I mean, really, the Kate Middleton thing is about the royal family having power without accountability, and their relationship with a subservient press that would rather keep on their good side instead of telling the truth. We have seen time and time again that some of the British media will happily destroy someone's life and privacy when it suits them, but will treat the royal family with complete deference at all times.

Been thinking about Dracula and what, in the novel, the Count's plan actually was before it gets rudely interrupted by the good and wholesome Scooby gang. And it's a nasty, effective one. First off, if you haven't read the book, read the book. It's an absolute belter, and enormously fun. And there's never been an adaptation that nails it.

One of the things about the whole blue check subscription is that it seems to rely on making search and trending algorithms the main way we interact with twitter. One of the big issues with that is that, right now, Musk is selling a promise - that this approach will not only work, but be *better*. Effectively, he's looking for people to pay a subscription to beta test it.

This film has a judo fight scene that's absolutely decades ahead of its time in terms of mainstream Hollywood. Cagney uses moves that WWE incorporated in the late-2000s.

https://twitter.com/jamesmjharrison/status/1571398467188056065

The fight scene is here, and the first thing you'll notice is how Captain Oshima is played by the famed Japanese actor John Halloran. Yeah, there's a *lot* of yellowface in this one.

Kim had got the overnight coach down to London but, all things together, she didn't feel too bad. It was comfier than she expected. She'd worried about joining the queue after the journey, but as she got off in Victoria, she felt refreshed. She navigated the tube despite her grandson's mockery that she'd struggle, she'd used the tube plenty over the decades and knew exactly what she was doing, thank you very much. London's a city of change, but it doesn't change that much.

There's a specific thing happening here that also happened with Trump in America. It's that the political system relies on an element of honour and has no way to battle people acting in bad faith. With Trump, there was a point of scandal after scandal, and wrong-doing after wrong-doing, where people just genuinely didn't know how to handle him just acknowledging almost everything he did and refusing to resign.

Just thinking about offence and comedy. I remember a comedy show where a (very talented) comedian was doing a set that went down very well - but I saw an audience member I knew walk out briefly. At the end, she was very upset and I talked to her. The comedian had told a few jokes involving rape - not in that overly laddish, edgelord way that a whole bunch of early-20 open mic stand ups have sometimes done, but still, it was very much the subject.

If you're not in the UK, it may seem weird that a garden party is the thing everyone is getting angry about. Or it may seem like the most British thing ever. It may seem a surprise that other things haven't gained the same widespread anger. The general mismanagement of Covid. The constant lies. The huge level of corruption. The damage to the NHS.

Getting more frustrated with antivaxxers who cosplay as intelligent being led by grifters who cosplay as ignorant. I know at least one person who is uncomfortable with the vaccine who is also taking precautions. And y'know, fair enough. It's the conspiracy theorists who are getting to me.

So, for the non (or lapsed) wrestling fans, I'm going to explain why this guy is at the centre of the greatest, most agonising, most wholesome pro-wrestling story in years. And it's a story that's about to hit the home stretch. This is Hangman Adam Page. He's an AEW wrestler, and has been part of a slow-burn storyline since their first show. And it's all about him believing in himself.

That The Beano continues to thrive is a credit to the writers, illustrators and editors. And a huge part of that has been figuring out what to keep and what to lose of the past. There was a Beano exhibition/celebration on the SouthBank a few years ago. They had collections of historic stuff, in amongst the more obviously child-friendly exhibitions.

There isn't a 'woke' issue. There's a growing nationalism issue, which is creating this 'woke' bogeyman, claiming it's destroying British white culture. We have statues of slavers torn down once, and it's turned into this heightened "oh, they all want to tear down Churchill statues, mad for tearing down Churchill statues, they are".

Some silver lining thoughts. It's better for Labour to find out how much they need to course-correct now than in the next general election. This has been the weirdest two years of any of our lives. While many of us can think it's obvious that the Tories have screwed up enormously, it's not business as usual either.

For years, the version of Polanski's story I'd understood was along the lines of a wild party at Jack Nicholson's house, and a girl he hooked up with was underage. This was utter crap, but made it a story that was easier to overlook. (Content warning for rape and child abuse)

The more you learn about the Samantha Geimar attack, the more horrific it is. He groomed her, got her alone, drugged her and raped her, including anally. She was 13.

The response to Harry and Meghan shows something deep in the British psyche. Brexit showed the same thing. It's a cult-like belief in how superior we are. Anything that goes against that supremacy is dangerous, so it's interpreted as an insult. Anything that suggests the royal family isn't a wonderful thing we're lucky to have, with a lovely person at the head of it, is perverse.

My parents went to a wedding the other day, and I've just been told the GREATEST wedding story over the phone. I am dead from laughing at this. /1 So, the father of the bride lets my parents know when they've arrived - he's arranging a flashmob during the wedding. Here's the plan: /2

The US should pay more attention to the Kim Darroch story. It's an even bigger Trump story than it seemed, but US followers may not appreciate who's involved.

A leak happened with the intention of damaging the UK government by deposing the UK ambassador to the US.
/1 The source who leaked the details went to Isabel Oakeshott (who was also the journalist who wrote the hilarious David Cameron/pig's head story). It's just been revealed she's in a relationship with the chairman of the Brexit party, Richard Tice.
/2

Ashley Massaro recently died. Her affadavit when she sued WWE includes her being encouraged by Vince McMahon not to report that she was drugged and raped by US military staff while on tour in Kuwait. Content warning - this is sickening reading. (1/2) Some further details around WWE head Vince McMahon and her being discouraged from pursuing anything. Also worth taking note of how the culture made her fear for her job. Full affadavit here: wweconcussionlawsuitnews.com/wp-content/upl…

While basically everything is wrong with Giles Fraser's idiotic piece, one bit that got lost in the middle of all the sexism and nostalgia-wanking was his misunderstanding of the modern workplace. He writes about people changing jobs regularly as if it's been created by demand, entirely driven by arrogant digital nomads, who don't want any ties and think they're citizens of the world.

The idea that Russia saw Gamergate and The Last Jedi as easy ways to influence misogynists and racists says far too much about male fandom culture. When people talk about Trump, it's been said repeatedly that "the cruelty is the point". I think it's in there with the cultural cyber-warfare we didn't always know we were engaged in.

Heard some advice about writing recently which I disagreed with, and I think it's fundamental enough to go into why. That's my way of warning you of a short thread. The (paraphrased) advice was "if you talk about how much you want to write and two years later, you haven't written, you don't really want to write".