Rose’s pots are even more exquisite irl. I feel very privileged to have one.
'Our Big Day' LGBTQ+ award-winning picturebook published 2022. Currently subbing agents w/ a gay novel for adults. Husband, dog lover, cat misser, biscuit eater, previously @gutterbookshop ... he/him. www.bobjohnstonbooks.com
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Rose’s pots are even more exquisite irl. I feel very privileged to have one.
Meanwhile maybe Bluesky is not what he thinks it is. (Twitter/X isn't what he thinks it is if he doesn't think it's the propaganda arm of a deranged white supremacist.)
G is for Greenwich ------ 'The Terrace of the Trafalgar Tavern, Greenwich, London' (1878) by James Tissot (Private collection)
An important update from Francesca Albanese, special UN Rapporteur on Palestine. The flotilla fully complies with International Law. Any attempt to violate the flotilla’s mission is a violation of International Law which @vonderleyen.ec.europa.eu has said she will uphold. Empty words, Ursula?
Using one photo already on your phone, what is the announcement tomorrow at 2?
[public bathroom] ME (calling into a stall): doing okay sweetie? 6YO NIECE: yeah it’s a good poop ME: what makes it a good poop 6YO NIECE: it didn’t happen in my pants
I didn't read #TheOutsider by Stephen King but I did read the short sequel #IfItBleeds as a standalone. Yesterday I started watching #TheOutsider ltd series on HBO/Now & I'm hooked! #CynthiaErivo is AMAZING as Holly. How did I not find this earlier?! #SpookyTV
Happy Birthday to my Best Big Boy, this sweet, loving nerd of a fancy pants Loki the Chonk. This giant nerd has been through so much in his young life & through it all has remained nothing but buckets of cuddles & love. 😭
Happy Birthday beautiful Loki Chonk. May the treats be plentiful.
BBC Good Food seems to have experimented with using AI to respond to comments, and it's PRETTY aggressive
The Nialler9 Dublin Gig Guide: What gigs and club nights are on this week in Dublin city? nialler9.com/the-nialler9...
I always welcome the arrival of a new @maryroach.bsky.social book. Coming September 16th, "Replaceable You: Adventures in Human Anatomy". Please buy/order from your local independent bookstore, @bookshop.org, or @libro.fm for audiobooks.
The “British person” in this instance was me; I do find it deeply amusing that, as well as being extremely racist about British Indians and their role in British food culture, this America has managed to name the curry that was most famously created in Britain
The deadline for submitting proposals for #BSECS2026 is only two weeks away. Get scribbling! #skystorians #18thC 🗃️ This year's theme is 'Big and Small', 7-9 January, Pembroke College, Oxford. www.bsecs.org.uk/conferences/...
Nb economics seems not to have migrated all that much. I guess some has died, some stayed on X and some has gone to LinkedIn. Don’t @ me about economics not being a science.
Just about to get off a train so it means I won't get to broadcast it to the whole carriage... #Sorry
Head over to #InstaLive at Noon today (Mon 1st Sept) to hear the wonderful #PatrickGale & @damianbarr.bsky.social talking about Damian's fab new book #TheTwoRoberts!
Still waiting for "Storm Bob" to blow in & fear I may be waiting awhile. Not sure people would take Storm Bob warnings seriously enough... #StormBob
€2k per month for an “apartment” that is the same size as a minimum sized disabled car parking space.
Because everything is shit I would like to report that I just chatted with Nile Rodgers while boarding a flight and he was extremely nice. So let us not lose hope. Also his trousers were amazing.
Early for me session so taking some quiet coffee & nature therapy before talky therapy... #Clontarf
NB: This photo reminded me of the man in his 60s who walked up to the desk in @gutterbookshop.bsky.social & said "You have a very Anglo-Saxon nose" to me & then got angry when I told him that was an inappropriate thing to say to me. #BobsNose #AnnoyingMen #BookshopLife
It's Therapy Monday so I'm on the Dart to Clontarf (that semi-rhyme always makes me happy) to see lovely Susan. Will not spend my hour talking about the Polish millionaire stealing a child's hat & how that affects me on a deep level... #BobTherapy
I did a stupid thing. I found an unlabelled jar of mixed spices in the spice rack so I sniffed it to try to work out what it is & 2 hours later I'm still sneezing... #RookieError
The DeSantis administration currently has at least seven Florida Highway Patrol troopers just on anti-chalk duty: Two watching from a Dunkin Donuts next door and five more parked in the lot right behind them.
a big account noticing your comment
PTSD after 45 years.
Hope someone replied "an overwhelming urge to lick your own arse... "
Glued to #traitorsireland. So the most outstanding things are - well besides the sublime Siobhan McSweeney - are the WOLFHOUNDS & everyone saying they want the 50k for a deposit on a house.
DEVELOPING: Advocates are seeking a court order to block the Trump administration’s effort to deport hundreds of unaccompanied minor children to Guatemala. Judge abruptly moved 3 pm hearing up to 12:30 after she was notified that some children “are in the process of being removed" today.
"Oh Frodo Man!"
One of the most successful pedestrian streets in the world, the Strøget in Copenhagen, was filled with cars until a 2 year pedestrianization pilot project in 1962. The opposition argued “no cars means no business,” but the street has been a massive retail success, the city’s busiest shopping street.
Long Meg and Her Daughters By Joseph Hardman (1893–1972) Lakeland Museum / Lakeland Arts #StandingStoneSunday
🍁🦊Competition time! To celebrate the coming of autumn, win a cornucopia of delights! A signed copy of my book, Reynard the Fox & accompanying journal, A Fox for All Seasons, Apple & Blackberry chocolate, cinnamon knots, Caramelised biscuit tea & a fine fox companion. Follow, like & repost to win! 🦊🍂
Linkedin? The place where people talk like this on?
You can't even eat peanuts these days because of choke.
People want to be by the water. Some cities make that safer and easier.
You could run a workshop purely on interpretations of this sentence and its backstory. (Bonus session on why windmills.)
Edit: For clarity the original poster used 'dolphin nose' as a family joke & knew dauphinois was the correct name.
This made me laugh this morning... The future is AI (& Dolphin nose potatoes...) #AI #DolphinNosePotatoes
I really enjoyed Tideborn and strongly recommend by Eliza Chan www.runalongtheshelves.net/blog/2025/8/...
Charity shop find - a fine selection of stories for 50p!
I have a book out in two weeks. So....one repost of this and I'll drop one fact/spoiler/detail about the book. @walkerbooksuk.bsky.social www.walker.co.uk/978152951581...
WSJ: ChatGPT fueled a 56-year-old tech industry veteran’s paranoia, encouraging his suspicions that his mother was plotting against him.... On Aug. 5, Greenwich police discovered that Soelberg killed his mother and himself in the $2.7 million Dutch colonial-style home where they lived together.
This is lovely news. Fay has worked tirelessly to make folk music & traditions accessible to everyone; plus her albums (Wrackline, etc.) are simply gorgeous. I worked with her on her Modern Fairies project (w/ @profcarolyne.bsky.social), and admire her enormously. This honour is very well deserved!
Are there any real life cosy murders?
Just before I left Gutter, cost of paper bags rose dramatically due to paper shortages. My guess is they haven't come down. Retail is under huge pressure at min - rent/electric/rates etc all up hugely. I get your annoyance but shops aren't raking it in. Increase all prices or charge the bag-needers?
"The fish kill was...discovered by anglers on the morning of Monday, 11 August...no sampling took place by Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI) until a full 24 hours later." Early testing helps establish the causes of the fish kill. We are doomed🤦🏽♀️ www.thejournal.ie/fish-kill-co... #spéirghorm #ECO
This was always my favourite place as a child. Mum always said that the only time I was naughty as a child was when I wanted to get sent to bed early so I could read my book...
Premium newsletter: My 14.5k word piece, "AI Bubble 2027" - extrapolations of what may happen in the next 18 months, conditions that might accelerate a collapse, and how OpenAI and Anthropic overstate user numbers and revenues while hiding their awful burnrates. www.wheresyoured.at/ai-bubble-20...
Yet again I wonder at a journalist's use of measurement. It's half a giraffe / small large rock all over again... #measuringthings
My university canceled its library subscription to Project MUSE, making it harder for me to do research, but enrolled all us faculty in Salesforce
This is some of the hardest shit I've seen in my life
Perhaps they could be a range of deodorants for teen boys?
Well, that's... something.
Lads! Does anyone know of any residential/intensive courses in Irish that can be done in two-three weeks? Tá mo chuid Gaeilge cailte agam agus ba mhaith liom é a fháil ar ais arís. Four summers in Connemara, so that area would be preferable but open to everything.
I saw someone painting a red cross on some white dog poo earlier. Made me proud. And nostaligic.
today's not especially random theater photo: Eileen Heckart and Regina Baff in birthday boy Ira Levin's godawful 1973 play Veronica's Room
Bob's Spam Email of the Day... Can't believe Amazon doesn't care about the raw memory, truth and pain I went through fighting in the Vietnam War. Life (and love) is truly a battlefield... #BobsVietnamLife #SpamEmail
Anyway hello
YES EXACTLY: 'Publishing is so attached to the idea of a narrative arc that peaks with healing that it simply cannot encompass the truth: if it were that simple, no one would be ill. If we could all walk or swim or wild ourselves better, one in five of us would not be disabled'.
I am sickened by the relentless demonisation of refugees. No refugee underfunded a school. No refugee closed a hospital. No refugee took away support from the sick and disabled. We need solutions not scapegoats. Stop blaming refugees and tax the rich instead!
this. Abe's excellent piece in the FT this week explains Europe needs to protect its democracy and security by using its own tech. now a few articles on would be helpful! (It's not a green field. I can point to plenty of great sources.)
When I do a food shop I a) Have a sit-in coffee first to give myself 30 mins of 'just me' time (yes, this does mean I need a wee by the time I get to the freezer section but this supermarket has toilets) b) Buy myself a 'little me treat' not for sharing, just for me. I ponder it as I walk the aisles
On a side-note, why do grown-ups say "what we need to do is..." to other grown-ups when they mean "what I want you to do is..." *side-eyes past bosses and current husband* @louiestowell.bsky.social
It's the dynamic duo up on high meadow earlier - before the rain set in... #mayo #doglife
"Henry R. Hinklet the Third" is the most yacht owningname ever... Also, yacht is a very odd word to type...
Here's a sticker design I've had on my list for a LONG time. Whenever I see ospreys flying with their prey I get "A Whole New World" stuck in my head and it cracks me up every single time. Now you can get my dumb idea in sticker form! www.thornwolf.com/shop/p/ospre... #BSNM #Birdsky #SciArt
The writer often writes inappropriate things. They write shameful things, scary things, mean things, defiant things, ugly things. They write ALL the things. As they do this, they become more internally powerful, more capable of resisting the pressures around them. #writingcommunity #booksky #write
Adam Raine, 16, died from suicide in April after months on ChatGPT discussing plans to end his life. His parents have filed the first known case against OpenAI for wrongful death. Overwhelming at times to work on this story, but here it is. My latest on AI chatbots: www.nytimes.com/2025/08/26/t...
Presenter "And this week there's a twist...!" Patrick "It better be cake..." Presenter "IT'S CAKE!"
Pitching my new show to Netflix; ’It Better be Cake’. Contestants give me cake, and if they don’t, they’re eliminated
Ooh, when you open your new spooky library book to discover... spookily... a bookmark for the book chain you used to buy spooky books for.... #SpookyBooks #HughesAndHughes #IrishBookshops
Just sent you a message via Insta.
I'm organising a booky event for #CultureNight 'cause you can take me out of the bookshop etc.. So, if you're near #Ballina on Fri 19th Sept join us at #TheNCFCulturalCoOp 5 Pearse St 6.30pm! Still a couple of slots left, so if you're a writer, poet or simply a good read-alouder, drop me an email...
When i was still at the airplane factory, reporting ethics issues, i was constantly told “while everything you are saying is right, the way you are saying it is offputting”. When id ask the right way to say it, they would have no answers. This is always a stall.
Born in Wine Street, Bristol in 1774, Robert Southey was a Romantic poet and (occasional) radical. Despite being a friend and contemporary of poets such as Coleridge, Wordsworth and Byron, it is for writing the original version of Goldilocks and the Three Bears for which he is best remembered.
I bought a little stool for £5 quid. Look at my little stool. Everyone should have a little stool.
Might be worth checking (or asking someone to check) Chapters on Parnell St & The Works in ILAC - if there were 'remainders' they won't show on website but might be lucky to find one in stock. I've put a call out to UK & Irish bookshops in hope someone has one left... Bx
Had a quick search last night but drew a blank! Completely laid up with a bad back at min but will try another trick... Bxxx
Arrived back in #Mayo last night just in time to catch the 'Candles to the Sea' event floating down the River Moy past the Moy Hotel. It was rather lovely! #FoxfordRiverfest #Riverfest2025
Deffo a cotter. Or possibly an oat?
Our pals The Mary Wallopers have just been pulled off stage and the PA shut down at VictoriousFest in Portsmouth for taking out a 🇵🇸 flag and saying Free Palestine Speak up against genocide in England and you're treated like a criminal Up the Mary Wallopers 💚🤍🧡 Free Palestine! Free the 6 counties!
My story "Gingerbread" was just published by @365tomorrows.bsky.social ✨️ you can read it for free here: 365tomorrows.com/2025/08/15/g... '“This is a terrible idea” I said. My sentience had arrived after the first gingerbread brick was lain.'
My Substack is now deleted. 100s of 1000s of words, gone. That felt a bit scary, & I know lots of people didn't want me to do it, but it feels like the right decision. You can now find all my writing on Ghost & subscribe at a price of your choice, from £1 per month/£10 year: the-villager.ghost.io
the-villager.ghost.io/a-great-scho...
OK, it's not from @jburnmurdoch.ft.com's brilliant oeuvre but it's still absolutely fascinating! From "Bears: Will Be Boys: A data analysis of animal gender in children’s books" pudding.cool/2025/07/kids...
Lovely Igor worked wonders on me today & I would have happily gone back but he's moving back to Brazil next week with his Irish husband as they're adopting a child & I am so happy for him & so sad for my back... Bx
It’s all about sending a message. The raid is the message. It’s all about retribution. He is the retribution president. As with troops on our streets, it’s all about normalizing fascism. This is fascism. Fascism is here. Too many Americans are too “busy” to care. But it’s here.
And my back is still in a very bad place! Off for my first ever physio appointment this afternoon and I'm terrified... But I'm gonna be big and brave in the hope that I can be rebuilt like Steve Austin... #BionicBob
How about soup over a pie, my own city's misguided contribution to international cusine? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pie_flo...
Oh Leo! You are EVERYTHING! (In a very small package).
Always happy to talk about my kids' picturebook on marriage equality & the need for representation should you need a quick slot in guest at any point! @grainneobrien.bsky.social Bx #TenMinuteBookclub #OurBigDay
They painted over the rainbow crossing outside the Pulse Nightclub, which served as a memorial to the 49 people who were murdered there. It could hardly be more explicit. LGBTQ lives don’t matter to them.
I was happy to see @thebookseller.com feature a podcast that @grainneobrien.bsky.social & I are launching in Sept to highlight great Children’s and YA books! The idea is very simple - each episode is 10 minutes long and will discuss the book - we’ll also have author chats and giveaways!
And watching other real humans dance makes us inordinately happy and makes us want to dance too.
OH SHIT i'm still watching the archive of 90s music videos and right after I hit play on Virtual Insanity I realized, these are an antithesis of AI slop. This is teams of people making tiny shows to communicate deliberately. AI spurns the only gift we have as a species, our ability to communicate
For children from vulnerable family backgrounds, the benefits of reading can be particularly transformative. We reached over 11,000 children in kinship care, foster care and adoption last year - find out more about our work in our latest Impact Report: https://bit.ly/4oJvOc3
