To be fair to Mr Trump I expect the army did, in 1776, take over land that would later become an airport
“Our army manned the air, it rammed the ramparts, it took over the airports, it did everything it had to do, and at Fort McHenry, under the rocketsā red glare, it had nothing but victory.ā
Flight of fancy: Trump claims 1775 revolutionary army ‘took over airports’
š¶ My Crucial Track for 06 July 2026 - Three Little Birds by Kate Rusby
What song would you dedicate to your younger self?
I think all of us at some time need to be told not to worry, to know that everything’s going to be alright, and to take the time to enjoy those three little birds on our doorstep.
I didn’t properly listen to this when it came out, but I saw Kate and her band do their cover of this at Salisbury City hall last month and it was lovely
View entry: www.crucialtracks.org/profile/m…
Is there nothing the man cannot corrupt?
BBC News - Trump confirms he asked Fifa to review Balogun ban
For the āHand of Godā goal the majority view is that he did it intentionally but in my opinion Maradona, wary of being thumped in the head by the onrushing Shilton, who was a little slow off his line, raised his arm and the ball struck his hand and nestled in the net. After seeing no linesmanās flag and hearing no refereeās whistle, he happily took the glory for a clear piece of cheating.
My Mexico 1986 memories of Maradona, the Azteca and a commentary faux pas - David Pleat
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It does tend to get parky alright ā there’s a rumour that one day on Achill Island the wind stopped blowing and everybody fell over.
Made me laugh
The counties of Ireland and their nicknames ā from Antrim to Wicklow | The Irish Post
Pic: National Library of Ireland on The Commons, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
The Constitution contains a Bill of Rights. But I think there was also an implied Bill of Responsibilities. It was just so widely accepted, they didnāt need to write it out.
Well…he’s got my vote
" I always say to my son, in my more bleak moments, play āThe Sick Bed Of Cuchulainnā at my funeral"
The Quietus - Party Pieces: Andy Burnhamās Favourite Albums
I haven’t seen this before - a Wikipedia page detailing all the statues on the West Front of Salisbury Cathedral
Statuary of the West Front of Salisbury Cathedral
Pic: by me, when the Fire Brigade were practicing
The story behind Kingfishr’s ‘Killeagh’, which has now had 60 million streams on my streamer alone, is quite something
In mid-2024, Eoin Fitzgibbon was asked by former hurling coach Phillip O’Neill to write a song for Killeagh GAA to which he agreed if the juniors made the east Cork final that year. Fitzgibbon believed it was unlikely as team hadn’t made the final since 2001. Fitzgibbon said, “lo and behold, October arrives and they get to the final” and he is contacted by O’Neill.
The song was written in 20 minutes, with the group saying “It literally could not have been more of a slapped-together job” Killeagh (song) on Wikipedia
I’m enjoying the Ribble game on Puzzmo
Scores on the doors:
| Date | How long | Words |
| 21st July | 5:39 | According to Wiktionary , an axon is 'A nerve fibre which is a long slender projection of a nerve cell, and which conducts nerve impulses away from the body of the cell to a synapse.' |
| 14th July | 2:22 | Quite a quick one today. Ribble had hydrophobic, and allowed 'hydro', but not 'phobic'. Maybe 'phobic' on it's own isn't a generally accepted usage? |
| 13th July | 12:38 | A couple of words I didn't know and a couple I didn't recognize today. 'Rill' is a rivulet. 'Lien' is a claim on someone's property. 'Linty' is something covered in lint. 'Lain' is a layer or a past tense version of lie |
| 12th July | 3:14 | 'Hew' seems to me to have slightly contradictory meanings. It can be chopping bits off of something, or it can be rigid conformity |
| 11th July | 4:47 | 'Quail' can be a bird, it can be to cower in fear, or it can mean to curdle |
| 10th July | 3:10 | 'Dolt' is "from Middle English dold, a variant of dulled" |
| 9th July | 4:05 | 'Husk' in the sense of shell, or casing possibly comes from the middle English _hus_, meaning little house |
| 8th July | 3:00 | 'Trice' is a nautical word meaning to haul or jerk something, presumably like a sail or an anchor, very quickly. The ordinary usage of 'in a trice', meaning quickly, comes from that |
| 7th July | 3:26 | According to Wikipedia, "During Gerardo Machado's dictatorship in Cuba, Havana citizens were forbidden to dance the conga since rival groups would work themselves to high excitement and start street fights. This was not the case when Fulgencio Batista became president in the 1940s - he permitted people to dance congas during elections, but a police permit was required." |
| 6th July | 4:18 | 'Oaf' is "Variant of awf, aufe,[1] probably from Old Norse Ć”lfr (āelfā)". Wiktionary says the plural can be 'oafs' or 'oaves' |
| 5th July | 4:38 | 'Tome' implies a single volume of a larger work, apparently |
| 4th July | 2:08 | |
| 3rd July | 6:49 | 'Fief' is essentially the same as 'feifdom', as far as I can tell |
| 2nd July | 3:30 | 'Lute', as well as being an Olde Worlde guitar, can mean something used to seal joints and stuff - something like putty 9th July update: I learnt via the marvellous Saint Denis show that a 'luthier' is someone that makes and maintains stringed instruments |
| 1st July | 10:37 | 'Owie' is _colloquial, North America, childish_ A painful, usually minor, injury. 'Agar' is "From Malay agar or agar-agar, both meaning jelly" |
| 30th June | 2:55 | 'zinc' is from "German Zink, possibly from Zinke, spike (so called because it becomes jagged in the furnace)". |
| 29th June | 4:05 | 'Tuft' is "Middle English, probably alteration of Old French tofe, from Late Latin tufa, helmet crest" |
| 28th June | 13:10 | 27th June | 7:37 | Tort is the legal thing, and French for 'wrong'. Torte is a cake | 26th June | 6:27 | an octad is "A group or sequence of eight" |
| 25th June | 5:10 | |
Watching: Brazil ‘70: The Third Star šæ.
Possibly something for football nerds of a certain age….but I’m very much enjoying it
They used to say if you don’t like the weather in England then you can wait five minutes and it will have changed. Starting to feel its the same for Prime Ministers.
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I’m not much interested in Burnham vs Starmer. The significant story seems to me to be how badly the right did
Reform is dying out there, absolutely dying on its arse - Ian Dunt substack (my retitling)
Great bit of detail about Count Binface
The man in the bin is a comedian named Jon Harvey. He used to stand in elections as Lord Buckethead, including in the former prime minister Theresa Mayās constituency in 2017 so that she had to face down the dreadful results for her party alongside a man with a bucket on his head. However, after receiving a copyright complaint from the American film-maker Todd Durham, who created Lord Buckethead for his 1984 science-fiction film Hyperspace, Harvey had to rebrand as Count Binface.
Binface, foxes and raving loonies: the UKās proud history of costumed candidates
Pic: Jpdfive, Count Binface, CC BY-SA 4.0)
Wondering whether I’d rather see Chelsea win the Premiership away at Tottenham or away at Bournemouth š
ā½ #ChelseaFC #cfc
Chelsea - Scores & Fixtures - Football - BBC Sport