Back in uni days a friend & I compared notes on the most unlikely combinations we were faced with on the conveyor belt coming through the checkout. She won with the customer buying KY jelly & a pineapple.
Still makes my eyes water at the thought😬

Yep. Hope is an act of resistance.
A hopeful and blessed Advent to you when we get there.

I think one of the knock on effects of end of Net Book Agreement was the demise of smaller, quirkier publishers prepared to take a punt on something more mainstream publishers wouldn't.

😲 can't find the words...

And quite an homage to 70's style fonts...

Even Paul would be vexed...

Well, hyper capitalism in action. Great for the billionaires, less great for the workers and small local businesses.

Used to run a wee indy bookshop. Kept in touch when I left. Shop finally closed Jan '25. Not helped by people browsing then cheerfully saying as they'd leave, 'I wanted to see what it was like first. I'm buying it on Amazon: it's cheaper. Paying living wage, taxes, & lower discount = can't compete🙄

Our rat protagonist as a Sartre of the sewers.

Indeed.
There's a deep undercurrent of yearning - quiet desperation, even.
Beautiful and heart-breaking.

and clearly, I can't spell 'coriander'...!!

Just glad that my meeting in Edinburgh was yesterday, not today!!

I made a sortie out to Luca's [in Mussy] for a late lunch, then scurried back home.

It is still, by far, one of my favourites for it's elegant simplicity.

'People didn’t vote Labour for this'
Indeed. They voted Labour to get the Tories out, only to realise that there's no discernible difference.

Straight out of the gaslighting playbook.

According to tomorrow's forecast for my part of Scotland, it'll be rain, rain, rain all through the morning up clearing up by mid-afternoon when all our services will be done... of course. Sigh. No snow, at least - stay warm!!

Mate, mum was Catholic, dad was Presbyterian - try living with both Catholic guilt *and* Calvinist inadequacy!