Alex MacLaren
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alexmaclaren.bsky.social
Alex MacLaren
@alexmaclaren.bsky.social
170 followers 450 following 1.7K posts
Reading, cooking, counting my blessings. Resident of Folkestone, UK
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alexmaclaren.bsky.social
Honestly, the OED has so many US options, you picked the right word for the game of ‘commit, you might as well’
BRITISH ENGLISH /, inta'ni:san/ in-tuh-NEE-sighn U.S. ENGLISH /, in(t)ar'ne, sin/ in-tuhr-NESS-een /,in (t)er ni, sain/ in-tuhr-NEE-sighn 1, in(t)er nisen/ in-tuhr-NEE-suhn
November 21, 2025 at 7:17 PM
alexmaclaren.bsky.social
Saw this photograph today... It took nearly a year from the declaration of war in 1939 for the British Government to ban Mosley’s Fascists and intern him.
bsky.app/profile/ianm...
Black & white photograph of a stout bowler-hatted plain-clothes policeman escorting a well-dressed woman away from the offices of her soon-to-be banned political party in 1940. In the lapel of her dress is a pin badge of a lightning bolt in a circle: the insignia of her party, the British Union of Fascists.
November 17, 2025 at 5:30 PM
alexmaclaren.bsky.social
That’s such a strangely written piece, probably for legal reasons. I‘m still not 100% clear whether it is accusing some unnamed BBC News employee of doctoring less compromised material that had been innocently signed off and handed over by October
Furthermore, we are told that the October executive producer who worked on the show, Neil Breakwell, or the editor, was never even aware that the footage had been spliced together in such a way that it was made to appear Trump was inciting his followers to "fight like hell." That decision was made by the BBC's in-house producer-director, we are told, who had made the edit prior to the documentary being shown to EPs Breakwell and the BBC's Leo Telling. When they were first shown the footage before the show premiered in October 2024, we understand Breakwell and Telling were not informed of the changes that had been made.
November 15, 2025 at 10:52 AM
alexmaclaren.bsky.social
Trump v BBC: I can’t imagine there being many surprises tbh, but it will certainly provoke a conversation about patriotism and leadership
A pill that dyes the plaque on your teeth so that it is vivid and visible to everyone, which might finally force you to scrub the stuff off and rinse it down the plug hole, and ideally inspire a regime of regular hygiene, healthier food and dental vigilance. The idea is that your teeth will last your whole life, and you’ll look nice, and you’ll feel better about yourself, and teach your children this good habit, and perhaps the bacteria will multiply more slowly in future
November 15, 2025 at 10:10 AM
alexmaclaren.bsky.social
November 12, 2025 at 9:40 PM
alexmaclaren.bsky.social
RIP Tatsuya Nakadai
The late Tatsuya Nakadai in a dark suit, leading the police surveillance team as they plug into a phonecall from the kidnapper to Toshiro Mifune in High and Low (1963)
November 11, 2025 at 7:42 AM
alexmaclaren.bsky.social
Frank Nitti in Brian Palma’s ‘The Untouchables’, with whom I hadn’t made the Alain Delon connection until today
November 9, 2025 at 9:23 PM
alexmaclaren.bsky.social
It's significant certainly - I am curious though about the insanity of voters, or the oddness of the NBC exit poll, that can produce this:
Exit poll question: Was one reason for your vote for mayor today to support Donald Trump? 18% answer yes, of which 5% are *Mamdani* voters.
November 5, 2025 at 2:11 PM
alexmaclaren.bsky.social
Shaftesbury in Dorset clearly has The New York Met Gallery of crochet
Hokusai’s The Wave (knitted by some miraculous means) as a postbox topper in Shaftesbury Dorset
October 31, 2025 at 6:08 PM
alexmaclaren.bsky.social
Family life mate
October 26, 2025 at 7:55 PM
alexmaclaren.bsky.social
Photo of Cheryl Campbell, and cast list as follows: 18 December 1986 - 24 January 1987 THE COUNTRY WIFE by William Wycherley Mr Horner Gary Oldman A Quack Sean Blowers A Boy/Sir Jaspar Fidget Patrick Henry My Lady Fidget David Howey Sheila Ballantine Mrs Dainty Fidget Linda Gardner Mr Harcourt Duncan Bell Mr Dorilant Adrian Palmer Mr Sparkish Alex Jennings Mr Pinchwife lan McDiarmid Mrs Margery Pinchwife Cheryl Campbell Mrs Alithea Karen Drury Mrs Squeamish Tricia Morrish Lucy (Alithea's Maid) Delia Corrie Old Lady Squeamish Rosalie Williams Musicians Julia Singleton, Sandy Burnett, Natasha Holmes Director Nicholas Hytner Designer Mark Thompson Music composed and arranged by Jeremy Sams Lighting Paul Pyant Sound Colin Duncan Movement Lesley Hutchinson Assisted by Wendy Houstoun "There seems to be no bolding Manchester's Royal bange Theatre Company... an audacious, vital and
October 26, 2025 at 7:35 PM
alexmaclaren.bsky.social
The story goes that a man condemned to death told his king: “I could teach your horse to sing, within a year.” The king replied: “Very well. But if the horse is not singing a year from now, you will be executed.” Upon the criminal’s return, his cellmate remonstrated: “You know you can’t teach that horse to sing.” He replied: “I have a year I didn’t have before. A lot of things can happen in a year. The king might die. The horse might die. I might die. “And, who knows? Maybe the horse will sing.”
October 17, 2025 at 4:11 PM
alexmaclaren.bsky.social
I love there is barely a corner of the Wikipedia entry for 'Double Dactyl' that doesn't become part of the pattern
A string of poetic Wikipedia updates, about a poetic structure - just go and see! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_dactyl
October 10, 2025 at 11:57 AM
alexmaclaren.bsky.social
Wonderful - never heard (or noticed) ‘primmer’ in my English life. Apparently a New Zealander would use that pronunciation/spelling consistently - these are from OED:
BRITISH ENGLISH / PRIGH-muh PRIM-uhr U.S. ENGLISH / PRIM-uh PRIGH-muhr In sense 2d BRITISH ENGLISH PRIM-uh 2.d. Chiefly New Zealand. A class covering one of the first years of instruction in a primary school; a child in a primary school class. 1885- 1885 He was a big boy at school when I was a little one in the primer. S. O. Jewett, Marsh Island vii. 94 1928 Where there are three teachers: Primers do infant work; Squad I, Tables 1-36; [etc.]. Syllabus of Instruction for Primary Schools (New Zealand Department of Education) 55 ..• 1947 There was Micky, her [sc. the teacher's] smallest primer, a little wizened creature with sad eyes. 'A. P. Gaskell', Big Game 92 1963 She had taught in the primers of his school when he was in Standard six. B. Pearson, Coal Flat i. 8 •• 1990 Maori course for primers. Dominion (Wellington) (Nexis) 25 September 12
October 10, 2025 at 8:32 AM
alexmaclaren.bsky.social
Alright, please help me, internet. Some of my kitchen utensils came with a space-age rubberized grip element, which in my hands has degraded into a foul, almost sticky, texture. What am I doing wrong? Why did the manufacturers do this? And have they stopped?
Kitchen scissors and a bread dough scraper, the handles of which have been clad in some terrible material which has turned into chewing gum
October 5, 2025 at 8:29 AM
alexmaclaren.bsky.social
October 2, 2025 at 5:13 PM
alexmaclaren.bsky.social
Whenever I’m in northern Europe I look for this view, because it waa *obviously* painted very recently, this year? Recently found an echo in Helsingør, Denmark
October 1, 2025 at 5:21 PM
alexmaclaren.bsky.social
me. “These people would have to be incredibly creative to come up with anything that would offend or hurt my feelings, and they are not creative people. It’s just same old, same old. I wish the media would stop talking about this as an unprecedented movement. There’s nothing unprecedented about it. Anyone who has even the slightest knowledge of 20th-century history should know that.”
September 28, 2025 at 9:08 AM
alexmaclaren.bsky.social
This answer is *chef’s kiss*
September 27, 2025 at 4:32 PM
alexmaclaren.bsky.social
Lear’s heartbroken ‘Reason not the need’ speech from Act 2 Sc 4, the timeless reply to those discouraging one from making a perfectly sensible second-hand book purchase
September 27, 2025 at 12:54 PM
alexmaclaren.bsky.social
The main threat to US dignity is quite a tricky one for other nations to solve
Mike Waltz, US ambassador to the UN, echoed the president's call for an official probe, saying the incidents were "unacceptable". "The United States will not tolerate threats to our security or dignity at international forums. We expect swift cooperation and decisive action," he wrote on X.
September 25, 2025 at 8:18 AM
alexmaclaren.bsky.social
It's not hard. Just copy/paste the attached.
Dear Sir Oswald, Thank you for your letter and for your enclosures. I have given some thought to our recent correspondence. It is always difficult to decide on how to respond to people whose ethos is so alien and, in fact, repellent to one’s own. It is not that I take exception to the general points made by you but that every ounce of my energy has been devoted to an active opposition to cruel bigotry, compulsive violence, and the sadistic persecution which has characterised the philosophy and practice of fascism. I feel obliged to say that the emotional universes we inhabit are so distinct, and in deepest ways opposed, that nothing fruitful or sincere could ever emerge from association between us. I should like you to understand the intensity of this conviction on my part. It is not out of any attempt to be rude that I say this but because of all that I value in human experience and human achievement. Yours sincerely, Bertrand Russell
September 22, 2025 at 11:57 AM
alexmaclaren.bsky.social
Not really worrying, looking at the eliminating votes. Dominic Grieve can feel justifiably sore though
Lord Hague: 9,589 • Lady Elish Angiolini: 6,296 • Baroness Jan Royall: 3,599 • Lord Peter Mandelson: 2,940 • Rt Hon Dominic Grieve: 2,484 (eliminated and votes transferred) Second Stage • Lord Hague: 10,472 • Lady Elish Angiolini: 6,915 • Baroness Jan Royall: 3,945 • Lord Peter Mandelson: 3,344 (eliminated and votes transferred) Third Stage • Lord Hague: 11,766 • Lady Elish Angiolini: 7,727 • Baroness Jan Royall: 4,662 (eliminated and votes transferred)
September 11, 2025 at 4:01 PM
alexmaclaren.bsky.social
Not quite, the pronunciation is also different! But yes an archaic version of the same word. Used for the speed sailing prize IIRC.
September 10, 2025 at 9:56 AM
alexmaclaren.bsky.social
Is it a fluke that a comma looks like a whale and its tail
September 9, 2025 at 6:10 PM