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Adam Roberts

@adamroberts.bsky.social

6.3K followers 700 following 4.6K posts

Writer, FRSL. Prof, RHUL. Literature and science fiction. https://profadamroberts.substack.com/ Latest novel "Lake of Darkness": https://store.gollancz.co.uk/products/lake-of-darkness

profadamroberts.substack.com

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Adam Roberts @adamroberts.bsky.social · 14h

Rude.

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Adam Roberts @adamroberts.bsky.social · 14h

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Adam Roberts @adamroberts.bsky.social · 17h

Could be ...

Adam Roberts @adamroberts.bsky.social · 18h

Leslie Beatles, after whom the pop group named themselves, recorded all their famous songs first, though he is not often remembered today.

A French release of "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away", attributed to "Les Beatles", which this skeet humorously -- I mean, not really, but indulge me -- affects to believe is a name, Les short for Leslie Beatles.

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Adam Roberts @adamroberts.bsky.social · 21h

Hey: congratulations!

Adam Roberts @adamroberts.bsky.social · 1d

Being shot out of a cannon inside a giant glass bullet? Jodhpurs are the only trousers for that job.

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Adam Roberts @adamroberts.bsky.social · 1d

Roses are red
Apples fall under gravity

Headline: "Wyoming Man Found with 30 Eyeballs in His Anal Cavity"

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Adam Roberts @adamroberts.bsky.social · 1d

Pink sunset. Pinkest.

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Adam Roberts @adamroberts.bsky.social · 1d

I'm flattered!

Adam Roberts @adamroberts.bsky.social · 1d

Stunning!

Adam Roberts @adamroberts.bsky.social · 1d

Kubrock'n'roll

Adam Roberts @adamroberts.bsky.social · 1d

I still feel that if *that* had been the monolith in 2001: a Space Odyssey, it would have been a very different and perhaps better movie.

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Adam Roberts @adamroberts.bsky.social · 1d

Class!

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Adam Roberts @adamroberts.bsky.social · 1d

Sharkey Dressed Man

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Adam Roberts @adamroberts.bsky.social · 1d

But this isn't right: famously the drummer, though *called* Beard, was actually clean-shaven.

The cover of John Holmes's "Tolkien’s Glee: A Reading of the Songs in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings" (MacFarland 2025) shows a medieval illustration of three notably bearded individuals playing respectively a flute, a cello and a drum. The skeet humorously, or (we can be honest) not-very-humorously, imagines this to be a representation of the popular American beat combo "Z Z Top", two members of which were bearded. Beardy. Beady. Bears, for all I know.

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Adam Roberts @adamroberts.bsky.social · 1d

Fair.

Adam Roberts @adamroberts.bsky.social · 1d

Frontispiece to this:

Adam Roberts @adamroberts.bsky.social · 1d

Bloody hell, no.

The frontipiece to David Day's "A Guide To Tolkien" (1993) is a line-drawing portrait of JRRT that makes him look like Edward G. Robinson.

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Adam Roberts @adamroberts.bsky.social · 1d

... and there's no reason to think that any will be in teh foreseeable. So the headline's "... set to ..." isn't right.

Also, the framing. I mean, you could report this datum as "four-fifths of students *are* better off financially because they went to university"

"One in five undergraduates would have been better off financially if they had not gone to university, a report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies found in 2020."

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Adam Roberts @adamroberts.bsky.social · 1d

You wouldn't call this unbiased reporting by The Times. The OfS might lower fees for institutions that are not Gold, Silver or Bronze rated for teaching, but are categorised as "Requires Improvement". OK: but literally *no* UK unis are in this category ...
www.thetimes.com/uk/education...

Tuition fees set to be lowered at universities with poor teaching

Labour is considering bringing the cap below £9,000 a year on campuses where standards aren’t met

www.thetimes.com

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Adam Roberts @adamroberts.bsky.social · 1d

"I've just come from Timbuctoo on my horse, Rumpelstiltskin."

"Your horse is called Rumpelstiltskin??"

"That's right. I've been through the desert on a horse with gnome-name."

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Adam Roberts @adamroberts.bsky.social · 2d

I was Compelled.

Adam Roberts @adamroberts.bsky.social · 2d

Happy to join you in CLARISSA/howler discourse: medium.com/p/4ef70f202094

‘The Dread Receptacle’

Every now and again I like to read a Michael Innes mystery. Not too often, for I find they cloy in too large a quantity: small doses…

medium.com

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Adam Roberts @adamroberts.bsky.social · 2d

Reupping, for the last time, this post on fragmentary Riddle 82: profadamroberts.substack.com/p/exeter-rid...

Exeter Riddle 82

A riddle of a riddle

profadamroberts.substack.com

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Adam Roberts @adamroberts.bsky.social · 2d

There is no bottom.

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