Allez les bleus!

Don’t vote for the far right, French sports stars urge public

www.theguardian.com/world/art…

All good, in general, and I’ll be able to get another couple of years out of it

I found that:

• I had to run the installer twice before it worked

• gpodder picked up all my subscriptions from gpodder.net, which was handy, because I’d forgotten to export the opml

• I had to log out and back in again to get gpodder to save to the folder I specified

• Spotify seems identical. I use custom order, which I wasn’t expecting to be there in the Linux version….I’m wondering whether it’s actually the windows version running under wine

• it’s a shame PSClock won’t run

• I installed the Mate desktop…I very much prefer that to the default Ubuntu one

• I haven’t got gvim set up yet

• or VS Code

• or any powershell stuff beyond installing it

……but it’s all good

I couldn’t really see the point of playing so many long, aerial balls against a team so particularly big and so particularly physical as Serbia…..but a win’s a win by any other name, I suppose ⚽

So far, so ok-ish

The BBC guys seem to be wearing rose-tinted glasses ⚽

Three different players beginning with B have scored so far

Broja has just got to score ⚽

From a bit in last week’s Times in which various writer-y types recommend books for the new Prime Minister (I hope)

The last thing the next prime minister should do is to read a book about political history. He’ll draw all the wrong lessons - they always do - then spend the next five years worrying about how he’ll be remembered. Since one of the most important political assets is a sense of humour, he’d be much better off with PG Wodehouse’s The Code of the Woosters, a valuable reminder that behind the stern façade of even the most formidable politician, there lurks the potential proprietor of a lingerie shop.

Dominic Sandbrook historian and columnist

I got an alert from the BBC just now.

It alerted me to the fact that I can now discover who Chesney Hawkes, Nina Nesbitt and Aitch think will win Euro 2024

I wonder what Lord Reith would have made of it?

Euro 2024 winners? Chesney Hawkes, Nina Nesbitt and Aitch have their say - www.bbc.com/sport/foo…

Words I like - The Limerick Rake

“Now there’s some say I’m foolish, there’s some say I’m wise, Though being fond of the women I think is no crime. Sure the son of King David, he had ten thousand wives, And his wisdom was highly regarded.”

Limerick Rake by Ronnie Drew - songwhip.com/ronnie-dr…

Very much enjoyed reading, and simultaneously listening to, the Rime of the Ancient Mariner

35 minutes well spent

Text at : poets.org/poem/rime…

And on Spotify at : open.spotify.com/show/5TBy…

Finished reading: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge 📚

I often find myself thinking, if not saying out loud, “He’s doing his best, but then so was Liz Truss”

I take a disproportionate amount of pleasure from surrounding a word with stars to make it bold

Shortcuts to fold and unfold text in VS Code #VsCode

Not the nicest of thoughts

Microplastics found in every human semen sample tested in study - www.theguardian.com/environme…

Would’ve liked to have been at Stamford Bridge for SoccerAid again - it was a good afternoon out last time

I’m compiling a mental list of results to look up on July 5th

Basildon and Billericay is one of them

www.theguardian.com/politics/…

The dog, on instagram

www.instagram.com/p/C7ZZPhW…

This was my May, in doodles

Congratulations, USA! 🏏

www.theguardian.com/sport/liv…

On days of remembrance, as well as gratitude for the sacrifices, I think of the people I knew who fought in the war, and to some extent my thoughts aren’t all about what they did at that time.

I just miss them.

This is slightly weird

I am a politics geek.

I did politics at university, i listen to various politics podcasts, and i rarely miss Peston or Question Time

I find politics fascinating, vital and often entertaining

But i always get a bit bored with it during election campaigns

Which absolute idiot wrote this?

 $ThisTimeYesterday = $(Get-Date).AddHours(24)

Interesting episode about Chanira Bajracharya, who went from being designated as a goddess until puberty to being a financial analyst 🎙️

From a goddess to a graduate Witness History - youtu.be/LvvDZIkDy…

I hadn’t heard of David Fricke before - he’s very Cool, but in a really cool way

Rolling Stone’s David Fricke plus signed Velvets (“banana intact”) - Word In Your Ear - youtu.be/LvvDZIkDy…

i’m sorry to be a dreadful football snob, but for me the highlight of an international friendly is when the Chelsea player goes off uninjured

⚽

I like this, from Austin Kleon’s newsletter:

As the poet Donald Hall wrote in Essays After Eighty, everybody who works with their brains all day needs to lighten up a bit at night: “Before Yeats went to sleep every night he read an American Western. When Eliot was done with poetry and editing, he read a mystery book.”