glasogliath
@glasogliath.bsky.social
Dead writers, France, Europe, cities, language, book history, the rise of the populist right. I hop about. Sometimes I wag my tail.
'Collateral'? That wouldl be because Ireland isn't part of Europe?
January 19, 2026 at 7:30 PM
'Collateral'? That wouldl be because Ireland isn't part of Europe?
A long-awaited book from Martin Tyrrell, who will be known to many from his excellent essay-reviews in the Dublin Review of Books over the years.
January 19, 2026 at 12:26 PM
A long-awaited book from Martin Tyrrell, who will be known to many from his excellent essay-reviews in the Dublin Review of Books over the years.
Reposted by glasogliath
From November 2020, when murder hornets were killing the bees in the US
![1 [Title panel] BEE TALK [News-type magazine show, with bees]
2 ANCHOR BEE: Tonight: America Divided
3 Will bees and murder hornets ever find a path to reconciliation?
4 Cheryl?
CHERYL BEE: Well, on the one hand this is partly caused by social media...
5 Algorithms are making us *hyper-aware* of insects who have different values to us, and this is having a polarising effect.
ANCHOR BEE: Mmm.
6 Also the murder hornets want to chew off my head and eat my kids.
7 ANCHOR BEE: Jason?
8 JASON MURDER HORNET: You see, this is what debate has *become* in this country.
9 Bees pretend to be all fuzzy and nice, but they simply *won’t accept* different worldviews!
10 I mean, ultimately we're all the same, right?
You want to buzz around, gather pollen and make honey...
11 I want to chop off your head and legs, gather your thorax and nibble your kids.
12 CHERYL BEE: [GETTING UP]: I’m leaving
JASON MURDER HORNET: Oh she’s *triggered*
[Ends]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:4m3we4apbjayclzcnhwe3pfp/bafkreibukfsyoqusz2x7szzs34baovn5m2f5r6qdxqrengf3jdun4htfem@jpeg)
January 19, 2026 at 10:10 AM
From November 2020, when murder hornets were killing the bees in the US
Reposted by glasogliath
New @restispoliticsus.bsky.social LEADING wherever you get your podcasts. Hope I have the belly fires burning as brightly as Neil Kinnock if/when I hit 83
January 19, 2026 at 10:20 AM
New @restispoliticsus.bsky.social LEADING wherever you get your podcasts. Hope I have the belly fires burning as brightly as Neil Kinnock if/when I hit 83
Reposted by glasogliath
BREAKING: Another Conservative defection as Tory MP Andrew Rosindell switches to Reform UK.
January 18, 2026 at 8:18 PM
BREAKING: Another Conservative defection as Tory MP Andrew Rosindell switches to Reform UK.
'Legacy parties': a new one on me. By way of analogy with 'legacy media', outlets which, at least in some cases, are concerned as to whether what they're reporting is or is not truthful.
I wondered how things were going on the other place, and I saw this trending:
January 18, 2026 at 6:25 PM
'Legacy parties': a new one on me. By way of analogy with 'legacy media', outlets which, at least in some cases, are concerned as to whether what they're reporting is or is not truthful.
We tried 'bugger society, make yourself rich'. Now we're trying 'family, community, country'. Shameless opportunism? No. We're responding to the electorate's deep needs.
👇🎯
James Orr believes this makes him/Reform some kind of radical, but this is the same trite communitarianism that every leading politician has recited at some point or another since 2009. The question is about the means - and whether they include an ICE, camps, gunning down small boats or not
January 18, 2026 at 1:49 PM
We tried 'bugger society, make yourself rich'. Now we're trying 'family, community, country'. Shameless opportunism? No. We're responding to the electorate's deep needs.
Reposted by glasogliath
Julian Barnes's departure: his cancer, his deaf dog, Martin Amis's last email to him, and why he's stopping writing novels so that he doesn't die in the middle of one and have some other bastard finish it for him.
Me on Barnes's final book:
Me on Barnes's final book:
Julian Barnes bids farewell: ‘My cancer and I will trundle along until the day I die’
In his final book, Departure(s), the Booker-winning author explores love death, and ageing
www.thetimes.com
January 17, 2026 at 8:47 AM
Julian Barnes's departure: his cancer, his deaf dog, Martin Amis's last email to him, and why he's stopping writing novels so that he doesn't die in the middle of one and have some other bastard finish it for him.
Me on Barnes's final book:
Me on Barnes's final book:
Reposted by glasogliath
What one critic called Ethan Hawke's 'hangdog charisma' would be enough on its own to carry it, but in fact it's studded with fine performances: Jeanne Tripplehorn, Keith David, Ryan Kiera Armstrong, Kyle MacLachlan. Hugely enjoyable.
Also: finished the Lowdown and it is my favourite TV show. A noir detective story that isn't filled with cynicism about humanity - in fact, kind of the opposite - which is really rare.
January 18, 2026 at 12:05 PM
What one critic called Ethan Hawke's 'hangdog charisma' would be enough on its own to carry it, but in fact it's studded with fine performances: Jeanne Tripplehorn, Keith David, Ryan Kiera Armstrong, Kyle MacLachlan. Hugely enjoyable.
Reposted by glasogliath
Putting this here in case useful over the next couple of days.
January 18, 2026 at 10:20 AM
Putting this here in case useful over the next couple of days.
Reposted by glasogliath
Good news for Adrian Duncan fans – A Thought without Collision is his best yet – rigorous, compelling, funny, moving
The main character is a maths prodigy, giving a unique perspective, but it's never tricksy – just continually astonishing
My jaw kept actually dropping at the quality of writing
The main character is a maths prodigy, giving a unique perspective, but it's never tricksy – just continually astonishing
My jaw kept actually dropping at the quality of writing
January 18, 2026 at 10:51 AM
Good news for Adrian Duncan fans – A Thought without Collision is his best yet – rigorous, compelling, funny, moving
The main character is a maths prodigy, giving a unique perspective, but it's never tricksy – just continually astonishing
My jaw kept actually dropping at the quality of writing
The main character is a maths prodigy, giving a unique perspective, but it's never tricksy – just continually astonishing
My jaw kept actually dropping at the quality of writing
The Paper: 'Trump vows higher tariffs ...'
Can one vow a tariff? Indeed, can one vow anything but allegiance? Can one plight anything except one's troth? I've noticed there isn't a great deal of vouchsaving going on these days. It was all the rage in my youth.
Can one vow a tariff? Indeed, can one vow anything but allegiance? Can one plight anything except one's troth? I've noticed there isn't a great deal of vouchsaving going on these days. It was all the rage in my youth.
January 18, 2026 at 1:39 AM
The Paper: 'Trump vows higher tariffs ...'
Can one vow a tariff? Indeed, can one vow anything but allegiance? Can one plight anything except one's troth? I've noticed there isn't a great deal of vouchsaving going on these days. It was all the rage in my youth.
Can one vow a tariff? Indeed, can one vow anything but allegiance? Can one plight anything except one's troth? I've noticed there isn't a great deal of vouchsaving going on these days. It was all the rage in my youth.
Bord Gais taken. Bord na Gaoithe?
January 18, 2026 at 12:38 AM
Bord Gais taken. Bord na Gaoithe?
If the wind changes you'll be stuck like that.
Youth Making a Face, c. 1632/1635
Adriaen Brouwer
(National Gallery of Art, Washington)
Adriaen Brouwer
(National Gallery of Art, Washington)
January 17, 2026 at 8:53 PM
If the wind changes you'll be stuck like that.
Reposted by glasogliath
Today’s Daily Cartoon, by Jason Adam Katzenstein. #NewYorkerCartoons
January 16, 2026 at 11:30 PM
Today’s Daily Cartoon, by Jason Adam Katzenstein. #NewYorkerCartoons
OK. Let's have a full list. Walkers haven't been the same since they let go of Gary Lineker.
It's effectively impossible to boycott US companies because they own so many British brands. You'd have to stop buying Cadburys, Walkers Crisps, HP sauce.... or shopping at Gails or Waterstones etc etc...
January 17, 2026 at 7:12 PM
OK. Let's have a full list. Walkers haven't been the same since they let go of Gary Lineker.
.. or indeed the American people, who elected him.
Boycott all further MCU and Star Wars movies
With apologies - Europe still shouldn't be retaliating and making matters even worse. It needs to be clear in its rejection of the US approach but committed to responsible government of the kind that Trump clearly cannot do. We can't force the US President to be sane.
January 17, 2026 at 6:05 PM
.. or indeed the American people, who elected him.
Reposted by glasogliath
WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE KIDDING MR. MAGA WHEN YOU SAY OLD ENGLAND'S DONE
BREAKING: Donald Trump has said the UK and seven other European countries will be charged a 10% tariff 'on any and all goods' sent to the US from February, until a deal is reached to buy Greenland
The tariff will increase to 25% from June 1
The tariff will increase to 25% from June 1
January 17, 2026 at 5:48 PM
WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE KIDDING MR. MAGA WHEN YOU SAY OLD ENGLAND'S DONE
That political genius Dominic Cummings argued that Brexit would remove immigration as an issue and thus kill off populism and Farage.
Well.
Well.
ONCE upon a time (a few months ago) a group of over-excited British commentators argued that one Brexit benefit was that the UK would not be involved in a trade war between Trump and the EU.
Well.
Well.
January 17, 2026 at 5:01 PM
That political genius Dominic Cummings argued that Brexit would remove immigration as an issue and thus kill off populism and Farage.
Well.
Well.
Looks like he's going to be one of those insufferable brainboxes: a future purveyor of 'the higher French nonsense' perhaps.
Does your adorable child keep bumping into furniture? Does he read a lot?
January 17, 2026 at 3:28 PM
Looks like he's going to be one of those insufferable brainboxes: a future purveyor of 'the higher French nonsense' perhaps.
'They flee from me that sometime did me seek.'
January 17, 2026 at 1:10 PM
'They flee from me that sometime did me seek.'
Reposted by glasogliath
Paris still has lots of fruit & veg shops (which I hardly ever see in Dublin). I bought some apples & was reminded of what a Pink Lady could be. Sweet, juicy and a crunch loud enough to drown out conversation, compared to the small,tart cannonballs we now get in Ireland. Cashews were way better too.
January 17, 2026 at 11:32 AM
Paris still has lots of fruit & veg shops (which I hardly ever see in Dublin). I bought some apples & was reminded of what a Pink Lady could be. Sweet, juicy and a crunch loud enough to drown out conversation, compared to the small,tart cannonballs we now get in Ireland. Cashews were way better too.
And where exactly has the 'respectable right' moving closer to the extreme right worked out well for them electorally?
"Centrist" CSU member Manfred Weber
January 17, 2026 at 2:20 AM
And where exactly has the 'respectable right' moving closer to the extreme right worked out well for them electorally?