Susy Atkinson

"Counterfactuals" are "what ifs" for people who think their imaginations deserve a loftier title.

How am I only discovering lemon pigs now?

schrödinger:

cat with a gun: I said get in the box

Today’s festive #AshmoleanAdvent treat is Utagawa Kuniyoshi’s beautiful ‘View of snow on Benten Hill’ at Kinryūzan Temple in Asakusa.

✨It rarely gets the centre of attention because of the lantern tower but the 12th Romanesque nave at Ely Cathedral is jaw-dropping - so I put my tilt-shift lens to use..📸

The convenient thing about how the term “woke” has evolved is that it allows me to quickly identify patently unserious people when they use it.

A Traditional Family Christmas   It wasn’t until that first Christmas with your family that I realised how we all do it differently, how every family forges its own traditions, as bright and distinct as any giant, shining star.   The way you laid out coal sacks instead of stockings; the recital of a limerick before the opening of each present, Christopher Lee’s heavy metal Christmas album playing quietly in the background; the pre-breakfast snorkel;   the Dance of the Seven Baubles; the festive epaulettes; lunch with its ptarmigan fritters in milk sauce, the suet potatoes, and the sweet and sour popcorn; the replenishing of glasses with red turkey wine;   sprout-rolling in the park; the posting of a tinsel stick through Mr Jennings’ letterbox; and back for an evening of TV (some classic episodes of Panorama) and games (Hoist the Pickle, No Elbows Please!, Speculum) then bed.   The following year you came to my family for Christmas. You said later that it was weird. Brian Bilston

Today’s poem is called ‘A Traditional Family Christmas’.

At my most diligent, I can take care of a box of mini Stollen over two cups of tea.

The owl from the Duolingo language learning app says “you made 751 mistakes this year”

Aye, right. I wish.

So useful that it earned a preorder of her book, which looks great.

Top tip. Wife has just worked out how to turn the festive Mariah Carey earworm so prevalent at this time of year seamlessly into the tune of Theme From Flood by They Might Be Giants, and I hope that this knowledge could save a lot of people a lot of grief.

A useful reminder. I wish I’d realised years ago how little it matters to be good at something you enjoy.

Reckon we should just adopt the best word from any language and all go with it. Schnee’s in, and Schnecke instead of snail?

Think I’m following them as you set them up. Thank you.

This is entirely the situation at our place. I‘d live - briefly - on fancy cheese and biscuits, and Heinz tomato soup.

Yeah, it was slightly more exotic than most of my sunsets too..

The evening ferry from Ischia to Naples

📌

A satirical cartoon of a passenger on a plane saying the pilot has lost touch with regular passengers before adding: “who thinks I should fly the plane?” Everyone puts their hands up.

cartoon of the day