mattypenny

There’s a chap in this bit in the Guardian who says American football is rigged so that Taylor Swift’s boyfriend gets to the Super Bowl final, and the ensuing publicity for Swift will enable Biden to win the election

I will be finding a way to reuse and repurpose this theory if Liverpool beat Chelsea tonight ⚽🏈

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2024/jan/31/taylor-swift-travis-kelce-super-bowl-rightwing-conspiracy-biden?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

The only thing more nostalgia-inducing than old TV adverts are TV adverts for companies you once worked for.

Anyway, I got a big Proust-y rush from Sky’s parody of the old Sony ad 📺

Some good news in the news

[BBC News - Northern Ireland: Sinn Féin hails ‘day of optimism’ after DUP agrees return to power-sharing - BBC News] (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-northern-ireland-politics-68031910)

M’young friend Tom refers to Putin’s eventual successor as ‘he or she’

The idea that it might actually be a ‘she’ made took me back a bit, if I’m honest

Well worth listening to, in any case 🎙️

The Hated and the Dead - Nikita Krushchev

Spring hasn’t yet sprung….but it’s on its way in the Shire

Call me a nerdy pedant but the football pyramid.is shaped more like the Eiffel Tower than a pyramid, imho

At best it’s a triangle rather than a pyramid ⚽

I think I might struggle to score 73 points in 48 minutes even if I was alone on the court 🏀

Doncic equals fourth-highest NBA scoring total - www.bbc.co.uk/sport/bas…

Commentator just said there’s a battle developing between Sterling and Cash

I don’t know how that works but someone should inform the Chancellor

CheAvl ⚽

Only eleven months to Christmas

I always hoped I’d get a cheque meant for poor old Matthew Perry, but sadly it never happened

Tom Hollander says he received seven-figure Avengers bonus meant for Tom Holland

As a constitution geek, I absolutely love this

“Lord Cameron, the UK foreign secretary, should take questions from MPs at the “bar” of the house – the white line on the Commons floor from behind which visitors must not pass while parliament is sitting.”

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/jan/24/lord-david-cameron-face-questions-mps-commons-bar?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

Chelsea FC are returning to Stamford Bridge North 😃⚽

Commentator just referred to cole Palmer as cole porter

Well, did you ever?

⚽

Before Elon Musk got his hands on twitter, I tweeted ‘my word of the day’ for the best part of a couple of years, I think. This is a list of all those words.

• myrrh
• eggnog
• swaddling
• tidings
• footfall
• ponderous
• tinsel
• mulled
• lustre
• rankle
• cusp
• rambunctious
• foible
• slumber
• guttural
• rigmarole
• Blighty
• totter
• dunk
• I just listened to a thing about Delia Derbyshire so my word of the day today is wobbulator
• staunch
• curdle
• albeit
• gravel
• dawdle
• bosky
• My word of the day today is either impinge' or ‘expunge’ I can’t quite decide
• musty
• harbinger
• piffle
• chilly
• shuck
• reverberate
• edible
• chortle
• amok as in ‘run amok’,
• russet
• divot
• ruffled
• gush
• fiddlesticks
• flange
• My word of the day is skedaddle'.. which I must admit I thought was spelt with an ‘i’
• myriad
• discombobulate
• drizzle
• mulch
• rigmarole - derived from a Kentish phrase ‘ragman roll’ apparently
• mawkish- apparently it derives from Middle English word for maggot
• skullduggery
• ramshackle
• muffle
• glitch
• jovial
• outwith
• hue
• stockade
• chuffed
• grizzled
• hillock
• nincompoop
• paradiddle
• commensurate
• sombre
• tumultuous
• jettison
• daub
• malleable
• snout
• dazzling
• filibuster
• parish
• behest
• valve
• skint
• gabardine
• grinning
• desultory
• blossom
• fricative
• shiplap
• codger
• batten
• hunkering
• mulch
• resin
• tustle
• speckled
• truckle
• nebulous
• frothy
• pithy
• sprinkle
• rife
• sanguine
• thistle
• stirrup
• antiquity
• chipper
• raucous
• follicle
• foist
• ceramic
• wrinkle
• swarthy
• machinate
• griddle
• styptic
• chrysalis
• febrile
• crumple
• twill
• diffident
• tomfoolery
• mishmash
• mooch
• rickety
• spruce
• tabernacle
• epitome
• middling
• scrimmage
• ditto
• trickle
• skew
• schism
• stroll
• satsuma
• sprout
• hocus-pocus
• gesticulate,
• creosote
• wreak
• mumble
• exuberant
• chirpy
• growl
• mollusc
• gist
• mariner
• dunk
• kindling
• tinsel
• plangent
• bubble
• hush
• strum
• slouching
• crackle
• purloin
• frost
• adamant
• scamper
• capacious
• jostle
• wanton
• askance
• stubble
• cattle
• balustrade
• ado
• rummage
• smudge
• guttering
• embroiled
• scruffy
• digit
• crepuscular
• turmoil
• autumnal
• heft
• jot
• scrawny
• corroborate
• palaver
• cribbage
• mirage
• rubble
• expunge
• muffle
• dozen
• melody
• lucid
• knuckles
• fume
• scurry
• crinkle
• jaded
• trickle
• fisticuffs
• bedraggled
• glottal
• fricative
• splendid
• furtive
• dithering
• purport
• warble
• ponder
• rigmarole
• dollop
• hard-scrabble
• treacle
• puppet
• thunderer
• waddle
• autumnal
• ribbon
• gladden
• abundant
• cherub
• sinew
• scatter
• crumple
• prattle
• baffled
• happenstance
• sprightly
• brunt
• conkers
• flutter
• mulch
• happen
• amok
• pundit
• hankering
• moreish
• sprinkle
• oblivious
• skirmish
• swelter
• ochre
• groove
• syllable
• star-crossed
• marmalize
• convivial
• shimmer
• gleam
• jittery
• miscreant
• mitigate
• reverberate
• kelp
• dream
• skittish
• bungalow
• shoestring
• strides
• implode
• floundering
• curdle
• ethereal
• drizzle
• halcyon
• perch
• turnbuckle
• glimmer
• resurgence
• ragwort
• mumble
• musket
• slobber
• merriment
• willow
• dappled"
• reckon
• crumble
• quandary
• munch
• perspicacious
• gabardine
• jibber-jabber
• roughage
• stucco
• rumbustious
• plinth
• declamatory
• tad
• dusk
• antelope
• dainty
• pebble
• mischief
• muffle
• startle
• vanquish
• parish
• gusty
• giggle
• flannel
• snooze
• chivvy
• gander
• twelve
• mishmash
• vestibule
• poodle
• ineffable
• nuzzle
• quench
• skittle
• chaff
• manky
• wistful
• rascal
• hirsute
• lurk
• tantamount
• gazelle
• curtsey
• precipitate
• wry
• stooge
• mellifluous
• tumble
• flummox
• miscreant
• stipple
• pernickety
• finagle
• burst
• glee
• defenestration
• promenade
• fizzle
• curdle
• lagoon
• tinge
• froth
• brisk
• flounce
• agog
• linnet
• trundle
• jaunty
• glisten
• kettle
• froth
• batten
• dromedary
• waif
• heft
• buddy
• skiff
• garnish
• amalgamate
• patter
• qualm
• warble
• scant
• smattering
• fricative
• sizzle
• hankering
• paraphernalia
• nobbled
• raddled
• lunge
• reverie
• parsnip
• slake
• squirm
• furlong
• ping
• nostrils
• tousled
• minion
• hustings
• gloop
• quandary
• shudder
• griddle
• drench
• triumph
• frisson
• ocelot
• sniff
• engrossed
• chirpy
• machination
• damp
• pith
• rowdy
• bliss
• blustery
• meander
• surge
• maritime
• lilting
• ponder
• rabble
• gumption
• wrought
• merge
• snigger
• chevron
• liniment
• dumpling
• miscreant
• modicum
• gusty
• griddle
• gargle
• sparrow
• balustrade
• amicable
• rigmarole
• truckle
• grapple
• tamp
• frazzled
• gesticulate
• crepuscular
• tingle
• razzmatazz
• husky
• sinister
• wallop
• giggle
• befuddled
• bustle
• dimple
• slumber
• tardy
• besmirch
• scruple
• scamper
• toggle
• gratitude
• schmuck
• gormless
• swelter
• beleaguered
• hoik
• banjaxed
• natterjack
• collywobbles
• perambulate
• raddled
• resplendent
• resonate
• festoon
• squabble
• machinate
• spud
• befuddled
• shtick
• squat
• wondrous
• combustion
• stymied
• saunter
• scrofulous
• rancid
• pestle
• tryst
• hubbub
• scramble
• extrusion
• flummox
• flounce
• absurd
• scrimp
• cleft
• stanchion
• cadge
• mull
• tardy
• vacillate
• hankering
• shimmering
• truffle
• bramble
• genial
• divulge
• ruffian
• luminous
• aghast
• loiter
• drowsy
• glitch
• scamper
• tryst
• vestibule
• hugger-mugger
• skulduggery
• musty
• smidgen
• saunter
• caper
• bickering
• tatterdemalion - I’ve seen the word twice in 24 hours…although I’m not entirely sure what it means
• peregrine
• incorrigible
• shtick
• temper
• stove
• tingle
• calypso
• fickle
• gantry
• bangle
• stickler
• gizzard
• haunch
• manifest
• behest
• clavicle
• simmer
• laggards
• higgledy-piggledy - Which might be two words I suppose,
• trot
• ‘the vig’
• yonder
• effervescent
• jettison

⌨

In which David Owen refers to the Department of Health and Social Security as ‘the Department of Stealth and Total Obscurity’ :)

I’m easily pleased

🎙️

News Agents - the Dangers of 2024 and how to avoid them - with Britain’s oldest foreign secretary

This is good, from Austin Kleon’s newsletter:

On the asshole who lives in our brains: “Were we to meet this figure socially, this accusatory character, this internal critic, this unrelenting fault-finder, we would think there was something wrong with him. He would just be boring and cruel. We might think that something terrible had happened to him, that he was living in the aftermath, in the fallout, of some catastrophe. And we would be right.” That’s Adam Phillips in his wonderful essay, Adam Phillips · Against Self-Criticism 💬