Patrick-or-Treat Kincaid

If I were in a pub, pre-internet, I’d be in the snug playing dominoes with the Bluesky people, not sitting at the bar braying out opinions with the Threads and Twitter crowd.

Whereas I was teaching the word gossip with Bernard Cribbins Gossip Calypso last week

Teaching the twins about the British class system by singing them “The Hole in the Ground” in my best Bernard Cribbins.

Important for the pessimistic german crowd who believe the AfD success is inevitable. Go where the people are, most people want a good future.

I was teaching A Clockwork Orange at A level until fairly recently, so perhaps that text will survive for a while. Burgess is placed here with his own idols, Lawrence and Joyce. Joyce is surely safe, but Lawrence — who was the bedrock of my 90s English degree — has almost vanished, hasn’t he?

Walter Koenig once liked something I’d posted about Star Trek and absolutely made my day. I’ll remember him best arguing over spirits with Scotty in “The Trouble with Tribbles”, having brain worms fed into his ears by Khan, and seeking “nuclear wessels” in C20th San Francisco. RIP Ensign Chekov.

the House of Lords – from aristocracy to assetocracy; against short-term politicians; Nobel Prizes and gender inequity; "poking the bear" is the world's dumbest metaphor; Anthony Burgess's reputation today; who sees ghosts and why?

Any former teachers here with salaried jobs in education that aren’t teaching? If so, please message me. I have questions.

When some tech arsehole starts bleating about bespoke AI generated personal content, this is why they are worth ignoring. It’s not what culture and art is for. We are meant to gather and share fixed experiences, with our varied reactions providing the personalisation.

Lula: "We had to overcome foreign interference through digital platforms, which we will have to regulate. A crime in the digital world must be treated the same as a crime in the real world. We cannot have monstrous companies earning millions... not paying taxes... wanting to steer elections."

"There’s not enough room in my chest for all this joy". What incredible news to wake up to. First Serbia, now this www.theguardian.com/world/2026/o...

The cold has got me down a bit, which is perhaps why I find it so upsetting that that account for a bookish podcast I’ve always enjoyed has chosen to block me. I suspect I’ve been damned by association and that it’s not *that* personal, but still…

Can this possibly be true? When I was a student in London, I saw no end of studio shoots for free. Are audiences really paid *performers* in the States?

H is playing the twins “The Monster Mash” by Bobby "Boris" Pickett. Here’s their Uncle Boris on the staircase wall. When to introduce them to the greatest acting performance in the history of cinema?

At work the other day, someone heard my blocked nose as I spoke and immediately started talking of “man flu”. I hadn’t complained of anything. Whoever invented that phrase needs guillotining. It’s a tool of oppression, to shame people into working when they’re ill. Anyway, it’s half-term now.

In which I have an Opinion: (free to read) www.patreon.com/matociquala/...

Of course, despite hardly leaving the house for four months, I have a cold. I may well be patient zero for every iteration of the common cold.

At work the other day, someone heard my blocked nose as I spoke and immediately started talking of “man flu”. I hadn’t complained of anything. Whoever invented that phrase needs guillotining. It’s a tool of oppression, to shame people into working when they’re ill. Anyway, it’s half-term now.

God, imagine being a duck in this weather. you'd be going out of your nut. absolutely over the moon. you'd be ringing up your duck pals and screaming with joy and making plans to make the most of it. it's weather a duck will be telling his grandducklings about, all misty eyed and full of longing

The replies are an extraordinary catalogue of things that have objectively improved. If we didn't have the climate crisis and the far right authoritarians and the tech barons overshadowing everything I'd be whistling every day

I want my daughters to grow up to see a turn in the political cycle. In fact, I want them to see a revolution. But I want it to be painless for them, of course. They’re never painless though, are they?

Trying to book flu jab at Boots and you have to register an account and of course it doesn’t work, of course the process gets stuck at the “continue” button that never becomes active, because the internet stopped being useful in about 2010, but no one lets you do anything any other way.

The fall in immigration is mutilating Healey’s Budget The chancellor won’t mention it and the BBC won’t cover it, but the brute reality may be revealed by the OBR documents via @iandunt.bsky.social iandunt.substack.com/p/the-fall-i...

The six-spot burnet moth is the most “goth disco” of all moths.

I really, really did not want a reviewer in for "You Oughta Be in Pictures" at GrimFest what with the time I've had lately, and not knowing wtf performance would come out of me, but I got a reviewer anyway. And they called it a "riveting monologue" with a "captivating performance" 🥹

Congratulations to everyone listed. Hope it brings you new readers and that you enjoy the night out. A good end of term bash after all your hard work and fretting over commas.

Picked up two consecutive days of work away from home, and it’s weird. First day over, and I’m typing this with one of the twins asleep on my shoulder. Worries about money aside, I’m so glad I didn’t have just two weeks paternity leave.

Ridiculous that I could’ve written this today with pretty much the same bunch of shithouses in mind.

Reading preview of a self pub book. A fair few spelling/grammar/word choice errors, which I get, costs and all, but it's offputting in a sample. Tsk. Then I looked at the sample of a book published by Bloomsbury and it had a catastrophic punctuation fail *in the first line*.

I cannot WAIT! hope to see some bluesky pals there! Come one come all!

Thank you, art collector, from River Forest, IL #artist #artgifts #blanket #photography #scotland #EileanDonanCastle #travle

The world — hell, handcart etc. But yesterday was one of those perfect days for our new family. I’m banking it for times to come.