This is fab. Alexis Petridis picks his twent best Nancy Sinatra songs…and there are a few I’ve never heard.
He’s missed The City Never Sleeps at Night (Boots' b-side), though
The Guardian - How do these grab you, darlinâ? Nancy Sinatraâs 20 best songs â ranked!
I was listening to Paul McCartney this morning and he says that the wren is his favourite bird.
Everyone should have a favourite bird, I think.
second half of the Chelsea match clashes with the boy’s basketball.
I could do with Chelsea being two or three up by then to settle the nerves
â˝ #ChelseaFC #cfc
#TodayILearned that
Rococo takes its name from the French word ‘rocaille’, which means rock or broken shell â natural motifs that often formed part of the designs, along with fish and other marine decorations. The acanthus leaf (Acanthus mollis), or rather a heavily stylised version of it, was also a signature motif.
It’s not FDR that we’re dealing with, sadly.
I have only just twigged that all of Yes Minister is on the BBC iPlayer
This will make my lunchtimes more chucklesome
Jim Hacker is the only Prime Minister to have studied at the college I went to
One of the things I like about by-elections is discovering new places names. ‘Gorton’, ‘Denton’, and on the telly this morning, ‘Longsight’. All very good.
Shame my side lost though
I heard a good new-to-me made-up word this morning (although aren’t all words are made-up?)
fauxstalgia - nostalgia for something you never experienced in the first place
My Crucial Track for 23 February 2026 - “Red Right Hand (2011 Remaster)” by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
What’s a song that grew on you over time?
“Red Right Hand (2011 Remaster)” by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
This gives me the chance to share my Nick Cave joke.
“Take a little walk to the edge of town
Go across the tracks
Where the viaduct looms,
Like a bird of doom
As it shifts and cracks
Where secrets lie in the border fires,⨠in the humming wires
Hey man, you know⨠you’re never coming back
Past this square, past the bridge,⨠past the mills, past the stacks
On a gathering storm comes⨠a tall handsome man”
Nick Cave. Good at songs, rubbish at giving directions.
“Red Right Hand (2011 Remaster)” by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds on Apple Music
This is from Crucial Tracks. My profile is here.
My Crucial Track for 22 February 2026 - “If It Wasn’t for the Nights” by ABBA
What’s your favorite deep cut from an album?
“If It Wasn’t for the Nights” by ABBA
A jaunty tune with a bleak-as-a-northern-winter lyric
Childish from the Daily Star….but I can’t help smiling
Particularly at the description “wingnut manbaby”
My Crucial Track for 21 February 2026 - “Zobi la mouche” by Les NĂŠgresses Vertes
What song makes you feel like you’re in a different country?
“Zobi la mouche” by Les NĂŠgresses Vertes
I went to see this band at what used to be called the Town and Country Club, in Kentish Town
Both the band and the audience made me feel like I was in Paris, or somewhere further South.
They played this song twice. As far as I can make out it’s about a fly called Zobi …but don’t let that put you off.
“Zobi la mouche” by Les NĂŠgresses Vertes on Apple Music
This is from Crucial Tracks. My profile is here.
I always assumed ‘Wayland’, which is a Linux-y thing I probably don’t entirely understand, was named after Wayland’s Smithy, but according to HowToGeek it’s named after a place near Boston
I’m a bit disappointed tbh
Pic from Msemmett - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link
I’ve moved away from database-y stuff over the last couple of years, but I’ve been fiddling about with a point-in-time restore this morning, and I’ve been reminded how good dbatools is.
It seems to have grown a viking helmet since I last used it :)
dbatools | SQL Server automation with PowerShell
I’ve moved away from database-y stuff over the last couple of years, but I’ve been fiddling about with a point-in-time restore this morning, and I’ve been reminded how good dbatools is.
It seems to have grown a viking helmet since I last used it :)
dbatools | SQL Server automation with PowerShell
My Crucial Track for 17 February 2026 - “The Wind Doesn’t Blow This Far Right” by Lisa O’Neill
How do you discover new music, and what’s the latest gem you’ve found?
“The Wind Doesn’t Blow This Far Right” by Lisa O’Neill
It’s a mixture of collaborations, compilations, algorithms, books and websites, and podcasts, and the occasional Shazam.
This song is a case in point. I’m not sure how I originally heard of Lisa O’Neill, but I played her LP, then lost touch a bit, and then saw her sing with the Pogues. Then I read that an old punk-rock school chum had picked this as his favourite record of last year (here…and I listened more carefully to this particular song.
imho, it’s a masterpiece
“The Wind Doesn’t Blow This Far Right” by Lisa O’Neill on Apple Music
This is from Crucial Tracks. My profile is here.
But what about his favourite goal? âMaybe the one against Tottenham,â he says of the curling equaliser in the dying minutes of the Battle of the Bridge in 2016. That goal didnât just secure a 2-2 draw, it effectively ended Spursâ title hopes and handed the trophy to Claudio Ranieriâ
One of my favourites, too đ
Eden Hazard: âIâm more of a taxi driver than a football player now, but itâs OK
â˝ #ChelseaFC #cfc
About an hour ago I was listening to a podcast in which Brad Friedel said that goalkeepers don’t often get sent off,and I nodded along, at least in my head…and then I’ve just seen the Villa keeper see red #AstNew â˝
A bit about my old school and William Golding.
Golding was a bit before my time, but we ‘did’ Lord of the Flies with a teacher called Mr Gammon, who we all called ‘Piggy’
This is fun…I know some of the songs, and some of the books, but apart from the Jefferson Airplane and the Joy Division, I wouldn’t of linked any of them
From BrontĂŤ to Ballard, Orwell to Okri: the best songs inspired by literature â ranked!
Thoughts on 'Saipan'. The TLDR is football nerds should go and see it
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I enjoyed it very much. It’s well worth seeking out.
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the period detail is great
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the archive footage is fun
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I should say that, as a football nerd of a certain age, and because I’ve got Irish connections, then I’m very much in the target audience
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the very brief clip of Keane’s tackle on Haaland’s dad is shocking
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it does seem a bit unfair on McCarthy, in that he probably didn’t select Saipan as a location, and it also probably wasn’t his fault that they didn’t have any footballs
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also…given they did get to the round of 16 without their best player, McCarthy can’t have been a bad manager.
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I would’ve thought they should have brought the film out just before the World Cup
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a bloke in the Guardian says that there wasn’t really any element of “you’re not even Irish” (although I do remember it being reported at the time), and the journalist didn’t say the article would be held back until after the tournament
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Steve Coogan spoke to McCarthy about playing him BBC
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the thing that must haunt Roy Keane is that Ireland got knocked out on penalties in the last 16. Had he been there they might have got through to the quarters, and just possibly he could’ve gone on to lift the trophy. If Greece and Denmark could both win the Euros, it’s not impossible
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on the other hand, maybe they were a better squad without him
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if you’ve got this far but don’t really know what I’m rabbiting on about there is a Wikipedia page about the Saipan incident
My Crucial Track for 10 February 2026 - “Woman In Love” by Barbra Streisand
What’s a guilty pleasure song?
“Woman In Love” by Barbra Streisand
This might fit the idea of a Guilty Pleasure in that it probably wouldn’t have been positively featured in the NME at the time it came out….and it’s also from an LP called Guilty
“Woman In Love” by Barbra Streisand on Apple Music
This is from Crucial Tracks. My profile is here.