Being Polly](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/05/the-pain-of-being-polly.html) - Speaking, as we were, of the Guardian’s imperious opinionator Polly Toynbee, madam’s latest outpouring finds her reflecting – if that’s quite the right word – on the burden of her own elevated status. The woes, as it were, of the upper-and-upper-middle-class socialist: Wait for it. Update, via the comments: We’re also told that, as a
- [Friday Ephemera (678)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/05/friday-ephemera-678.html) - Not ideal, really. || Niche dissonance detected. || Incoming. || Incoming 2. || Oh no, not the inevitable, again. || Shadow lag. || How to repel women, part 2. Previously. || Some pleasing trash removal. || Sexual display. || The progressive retail experience, parts 475, 476, 477, 478, and 479. || Quick test, no prep,
- [Reheated (80)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/05/reheated-80.html) - For newcomers and the nostalgic, some items from the archives: Clown Quarter Contagion. At Birmingham University, making white staff “feel uncomfortable” is a goal. Not Boldly, Then. On politically-corrected space exploration. Your Failure To Enthuse Is Violence, Apparently. Roy G Guzmán is oppressed by the “violence” of people not liking his poetry. Also, open thread.
- [Not Boldly, Then](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2018/11/not-boldly-then.html) - With space exploration, we have to consider how we are using language, and what it carries from the history of exploration on Earth. Even if words like “colonisation” have a different context off-world, on somewhere like Mars, it’s still not OK to use those narratives. In the pages of National Geographic, Nadia Drake and Lucianne
- [Vibeslayer](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2016/12/vibeslayer.html) - Speaking of wordplay, we’re once again being told that Baby, It’s Cold Outside is actually an ode to date rape. As so often, the umbrage-takers display a remarkable level of tin-earedness regarding the sentiment of the song, and a joke about feigned intoxication as an excuse for behaving as one might wish. And as noted
- [Friday Ephemera (677)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/05/friday-ephemera-677.html) - The burger commercial we deserve. || I believe this is what’s known as booty. || “The aesthetics of the scrotum is little explored.” || Regarding lyrics. Somewhat related. || The Nostromo aesthetic. The videos about Kubrick are also worth a peek. || Slappy face. || Suboptimal road surface. || Communing with asphalt. || It’s a
- [Reheated (79)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/05/reheated-79.html) - For newcomers and the nostalgic, some items from the archives: Those Aboriginal Telescopes. On tongue-bathing the primitive. A Stupefying Vanity. On “social justice” and other pernicious academic fuzzwords. Shamelessly, He Quotes Himself. On Portland’s mentally uniform radicals, and their malevolence. Also, open thread. Share ye links and bicker.
- [Shamelessly, He Quotes Himself](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2020/08/shamelessly-he-quotes-himself.html) - Lifted from the comments, regarding recent scenes from Portland. Though it applies to the Mao-ling left more generally. This is what happens when malevolent narcissists don’t get slapped and thrown to the ground. The kind of psychology we’re seeing, over and over again, overwhelmingly from the left, is an exercise in bad faith, a fundamental dishonesty. It therefore isn’t
- [Zombie Movie](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2018/03/zombie-movie.html) - Jordan Peterson tries to speak at Grant Hall, Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, Monday, March 5: Meanwhile, outside the hall, the woke-lings feel good about themselves: I’m told they’re attracted by the smell of brains. Update: Another scene from inside the venue. Amid the shrieking and psychodrama, note the spraying of the audience.
- [Friday Ephemera (676)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/05/friday-ephemera-676.html) - You want one and you know it. || When the neighbours drop by. || Visitors of a different kind. || Dating decisions. || I gather this is what goes on in ladies' fitting rooms. || A suitably ill-tempered guide to the Russian Revolution and its consequences - part 1, part 2, part 3. || Just
- [My Kingdom For A Haircut](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2020/06/my-kingdom-for-a-haircut.html) - Yes, it’s time to remind patrons that this rickety barge, on whose seating your arses rest, is kept afloat by the kindness of strangers. If you’d like to help it remain buoyant a while longer, and remain ad-free, there’s an orange button below with which to monetise any love. Debit and credit cards are accepted.
- [For Wear And Tear On The Upholstery](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2020/08/for-wear-and-tear-on-the-upholstery.html) - Yes, it’s time to remind patrons that this rickety barge, on whose seating your arses rest, is kept afloat by the kindness of strangers. If you’d like to help it remain buoyant a while longer, and remain ad-free, there’s an orange button below with which to monetise any love. Debit and credit cards are accepted.
- [He Was Fondling The Tip Jar In A Suggestive Manner](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2020/11/he-was-fondling-the-tip-jar-in-a-suggestive-manner.html) - Yes, it’s time to remind patrons that this rickety barge, on whose seating your arses rest, is kept afloat by the kindness of strangers. If you’d like to help it remain buoyant a while longer, and remain ad-free, there’s an orange button below with which to monetise any love. Debit and credit cards are accepted.
- [Let Us Show Our Gratitude, They Cried Out In Unison](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/04/let-us-show-our-gratitude-they-cried.html) - Yes, it’s time to remind patrons that this rickety barge, on whose seating your arses rest, is kept afloat by the kindness of strangers. If you’d like to help it remain buoyant a while longer, and remain ad-free, there are shiny buttons below the fold with which to monetise any love. Debit and credit cards
- [Behold My Testimonials](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2011/02/behold-my-testimonials.html) - As this blog is now four years old - and despite conventions of modesty and good taste - I thought I’d air some of the kind words aimed this way during that period. (The unkind words, a much longer and more expressive list, can wait for another day.) One of my favourite blogospherical institutions is
- [Friday Ephemera (675)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/04/friday-ephemera-675.html) - You may grip your chair arms now. || Competitive urination. || I believe it’s called spite. || A brief, salty guide to the French Revolution. (h/t, Elephants Gerald) || Five historical figures who were assassinated in the lavatory. || Somewhat related. || The thrill of rubber. || The thrill of rubber 2. || Ruminations on
- [Reheated (78)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/04/reheated-78.html) - For newcomers and the nostalgic, some items from the archives: Wherever Possible, Avoid Mad People. Students “negatively impacted” by insufficiently sensitive buffet. Such Details Are Beneath Her. On the arithmetical shortcomings of the Guardian’s Polly Toynbee. Chewing The Scenery For Social Justice. Performative meltdowns and pithy symbolism. Also, open thread. Share ye links and bicker.
- [Rather Niche Recreation](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/04/rather-niche-recreation.html) - He likes to intimidate women and to pilfer things of no possible use to him. Now tell him how pretty he is. Repeatedly. Update, via the comments: Note the obfuscatory use of the term TERF, which in context simply means women. Or non-compliant women. Or women caught off guard. Oh, and a riposte of note: Also, open
- [Nourishing, You Say](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/04/nourishing-you-say.html) - Or, Display Purposes Only. Via Twitter: Presumably, the statue above, which resembles its sculptor Aske Kreilgaard and is described by the museum as a “nourishing man,” and which was originally created to celebrate International Men’s Day, is meant to have some symbolic value. A message of sorts. The decision to adorn what was once the
- [He’d Be A Comforting Presence](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/04/hed-be-a-comforting-presence.html) - From the high-security wing of transgender TikTok: Tara, the “poly trans lesbian” quoted above, has given quite a lot of thought to the subject of forcing his way into women’s bathrooms and other intimate spaces. Perhaps we should be thanking him for clarifying the issue, albeit inadvertently. Update, via the comments, where Rafi adds, Not really,
- [Friday Ephemera (674)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/04/friday-ephemera-674.html) - Bum seen, sparks fly. || Background figure detected. || The fairer sex. || Quiet, please, rationalisation in progress. || Bank robber brandishes gun, encounters teamwork. || Nommy-nommy-nom. || Nommy-nommy-nom 2. || Neighbourly scenes. || An archive of ancient 78s. || Passengers of note. || Pizza delivery drama. || The progressive retail experience, parts 468, 469,
- [Elsewhere (318)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/04/elsewhere-318.html) - Christopher Rufo on self-flattering fantasies: Andy Ngo shares a bedlamite horror story: Frankly, I’m still processing the words trans therapist. On Twitter, Mr Ngo adds, “As I dig into more disturbing criminal cases involving extreme violence or child sex abuse, I’m finding many of the suspects are trans but are never reported as such by
- [Bad Thoughts](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/04/bad-thoughts.html) - In other we’re-letting-the-mentally-ill-teach-your-children news: The teacher in question, a dysmorphic man named Ashlee Renczkowski, is apparently prone to “phases of depression,” and was, in his words, “having bad thoughts.” And hence of course the comments about shooting the children in his care, grades six through eight, presumably with the three firearms in his possession. The
- [The Unsayable, Said](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/04/the-unsayable-said.html) - Little things. For instance, Below the fold, you’ll find a short film by Rob Montz about Amy Wax, quoted above, a professor of law at the University of Pennsylvania. Professor Wax has been mentioned here once or twice before. Generally regarding her observations of everyday phenomena that are seemingly unmentionable, at least on campus, and
- [Friday Ephemera (673)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/04/friday-ephemera-673.html) - The mystery of his uneven bangs. || An interactive map of Mars. || Dad despairs, Mom remembers. || Done with mirrors. || “Toilet air could be smelly, but the concentrations of noxious gasses are pretty low.” || Super-light, non-fade structural colour. || Hotel California. || Kidney stones. || I’m seeing a lot of thongs. ||
- [An Intellectual Being](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2016/09/an-intellectual-being.html) - Via the comments, AnotherFred steers us to an outpouring of note by Melissa Fabello, managing editor of Everyday Feminism. In this potentially classic piece, from September last year, Ms Fabello rails against those who presume to question her feminist gospel and its charmless lamentations: If you’re a feminist who spends any amount of time on the
- [Endorsement Of Note](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/04/endorsement-of-note.html) - From the barren North: Said the evil person. Via social media, Mr Dolatowski has aired his view that “Trans women aren’t a threat if I use the bathroom” – meaning, one assumes, that other dysmorphic men aren’t a threat to him – while also insisting, “I know I’m not a threat to anyone.” Except, of
- [The Unsayable](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2018/06/the-unsayable.html) - Further to the first item here, on the academic taboo of affirming bourgeois values, Ben Weingarten interviews the woman at the heart of that particular storm, law professor Amy Wax: Ben Weingarten: There was controversy over your first piece and maybe it’s in part because, while many of your critics would say that every culture
- [Reheated (77)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/04/reheated-77.html) - For newcomers and the nostalgic, some items from the archives. Think of this batch as a kind of “critical race theory” special edition. Beneath The Planet Of The Bedlamites. Oh, the thrill of being screamed at by mad people. You’re Reading The Comments, Right? When wokeness collides with logic, only one can be allowed to
- [Friday Ephemera (672)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/04/friday-ephemera-672.html) - Bonus bounce. || His is bigger. || I bring you the arts. || Being overly curious. || Best not to, really. || The thrill of laundry. || In a gentleman’s colon, obviously. || Guys, you’re not helping. || Hair crisis. || Incoming. || Incoming 2. || In case you were wondering. || I want one
- [The Final Outrage](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2015/11/the-final-outrage.html) - In other Earth-rumbling news, Twitter is struggling. Its disappointing financial results, mass layoffs and declining user experience show things aren’t well for the little blue bird. And now this: the replacement of the beloved “fav” star with a heart. Dark days. The hearts are the final straw: it’s time to nationalise Twitter. Yes, it’s the Guardian.
- [Agency And Its Enemies](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2021/05/agency-and-its-enemies.html) - The more problems they made for themselves, the more they were rewarded [by the welfare state]. We had a peculiar demoralisation… I mean, an actual removal of morality from all human consideration. I remember, I had a patient with multiple sclerosis, and her husband worked, but he didn’t earn a lot of money, and they needed some
- [And In Thong-Related News](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/04/and-in-thong-related-news.html) - A project is undertaken: Years of “working through” one’s state of heftiness obviously being preferable to actual, you know, weight loss. Which, one suspects, might have taken less time. But hey, we mustn’t reach for the stars. Fearlessly, heroically, said garment was duly rocked. The result, needless to say, is “cool-girl style vibes” - a
- [Answers On A Postcard, Please](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/03/answers-on-a-postcard-please-4.html) - A question regarding this, and many others like it: I wonder whether this absurdity is going to continue indefinitely, stretching into the future, beyond my lifetime. Or will it peter out, like any fad, and then be remembered with some embarrassment? Via Karl. Consider this an open thread.
- [It’s A Feast For The Senses](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2017/06/its-a-feast-for-the-senses.html) - Attention, lowly peasants - art is happening. Today I bring you an untitled "guerrilla performance" by "artist, healer and dancer" Shizu Homma, and an associate named aj, filmed in New York City, April 2010. Ms Homma tells us that she likes to “interrogate the human condition by searching for movement that exaggerates the behaviour of our species,”
- [Friday Ephemera (671)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/03/friday-ephemera-671.html) - Rust of some significance. || The French being French. || The atmosphere of the Sun. || When you want to be at an angle. || Incoming. || Incoming 2. And yes, they survived. || One for the bargain hunters. || Our betters being better than us. || Washing instructions should always be read carefully. ||
- [And Another Balanced Individual](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/03/and-another-balanced-individual.html) - An educator, obviously: According to the educator in question, Steven Shaviro, “It is far more admirable to kill a racist, homophobic or transphobic speaker than it is to shout them down.” What unfailing criteria might be used to determine such things, and how those gorged on indignation might avoid error, prior to any murder attempt,
- [Less Blow, More Cut](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/03/less-blow-more-cut.html) - From the pages of the Guardian: “More than 400 hairdressers have attended workshops” to “role-play how conversations might go.” Consider this an open thread. Share ye links and bicker.
- [Friday Ephemera (670)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/03/friday-ephemera-670.html) - As old as time, the awkward threesome. || You want one and you know it. || Broad daylight heist. || Happy ending. || Today her name is Horus. || “Emily is a woman,” says Dr Fielding. || Fatty Fatgirl and other fashion brands. || Because you demanded it, the thrill of women’s basketball. || On
- [Elsewhere (317)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/03/elsewhere-317.html) - Heather Mac Donald on the feminised university and its pathologies: Christopher Rufo has some related thoughts: Apparently, the way to entrance others and to suddenly become fascinating is to make yourself your own go-to subject. And Anna Slatz on “inclusivity” and questionable role models: The recap of Mr Helms’ adventures in bra-thievery and fetishistic cross-dressing starts
- [She’ll Ruin The Leather](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2018/02/shell-ruin-the-leather.html) - It’s once again time to hack our way through the deep artistic underbrush of Sandrine Schaefer. Specifically, her 2012 performance piece Ambulation, shared below in sadly abbreviated form, and in which Ms Schaefer presents her buttocks to the world and shifts her weight from heel to toe, while her shoes emit the sounds of her
- [When Intellectuals Gather](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/03/when-intellectuals-gather.html) - To ruminate deeply on the issues of the day: Among the Judge’s supposedly harmful and traumatising views are his belief that dysmorphic men and autogynephile perverts should not venture into ladies’ toilets and changing rooms, and a refusal to use the preferred pronouns of a transgender sex offender, an enthusiast of pornography featuring children. Other
- [Hard To Tell If It’s Going Well](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/03/hard-to-tell-if-its-going-well.html) - I have, of late, been starving you of artistic sustenance. Here, let me fix that with a big dollop of the stuff. Specifically, some “performance documentation” from Manhattan’s Grace Exhibition Space. The mighty talent featured in the following video is artist, educator and “community organiser” Alex Romania, whose work teeters on the edge of profundity,
- [She Does All This For Us, You Know](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2016/01/she-does-all-this-for-us-you-know.html) - As it’s Monday, I thought I’d cheer you with another chance to marvel at the mind-shattering talents of Ms Sandrine Schaefer, a performance artist whose adventures with lettuce and underwear have previously entertained us. Being as she is so fearless and uncompromising, her latest work entails, A series of research based actions in public spaces that
- [Look At My Shiny Identity](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/03/look-at-my-shiny-identity.html) - Via Mr Muldoon, a tale of what sounds like mid-life contrivance: Imagine the fun. The contriver in question is Amanda Elend, a scrupulously progressive woman whose list of causes is extensive, if somewhat predictable. She tells us, Ah, the basis of any sound marriage. Coinciding, oddly enough, with the big four-oh: The idea of having
- [Friday Ephemera (669)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/03/friday-ephemera-669.html) - I don't want to rush you, but the ground is approaching. || Dissonant vibes. || Gritty crime drama. || Suboptimal scenario. (h/t, pst314) || A soap manufacturer speaks. || For those who dislike dusting. || Today’s word is inadvisable. || Throws like a girl. || How menfolk pass the time. || Crashing into the Moon.
- [Statusful Worries](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/03/statusful-worries.html) - From the University of Oxford’s Department of Biology, a new opportunity for ostentatious fretting: A suitably concerned survey of the scientific names of African vertebrates revealed – presumably, to gasps and much rending of garments – that, The rewards, I would guess, of doing the actual leg work, and of funding said leg work, resulting
- [Friday Ephemera (668)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/03/friday-ephemera-668.html) - The dimensions of various things, from the Japanese Badger to Mr Auric Goldfinger. || Soyuz “Globus” mechanical navigation computer. (h/t, Elephants Gerald) || Today's word is self-perception. || At last, a database of silhouettes. || Snack dispute of note. (h/t, Elephants Gerald) || Best not to, really. || Being all-woman, he wants to share his
- [Militantly Nude](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2011/09/militantly-nude.html) - Zombie pays a visit to a San Francisco “nude-in” and isn’t impressed by what she sees: Yet no matter how successful they are in smashing cultural norms, they still can’t escape the general consensus that day-to-day urban nudity has public health consequences. The nudists’ reply is that the public health argument is merely a smokescreen
- [How Dare You Defend Yourselves](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2019/10/how-dare-you-defend-yourselves.html) - In the comments, WTP steers us to this crime news item, in which a 23-year-old man, described as “known to police,” attempted a spot of armed robbery at a Dollar General store before being shot and killed by a store employee. Being schooled in modern manners, the family of said man are terribly indignant: They’re
- [Shoplifter’s Indignation](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/03/shoplifters-indignation.html) - “This is not okay,” says she. “What the hell's wrong with you?” Variation on a theme. What’s striking in both cases, and doubtless in countless others, is the almost farcical air of entitlement. The ludicrous harrumphing. Sort of, “How dare you physically stop me from stealing your property!” Also, open thread. Share ye links and bicker.
- [Dodging Bullets](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/03/dodging-bullets.html) - Via Mr Muldoon in the comments, a shocking revelation: Not so much overlooked, I think, as warning signs heeded. As we’ve seen many times, pretending to be a they does rather send a message regarding neuroticism, pretentiousness, captiousness, and the likelihood of disruption. If job applicants in effect announce that they expect anyone nearby to
- [Zero Chill](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2020/11/zero-chill.html) - My son needed masks that wouldn’t make him lose his shit when his favourite isn’t clean, Yes, we’re once again visiting the pages of Scary Mommy, home of progressive parenting and assorted “empowerment.” But don’t worry, the stroppy son in question, the one losing his shit, is a juvenile, a tween, not a grown adult.
- [How Dare You Not Defer To My Lack Of Self-Possession](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2021/04/how-dare-you-not-defer-to-my-lack-of-self-possession.html) - People often don’t like the words I say or write because they don’t like the way I say or write them. They don’t like the emotion, intention, passion, and words I use to emphasise all of the above. In the pages of Scary Mommy, Ms Amber Leventry, a “queer person and educator,” is telling us how it
- [Friday Ephemera (667)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/03/friday-ephemera-667.html) - Only the carpet was hurt. || The thrill of modern romance. || How to use your arms. || Hair crisis of note. || It’s called My Neighbour’s Car Alarm. || Dinosaur migration. || When you fancy a relaxing stroll. || Cooking utensil of note. || Playdough surgery, an educational series. || When teeth explode. ||
- [Reheated (76)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/03/reheated-76.html) - For newcomers and the nostalgic, some items from the archives: His Skin Just Won’t Come Off. Academic of pallor denounces “whiteness,” flaps his scented handkerchief. Crumbs Made Her Unhappy. Atlantic senior editor Honor Jones dislikes crumbs. And so, she got divorced. Daddy’s Baggage. Two-year-old boy likes footballs and tractors. Progressive father twitches. Also, open thread.
- [His Skin Just Won’t Come Off](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2019/08/his-skin-just-wont-come-off.html) - More fun times in the Clown Quarter, where our betters display their plumage: The head of Western Connecticut State University’s psychology department shared his own qualms about being white on Tuesday, claiming that “whiteness needs to go away.” Daniel Barrett… goes on to muse about his personal tumultuous relationship with his identity… [and] proclaims that
- [Trust Me, I’m A Witchdoctor](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2019/10/trust-me-im-a-witchdoctor.html) - Via Mr Muldoon, a peek into the comment pages of the Guardian, where Ms Ngaree Blow attempts to sell the merits of prehistoric healing: Healthcare systems in Australia that are considered “mainstream” are fundamentally colonial organisations: designed, established and informed by Western paradigms and biomedical models of care. Going with what works and works reliably.
- [Insatiable Delusions](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2008/10/insatiable-delu.html) - In a recent post on political bias in the classroom, I pointed out the insatiable nature of academic radicalism: Several, rather vivid, examples were given, but if another illustration is needed, here’s Martin Kramer on Rashid Khalidi, a terribly oppressed radical now anointed as Edward Said Professor at Columbia University: Yes, of course. That poor
- [Friday Ephemera (666)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/02/friday-ephemera-666.html) - It’s called health-conscious cooking, darling. || Modern dating. And yes, she’s a Guardian contributor. || You know, I'm no expert but I’m not sure it’s meant to do that. || Same deal here. || Today’s word is suddenly. || Classroom scenes. Well, at least it's keeping the kids quiet. || Incoming. || Look, I’ll tell
- [I Believe That Frock Is Mine, Sir](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/02/i-believe-that-frock-is-mine-sir.html) - Well, this is awkward: Update, via the comments: Readers are invited to ponder the thought process here. I mean, when you’re an attention-seeking public figure, an activist and a supposedly “genderfluid” being, and the deputy assistant secretary of the Department of Energy’s Office of Spent Fuel and Waste Disposition, and you keep nicking random women’s
- [Clowns Ousted, Conspiracies Invoked](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2022/02/clowns-ousted-conspiracies-invoked.html) - The progressive San Francisco school-board president recalled by voters earlier this week claimed her ousting was a “consequence” of fighting for racial justice, and represents a victory for “white supremacists.” Yes, those “white supremacists” for which San Francisco is famed - i.e., local parents, including hundreds of “non-citizen immigrants,” who happen to have skin of
- [We’re Compensating You for That Face](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2011/09/were-compensating-you-for-that-face.html) - Readers may recall the comical Marxist Bea Campbell and her urge to see the population being enlisted by an egalitarian state, in which “emancipating governance” would be based, rather curiously, on greater state control. Ms Campbell’s other convictions include a belief that Erich Honecker was more “progressive” than David Cameron, and that families and civil society are,
- [Setting An Example, You See](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2021/02/setting-an-example-you-see.html) - Via pst314 in the comments, a tale of crime and punishment. Well, crime, anyway: A man who was carjacked at gunpoint while he shovelled out a parking space in [West Town, Chicago] on Tuesday night is refusing to press charges in the case, according to Chicago police. The victim “felt sorry for them” and felt that the
- [In Cross-Dressing Butcher News](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/02/in-cross-dressing-butcher-news.html) - Via the ladies at Reduxx, a tale that begins as farce, but soon veers elsewhere. Imagine, if you will, a 53-year-old Scottish butcher and advocate for “transgender issues,” a man famed locally, both for his “shockingly bad” customer service and his cross-dressing proclivities, and also for thieving ladies’ undergarments, resulting in the nickname “knicker pincher.”
- [I’ve Been A Bad Girl](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2020/02/ive-been-a-bad-girl.html) - In racial-dominatrix news: Why liberal white women pay a lot of money to learn over dinner how they’re racist. Says the Guardian, A growing number of women are paying to confront their privilege – and racism – at dinners that cost $2,500… A frank discussion is led by co-founders Regina Jackson, who is black, and
- [Friday Ephemera (665)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/02/friday-ephemera-665.html) - Artificial eye contact. || I fear suspension may be tested. || A job that calls for teamwork. || Face time. || Ah, yes, the old face-in-scrotum thing. Wait, what? || Mind the wires. || What the magician sees. || Feel the power of Mac OS 9. (h/t, Things) || Assorted starship corridors. Previously and related:
- [Causes, More Causes and the Politics of Trainers](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2011/08/causes-more-causes-and-the-politics-of-trainers.html) - Further to this, some post-riot rumination. Of variable quality. First up, Daniel Hannan on criminal opportunism: Potential criminals will always outnumber police officers. Law enforcement works on the theory that not all potential criminals will go on a spree at the same moment – just as banking rests on the assumption that we won’t all simultaneously
- [A Very Modern Mugshot](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/02/a-very-modern-mugshot.html) - For some reason, the words “false reporting” caught my eye. Via Joan. Consider this an open thread.
- [The Sound Of Her Unspooling](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2020/03/the-sound-of-her-unspooling.html) - Sometimes, it can feel surprising that any beauty still exists in the world. It can feel wrong to keep cultivating our gardens while the world shatters outside our windows. Yes, it’s time to once again gawp at the mindset of the Salon-reader demographic. Or at least the Salon-writer demographic, with which it presumably overlaps. Specifically,
- [Hear The Lamentations Of Unstable Leftist Women](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2018/11/hear-the-lamentations-of-unstable-leftist-women.html) - Or, The Orange Man Wrecked My Marriage: By now it’s a truism to point out that the election of Donald Trump… [has] prompted a wholesale realignment of American politics. But it’s also sent shock waves through heterosexual romance. In the piously left-leaning New York magazine, Molly Langmuir invites us to sympathise with the inner turmoil
- [Elsewhere (86)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2013/02/elsewhere-86.html) - Janet Daley on Obama’s obstinate denial of reality: His party’s view of the spending question is, indeed, ingeniously delusional. The Democrat leader in the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, has said, “It is almost a false argument to say we have a spending problem.” (I love that “almost”.) Her party whip, Steny Hoyer, asserted that
- [Friday Ephemera (664)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/02/friday-ephemera-664.html) - Well, it was a big egg. || A visit to the barber. || Enliven your cleaning with the laser of shame. || Nibbles. || Embiggening of note. || Some cooking occurred. || Row brewing. || Steed and Mrs Peel visit The Town Of No Return. || Remember, this never happens. (NSFW) || Now I want
- [Friday Ephemera (663)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/02/friday-ephemera-663.html) - Crabs give pedicure. || Deaf man and his cat. || Not quite what I imagined. || Calling International Rescue. || The calculator drawer. || Random Street Views. || City living scenes. || A.I. attempts to make sign-language manual. (h/t, Dicentra) || At last, music generated from text. || Smart slime and throbbing bloblets. || Bruising
- [I Axe You](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2018/09/i-axe-you.html) - Sounding dim and uneducated is now, it seems, something to aspire to and encourage, especially at universities: A sociolinguist from Stanford University claims the way African-Americans speak leads to discrimination across the board — in the court system, interactions with police, education, and employment. Professor John Rickford says, “Black Vernacular English” is viewed as less
- [You’ll Feel Better Afterwards](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/01/youll-feel-better-afterwards.html) - Or, How This Place Is Still Here After Sixteen Bloody Years. Yes, it’s time to remind patrons that this rickety barge, on whose seating your arses rest, is kept afloat by the kindness of strangers. If you’d like to help it remain buoyant a while longer, and remain ad-free, there are shiny buttons below with
- [His Nuptials Were Impending](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2019/08/his-nuptials-were-impending.html) - Posting will be, at best, intermittent for the next week or so, for which I apologise in advance. I can imagine the terrible, crushing impact this will have on your lives. However, I do have a half-decent excuse, in that, said interruption to normal service is on account of my getting hitched next week. To
- [Friday Ephemera (662)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/01/friday-ephemera-662.html) - Perhaps there’s a word for this new dance-move sensation. || Big-ass paper plane. || A brief history of topiary. (h/t, Things) || Answers on a postcard, please. || ChatGPT does physics, with partial success. || Jupiter. (h/t, Dicentra) || Volcanic eruption seen from space. || Remember, always respect the media. || The progressive retail experience,
- [How To Create A Low-Trust Society](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/01/how-to-create-a-low-trust-society.html) - I stumbled across this tweet by American Conservative editor Helen Andrews, in which she remarks on pausing her commute at the local Metro, in Washington, DC, and counting the number of fare-dodgers that could be spotted within a five-minute period. An exercise she repeated, with an average of 22 fare-dodgers and a peak of 40.
- [Don’t Oppress My People With Your Acceptance And Compliments](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2021/04/dont-oppress-my-people-with-your-acceptance-and-compliments.html) - In the pages of the Guardian, an elaborate humblebrag, care of race-grifter Natalie Morris: It’s often hard to articulate why something that sounds like a compliment can be so harmful. On the racism scale, being told that you’re beautiful is hardly the worst thing that can happen. But just because something presents as a positive
- [Untooned](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2008/05/untooned.html) - Now here’s a thing. Pixeloo has produced a striking, indeed alarming, rendering of a certain cartoon patriarch. Click image for full effect. The artist adds, Slightly less disturbing are the renderings of Mario and Jessica Rabbit. The “untooning” process can be seen here.
- [Untooned (2)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2009/07/untooned-2.html) - Further to Pixeloo’s “detooning” of Homer Simpson, here’s Tim O’Brien’s oil painting of Charlie Brown. I think it’s the eyes that do it. There’s tragicomedy, sure, but with just a hint of potential serial killer... Via Drawn!
- [Please Ignore The Sirens And The Flashing Red Light](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/01/please-ignore-the-sirens-and-the-flashing-red-light.html) - In other news: The lady quoted above is referring to this ongoing adventure in sensitivity and tolerance: Quite how the lack of risk was determined has not been made clear by the police. And as one might imagine, many parents, and schoolgirls, aren’t entirely thrilled to find said gentleman on the bus used by the
- [You’re Reading The Comments, Right?](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/01/youre-reading-the-comments-right.html) - Where, for instance, pst314 and Mr Muldoon point us to an “analysis” piece in Scientific American, in which we’re urged to fret about “the violence Black men experience in [American] football,” and in which we’re told that the physicality of the sport “disproportionately affects black men.” This is framed in the article so as to
- [Friday Ephemera (661)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/01/friday-ephemera-661.html) - The machine uprising, day 5. (h/t, Emil) || The machine uprising, day 6. || Someone else’s dinner. || Arsehole detected. || A map of undersea cables. || A triumph of elastication. || Combat aircraft concepts. (h/t, Things) || Courtesy in odd places. || Suburban scenes. || When you need nine hours of cassette-play. || Music
- [More Stoicism in the Guardian](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2011/02/more-stoicism-in-the-guardian.html) - Time for another classic sentence, care of Dea Birkett, who tells us, quite emphatically: This is cultural apartheid. And, In another place, when one section of society was condemned to a different, less attractive, unseen entrance it was called apartheid. What, you ask, has caused Ms Birkett’s lava stream of umbrage? We used to be able to
- [Get Thee Behind Me, Mr Kipling](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/01/get-thee-behind-me-mr-kipling.html) - In dangers-of-the-workplace news: The grown adult quoted above is Professor Susan Jebb, employed by the University of Oxford to think deeply on matters of diet, and current chair of the Food Standards Agency. For our disapproving academic, the workplace is akin to a “smoky pub,” due to the occasional presence of cake, and therefore conjures
- [Don’t Bother Me with Details](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2009/10/dont-bother-me-with-details.html) - I see the Guardian has wheeled out Linda Bellos, another high priestess of identity politics, to air her umbrage at Top Gear’s Jeremy Clarkson. Clarkson, we’re told, “makes a living by being gratuitously offensive.” Unlike the elevated Ms Bellos, who makes a living by, among other things, being gratuitously offended. And saying things like this: As
- [Reheated (75)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/01/reheated-75.html) - For newcomers and the nostalgic, some items from the archives: Also, open thread. Share ye links and bicker.
- [Today’s Word is Chutzpah](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2016/01/todays-word-is-chutzpah.html) - This just in: An artist has been given thousands of pounds of public money to simply live in Glasgow for a year. Oh come on. There’s at least one joke in there. Scottish Government quango Creative Scotland is giving £15,000 to Ellie Harrison after she vowed not to leave the city limits for all of 2016. The
- [Another Arts Council Triumph](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2009/11/another-arts-council-triumph.html) - Speaking of the Arts Council and its casual arrogance, Karen steers our attention to this little nugget: Ah, dance, poetry and epileptic fitting. A fine night out by anyone’s standards. But how will this gesture – sorry, seizure - be achieved? Isn’t it all rather messy and difficult to predict? Chocolate, booze and fasting? And it’s
- [Artists for Gaia](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2009/11/artists-for-gaia.html) - Yesterday’s post mentioned in passing an Arts Council project that typifies the standards we’ve come to expect from publicly funded art. Jarvis Cocker, the country’s foremost socialist pop musician, was sent to the Arctic for “inspiration” and to raise planetary consciousness, along with another two dozen artistic luminaries: The ecological insights gleaned by Mr Cocker? Here’s
- [Worth Every Penny](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2011/09/worth-every-penny.html) - Readers may have noted the NowhereIsland art project, in which assorted radical freeloaders – referred to as a “think tank” - were shipped to the Arctic at public expense to ponder the possibilities of progressive utopia and generally engorge their cultural glands. While moored at Nyskjaeret, an apparently unclaimed island the size of a football pitch,
- [Friday Ephemera (660)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/01/friday-ephemera-660.html) - “Can it be done?” || A dispute over parking, in two parts. || Telesnaps of TARDIS interiors. || Tough stuff. || A feminist’s view of autogynephilia and transgender ideology. (NSFW) || Workplace woes. || Twerking woo. || What “equity” involves. || Spot the dots. || Steady, boys. (h/t, Darleen) || His - and I say
- [The Scissors Suggest A Failure Of Patience](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/01/the-scissors-suggest-a-failure-of-patience.html) - Via the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, I bring you bondage news: The bondage of glitter, I mean. And the mass-produced plastic trees. Ah, deep and spiritual. Immensely ethnic. Oh well done. Have a toffee. Mine means Son of Thom, or, at a push, Twin. This truth. Big pride. It’s heady stuff. And a lot to take
- [Elsewhere (315)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/01/elsewhere-315.html) - Richard Vedder on a ratio of note: Ah, but once you’ve conjured into being an Elimination of Harmful Language Initiative, for instance, someone – most likely several someones – will have to run it, or at least sit around in a designated office while waiting to be paid. Robert J Morris on race and medicine:
- [[ Shakes Glitter Out Of G-String ]](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2021/06/shakes-glitter-out-of-g-string.html) - Time, I think, for an open thread. And while I’m being good to you, I’ll throw in one of these, as a bonus. Because, yes, it’s time to remind patrons that this rickety barge, on whose seating your arses rest, is kept afloat by the kindness of strangers. If you’d like to help it remain buoyant
- [Time To Fire Up The Blessing Generator](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2021/09/time-to-fire-up-the-blessing-generator.html) - Because, yes, it’s time to remind patrons that this rickety barge, on whose seating your arses rest, is kept afloat by the kindness of strangers. If you’d like to help it remain buoyant a while longer, and remain ad-free, there’s an orange button below with which to monetise any love. Debit and credit cards are
- [Gas Bill](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2021/12/gas-bill.html) - The bill for gassing, that is. The last one for the year. Because, yes, ‘tis time to remind patrons that this rickety barge, on whose seating your arses rest, is kept afloat by the kindness of strangers. If you’d like to help it remain buoyant a while longer, and remain ad-free, there are buttons in
- [They Insisted On Showing Their Gratitude](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2022/05/they-insisted-on-showing-their-gratitude.html) - It’s time, I fear, to remind patrons that this rickety barge, on whose seating your arses rest, is kept afloat by the kindness of strangers. If you’d like to help it remain buoyant a while longer, and remain ad-free, there are buttons in the sidebar with which to monetise any love. Debit and credit cards
- [After 15 Years, He Finally Cleaned The Place](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2022/07/after-15-years-he-finally-cleaned-the-place.html) - Yes, a subtle layout overhaul. A light dusting. As is the way with such things, there may be one or two glitches to sort out, archived videos that need to be resized, etc. Do feel free to point them out. But overall, the blog should be more legible and responsive to a range of devices.
- [He Just Wouldn’t Stop Banging On](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2022/02/he-just-wouldnt-stop-banging-on.html) - Those of you who keep track of these things will know that today is this blog’s fifteenth birthday. I started doing… this, whatever it is, on the same day that the original iPhone was announced, back when the Blackberry Curve was a desirable thing, and 200 million people had a MySpace account. After close to
- [It Was A Time Of Howls And Tin-Rattling](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2022/11/it-was-a-time-of-howls-and-tin-rattling.html) - With my brief absence having resulted in the rending of hair and garments, it seems a good a time to remind patrons that this rickety barge is kept afloat by the kindness of strangers. If you’d like to help it remain buoyant a while longer, and remain ad-free, there are buttons in the sidebar with
- [Trump, Erections, And A Lack Thereof](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2019/02/trump-erections-and-a-lack-thereof.html) - Salon interrupts its usual programming – repeatedly announcing how terrible white people are – to bring us this: Trump’s assault on the country’s mental health is part of a much larger pattern: the Republican Party and the conservative movement have, for decades, advanced an agenda which has hurt the overall health and well-being of most Americans.
- [Friday Ephemera (659)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/01/friday-ephemera-659.html) - How to lose your shoes. || Crown flash. || It fell from the sky. (h/t, Damian) || Fungus of note. || How to measure very tiny forces - say, the push of a laser pointer. (h/t, Elephants Gerald) || Incoming. || Incoming 2. || On the benefits of British colonialism. || A very modern mindset.
- [Elsewhere (255)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2017/11/elsewhere-255.html) - Further to this Kafkaesque episode, Lindsay Shepherd explains the difficulties of dealing with the Mao-ling mentality: I know absolutely nothing [about my accuser or the accusation]. I don’t know how many people complained; I don’t know if it’s something specific that I said or that was in the [Jordan Peterson] clip; or something even that
- [Incantations](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2023/01/incantations.html) - Time to dip a toe in the world of Clown Quarter poetry. Specifically, a colossal work titled Everyone Is A Little Trans, by the University of Connecticut’s visiting assistant professor, Trace Peterson: No, wait - don’t go. There’s more. The full, four-minute version can be experienced here. The author of the above has “been working
- [How To Impress Your Boss, An Intersectional Guide](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2018/07/how-to-impress-your-boss-an-intersectional-guide.html) - Pogonip steers us to the pages of Everyday Feminism, where Sophia Stephens, a freelance writer and self-described “educator,” informs white employers of how to “ensure the safety of the black people and people of colour who work with and for you.” Not safety in the sense of fire regulations, of course, or loose stair carpeting,
- [An Artistic Interlude](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2019/03/an-artistic-interlude.html) - Thanks to the towering talents of Mr Claude Boudeau, whose performance piece Cascade is featured below. As you’ve doubtless already discerned, Mr Boudeau’s “main questioning is about the states of insurrection that exist in people and can be revealed through performance art.”
- [Mother’s Milk](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2017/07/mothers-milk.html) - Glenn Reynolds responds to what I can only describe as an example of malevolent feminism: The quality men you want don’t want an angry feminist such as yourself, who’s disloyal even to her own sons. Why would they? If you think that sounds unkind, see for yourself. Update: Added via the comments, a brief summary:
- [Because Random People Must Be Punished](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2018/07/because-random-people-must-be-punished.html) - Narcissism versus reality: Update: In the comments, Rafi notes that “The difference between leftwing ‘activism’ and the zombie apocalypse gets smaller by the day.” While Randian adds, “If your cause requires bullying to get the message across perhaps it, and your defence of it, isn’t as righteous as you think it is.” Well, indeed. But
- [Can You Spell ‘Bedlamite’?](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2019/08/can-you-spell-bedlamite.html) - Not that spelling matters, apparently: American University trains faculty not to judge quality of writing when grading. It’s the world of the woke, where inversions abound. Earlier this year, American University invited an outside professor [Dr Asao Inoue] to teach its faculty how to pursue “antiracist ends” through writing assessments… The training has now moved
- [Where Pretending Gets You](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2021/08/where-pretending-gets-you.html) - Via TomJ in the comments: The head of one of Scotland’s biggest rape crisis centres has suggested “bigoted” rape survivors should be re-educated about transgender rights as part of recovering from their trauma. Mridul Wadhwa, a transgender woman, said people would not truly recover unless they addressed their “unacceptable beliefs” because “therapy is political.” She
- [The Year Reheated](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2013/12/the-year-reheated-9.html) - In which we revisit the towers of academia, the intellectual boiler-room of contemporary art and various lamentations from the pages of the Guardian. In January we marvelled at the inventive ways in which the Arts Council sets fire to our earnings: One might have thought that buskers got their money from passers-by, depending on whether
- [The Year Reheated](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2014/12/the-year-reheated-8.html) - In which we reflect on the woes of the Guardianista class, on the great thinkers of academia, and on the mind-shattering wonders of contemporary art. In January we marvelled at the modesty of the novelist Brigid Delaney, who told Guardian readers that her lifestyle and living arrangements should be determined not by her budget, as
- [Crumbs Made Her Unhappy](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2022/01/crumbs-made-her-unhappy.html) - Speaking of ladies who write for The Atlantic, here’s senior editor Honor Jones a-gush with expression in the Family section: I loved my husband; it’s not that I didn’t. But I felt that he was standing between me and the world, between me and myself… I had caused so much upheaval, so much suffering, and for
- [No, It’s Not Good, But There Is Lots Of It](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2021/04/no-its-not-good-but-there-is-lots-of-it.html) - Hot from Helsinki, the works of Finnish artist Iiu Susiraja. First, her dazzling 2018 performance piece, Big Melody: If the charms and profundities of the above should somehow remain elusive, clarity is offered by the following: Her lethargic positions, situated in what we can assume are the confines of her own living room and
- [Passionate Attachments](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2020/02/passionate-attachments.html) - In the pages of Salon, where our progressive betters ruminate, Nicole Karlis ponders the latest fashionable anxiety. Specifically, Stories of heartache, tears, stress and dehydration that people experienced after a forced separation from their water bottles. Says Ms Karlis, I have an irrational fear of the water bottle going missing, resulting in suddenly being thirsty
- [The Sound of Wringing (2)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2010/08/the-sound-of-wringing-2.html) - There is no excuse for failing to feel liberal guilt about race and class. There’s another one for the list. It’s the Guardian’s Theo Hobson. He’s embracing his inner sorrow and waving his credentials. Liberal guilt is nothing to be ashamed of. It’s really just the political expression of that rather old-fashioned thing, conscience... To
- [Tidings](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2022/12/tidings-13.html) - Snow scene, Hokkaido. Photographed by Tak. Via Tim. As is the custom here, posting will be intermittent over the holidays and readers are advised to follow me on Twitter, which will alert you to anything new as it materialises. Thanks for another 1.5 million or so visits this year and thousands of comments, many of
- [2010 Reheated](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2010/12/2010-reheated.html) - In which we revisit imaginary evils, ludicrous solutions and various lamentations from the pages of the Guardian. In January, Kevin McKenna inadvertently revealed the loveliness behind his lofty socialist principles: Ponder the big, generous heart behind those sentiments. It offends Mr McKenna that private education should be allowed to exist. By McKenna’s reckoning, parents
- [The Year Reheated](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2015/12/the-year-reheated-7.html) - In which we marvel at the mental entanglements of our self-imagined betters. Our year began in academia with a discussion panel of stern and pious ladies. Among them, Professor Judy Haiven, who believes that male students mustn’t speak first and must always defer to women, until the menfolk learn their place in the ‘progressive’ pecking
- [The Year Reheated](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2016/12/the-year-reheated-6.html) - In which we glimpse the world through the eyes of our self-imagined betters. The year began with news that living in Glasgow is now to be considered a work of art, according to Ellie Harrison, a taxpayer-funded artist who, coincidentally, lives in Glasgow. We also witnessed the talents of Sandrine Schaeffer, who teaches the subtleties of
- [The Year Reheated](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2017/12/the-year-reheated-2.html) - In which we marvel at the mental contortions of our self-imagined betters. The year began with searing insights from the world of academia. Specifically, London’s School of Oriental and African Studies, where black student activists denounced objectivity as an “alienating” concept, and issued numerous demands, allegedly to challenge stereotypes of student laziness and inadequacy. It
- [The Year Reheated](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2018/12/the-year-reheated-5.html) - In which we marvel at the mental contortions of our self-imagined betters. The year began on a highbrow note as the University of Denver’s Professor Ryan Evely Gildersleeve informed the world that laziness is a “a political stance,” a way to “combat the neoliberal condition,” and a “tool for contributing to social justice.” Half-arsed incompetence
- [The Year Reheated](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2019/12/the-year-reheated-4.html) - In which we marvel at the mental contortions of our self-imagined betters. The year began with several displays of exquisite sensitivity by our woke betters, including the “poet and essayist” Rashaad Thomas, who managed to take umbrage at an old photograph in a restaurant, a photograph of miners drinking beer while covered in coal dust,
- [The Year Reheated](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2021/12/the-year-reheated.html) - In which we marvel at the mental contortions of our self-imagined betters. The year began with an oddly specific medical diagnosis courtesy of the Guardian, where Afua Hirsch informed us that boob eczema is caused by “racist microaggressions.” Readers were left to suppose that the condition might only be resolved by lengthy grumbling about “structural
- [The Year Reheated](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2020/12/the-year-reheated-3.html) - In which we marvel at the mental contortions of our self-imagined betters. The year began with a display of the Guardian’s famed sense of proportion, with the paper’s Barbara Ellen informing us, emphatically, that, “We’re nearly all vegan now” - we being the general population - before asking with equal confidence, “Who isn’t vegan in
- [Reheated (74)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2022/10/reheated-74.html) - More items from the archives: She’s Seething With Empowerment. A Guardian contributor encounters a small act of courtesy, screaming ensues. Ms Huckeba continues, “No, you cannot open this door for me! You wouldn’t have opened it two years ago, so you damn sure can’t open it now!” “I scowled and stormed away,” says she, “completely
- [A Stupefying Vanity](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2019/12/a-stupefying-vanity.html) - The ideal of social justice does not complement the ideal of education. The ideal of social justice replaces the ideal of education. Lifted from the comments, David Randall on academia’s “social justice” infestation: “Social justice” was everywhere in higher education. It was the slogan of student activists, the raison d’etre of many academic programmes, the research focus
- [They Sell Failure](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2020/07/they-sell-failure.html) - From a needlessly indulgent New York Times piece on Robin DiAngelo and her fellow clown-shoe race-hustlers: [Marcus] Moore directed us to a page in our training booklets: a list of white values. Along with “‘The King’s English’ rules,” “objective, rational, linear thinking” and “quantitative emphasis,” there was “work before play,” “plan for future” and “adherence
- [Sup Ye At The Teats Of Art](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2022/02/sup-ye-at-the-teats-of-art.html) - Attention, lowly workers. I bring you cultural sustenance, courtesy of Finland’s creative powerhouse Iiu Susiraja. https://vimeo.com/281673247 Also, some chafing may have occurred. Previously, another double helping. I’ve locked the doors, so don’t even try. And yes, open thread.
- [Bearded Man Gets Big Mad](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2022/12/bearded-man-gets-big-mad.html) - Further to this recent drama, more overseas toilet-dispute news: It turns out that a summer dress doesn’t make you a lady. A female student at the University of Brasilia, the one being harangued and threatened, was seemingly unaware that the university has organised its bathrooms by “gender identity, not sex,” and so lively scenes are
- [What It Touches, It Stupefies](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2022/12/what-it-touches-it-stupefies.html) - Lifted from the comments, Elizabeth Weiss attends the annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association: What she finds, it turns out, is in large part a gathering of the pretentious and neurotic, the casually incompetent, and the ideologically addled. Among whom, audio recordings of interviews are equated with colonialism and strip-mining, and therefore neglected in
- [So Cruelly Unappreciated](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2016/04/so-cruelly-unappreciated.html) - The Guardian is attempting to convince readers that its columnists - those heroic truth-to-power-speakers – are, unlike writers for any other national paper, continually besieged by an ungrateful rabble, and that an alleged avalanche of sexist, racist readers’ comments proves how righteous and heroic said columnists are in their truth-to-power speaking. Amid this tale of
- [Friday Ephemera (658)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2022/12/friday-ephemera-658.html) - His, as you can see, is considerably bigger than yours. || And face it, his outfit is better than yours. || Blockage detected, chap comes running. || Narrow bars. || Two illustrations of small effects, amplified rather dramatically. (h/t, Elephants Gerald) || Plant life. || You shall not pass. || Prosthesis of note. || Puppy
- [You Will Pretend It Has Great Value](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2022/12/you-will-pretend-it-has-great-value.html) - Or, Grifters Gonna Grift. At Montreal’s Concordia University, even light is being “decolonised.” Because “colonialism in contemporary physics” is a thing, you see. No, really, it is. A thing that must be “countered” in the name of piety. By people with salaries and lots of taxpayer subsidy: The project occupies the time of “equity, diversity
- [Journey To The Centre Of Attention](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2020/08/journey-to-the-centre-of-attention.html) - It occurs to me that it’s been a while since we marvelled at the mind of Laurie Penny. We must correct that immediately: She “earned that pronoun with a lot of hard work,” you know. While also, rather suddenly, becoming a being of indeterminate gender. A they, depending on who's nearby, and how fashionable
- [She’s A Big Girl, But A Looker](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2022/12/shes-a-big-girl-but-a-looker.html) - Because it's Monday, that's why: Dawn Luebbe’s short documentary about the Dress A Cow event at Ohio’s Canfield County Fair. Also, open thread. Share ye links and bicker.
- [Your Salary Will Be Paid When We Can Be Bothered To Get Around To It](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2022/07/your-salary-will-be-paid-when-we-can-be-bothered-to-get-around-to-it.html) - The Oregon Health Authority (OHA) is a government agency that coordinates medical care and social well-being in the Beaver State. During the pandemic, OHA was responsible for coordinating Oregon’s vaccination drive and disseminating information about COVID-19—both vital tasks. The agency’s office for equity and inclusion, however, prefers not to rush the business of government. In
- [Elsewhere (293)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2019/06/elsewhere-293.html) - Daniel McGraw on the self-inflicted sorrows of Oberlin College: Activists on campus immediately concluded the arrest of the three students was evidence of racial profiling, which suggests an assumption that either the students were falsely accused on account of their race, or that Gibson’s [Bakery and Market] was happy to allow whites to shoplift but
- [Friday Ephemera (657)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2022/12/friday-ephemera-101.html) - Incoming. || If you have one, you should comb it. || A sound map of forests from around the world. (h/t, Things) || Some balloons, they said. || They were bigger back then. || Cannabis-infused gummies, chocolate, and gravy. || Gift idea #72. || Demon vehicle detected. || And not entirely unrelated. || More joys
- [Never Before Attempted](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2022/12/never-before-attempted.html) - Lifted from the comments, which you’re reading, of course: Jennifer Lawrence confirms bint status. Apparently, hugely popular films of the last fifty years aren’t Ms Lawrence’s area of expertise. Still, there’s something almost charming about an attempt to publicly self-inflate having such a different - and seemingly unforeseen - effect.
- [A Brief Sense Of Proportion](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2022/12/a-brief-sense-of-proportion.html) - As respite from our usual programming, and because some newcomers may have missed it, I thought I’d repost this short film by Alex Gorosh and Wylie Overstreet. Also, open thread. Share ye links and bicker.
- [Two Balls Bad, No Balls Good](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2013/07/two-balls-bad-no-balls-good.html) - A phrase I borrow from a remarkably sane Guardian reader, responding to this article by Mike Power, a man apparently determined to atone for having such a patriarchal name. First, picture the scene: All across Britain, the whiff of charred, low-quality sausage meat is hanging in the summer haze. And with it, floating almost indistinguishably
- [Her Unspeakable Woes](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2013/08/her-unspeakable-woes.html) - Writing bravely in the Guardian, Icess Fernandez Rojas unearths a new realm of suffering, one hitherto ignored by the unthinking masses: All I really wanted was a venti, white chocolate mocha without the whip cream. No, don’t worry, it isn’t that. Ms Fernandez Rojas does get her beverage. The horror comes before that. I gave
- [The Cupcake Menace](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2013/10/the-cupcake-menace.html) - Keenly attuned to pressing issues of the day, the Guardian’s Matt Seaton tells us we just aren’t agonising about cupcakes enough. And when I say cupcakes, I obviously mean, Butter-iced snares of self-loathing that sell precisely because they exploit young women’s insecurity about their looks and identity, and offer a completely false and self-defeating solace
- [Elsewhere (11)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2009/05/elsewhere-11.html) - Oliver Kamm on the inversions of being “progressive”: Notions once considered reactionary, even extreme, have insinuated themselves into the mainstream of right-thinking (that is, left-thinking) social idealism. When you encountered someone of professed left-of-centre opinions, you used to be able to draw broad but important, and generally reliable, inferences about what these entailed. They included,
- [Let’s Do That Thing That Doesn’t Work](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2022/11/lets-do-that-thing-that-doesnt-work.html) - Janice Fiamengo pokes through the outpourings of Sophie Lewis: Ms Lewis and her fever dreams have of course been mentioned here before: See also, inevitably, Laurie Penny, whose blatherings on the subject tell us more than she seems to realise, chiefly about herself. Update: In the comments, ccscientist adds, Which, I think, rather tickles the
- [Friday Ephemera (656)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2022/12/friday-ephemera-656.html) - Pianist of note. || How bats pee. || Cocaine Bear, a film. || Build quality. || “Anality and Listening.” Is your anus “mystical and obscured,” or is it “(self) structuring at the more ontological level”? || All things considered, it’s not that bad. || 25 years ago, “4,756,940 pieces of Lego” were lost at sea.
- [The Voice of Conscience](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2009/01/the-voice-of-conscience.html) - Is John Pilger necessary? Sunny Hundal thinks so: Here’s a taste of Mr Pilger’s idealistic anger, from the pages of the New Statesman: No evidence is advanced to support this claim of “brainwashing” and no explanation is offered as to why so many actual Texans should have escaped its burdensome effects. Though the reader is
- [Stiff Competition](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2009/05/stiff-competition.html) - Among the terms used to search this site is the phrase “well-heeled class warrior.” The results of that search include several references to the Guardian’s associate editor, Seumas Milne, whose disregard for reality and repeated attempts to mislead will be familiar to regular readers. While Milne is incorrigible in his evasions and distortions, it’s perhaps unfair to
- [A Great Big Socialist Heart](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2010/01/a-great-big-socialist-heart.html) - Time for another Classic Sentence from the Guardian. Or rather the Guardian’s Sunday sister paper, the Observer, where Kevin McKenna attempts to convince readers that a one-size-fits-all comprehensive education is all that any young person could possibly want. Indeed, should Mr McKenna get his way, it’s all they’d be permitted to have: Savour that for
- [The Horror](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2008/05/the-horror.html) - I wasn’t going to comment on Boris Johnson becoming the next mayor of London, but I couldn’t resist airing a few reactions to that prospect from the pages of a certain newspaper. A breathless Zoe Williams writes: And, An ironic statement, one might think, coming from a Guardian columnist, especially one whose own elitist affectations
- [The Greater Good (2)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2008/09/the-greater-goo.html) - Arabella Weir, whose leftist credentials have previously been noted, today shares her wisdom on parenting and education: Weir’s definition of a “good, responsible citizen” will become apparent in due course. Some might think of that as where ideology collides with actual parenting. Actually, Ms Weir attended the hardly-rough-and-tumble Camden School for Girls, a voluntary aided
- [I’m Sorry, But Your Utopia is Just a Little Creepy](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2013/07/im-sorry-but-your-utopia-is-just-a-little-creepy.html) - Ed Driscoll quotes Rich Lowry on ‘progressive’ parenthood: As the ultimate private institution, the family is a stubborn obstacle to the great collective effort. Insofar as people invest in their own families, they are holding out on the state and unacceptably privileging their own kids over the children of others. These parents are selfish, small-minded,
- [It’s Protest So It’s Righteous](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2011/06/its-protest-so-its-righteous.html) - Alexander Vasudevan is a lecturer in “cultural and historical geography” with an interest in “radical politics” and “cartographies of protest.” He also, naturally, writes for the Guardian. Which may help explain his belief that proposals to criminalise squatting would create “jarring archipelagos of wealth and poverty” and, more importantly, remove “a potent symbol of protest.” Squatting,
- [Embrace The Urge To Purchase Things](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2022/11/embrace-the-urge-to-purchase-things.html) - With the season of jollity and gift-giving bearing down upon us, like the giant boulder in Raiders of the Lost Ark, patrons are reminded that any Amazon UK shopping done via this link, or for Amazon US via this link, or via the buttons in the sidebar, results in a small fee for your host
- [Just Thwarted Sperm](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2010/07/just-thwarted-sperm.html) - Readers will recall Amanda Marcotte, a popular leftwing feminist whose wisdom has entertained us more than once. Not least with her famous publishing blunder and subsequent, rather competitive, displays of racial consciousness. Nor should we forget Amanda’s belief that the inclination to reproduce is a dastardly social construct “preserved” by unnamed villains solely to ensure that women
- [The State Doesn’t Love You](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2016/06/the-state-doesnt-love-you.html) - The classic concern that marriage was a patriarchal institution that held women back needs to be revised, maybe even dramatically revised in 2016… What we see, basically, is that daughters are more likely to flourish educationally and even later on in life professionally, across class lines, when they’ve had an involved dad who’s engaged with
- [Only Doing It For The Betterment Of Us All](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2022/08/only-doing-it-for-the-betterment-of-us-all.html) - Time to revisit the world of “queer studies,” via the academic journal Qualitative Research: I wanted to understand how my research participants experience sexual pleasure when reading shota, a Japanese genre of self-published erotic comics that features young boy characters. I therefore started reading the comics in the same way as my research participants had told
- [Our Betters Stroke Their Pets](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2022/11/our-betters-stroke-their-pets.html) - I’m just going to leave this here, I think: Other questions generated by means of Queer Theorising include, “Do I think I’m having sex with my dogs when they kiss my face?” Apparently, for Dr Rudy, a Professor of Women’s Studies, being licked by a dog is difficult to distinguish from kissing grandma on the
- [A Stern Reminder](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2008/10/a-stern-reminde.html) - Should you feel an urge to take Germaine Greer seriously, about pretty much anything, watch this piece of magnificence from 1968. You may want to bite down on something. Newsnight Review just won’t be the same.
- [Sushi Bar](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2009/01/sushi-bar.html) - This is pleasing, in a low-key kind of way. Filmed in Tokyo in 1998 by Dennis Wheatley and Stefan McClean. (h/t, Coudal)
- [Pejoratives Were Deployed](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2022/11/pejoratives-were-deployed.html) - They’re bringing us together with their intersectional piety: Gettysburg College has postponed a painting and writing event hosted by its Gender Sexuality and Resource Centre for people who are “Tired of white cis men.” The private Pennsylvania college offered the event as part of a peace and justice, or “P&J,” senior project, but has since
- [Butter My Crumpets To Get A Gold Star](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2022/11/butter-my-crumpets-to-get-a-gold-star.html) - Lifted from the comments, where much of the fun happens: Says Min, Well, we live in unhinging times, so it can be hard to tell. It did occur to me that maybe the parent, the one seeking pre-approval for adjectives, could have been indulging in some elaborate wind-up, one that passed undetected by its target.
- [Jam At The Intersection](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2022/05/jam-at-the-intersection.html) - At the switched-on woke paradise of Ontario's Western University: Western initially stood firm in keeping the picture up, noting it “understood ‘how complex and intersectional this topic is’ and that the ‘imagery may be upsetting to some Muslims.’” However, Associate Vice President of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, Opiyo Oloya, announced on Wednesday the picture had
- [Friday Ephemera (655)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2022/11/friday-ephemera-655.html) - Best not to look down just yet. || Big trees. || Just breathe. || Coffee substitute. || Thirst quenched. || Selling lemonade. || It’s a thing, apparently. || I’ll just leave this here. || Legally haunted. || At last, a practical application for fluid dynamics. || The pretending can get competitive. || How to land a
- [Titans Walk Among Us](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2019/09/titans-walk-among-us.html) - Fearless masked heroes harass and berate the elderly and disabled. For “social justice,” no doubt. “Don’t fucking touch me!” shrieks the masked young woman, flanked by her masked comrades for intimidation purposes, and while jabbing her finger in the face of a random man and preventing his elderly, disabled mother from crossing the road. Update,
- [Elsewhere (314)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2022/11/elsewhere-314.html) - Theodore Dalrymple finds himself denounced: Dalrymple again, on habitual crime and perverse leniency: And Christopher Rufo also finds himself denounced: The publication in question, Scientific American, and its ideological capture and subsequent downward trajectory, has been noted here before. Feel free to share your own links and snippets, on any subject, in the comments.
- [When Your Colleagues Have Joined A Cult](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2021/04/when-your-colleagues-have-joined-a-cult.html) - Maths teacher Paul Rossi shares his experience of “anti-racism training” at a Manhattan high school, during which he questioned the alleged imperative to foreground each student’s racial identity, and questioned the value of racialising human attributes – including the claim that “objectivity” is somehow a characteristic of “white supremacy”: When my questions were shared outside
- [Ever Decreasing Circles](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2018/06/ever-decreasing-circles.html) - Apparently, black men are the new white men and should be scorned and silenced accordingly: It's strange just how often this "intersectionality" business looks an awful lot like a caste system, in which a person's standing and moral significance, and their ability to take part in discussions, is determined entirely by their race and gender,
- [And Who Are We Today? (2)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2022/11/and-who-are-we-today-2.html) - Lifted from the comments, a thrilling development: Because “gender fluid” and “bigender” employees should have “multiple pass-cards with different forms of gender expression or linked email accounts / intranet accounts with different names and photos.” You see, “workplace equality” will apparently be enhanced by enabling “non-binary employees to have their identities recognised on all employee-facing
- [Coupling](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2009/09/coupling.html) - You’ll be pleased to hear that Misty Keasler, quoted above, has published a book of her photographs, Love Hotels: The Hidden Fantasy Rooms of Japan. Among her subjects is the Hotel Adonis, Osaka, which offers patrons a Naughty Nurse Play Area and a Hello Kitty S&M Room. Ms Keasler is interviewed here. Via Coudal.
- [Clip Show](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2009/10/clip-show.html) - Busy today, but I thought I’d steer newcomers towards the updated greatest hits. And poking about in the archives isn’t entirely without its rewards. For instance, you’ll find pointers to a mirror made of wood, some presidential spanking, ruminations on performance art, and what may well be the world’s largest collection of navel fluff. I know. It’s a feast for
- [Barbecue](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2009/03/barbecue.html) - Busy today, but if you’re planning to visit Berlin you may want to look at this map of places not to park. Due to cars being set on fire. The archives of films, ephemera and interviews may also entertain. Help yourself to snacks and liquor.
- [Indisposed](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2007/11/indisposed.html) - Thanks to ‘flu, I’m preoccupied with the question of exactly how much mucous the average human head can produce. (More than I’d have thought possible, it seems.) Until normal service is resumed, please feel free to browse the archives, or watch some short films, or peruse the greatest hits. The ephemera archive contains somewhere in
- [Repeats](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2008/04/repeats.html) - Busy today, but here are a few random films unearthed from the archives. Carlitopolis. Experiments with a mouse. Roof Sex. Furniture in heat. KaBoom! Warfare with nuts and ribbon. The power of faith. And very large vehicles. Feel free to browse and rummage.
- [Filler](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2008/04/filler.html) - Busy today, so here are a few short films lifted from the archives. Use them wisely. Freefall. Joe Kittinger embraces rapid downwardsness. Lovely Monsters. Flirting squid and other beasts of the sea. Very Impaired. British troops test LSD, unwittingly, circa 1953. Lefties. From big idea to burning wreckage. Craters. Flagstaff, Arizona, gets a radical lunar
- [Intermittent Contact](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2008/06/intermittent-co.html) - Busy for much of today, but feel free to rummage through the greatest hits for something substantial, or poke about in the archives for films, ephemera and such.
- [Elsewhere (6)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2008/09/elsewhere-6.html) - Jonah Goldberg on Sarah Palin and the Feminist-Industrial Complex: Gloria Steinem, the grand mufti of feminism, issued a fatwa anathematizing Palin. A National Organization for Women spokeswoman proclaimed Palin more of a man than a woman. Wendy Doniger, a feminist academic at the University of Chicago, writes of Palin in Newsweek: “Her greatest hypocrisy is
- [Light Relief](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2008/11/light-relief.html) - Apparently, there’s an election taking place somewhere overseas. Those in search of distraction may wish to explore the Museum of Antique Dental Instruments. It’s surprising and melodious. Alternatively, the archives are worth a poke, as are the greatest hits.
- [Elsewhere (7)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2008/12/elsewhere-7.html) - Adam Kirsch runs a rhetorical knife across the ridiculous Slavoj Žižek: The curious thing about the Zizek phenomenon is that the louder he applauds violence and terror - especially the terror of Lenin, Stalin, and Mao, whose “lost causes” Zizek takes up in another new book, In Defense of Lost Causes - the more indulgently
- [Reheated](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2009/01/reheated.html) - For newcomers, three items from the archives: Art Bollocks Revisited Artspeak and political lockstep. “The more sceptical among us might suspect that the unintelligible nature of much postmodern ‘analysis’ is a convenient contrivance, if only because it’s difficult to determine exactly how wrong an unintelligible analysis is.” Lefties Revisited In which we follow a bizarrely
- [Phonomogram](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2009/02/phonomogram.html) - Busy today, but readers with an interest in free music may want to take a look at Spotify, which has an impressive library of tracks for online listening. As usual, feel free to poke about in the archives and greatest hits. See also mixtapes 1, 2, 3 and 4.
- [Reheated (2)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2009/03/reheated-2.html) - For newcomers, two more items from the archives. Phantom Guilt Syndrome. A guide to self-loathing. The phrase “asymmetric warfare” has entered popular usage and many of those who use it focus primarily on the asymmetry of military capability, rather than the asymmetry of morality, tactics and intention. Again, this follows from the notion that the
- [Slinky](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2009/04/slinky.html) - Busy today, catching up on some reading. Meanwhile, here’s something I found over at Mick’s place. Korean combo Winter Play cover Billie Jean. It’s rather good. As usual, the archives and greatest hits are yours to explore.
- [Reheated (3)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2009/04/reheated-3.html) - For newcomers, three more items from the archives: The Guardian Position. On cowardice in moral drag. Jakob Illeborg touches his toes and hopes no-one takes advantage. The Voice of Conscience. Imperialism, brainwashing and the imminent invasion of China. The wild imaginings of Mr John Pilger. Peddling Stupidity. Professor Carolyn Guertin “inserts bodily fluids and political
- [Reheated (4)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2009/06/reheated-4.html) - For newcomers, three more items from the archives: Spooky Action. Jim Schnabel’s charmingly bizarre film about Cold War research into extrasensory perception as a tool of espionage. By turns intriguing and hilarious. Rebellion, Revisited. Classroom impropriety and the grooming of young minds. Even if we set aside the not insignificant issue of whether professors of, say,
- [Reheated (5)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2009/07/reheated-5.html) - For newcomers, three more items from the archives. Freeloading and Snobbery. Arts establishment claims to be “suppressed,” sneers at the little people, demands free money. I’m not convinced that the reduction of taxpayer subsidy for loss-making plays qualifies as “suppression.” And reluctant taxpayers please take note: Despite all the years of providing handouts, you’re now
- [Playing in the Dirt with Occupy](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2012/04/playing-in-the-dirt-with-occupy.html) - Zombie ventures into the moral wilderness of Occupy’s latest project: The farm they seized was not a working farm per se, but rather a “research farm” for the University of California, near its Berkeley campus. The only difference between the way the farm used to be (prior to a week ago) and the way it
- [Friday Ephemera (654)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2022/11/friday-ephemera-2822.html) - Pulse of note. || Interspecies duet. || The Commodordion, an 8-bit accordion. || How to climb a tree. || Are you “living your best life” thanks to your smart ring? || The thrill of mechanical watches. || When A.I. generates an episode of Top Gear. || When you want it both ways. || Bubble simulator.
- [Wipe Your Feet](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2022/11/wipe-your-feet.html) - As you can see, we have new digs. Told you I was busy. Work is still ongoing and, inevitably, there will be things to tidy or hammer into shape. Or at least cover with a rug. If you spot anything scandalously up-buggered, do let me know. I’ll add it to the enormous list. While I
- [The Psychology Of “Social Justice” Is A Thing To Behold](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2017/08/the-psychology-of-social-justice-is-a-thing-to-behold.html) - Want to thwart the life chances of black students? Then hey, become an educator. Say, a professor of Medieval literature at the City University of New York: In an op-ed for Inside Higher Ed, Dr A W Strouse argues that colleges should support “greater linguistic diversity” and “affirm and embrace” language differences among students, such as
- [Just Keep Your Hands Where I Can See Them](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2022/10/just-keep-your-hands-where-i-can-see-them.html) - Meanwhile, in academia – specifically, the University of Southern California - it’s “Sex Week,” and so: “Exploring Sensuality and Herbalism,” slated for Tuesday, will be a “virtual evening of plant-play and exploring pleasure, sensuality, and herbalism.” If you feel an urge to make your own body oil, or herbal tea, or erotic pottery, or should you be
- [The Pretending Can Get Competitive](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2022/11/the-pretending-can-get-competitive.html) - Genevieve Gluck brings news from Scandinavia: A man in Norway is sparking outrage on social media after he was sympathetically interviewed about his decision to begin identifying as a disabled woman... In the interview, [he] stated that he had always wished he had been born a woman who was paralysed from the waist down. So
- [Don’t Oppress My People With Your Branded Headphones](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2015/11/dont-oppress-my-people-with-your-branded-headphones.html) - More intellectual life at Dartmouth College, New Hampshire: “Fuck you, you filthy white fucks!” “Fuck you and your comfort!” “Fuck you, you racist shits!” These shouted epithets were the first indication that many students had of the coming storm. The sign-wielding, obscenity-shouting protesters proceeded through the usually quiet backwaters of the library… and converged around
- [Don’t Oppress My People With Your Public Libraries](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2019/04/dont-oppress-my-people-with-your-public-libraries.html) - Further to recent rumblings in the comments, Captain Nemo steers us to the Twitter feed of Library Journal, a “global community of more than 200,000 librarians and educators,” and which proudly directs its readers to the mental exertions of Ms Sofia Leung: Our library collections, because they are written mostly by straight white men, are
- [Your Children, Their Politics](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2020/10/your-children-their-politics-3.html) - Further to this item here, Rafi steers us to more “equity” news, this time from the public high schools of San Francisco: Lowell [High School] has for decades admitted students based on a score that takes into account grade-point average and test results while setting aside a limited number of spots for qualified students from
- [Elsewhere (282)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2018/09/elsewhere-282.html) - Lionel Shriver on recreational outrage and the corresponding theatre of atonement: The defence of an infinitely multiplying list of ‘marginalised groups’ is a predatory movement… and its pleasures are those of hunting: spotting your prey, stalking, going in for the kill. Any source of umbrage thus presents an exulting opportunity to score a trophy, stuff
- [Mixtape](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2008/08/mixtape.html) - Busy today, but here are a few ditties from the ephemera archives. Kirstie MacColl: In These Shoes. (2000) Greta Keller: Blue Moon. (1935) Flanagan & Allen: Any Umbrellas. (1939) Noise of Human Art: Balkan Hot Step. (2003) Xiao-Peng Jiang and the Chinese Orchestra of Shanghai Conservatory: Tune for Chinese Opera. (2005) The Reverend Robert Wilkins:
- [Mixtape (2)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2008/09/mixtape-2.html) - A few more ditties from the ephemera archives. Grace Jones: The Apple Stretching. (1982) Mohammed Rafi: Jaan Pehechan-Ho. (1965) Charles Trenet: Boum. (1938) Valaida Snow: I Can’t Dance (I Got Ants in My Pants). (Circa 1933-36) Washboard Sam: Diggin’ My Potatoes. (1939) Johnny Cash: One Piece at a Time. (1975) Ray Charles: Night Time is
- [Mixtape (3)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2008/11/mixtape-3.html) - Busy today much of this week, but here’s a third helping of ditties from the ephemera archives. Joe Thompson: Sticky Fingers. (2000) The Ink Spots: Your Feet’s Too Big. (1935) Marlene Dietrich: You Go to My Head. (1938) The Skatalites: James Bond Theme. (1967) Screamin’ Jay Hawkins: I Put a Spell on You. (1956) Johnny
- [Shrinking Ray](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2008/10/shrinking-ray.html) - A few weeks ago, in one of the ephemera roundups, I posted a link to some tilt-shift photography. The technique is a kind of reverse Supermarionation, whereby life-size objects are made to look like scale model miniatures. Keith Loutit combines tilt-shift photography with stop-motion filming. The results are quite striking. Watch those teeny tiny people
- [Mixtape (4)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2009/01/mixtape-4.html) - More musical oddments from the ephemera archives. Valaida Snow: Caravan. (1939) Margaret Whiting & Johnny Mercer: Baby, It’s Cold Outside. (1949) The Vince Guaraldi Trio: Linus and Lucy. (1965) Astrud Gilberto: Agua de Beber. (1965) Burl Ives: Ugly Bug Ball. (1963) Ray Charles: It Should Have Been Me. (1954) Lalo Schifrin: Shifting Gears. (1968) The
- [Mixtape (5)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2009/03/mixtape-5.html) - Another batch of ditties from the ephemera archives. BB Davis & the Red Orchidstra: Get Carter. (2007) Elmer Bernstein & Jimmy Smith: The Carpetbaggers. (1964) St Germain: Rose Rouge. (2000) Pal Joey: Party Time. (1991) Edmundo Ros and his Rumba Band: The Coffee Song. (1947) Valaida Snow: (You Bring Out) the Savage in Me. (1935)
- [Mixtape (6)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2009/06/mixtape-6.html) - A few minutes ago, this site was visited for the millionth time. Blimey. Here’s some music from the ephemera archives. Henry Hall: Hush, Hush, Hush (Here Comes the Bogey Man). (Circa 1930s) Keiichi Suzuki: Japanese “It’s Alright” Song. (1991) Tony Hatch: The Champions. (1968) Count Basie: Kingston Calypso. (1965) Harry “The Hipster” Gibson: Who Put
- [Mixtape (7)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2009/08/mixtape-7.html) - From the ephemera archives, more irregular listening. Liz Brady: Palladium (The Hip). (1966) Gilbert Bécaud: Quand Tu Danses. (1953) Richard Cheese: Ice Ice Baby. (2006) Señor Coconut: Showroom Dummies. (2000) John Barry: The Ipcress File. (1965) Shirley Maclaine: Big Spender. (1969) Tommy McCook and the Skatalites: Dr Zhivago. (1969) Rose Murphy: Busy Line. (Circa 1940s) Hayseed
- [Postmodernism Unpeeled](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2009/03/postmodernism-unpeeled.html) - A discussion with Stephen Hicks. “In politicized forms, then, postmodernists will behave like the stereotypical unscrupulous lawyer trying to win the case: truth and justice aren’t the point; instead using any rhetorical tool or trick that works is the point. Sometimes contradictory lines of argument work. Sometimes your audience’s desire to belong to the in-group
- [Reheated (62)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2021/04/reheated-62.html) - For newcomers and the nostalgic, more items from the archives: Imagine The Picnics. Emily Zak wants us to know that fresh air and countryside are, like everything else, terribly oppressive. Naturally, Ms Zak has an extensive, at times bewildering list of excuses for why any outdoors recreation should be tinged with guilt and wretchedness. From
- [Reheated (53)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2018/05/reheated-53.html) - For newcomers, some items from the archives: Do Not Feed The Narcissists. “Social justice” howler monkeys prove difficult to please. So, to recap. Forty or so “social justice” activists disrupt a keynote address at DePauw University, holding signs that scold the audience for being insufficiently deferential to the protestors’ racial fixations and delusions of being
- [Reheated (60)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2020/10/reheated-60.html) - For newcomers, more items from the archives: Artists For Gaia. Our betters sail north at taxpayer expense. Gas is released courageously. Such was the level of inspiration, some of the assembled artists began to work their creative magic immediately: “Tracy Rowledge constructed three series of ‘automated’ physical drawings, mapping the movement of the boat during
- [Greatest Hits, Sort Of](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2007/04/greatest_hits_s.html) - For newcomers, some popular items. In chronological order. 2007: Al-Guardian & the Brotherhood. Secrets, lies and vicarious titillation. PoMo, Terry Eagleton & Che Guevara T-Shirts. A discussion with Ophelia Benson on irrationalism and the left. Islam’s Hagiographer. Karen Armstrong acts casual, rewrites history. Phantom Guilt Syndrome. Self-loathing 101. Art Bollocks Revisited. Postmodern gibberish and political lockstep.
- [Elsewhere (308)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2022/02/elsewhere-308.html) - Andrew Gutmann and Paul Rossi on the woke indoctrination that parents aren’t supposed to see: In workshops such as “Integrating Healing-Centered Engagements Into a DEIA School Program” and “Racial Trauma and the Path Toward Healing,” we learned how DEI practitioners use segregated affinity groups and practices such as healing circles to inculcate feelings of
- [Reheated (37)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2013/11/reheated-37.html) - For newcomers, more items from the archives. A flavour of what goes on here. Wolf, They Cried. When there isn’t enough racism to justify her rhetoric and pre-booked outrage, what’s a girl to do? A psychology professor at Claremont McKenna College slashed her own tyres and defaced her own car with abusive and racist messages.
- [Reheated (38)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2013/12/reheated-38.html) - For newcomers, a selection of short films and documentaries from the archives. Till Nowak visits the Institute for Centrifugal Research. An adventure in human endurance and excessive G-Force. Martin Durkin’s Thatcher documentary shreds some leftist myths and induces glorious squirming in, among others, Neil Kinnock. From Sébastien Montaz-Rosset’s documentary about wire walkers, I Believe I Can
- [Someone Bought a Led Zeppelin Album](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2014/03/someone-bought-a-led-zeppelin-album.html) - Newcomers are advised that the greatest hits have been updated. If you’d like some idea of what goes on here, it’s a good place to start. As is the reheated series. There are nuggets to be had, not least in the comments. Also, a note of thanks to all who’ve been using the Amazon search widgets
- [Tidings (7)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2013/12/tidings-7-2.html) - Seven years, good grief. As is the custom here, posting will be intermittent over the holidays and readers are advised to subscribe to the blog feed, which will alert you to anything new as and when it materialises. Thanks for another million or so visits this year and another six thousand comments, many of which
- [Insert Coin for Dancing Monkey](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2014/05/insert-coin-for-dancing-monkey.html) - Patrons are reminded that this rickety barge is kept afloat by the kidneys of strangers. No, wait, the kindness of strangers. If you’d like to help it remain buoyant for a while longer, there’s an orange button below with which to monetise any love for this low establishment. Debit and credit cards accepted. Additionally, any Amazon shopping
- [Reheated (40)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2014/08/reheated-40.html) - For newcomers, more items from the archives. The Humble Among Us. Novelist Brigid Delaney wants a nicer flat in order to write about those non-creative people. You, taxpayer, come hither. As a member of our creative caste, Ms Delaney wants to capture the buzz and thrum of city life. She wants to inspire “recognition” and
- [It Will Only Encourage Him](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2014/08/it-will-only-encourage-him.html) - Patrons are reminded that this rickety barge is kept afloat, just about, by the kindness of strangers. If you’ve been remotely entertained over the years – say, by things like this, or this, or these - and would like to help this dubious endeavour remain buoyant a while longer, there’s an orange button below with
- [Reheated (42)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2014/10/reheated-42.html) - For newcomers, more items from the archives. Something About the Tone. Urban Studies lecturer Peter Matthews worries about the unequal distribution of litter and suggests bulldozing Belgravia. For the poor. Our postcode class warrior links to a report fretting about how to “narrow the gap” in litter, how to “achieve fairer outcomes in street cleanliness.”
- [Reheated (41)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2014/09/reheated-41.html) - For newcomers, more items from the archives. When the Onion is Redundant. Paul Krugman and Polly Toynbee are awfully concerned by how much you earn. Themselves, not so much. When very well-heeled ‘progressives’ decry income inequality as at the very least something to be fixed, and fixed urgently, at what point can we expect the people saying
- [The Passing of the Hat](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2014/11/the-passing-of-the-hat.html) - Patrons are reminded that this rickety barge is kept afloat by the kindness of strangers. If you’ve been remotely entertained by what goes on here and would like to help this dubious endeavour remain buoyant a while longer, there’s an orange button below with which to monetise any love. Debit and credit cards are of course accepted. Think
- [Tidings (8)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2014/12/tidings-8.html) - Photograph by Ivan Kislov. As is the custom here, posting will be intermittent over the holidays and readers are advised to subscribe to the blog feed, which will alert you to anything new as and when it materialises. Thanks for another million or so visits this year and thousands of comments, many of which prompted discussions that
- [Eight More Years, They Cried](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2015/02/eight-more-years-they-cried.html) - Patrons are reminded that this rickety barge is kept afloat by the kindness of strangers. If you’d like to help it remain buoyant for a while longer, there’s an orange button below with which to monetise any love for this low establishment. Debit and credit cards are of course accepted. For those wishing to express their love
- [No Refunds, Credit Note Only](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2015/08/no-refunds-credit-note-only.html) - Patrons are reminded that this rickety barge is kept afloat by the kindness of strangers. If you’d like to help it remain buoyant for a while longer, there’s an orange button below with which to monetise any love for this low establishment. Debit and credit cards are of course accepted. For those wishing to express their love
- [Insert Coin for Dancing Monkey (2)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2015/05/insert-coin-for-dancing-monkey-2.html) - Patrons are reminded that this rickety barge is kept afloat by the kindness of strangers. If you’d like to help it remain buoyant for a while longer, there’s an orange button below with which to monetise any love for this low establishment. Debit and credit cards are of course accepted. For those wishing to express their love
- [Reheated (45)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2015/09/reheated-45.html) - For newcomers, three items from the archives: Feel the Racial Healing. The Guardian’s Aisha Mirza bemoans the “psychic burden” of living among white people, which is worse than being mugged. The more I think about it, the more this may exemplify a near-perfect Guardian article, the ideal to which all other Guardian columnists should aspire. It’s haughty and obnoxious, is ignorant
- [It Will Only Encourage Him (2)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2015/11/it-will-only-encourage-him-2.html) - Patrons are reminded that this rickety barge is kept afloat by the kindness of strangers. If you’d like to help it remain buoyant for a while longer, there’s an orange button below with which to monetise any love for this low establishment. Debit and credit cards are of course accepted. For those wishing to express their love
- [Reheated (47)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2016/08/reheated-47.html) - For newcomers, more items from the archives. A ladies-of-the-left edition: Do Not Date Bedlamites. Melissa Fabello, managing editor of Everyday Feminism, shares her interracial dating advice with those less enlightened: If you’re creasing the sheets with someone and you’re continually fretting about pseudo-sociology and imagined racial power dynamics, and about who’s being “marginalised” by virtue of
- [Reheated (48)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2016/09/reheated-48.html) - For newcomers, more items from the archives: Well, Soil Is Sort Of Brown. Your furniture choices are informed by the “crisis in white identity,” says sociology lecturer. And Gardeners’ Question Time is all about race. Given the Guardian’s intense gravitational pull on certain kinds of stupid, it was perhaps inevitable that Dr Pitcher would find a
- [Housekeeping](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2016/12/housekeeping.html) - Newcomers and the nostalgic will be thrilled to hear that the greatest hits archive has (finally) been updated. Among the additions are Laurie Penny’s not-at-all-disastrous lifestyle advice, how not being fat makes you an oppressor, why your erotic preferences are in need of egalitarian correction, and the Guardian’s Sarah Marsh on the traumatising horror of
- [Reheated (54)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2019/02/reheated-54.html) - For newcomers, more items from the archives. You Look Like You Need Some Art. In which we thrill to the creative eruptions of Ms Sandrine Schaefer. The pretence of intellectual heft and critical discernment is quite funny, given the unspoken rules of pretend artists and their pretend art. Like practically all of her fellow hustlers,
- [Reheated (55)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2019/04/reheated-55.html) - For newcomers, more items from the archives. Among The Little People. Feminist academic Dr Jane Bone has “intra-active encounters” with children’s furniture. This traumatic and “haunting” experience – being a grown-up among lots of small chairs – apparently reveals “the undervalued nature of teaching young children.” A point Dr Bone underlines with an anecdote involving
- [Reheated (52)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2018/03/reheated-52.html) - For newcomers, more items from the archives: He’s Being Rugged, And We Can’t Have That. Transvestite potter says Bear Grylls is a bad influence, denounces masculinity as “useless” and “counter-productive.” It’s true that rafting skills and urine-drinking may be niche concerns and of obvious practical use only to explorers, hardy outdoors types, and people whose package
- [Reheated (49)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2017/03/reheated-49.html) - For newcomers, more items from the archives: An Intellectual Being Rides Again. Empowered feminist Melissa Fabello explains the deep, deep trauma of being disagreed with. Ms Fabello chastises those who ironically use the term “social justice warrior” – which, she explains, is an “invalidating behaviour,” one that can get “really oppressive really quickly.” We Can’t Promise Not To
- [Reheated (51)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2017/10/reheated-51.html) - For newcomers, more items from the archives: But Why Aren’t People Rushing To Buy My Art? In which we brave the bleeding edge of conceptual performance. For those who may be confounded by the profundity of the piece, a handy walk-through guide points out that the performance will encourage among onlookers “a deeper level of critical
- [Rashly, He Appealed To Their Better Nature (2)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2020/02/rashly-he-appealed-to-their-better-nature-2.html) - Or, In Which Your Host Learns Whether What He Does Is Of Value. Yes, it’s time to remind patrons that this rickety barge, on whose seating your arses rest, is kept afloat by the kindness of strangers. If you’d like to help it remain buoyant a while longer, and remain ad-free, there are buttons in
- [Rhetorical Wheelies](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2021/05/rhetorical-wheelies.html) - Cyclists and the cycling industry must come to terms with the reality that cycling is a powerful narrator in the power of whiteness that feeds anti-Blackness. Via Instapundit, news from the frontier of woke sports, where “the power of whiteness within cycling” is, we’re assured, a thing that exists: It’s time for cycling to think
- [Gravity is a Mistake](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2013/02/gravity-is-a-mistake.html) - A mistake that the Institute for Centrifugal Research works tirelessly to correct. The ICR’s “pioneering achievements in the realms of brain manipulation, excessive G-Force and prenatal simulations” are illustrated, quite vividly, in Till Nowak’s short documentary, presented below. I beg you, please, wait for the ‘wedding cake’ amusement ride. Via Things, a site you may want
- [Well, That’s The First Decade Done](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2017/02/well-thats-the-first-decade-done.html) - Yes, as of today, this blog is officially ten years old. I have to say, back in February 2007, I had no idea what I was doing and no expectation that I’d still be doing it a decade later. Much as I’d like to applaud my own obstinacy, the fact that I have a slightly
- [Anyone’s For A Farthing](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2021/03/anyones-for-a-farthing.html) - Consider this an open thread, but with a catch. Due to my infinite cunning. Because, yes, it’s time to remind patrons that this rickety barge, on whose seating your arses rest, is kept afloat by the kindness of strangers. If you’d like to help it remain buoyant a while longer, and remain ad-free, there are
- [Tipping Point](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2019/05/tipping-point.html) - Or, A Little Something To Cover The Emotional Wear And Tear. Yes, it’s time to remind patrons that this rickety barge is kept afloat by the kindness of strangers. If you’d like to help it remain buoyant a while longer, and remain ad-free, there are buttons in the sidebar, right, with which to monetise any
- [Exemplary Beings](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2021/03/exemplary-beings.html) - Time for a quick flick through Scary Mommy, where left-leaning ladies are “supporting each other through laughter and empowerment.” I have clinical anxiety. But of course. My current fixation happens to be a home invasion… My house is nigh on impossible, according to my husband, to break into. However, I can’t stop thinking about it.
- [Friday Ephemera](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2007/04/friday_ephemera-3.html) - BT courtesy call goes horribly, horribly wrong. // Tokyoplastic’s bizarre promo video for Zune. Things blink. Buttocks clench. Download here. It’s worth it. // For funksters of a certain age, old school hip-hop flyers. “Jazzy Jay and a Catholic High School Throwdown!” // The golden age of romance comics. An emotional rollercoaster. // Objects of
- [Friday Ephemera](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2007/03/friday_ephemera_4.html) - Giant crystal cave in Mexico. Ideal for Kryptonians. (H/T, Ace) // From Krypton to India. On a shoestring. (H/T, BeaucoupKevin) // Flavoured methamphetamine. You know, for kids. // Oral disco. // Humanity Not Doomed Shock. // Martian icecaps challenge global warming theories. // Environmentalists are the new Amish. Sort of. // Scott Burgess on ecomentalism
- [Squinting at Extremists](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2007/03/squinting_at_ex.html) - “Those willing to trawl through Ramadan’s written and recorded output will find no shortage of material calling into question his supposedly liberal intent. It’s clear that what Ramadan wants isn’t a modernised, secular Islam, but an Islamised modernity.” Over at Sign and Sight, Pascal Bruckner continues his multiculturalism debate with Ian Buruma and Timothy Garton
- [Friday Ephemera](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2007/03/friday_ephemera_3-3.html) - Japanese toilet training video, with tigers, set to music. “My bottom feels strange.” // Pee and Poo. You know, for kids. // Play-Doh cologne. “For highly creative people.” // 1st Ave Machine 3D music animations. Sixes Last is rather special. // Robots greet passengers at Seoul airport. Not exactly “crush, kill, destroy.” // Robot ethics
- [Friday Ephemera](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2007/03/friday_ephemera_2-4.html) - Gummi bear sculptures. Dig that gummi chandelier. // Life-size blue whale. Up close and personal. // Criminal genius makes methamphetamine in toaster. What could possibly go wrong? // Tim Burton’s Batman retold in five seconds. // Ever going boldly, William Shatner keeps it gay. // The healing power of antimatter. // Lunar transit of the
- [Friday Ephemera](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2007/03/friday_ephemera_1-4.html) - Sun Ra does Batman (mp3) // Superman does porn with Big Barda. // Elongated Man fights crime by doing gross things with his body. Maybe it’s the ass-punching that unnerves. Or those huge inflatable eyes. // Real life speech balloons, made from mylar, naturally. (H/T, Fantagraphics.) // Purveyor of postmodern bollocks says very stupid things.
- [For the Love of God](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2007/03/for_the_love_of.html) - Christopher Hitchens is on fine form in Slate magazine, on Ayaan Hirsi Ali and the moral contortions of her PC critics: “Accompanying the article is a typically superficial Newsweek Q&A sidebar, which is almost unbelievably headed: A Bombthrower's Life. The subject of this absurd headline is a woman who has been threatened with horrific violence,
- [Friday Ephemera](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2007/03/friday-ephemera-2-34.html) - Steven Brekelmans' tissue paper drum kit and paper amplifier. // Jawa ponders the rules for mailing faeces, then has a wonderful idea. // Stephen Fry reads Harry Potter and the Black Leather C*nt. (mp3, nsfw) // Former Muslim says 'Islam inherently radical'; death threats ensue. // High-tech office chair pimped beyond decency. // Crop circle
- [Islam's Hagiographer](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2007/02/islams_hagiogra.html) - In my review of Robert Spencer's The Truth About Muhammad, I wrote: "In his book, Islam and the West, the historian Bernard Lewis argued: 'We live in a time when… governments and religious movements are busy rewriting history as they would wish it to have been, as they would like their followers to believe that
- [al-Guardian & the Brotherhood](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2007/02/alguardian_the_.html) - The following article outlines how the mainstream organ of the British left has given a sanitised promotional platform to the Muslim Brotherhood. At the time this piece was written, the Guardian's comment editor was Seumas Milne. When not promoting obnoxious Islamist mouthpieces and calling 9/11 a “self-inflicted wound,” Milne felt obliged to praise Stalinism for,
- [Blunting the Senses in the Name of Fairness](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2007/02/blunting_the_se.html) - “The size of an extremist ‘fringe’ and its relationship to mainstream conceptions of the faith have to be considered as they actually are, not as one might wish, or assume. When given a moment’s thought, all fundamentalisms are not in fact equivalent in their particulars, or the consequences thereof. Yet this is the default prejudice
- [Steve Ditko: the Paranormal Man](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2007/02/steve_ditko_the.html) - "A strange, erratic tale of inter-dimensional espionage and (literally) mind-warping underwear, Shade defies adequate summary or satisfactory explanation..." Steve Ditko is, along with Jack ‘King’ Kirby, one of the most important visual stylists in comic book art. A key architect of Marvel’s Silver Age, Ditko famously co-created Spider-Man and Dr Strange and shaped their formative
- [The Perils of Moral Tourism](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2007/02/the_perils_of_m.html) - Here's a second offering rescued from the archive. It is, I think, still pertinent. Written in the wake of the Muhammad cartoons hysteria, the piece outlines the dishonesty of cultural equivalence - a belief that is widely held yet rarely stated clearly, and therefore rarely analysed. To the best of my knowledge, the essential point
- [Exposure](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2007/02/exposure_revisi.html) - I'm hoping to gradually transfer some of the more popular pieces from my old archive to the new blog. With that in mind, the following profile of the photographer Michael Light was first published March 2004 as a cover feature for Eye: the International Review of Graphic Design. Readers with an interest in visual culture
- [Phantom Guilt Syndrome](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2007/02/phantom_guilt_s.html) - “Many of those who use the term 'asymmetric warfare' focus on the asymmetry of military capability, rather than the asymmetry of morality, tactics and intention. This follows from the notion that the ability to defend oneself is a very bad thing indeed, with the exception of certain perceived underdogs, for whom an entirely different moral
- [The Other Side of Islam's Prophet](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2007/02/the_other_side_.html) - The Truth About Muhammad: Founder of the World’s Most Intolerant Religion Robert Spencer Regnery, 256 pp, £14.99 www.regnery.com In his book, Islam and the West, the historian Bernard Lewis argued: “We live in a time when… governments and religious movements are busy rewriting history as they would wish it to have been, as they would
- [PoMo, Terry Eagleton & Che Guevara T-Shirts](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2007/02/pomo_terry_eagl_1.html) - A discussion on the state of the left with Ophelia Benson, editor of the rationalist website Butterflies & Wheels and co-author of Why Truth Matters. “...if a person doesn’t want an open debate to take place and wants to define in advance what kind of language is permissible and which subjects are off-limits, that usually indicates
- [Art Bollocks Revisited](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2007/02/art_bollocks_re.html) - "The more sceptical among us might suspect that the unintelligible nature of much postmodern ‘analysis’ is a convenient contrivance, if only because it’s difficult to determine exactly how wrong an unintelligible analysis is." The term ‘art bollocks’ was first introduced into serious art writing in the 1999 essay by Brian Ashbee, published in Art Review.
- [The Bedlamite Hustle](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2022/06/the-bedlamite-hustle.html) - Christopher Rufo mingles with the dysmorphics of “Decolonizing Gender”: The panellists represented a wide range of idiosyncratic identities, expressed in a mixture of New Age and intersectional language—the more obscure and oppressed, the greater the status within the community. The main presenter, trans activist Malcolm Shanks, said he was a descendant of black slaves and
- [An Attempt To Dry A Tablecloth](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2022/09/an-attempt-to-dry-a-tablecloth.html) - Attention, lowly peasants. I bring you art: The vast creative talent behind the above, quite literally, is of course Ms Sandrine Schaefer, whose contributions to human flourishing have been noted here on occasion. Once I reveal that the performance is titled Practicing for Death No. 1, its profundity will doubtless become clear. If further clarification
- [When Scolding is the Payoff for All That Piety and Angst](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2012/07/when-scolding-is-the-payoff-for-all-that-piety-and-angst.html) - Guardian reader SanityRestored: I’m prepared to judge you. Sorry if you don’t like it. But for the damage you are inflicting firstly on your own kids, and secondly on society in general, don’t I have the right to judge you? Guardian reader NorthernLass81: A decision that cannot really be justified. Guardian reader ivanpope: Every single
- [I Demand You Demand My Art](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2012/07/i-demand-you-demand-my-art.html) - The Observer’s Elizabeth Day asks a question of thunderous, nay, cosmic, importance: Should artists have to work or should they be supported by the state? Apparently public funding via the Arts Council, which currently spends around four hundred million pounds a year, simply isn’t enough. Individuals applying for grants to the Arts Council already have
- [Insufficiently Prole](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2012/08/insufficiently-prole.html) - It’s been a while since we’ve had a classic sentence to add to our collection. So here’s one – actually two – from the Observer’s ersatz class warrior Barbara Ellen: Mocking the posh and smirking about silver spoons rammed into gobs is a comic artform honed by the masses as a response to centuries of
- [Chewing Chomsky](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2012/08/chewing-chomsky.html) - Michael J Totten interviews the author Benjamin Kerstein. He begins with the question, “What possessed you to spend three years writing about Noam Chomsky?” To which Kerstein answers, Chomsky is an absolutely shameless liar. A master of the argument in bad faith. He will say anything in order to get people to believe him. Even worse, he
- [Titan Obscured](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2012/09/titan-obscured.html) - By Saturn’s rings. As seen by Cassini at a distance of three million kilometres from Titan. One of these. See also this, this and this.
- [Spanking One’s Own Arse](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2012/09/spanking-ones-own-arse.html) - Robert Wargas on letting others know you’re insufficiently black: Since progressivism is largely a status game, in which people compete for social prestige by repeating a set of approved phrases and opinions to other status-seeking mandarins, it’s not surprising that some will go to sado-masochistic lengths to remain part of the alpha group. By now,
- [Who Wrote the Notes?](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2012/09/who-wrote-the-notes.html) - I gather some of my readers are Bond enthusiasts. In which case, and with the new film looming, this audio documentary on the various Bond scores - and the long-running dispute over who wrote what - may be of interest. It’s an hour long but stay with it. There’s plenty of period ephemera and some amusing
- [The Pure Ones Will Guide Us](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2012/09/the-pure-ones-will-guide-us.html) - Novelist Joan Brady is outraged. So much so she felt compelled to share her indignation with Guardian readers: In 1993 I became the first woman to win the Whitbread Prize, and it changed my life. Money! One winner blew it all on a swimming pool for the family’s French villa. Not me. Mine paid off
- [Elsewhere (73)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2012/09/elsewhere-73.html) - Thomas Sowell on tax and dogmatism: There was a time when Democrats and Republicans alike could talk sense about tax rates, in terms of what is best for the economy, without demagoguery about “tax cuts for the rich.” Democratic presidents Woodrow Wilson and John F. Kennedy spoke plainly about the fact that higher tax rates
- [The Cost of Purity](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2012/09/the-cost-of-purity.html) - Or, Less Information is a Good Thing in an Argument, Yes? From Theodore Dalrymple’s latest collection of essays, Farewell Fear. On dictatorial urges: It is difficult now to imagine a modern university intellectual saying something as simple and unequivocal as “I disagree with what you say, but I defend to the death your right to
- [Not Often Seen](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2012/10/not-often-seen.html) - “Russian villagers collecting scrap from a crashed spacecraft, surrounded by thousands of white butterflies.” Photographed by Jonas Bendiksen. Via Peter Risdon. Related, this.
- [Still More Agonies of the Left](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2012/10/still-more-agonies-of-the-left.html) - Oh, for a world without consequences. Laurie Penny rails against capital letters. Damn those corporations. Laurie Penny rails against those who rail against silly things. (Laurie’s own railing against pubic glitter is imprinted on our minds.) Those who disagree with Polly Toynbee should be banished from politics. Pining for home comforts. Fretting about hair and gender
- [Superior Beings](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2012/10/superior-beings.html) - Victor Davis Hanson ponders a certain, quite common kind of leftist mindset. Among its attributes, this: For some, especially those who are well-educated and well-spoken, a sort of irrational furore at “the system” governs their political make-up. Why don’t degrees and vocabulary always translate into big money? Why does sophisticated pontificating at Starbucks earn less
- [Elsewhere (77)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2012/11/elsewhere-77.html) - Via Samizdata, Frank J Fleming ponders the role of President: What was the concept of the U.S. government when it was created? That it’s our servant — we’re in charge of it. The president serves at our pleasure. So the president trying to lead us is like your butler dictating your agenda for the day.
- [It’s Politically Radical Sex, Not Ordinary Mortal Sex](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2012/12/its-politically-radical-sex-not-ordinary-mortal-sex.html) - A librarian replies to a comment piece in the Daily Californian: Please don’t fuck in the library. I work here. My staff works here. The piece in question is by UC Berkeley student Nadia Cho, who seems to believe she’s very edgy and progressive. In fact, it’s difficult to overstate just how edgy and progressive our
- [Monbiot and the Morlocks](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2012/12/monbiot-and-the-morlocks.html) - In which the Guardian’s George Monbiot encounters the underclass and shows how his worldview is quite different from yours: A group of us had occupied a piece of land on St George’s Hill in Surrey... Our aim had been to rekindle interest in land reform. It had been going well – we had placated the
- [Elsewhere (81)](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2013/01/elsewhere-81.html) - Matt Welch on Obama’s fantasy economics: Democrats are in denial about the true cost of their ideological commitments. If we taxed Americans enough to cover the cost (or even 90 percent of the cost) of what Democrats consider the minimal level of government, the result would be recession. That should, but won’t, give big-government apologists

## Pages

- [Blogroll](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/blogroll) - Some sites of possible interest. Some sites of possible interest. Ace of Spades Adam Smith Institute Althouse Ambush Predator Amir Sariaslan Armed and Dangerous Artblog Ben Sixsmith Campus Reform Celia Green Charles C W Cooke Charles Murray Christopher Rufo City Journal College Fix College Insurrection Coudal Daniel Greenfield Dark Roasted Blend Discriminations FIRE Franklin Einspruch
- [THOMPSON, blog.](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/thompson-blog) - In which we marvel at the mental contortions of our self-imagined betters.
- [Posts by Category](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/posts-by-category) - List of categories. List of Categories.
- [Archives](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/archives) - Poke about in the past. Poke about in the past.
- [Contact](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/contact) - Please fill out the form below and I'll be in touch.

## Categories

- [Uncategorized](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/uncategorized)
- [Basking](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/basking)
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- [Problematic Walking](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/problematic-walking)
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- [Big Hooped Earrings](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/big-hooped-earrings)
- [Problematic Civility](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/problematic-civility)
- [Reheated](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/reheated)
- [Ephemera](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/ephemera)
- [Oppressive Towels](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/oppressive-towels)
- [The Thrill Of Unemployment](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/the-thrill-of-unemployment)
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- [Modern Savagery](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/modern-savagery)
- [Those Poor Darling Looters](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/those-poor-darling-looters)
- [Problematic Parties](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/problematic-parties)
- [Behold My Massive Breasts](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/behold-my-massive-breasts)
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- [The Thrill of Friction](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/the-thrill-of-friction)
- [Those Poor Darling Paedophiles](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/those-poor-darling-paedophiles)
- [The Thrill of Medicine](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/the-thrill-of-medicine)
- [Dating Decisions](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/dating-decisions)
- [Problematic Neighbourliness](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/problematic-neighbourliness)
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- [Religion](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/religion)
- [Shakedowns](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/shakedowns)
- [Those Poor Darling Sex Offenders](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/those-poor-darling-sex-offenders)
- [The Thrill Of Toes](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/the-thrill-of-toes)
- [The Thrill of Hand Dryers](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/the-thrill-of-hand-dryers)
- [Those Poor Darling Fare Dodgers](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/those-poor-darling-fare-dodgers)
- [Problematic Monkeys](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/problematic-monkeys)
- [Problematic Wedding Photos](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/problematic-wedding-photos)
- [Film](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/film)
- [Television](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/television)
- [Problematic Bra Marketing](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/problematic-bra-marketing)
- [The Great Outdoors](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/the-great-outdoors)
- [Music](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/music)
- [Classic Sentences](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/classic-sentences)
- [Ideas](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/ideas)
- [Mischief](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/mischief)
- [Feminist Fun Times](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/feminist-fun-times)
- [Problematic Furniture](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/problematic-furniture)
- [Problematic Fairness](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/problematic-fairness)
- [Problematic Motion](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/problematic-motion)
- [Agonies of the Left](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/agonies-of-the-left)
- [Not Often Seen](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/not-often-seen)
- [Toys](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/toys)
- [Radical Bowel Movements](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/radical-bowel-movements)
- [Indignant Replies](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/indignant-replies)
- [Wigs](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/wigs)
- [Feats](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/feats)
- [Blogs](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/blogs)
- [Imagination Must Be Punished](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/imagination-must-be-punished)
- [Games](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/games)
- [Department of Irony](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/department-of-irony)
- [Culture](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/culture)
- [Postmodernism](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/postmodernism)
- [Technology](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/technology)
- [Those Lying Bastards](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/those-lying-bastards)
- [Reversed GIFs](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/reversed-gifs)
- [The Gods, They Mock Us](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/the-gods-they-mock-us)
- [Pregnancy](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/pregnancy)
- [Inadequate Towels](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/inadequate-towels)
- [Auto-Erotic Radicalism](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/auto-erotic-radicalism)
- [Tree Licking](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/tree-licking)
- [Interviews](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/interviews)
- [The Thrill of Wind](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/the-thrill-of-wind)
- [Feminist Dating](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/feminist-dating)
- [Student Narcolepsy](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/student-narcolepsy)
- [Great Hustles of Our Time](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/great-hustles-of-our-time)
- [Intimate Waxing](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/intimate-waxing)
- [The Deep Wisdom of Celebrities](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/the-deep-wisdom-of-celebrities)
- [Problematic Fitness](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/problematic-fitness)
- [Juxtapositions](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/juxtapositions)
- [Gardening's Racial Subtext](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/gardenings-racial-subtext)
- [Radical Dirt Relocation](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/radical-dirt-relocation)
- [The Thrill Of Woke Retailing](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/the-thrill-of-woke-retailing)
- [Hubris Meets Nemesis](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/hubris-meets-nemesis)
- [And Then It Caught Fire](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/and-then-it-caught-fire)
- [Emotional Support Guinea Pigs](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/emotional-support-guinea-pigs)
- [Cannabis](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/cannabis)
- [The Politics of Buttocks](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/the-politics-of-buttocks)
- [Engineering](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/engineering)
- [If You Build It](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/if-you-build-it)
- [The Thrill of Yarn](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/the-thrill-of-yarn)
- [Feminist Comedy](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/feminist-comedy)
- [Gentrification](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/gentrification)
- [Current Affairs](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/current-affairs)
- [Presidential Genitals](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/presidential-genitals)
- [Feminist Pornography](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/feminist-pornography)
- [Greatest Hits](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/greatest-hits)
- [Did You Not See My Earrings?](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/did-you-not-see-my-earrings)
- [Radical Bra Abandonment](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/radical-bra-abandonment)
- [Problematic Cleaning](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/problematic-cleaning)
- [Problematic Crosswords](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/problematic-crosswords)
- [Emotional Support Water Bottles](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/emotional-support-water-bottles)
- [Those Poor Darling Armed Robbers](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/those-poor-darling-armed-robbers)
- [Problematic Acceptance](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/problematic-acceptance)
- [Bra Hygiene](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/bra-hygiene)
- [Problematic Checkout Assistants](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/problematic-checkout-assistants)
- [Those Poor Darling Shoplifters](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/those-poor-darling-shoplifters)
- [Those Poor Darling Stabby Types](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/those-poor-darling-stabby-types)
- [Those Poor Darling Thieves](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/those-poor-darling-thieves)
- [Some Fraction Of A Sausage](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/some-fraction-of-a-sausage)
- [Problematic Baby Bouncing](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/problematic-baby-bouncing)
- [Problematic Bookshelves](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/problematic-bookshelves)
- [Dental Hygiene's Racial Subtext](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/dental-hygienes-racial-subtext)
- [Feminist Poetry Slam](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/feminist-poetry-slam)
- [Behold My Massive Lobes](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/behold-my-massive-lobes)
- [Collective Toilet Management](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/collective-toilet-management)
- [Those Poor Darling Muggers](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/those-poor-darling-muggers)
- [Those Poor Darling Burglars](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/those-poor-darling-burglars)
- [The Thrill of Garbage](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/the-thrill-of-garbage)
- [Tomorrow’s Products Today](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/tomorrows-products-today)
- [Housekeeping](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/housekeeping)
- [Feminist Snow Ploughing](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/feminist-snow-ploughing)
- [Architecture](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/architecture)
- [Bees](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/bees)
- [Giant Vaginas](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/giant-vaginas)
- [Farmyard Erotica](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/farmyard-erotica)
- [Beware the Brown Rain](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/beware-the-brown-rain)
- [Dickensian Woes](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/dickensian-woes)
- [Bionic Lingerie](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/bionic-lingerie)
- [Stalking Mishaps](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/stalking-mishaps)
- [Suburban Polygamist Ninjas](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/suburban-polygamist-ninjas)
- [The Thrill Of Seating](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/the-thrill-of-seating)
- [Problematic Cycling](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/problematic-cycling)
- [The Thrill Of Shopping](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/the-thrill-of-shopping)
- [The Year That Was](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/the-year-that-was) - The Year That Was…
- [Those Poor Darling Carjackers](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/those-poor-darling-carjackers)
- [The Thrill Of Powdered Cheese](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/the-thrill-of-powdered-cheese)
- [The Thrill Of Glitter](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/the-thrill-of-glitter)
- [Problematic Questions](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/problematic-questions)
- [Armed Forces](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/armed-forces)
- [Bra Drama](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/bra-drama)
- [Problematic Pasta](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/problematic-pasta)
- [The Genitals Of Tomorrow](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/the-genitals-of-tomorrow)
- [AI](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/ai)
- [Problematic Plumbers](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/problematic-plumbers)
- [Suburbia](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/suburbia)
- [Arse-Chafing Tedium](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/arse-chafing-tedium)
- [Problematic Ownership](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/problematic-ownership)
- [The Thrill Of Endless Noise](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/the-thrill-of-endless-noise)
- [Radical Ceramics](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/radical-ceramics)
- [Niche Pornography](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/niche-pornography)
- [Problematic Taxidermy](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/problematic-taxidermy)
- [Problematic Reproduction](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/problematic-reproduction)
- [Unreturnable Crutches](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/unreturnable-crutches)
- [Problematic Height](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/problematic-height)
- [The Thrill Of Women's Shoes](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/the-thrill-of-womens-shoes)
- [Problematic Drama](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/problematic-drama)
- [Problematic Shoes](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/problematic-shoes)
- [The Thrill of Décor](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/the-thrill-of-decor)
- [ASMR](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/asmr)
- [Behold My Anus](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/behold-my-anus)
- [Problematic Pallor](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/problematic-pallor)
- [Oversharing](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/oversharing)
- [Discourse Was Attempted](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/discourse-was-attempted)
- [Problematic Coffee](https://thompsonblog.co.uk/category/problematic-coffee)