Sarah Drew
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Sarah Drew
@sarah-drew.com
470 followers 320 following 790 posts
Writing about romance & red tape in 1819. Unbalanced accountant, voracious reader, few fixed opinions, slightly Scottish.

https://sarah-drew.com

Amazing cover art ©www.claremelinsky.co.uk
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Sarah Drew
qospress.bsky.social
#Booksky We’re releasing an omnibus tomorrow 12/15! Get all 6 Astreiant books by Melissa Scott and Lisa A. Barnett in one glorious ebook edition. Astreiant is also eligible for the Best Series Hugo this year! queenofswordspress.com/product/comp...
December 14, 2025 at 7:29 PM
sarah-drew.com
Why #Hyphens Matter #56—

"So, do you want a normal adult ticket?"
December 16, 2025 at 5:09 PM
Reposted by Sarah Drew
stephanieburgis.bsky.social
Thanks to @valerievaldes.bsky.social for linking me to this truly awesome photo of someone SO MUCH cooler than any AI techbro:
davidbeckler.bsky.social David Beckler @davidbeckler.bsky.social · 8d
Here he is taking the photo.
Charles Ebbets standing on a steel beam as he takes the iconic photo of construction workers having a lunch break on the beam.
December 13, 2025 at 8:30 PM
Reposted by Sarah Drew
bridgetmackeith.bsky.social
Role reversal.
November 22, 2025 at 5:29 PM
Reposted by Sarah Drew
dlbowman76.com
@lgbookworm.bsky.social I think this is adjacent to your interests.
adapalmer.bsky.social Ada Palmer @adapalmer.bsky.social · 8d
A 14-year-old boy has folded origami that can hold 10,000 times its weight. Miles Wu used the Miura-ori fold, which is known for collapsing and expanding with precision. He’d like to use his origami experiments to help improve pop-up emergency shelters. buff.ly/SiY2KZh
#ShareGoodNewsToo
14-Year-Old Wins Prize For Origami That Can Hold 10,000 Times Its Own Weight
While most 14-year-olds are folding paper airplanes, Miles Wu is folding origami patterns that he believes could one day improve disaster relief.
buff.ly
December 12, 2025 at 1:51 PM
Reposted by Sarah Drew
christoptomus.bsky.social
Alt text: Acrylic painting of one black and white duck, and brown duck on a slight wave beautifully rendered in green and blue.
esthervanhulsen.bsky.social Esther van Hulsen wildlife art @esthervanhulsen.bsky.social · 8d
Moving Waters – Tufted Ducks
Acrylics on board
15.7″ x 19.7″ (40 x 50 cm)

www.esthervanhulsen.com
December 12, 2025 at 12:34 PM
sarah-drew.com
#AITA—
OP: We're going to elope to Las Vegas next year with 20 friends.

Respondents: We're cross about the mis-use of "elopement" & the general degradation of #language. It's a symptom of something.

Voice of Common Sense: It *can't* be an elopement if there isn't a ladder.

#C18th #C19th
The Elopement of Bessie Surteens and John Scott (later Lord Eldon). Etching from original painting by Wilson Hepple. From https://hauntedpalaceblog.com/2024/05/31/rags-to-riches-the-elopement-of-bessie-surtees-and-john-scott-a-newcastle-love-story/ A couple in C18th dress are rushing away from a ladder that leads to a townhouse's first floor (2nd floor for USA) window. In the background a carriage is waiting, presumably to carry the couple to Gretna Green. A man on the left of the picture is gesturing at or to them.
December 11, 2025 at 1:43 PM
Reposted by Sarah Drew
readingtheend.bsky.social
good morning, I have noticed that some of the critical responses to the Crave show Heated Rivalry have been, let's say, incomplete

sex scenes are craft! goddammit!
Anatomy of a Sex Scene: Heated Rivalry Edition - Reading the End
Heated Rivalry, AKA the gay hockey show, has been getting a lot of buzz for its explicit(-ish) sex scenes, and a lot of that buzz has been coming from viewers and critics whose experience with the rom...
readingtheend.com
December 10, 2025 at 1:36 PM
sarah-drew.com
Strong rec for 'Wake Up Dead Man' — a thoroughly satisfying thoughtful & funny film, where the ambiguity at its heart starts with the punctuation. Daniel Craig's excellent teflon Benoit Blanc sets off the terrific acting chops of Joshes O'Connor & Brolin.
December 9, 2025 at 11:58 PM
Reposted by Sarah Drew
beakmoo.bsky.social
A lovely timeline cleanser.
lycomorpha.bsky.social Moths in a human suit (they/them) @lycomorpha.bsky.social · 17d
I made a paint set I really, really like and it makes me happy.

& This is the kinda fkd up timeline where smol happy things matter.

So here. Have some colours that make my brain happy I guess?

It has 3 single pigment primaries + green, & works for mixing a rainbow of colours plus greys & browns…
A swatch page for a six colour watercolour paint set that is designed for mixing rainbow colours. There is a square 6 by 6 mixing grid for all the colours in the middle, & a large rainbow gradient patch at each end. Above the grid are some more blobs of colour showing which blacks, greys and browns you can mix with it. Below are some patches of secondary and tertiary colours you can make with the 3 primaries in the set.
December 3, 2025 at 8:49 PM
Reposted by Sarah Drew
cstross.bsky.social
(UK) Parliamentary Petition: Require generative AI watermarks & ban using people’s likeness without consent

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/736690
December 1, 2025 at 8:55 AM
sarah-drew.com
It's possible people may have forgotten about #RobertMorse's shoulders. And Ruth Kobart giving it laldy.

youtu.be/DhUcvFP_Tas?...
How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (1967) - Brotherhood of Man Scene (10/10)
YouTube video by Movieclips
youtu.be
November 27, 2025 at 11:39 PM
sarah-drew.com
I shall have to be buried with my e-reader, because if they filled my coffin with all the dead-tree books I love, there would be no room for me. A lot of them are illustrated with the delightful drawings of Charles & Henry Brock, Hugh Thomson, T.H. Robinson. Charming, appropriate & gently mocking.
Title page of Mrs Gaskell's Cranford, illustrated by TH Robinson. Below the title, an elderly C18th gentleman slouches reading in a great armchair, his feet on a footstool in front of the fire. B&W illustration by Hugh Thomson for Jane Austen's 'Emma'—Chapter 6 "he was ready at the smallest intermission of the pencil, to jump up and see the progress, and be charmed." Mr Elton looks admiringly at Emma's portrait of Harriet Smith. Emma contemplates her own work admiringly too.
November 25, 2025 at 11:54 PM
sarah-drew.com
"Discover", indeed! The Scottish #accountants' organisation revealing their bias in their newsletter. As if their female members need to discover any of this. More to the point would be a headline that laid out what #ICAS is *doing* about it.
Image from a newsletter reads — Breaking the Silence: ICAS Research on Menstruation, Menopause and Miscarriage in Accounting Discover why women can feel isolated and fearful of being open about menstruation, menopause and miscarriage and often make career decisions based on these experiences.
November 18, 2025 at 9:52 AM
sarah-drew.com
So if I'm offered a night away in #Wigan, BlueSky, should I accept immediately?
November 17, 2025 at 11:49 AM
sarah-drew.com
Gotta admire #ViennaOpera for putting on #AlbanBerg 's #Wozzeck *every day* from April to October 2026—seven months.
This modernist #opera "depicts a soldier's tragic slide into madness and murder amid militarism and oppression". 200+ performances will do that to a chap.
Snapshot of the Vienna Opera's list of events for April 2026 showing Wozzeck scheduled almost every night. Snapshot of the Vienna Opera's list of events for October2026 showing Wozzeck scheduled every night.
November 17, 2025 at 12:10 AM
Reposted by Sarah Drew
bridgetmackeith.bsky.social
Food Chart.

I’m posting this so you can share my agony any time I use/cook/eat any of these.
November 13, 2025 at 5:50 PM
Reposted by Sarah Drew
spokes.org.uk
☝️ #PrincesStreet plans unfit for modern #European capital

🙋 Wed 11 Nov p.m. #Planning Cttee debate

Item 7.3 on agenda--> democracy.edinburgh.gov.uk/ieListDocume...

Webcast--> edinburgh.public-i.tv/core/portal/...

@edi.bike @edfoc.bsky.social @chdot.bsky.social @sw20.info @thecockburn.bsky.social
start of spokes deputation http://www.spokes.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/251112-CEC-PLANNING-COMMITTEE-SPOKES-Deputation-princes-st.pdf CEC PLANNING COMMITTEE, 12.11.25 - written deputation from Spokes 7.3 Non-Statutory Planning Guidance – Finalised Princes Street and Waverley Valley Strategy The proposed draft guidance, whilst including many worthwhile proposals, has one over-riding failing, in that it completely neglects the huge area of land occupied by roadway, and assumes it must stay as now. It is as if we have separate Planning and Transport departments rather than a unified Place department. This cannot be the right approach for a holistic view of Princes Street and the Waverley Valley. Nor is it right that large amounts of money should be invested without the whole area being considered in a unified manner. The earlier, consultation, proposals were widely criticised by the West End and New Town Community Councils, by internationally renowned Richard Murphy architects, and others for lacking ambition and imagination. Nor did they go anywhere near the recommendations of the Council's commissioned report by urban designer Jan Gehl, way back in 2010, who identified "cycle and pedestrian priority" and reduced vehicle presence as "essential" for Princes Street to achieve its "huge potential." Sadly, the draft Guidance document presented today shows little change in these respects. It fails to live up to what is expected in the heart of a modern European capital.
November 12, 2025 at 2:09 PM
Reposted by Sarah Drew
writeups.org
With alt text.
You know a country by its values. By what a country values. And it turns out thatwhat a country values can change overtime. Sometimes, though, there's a sort of cognitive delay between the country you think you are in, and the country you've actually become. For example, you can keep selling yourself, to foreigners, as the country of William Shakespeare and Jane Austen, and luring busloads of tourists to Stratford-upon-Avon and Bath, and put a statue of George Orwell in front of the BBC, and imagine yourself a cultured and literate nation, which the rest of the world admires for its devotion to the written word - but if you then chronically underfund your cultural institutions, and treat your cultural workers with contempt, many people will suspect you of being full of it. And as the decades pass - and fewer and fewer Shakespeares and Austens and Orwells emerge from your little island - even more people will begin to suspect that in truth you do not value culture at all, and are in fact running a giant heritage museum in which the only cultural workers you respect are the dead ones.
November 12, 2025 at 8:55 AM
sarah-drew.com
#VirginMoney helpdesk:
—Yes, most people get that error message.
—You're using the wrong sort of browser.
—Your dropdown address isn't on our system.
—The system often sends out Registration Successful emails even when it hasn't worked.
—We'll have to do this manually. Wait till next week.

(ggrrr)
November 7, 2025 at 9:56 AM
sarah-drew.com
The village had a bonfire. And fireworks. And a fire dancer.
A piper played the can-can, and we sort of danced, but holding fish & chips and a ginger beer, so more of a muddy shuffle, really.
A night scene with a large well-built bonfire burning away merrily. The flames have not yet reached the stuffed guy on top. A black night sky with a golden firework bursting into flower in the middle of the picture. Because the phone camera is quite slow, it captures a few nano-seconds of the light, making the firework more substantial than it was in real life.
November 3, 2025 at 12:31 AM
sarah-drew.com
Good evening, classicists. Could any more-Latin-having-than-me person comment on a family motto I have made up?

Is "pugna sine pugnā" respectable #Latin, and could I use it to mean "A war without a battle" or "A fight without fighting"?
October 31, 2025 at 6:33 PM
sarah-drew.com
Got a text message w/o a name on our landline, wishing a family member a happy birthday (i.e. def from s.o. who knows us) but when we try to return the call (l/line, mobile or WhatsApp), the number's not recognised, even using 141.

How can that be?

#BritishTelecom #Telephone #IrritatingMysteries
October 25, 2025 at 11:10 AM
sarah-drew.com
Just seen La Sonnambula in a live screening from the #MetOpera. Interesting anti-GOP pre-opera political message from the Met's General Manager #PeterGelb. Singing was stratospherically accomplished (if not especially subtle); standout performance by an appropriately louche Alexander Vinogradov.
Count Rodolfo (Alexander Vinogradov) holds a limp Amina (Nadine Sierra) in Bellini's 'La Sonnambula' from the Metropolitan Opera House. Image is a still from the live screening trailer.
October 21, 2025 at 11:47 PM
sarah-drew.com
"Hoyden", @nytimes.com (& autocorrect). It's a word. Look it up.
October 21, 2025 at 8:36 AM