3. The greatest of all the nations when it comes to the depth, breadth and quality of classical music is the United States of America.
Replies
4. I hold Ivan Gazidis responsible more than any other person for the dreadful period Arsenal had from 2016-7 to Mikel Arteta’s return.
jul 21, 2025, 3:54 pm • 28 0 • view
5. Top five Carbohydrates, ranked best to still awesome: 1. Pasta 2. Bread. 3. Potatoes 4. Legumes. 5. Rice
jul 21, 2025, 3:59 pm • 43 0 • view
So wrong.
jul 21, 2025, 8:54 pm • 0 0 • view
6. Having followed AWFC closely since 2012, I now care much more about the fortunes of Arsenal Women than Arsenal men, and the reason is that the absence of VAR makes the matchday experience better.
jul 21, 2025, 4:05 pm • 67 3 • view
Absolutely correct opinion - simply love going to matches and knowing that if it’s in the net and the flag is down, it counts (and I love getting away with a sneaky Stina goal that is definitely offside but can’t be checked.)
jul 21, 2025, 6:49 pm • 4 1 • view
I’m a casual AWFC follower who is mainly demonstrating solidarity with my daughters and I have a soft sport for Stina (she’s AWFC’s Darwin), but even I know she was born offside.
jul 21, 2025, 8:05 pm • 2 0 • view
I love Stina so much (very happily my shirt from last year has her name on it), in part because she is such a throwback: born, as you say, offside, and her playing style is so reminiscent of Brian Glanville’s “brainless bull at the gate” description of centre-forwards.
jul 21, 2025, 8:37 pm • 1 0 • view
Also, Stina Blackstenius is a cold AF name. These details matter.
jul 21, 2025, 8:43 pm • 2 0 • view
I'm a casual AWFC for similar reasons, though my soft spot is for Katie McCabe regularly booting the opposition six feet into the air (it might be a Joelinton thing). I also love how my daughter has completely bought into Arsenal fandom by believing there is a PGMOL based conspiracy against them.
jul 21, 2025, 9:34 pm • 0 0 • view
7. In terms of breadth of subject matter, the amount she wrote and the consistency of it, the greatest novelist of the British empire is Doris Lessing.
jul 21, 2025, 4:08 pm • 38 0 • view
Even the later Sufi-infused stuff? How you can ignore Tim Mo is beyond me.
jul 21, 2025, 5:26 pm • 0 0 • view
8. It’s a stroke of genius that Letterboxd only lets you have a top four favourite films, as it is not enough for you to just pick five favourites across genre or type, forcing you to make hard decisions.
jul 21, 2025, 4:16 pm • 20 0 • view
9. Deep Space Nine is the best Star Trek.
jul 21, 2025, 4:17 pm • 136 6 • view
OK that’s it. We’re done.
jul 21, 2025, 5:20 pm • 0 0 • view
You’re a Next Generation type? (Really was expecting this to be my carb ranking.)
jul 21, 2025, 5:21 pm • 0 0 • view
TOS all the way, baby, wobbly sets and all. Though I will concede that Sisko was one of the better Captains. But Neelix…pay!
jul 21, 2025, 5:24 pm • 1 0 • view
10. ‘Girls’ is one of the greatest sitcoms of all time.
jul 21, 2025, 4:21 pm • 19 1 • view
11. Everything about Casablanca is perfect - the tiny heartbreaking scene between the maitre’d and the older couple who will only be speaking English from now on! - but the most important role is Paul Heinreid, who absolutely sells the central dilemma. He really makes you believe Lazlo’s importance.
jul 21, 2025, 4:32 pm • 138 7 • view
12. Twilight Struggle is a marvellous board game for two players that never gets old.
jul 21, 2025, 4:35 pm • 29 0 • view
Yes!
jul 21, 2025, 8:56 pm • 1 0 • view
13. Museums that are the collection of one devoted person are always more fun when they lean into it. This is why the John Soane and the Barnes Collection are much better than the Wellcome at the moment.
jul 21, 2025, 4:37 pm • 67 1 • view
Claude Rains illustrates the challenges of ordinary conquered Europeans with charm and wit. Doing what you had to do to survive. Waiting for a chance to hit back.
jul 21, 2025, 9:13 pm • 1 0 • view
What watch?
jul 21, 2025, 5:02 pm • 2 0 • view
Must be on 20 odd by this point.
jul 21, 2025, 5:02 pm • 0 0 • view
Ten watch.
jul 21, 2025, 5:04 pm • 0 0 • view
I love Casablanca to death and would defend it to the hilt but everyone is sitting there fretting about France being occupied while not worrying too much about their own occupation of that particular corner of North Africa. But, oh, the Marseillaise!
jul 22, 2025, 8:30 am • 0 0 • view
The midgets operating the aeroplane are suboptimal.
jul 21, 2025, 5:32 pm • 1 0 • view
"This time I know our side will win" delivered with such utter confidence before armies had even set foot in Stalingrad is just an incredible thing to see
jul 21, 2025, 4:52 pm • 4 2 • view
Its the perfect film. Fautless. I watch it once a year and weirdly with my cat - it’s the only film she had ever sat through!
jul 21, 2025, 8:47 pm • 1 0 • view
He can’t just be a man Ingrid Bergman picks - he has to be a man -Bogart- picks, and by god you believe it
jul 21, 2025, 4:41 pm • 11 1 • view
Sometimes when I'm feeling down about the state of the world I watch the "play La Marseilles!" scene and remind myself that many of the actors in that scene were French refugees and it was 1942 and they genuinely didn't know if they'd ever see their homeland again. Gets me every time.
jul 21, 2025, 9:24 pm • 30 5 • view
Oh wow.
jul 21, 2025, 11:48 pm • 0 0 • view
The entire cast of that movie genuinely didn’t know if Hitler & the Nazis would be defeated.
jul 21, 2025, 9:28 pm • 3 0 • view
Best scene in a film ever
jul 21, 2025, 9:47 pm • 1 0 • view
Also Laszlo's fierce demand followed by the band all looking to Rick, who gives them a reluctant "yeah go ahead" subtle nod is just a fabulous piece of character work all round.
jul 21, 2025, 9:25 pm • 3 0 • view
This. It doesn't work if he isn't perfect in the role.
jul 21, 2025, 4:37 pm • 1 0 • view
Indeed. Has to be absolutely believable as a man able to change the course of history *and* not overshadow Bogart. It’s a remarkable achievement.
jul 21, 2025, 4:42 pm • 2 0 • view
What always stuns me is that the movie did not "age badly" re: Louis it knows exactly that Louis is a scumbag and that the acting and writing for the character will make you overlook it
jul 21, 2025, 4:36 pm • 10 1 • view
The fact that he keeps his end of the transactions we hear about makes it work imo
jul 21, 2025, 4:39 pm • 1 0 • view
And Derry Girls is THE greatest. Was heart broken that it ended and they had to grow up.
jul 21, 2025, 10:24 pm • 0 0 • view
I marvel at your bravery with this one.
jul 21, 2025, 9:10 pm • 1 0 • view
It's 33°
jul 21, 2025, 9:15 pm • 0 0 • view
Brave. Very brave. Are you including more recent series, which admittedly are patchy?
jul 21, 2025, 5:19 pm • 0 0 • view
I say that because I still recall a huge argument with a trekker vet when I said the same thing and had to remind him my cat was ill he was ranting at me so much.
jul 21, 2025, 5:23 pm • 0 0 • view
jul 21, 2025, 4:24 pm • 5 0 • view
One day this will be a hot take… again
jul 21, 2025, 4:31 pm • 0 0 • view
True facts.
jul 21, 2025, 9:28 pm • 0 0 • view
Wrath of Khan, surely
jul 21, 2025, 8:55 pm • 0 0 • view
TNG for me, but after a shaky start I think Voyager is underrated.
jul 21, 2025, 9:55 pm • 0 0 • view
Has the best father and son relationship in TV history.
jul 21, 2025, 4:24 pm • 0 0 • view
I was disappointed at the final episode, but otherwise yes.
jul 21, 2025, 4:33 pm • 1 0 • view
Certainly has the best characters in it.
jul 21, 2025, 4:20 pm • 0 0 • view
That's not an opinion. That's a fact.
jul 21, 2025, 4:30 pm • 3 0 • view
jul 21, 2025, 4:22 pm • 69 3 • view
And it has the best response to the story of the boy who cried wolf.
jul 21, 2025, 4:26 pm • 0 0 • view
Agreed. Noteworthy, it's the only one set on a stationary space platform; the others are all energetically going places. Why hospital dramas have greater longevity than road trip series' I guess
jul 21, 2025, 4:22 pm • 2 0 • view
I thought I was alone in holding that view
jul 21, 2025, 4:38 pm • 0 0 • view
DS9’s secret was having what so many of the best shows have had: bigger siblings to absorb all the attention and expectations while they were left alone to do whatever the hell they wanted to do.
jul 21, 2025, 4:25 pm • 0 0 • view
This is, in fact, an incredibly political opinion.
jul 21, 2025, 6:01 pm • 1 0 • view
We just finished our most recent rewatch. That show is a thing of *perfection*. And it gets better every time we rewatch.
jul 21, 2025, 4:25 pm • 1 0 • view
YES!!!!!! Love the lovely Captain Mental. Love all of them.
jul 21, 2025, 4:20 pm • 1 0 • view
oof - its certainly the most marmite
jul 22, 2025, 12:18 pm • 0 0 • view
Truly your finest take
jul 21, 2025, 4:37 pm • 0 0 • view
jul 21, 2025, 4:21 pm • 2 0 • view
I really really enjoyed the golden note book
jul 21, 2025, 8:53 pm • 1 0 • view
Such a great book. So much of what it observes is so current.
jul 21, 2025, 8:55 pm • 0 0 • view
I think I am due a reread
jul 21, 2025, 8:57 pm • 0 0 • view
Yes!
jul 21, 2025, 9:21 pm • 0 0 • view
And yet you’re in love with the Euros 🤷♂️ 🫤
jul 22, 2025, 10:53 pm • 0 0 • view
VAR seems fine if you watch most of your football on TV, but watching it in person is more visceral and so you really feel the impact of it inserting itself in the middle of what should be an instant joyous reaction to a goal.
jul 21, 2025, 7:41 pm • 1 0 • view
*evil Mr Burns but it's the WSL* (It's coming and it'll be rubbish. Although pitch side drinks *might* make up for it)
jul 21, 2025, 4:50 pm • 0 0 • view
Rice is highly undervalued here.
jul 21, 2025, 6:40 pm • 0 0 • view
1. lignin; 2. chitin; 3. trehalose; 4. xylose; 5. cellulose. And it's not even close.
jul 21, 2025, 5:18 pm • 1 0 • view
Puy lentils should be up there.
jul 21, 2025, 10:25 pm • 0 0 • view
Mine would be: Toast, Toast, Toast, Toast and... Toast.
jul 21, 2025, 4:02 pm • 0 0 • view
What about noodles?
jul 21, 2025, 4:25 pm • 0 0 • view
BRB, phoning the FT cancellation line and citing this post as my reason
jul 21, 2025, 4:01 pm • 4 0 • view
The people were astonished by his doctrine!
jul 21, 2025, 4:08 pm • 1 0 • view
Becoming a Captain America: Brave New World booster in response to this denigration of potatoes
jul 21, 2025, 4:13 pm • 1 0 • view
Pasta is better than fresh crusty bread??? Pasta is better than chips???? What necromancy is this?
jul 21, 2025, 8:51 pm • 0 0 • view
I call shenanigans: these are all political opinions.
jul 21, 2025, 3:54 pm • 0 0 • view
Really want to disagree with this but fear you are correct the more I actually think about it.
jul 21, 2025, 8:51 pm • 2 0 • view
Cope and seethe-land.
jul 21, 2025, 8:52 pm • 0 0 • view
Great Bern
jul 21, 2025, 8:54 pm • 0 0 • view
I mean, just Ives, Copland, Bernstein, Glass, and Zappa have "depth, breadth and quality" pretty well covered just by themselves, and then you add in film score composers? Yeah, I find it hard to argue with this statement.
jul 21, 2025, 9:22 pm • 1 0 • view
Historically or today?
jul 21, 2025, 3:54 pm • 0 0 • view
In aggregate, both, though the USA’s victory comes from 1900 onwards.
jul 21, 2025, 3:55 pm • 2 0 • view
I think the Hapsburg Empire comes pretty close!
jul 21, 2025, 8:48 pm • 0 0 • view
France? Stephen. Stephen? France.
jul 21, 2025, 4:00 pm • 1 0 • view
just 51 and counting to go!
jul 21, 2025, 3:54 pm • 2 0 • view
I know you have 150 more to go so if you run out of inspiration this one needs expanding I think. It’s a really confusing statement.
jul 21, 2025, 8:55 pm • 1 0 • view
Is it confusing, or are you just upset that I didn’t say “France”? 😉
jul 21, 2025, 9:00 pm • 0 0 • view
Well, I am. But you knew that already. I'm feeling a lot more into Shostakovich after last night, though. If that helps. And Scriabin.
jul 21, 2025, 9:12 pm • 1 0 • view
No!! I would have said Russia or Italy actually. I saw France being mentioned but I can see why it doesn’t fit the depth and breadth argument.
jul 21, 2025, 9:02 pm • 0 0 • view
Or Germany (she says from her sofa in Nuremberg)
jul 21, 2025, 9:06 pm • 1 0 • view
In performance, sure. Composition, not close.
jul 21, 2025, 4:23 pm • 1 0 • view