Adam Smyth Institute

Reader, writer, boulevardier, and quondam breakfast DJ in the Falkland Islands. Yes, 'seriously'.

[Adam Smyth Institute @ASH_Smyth]

I have measured out my life in Wetherspoon's.

[M.A.R.Y. @mkparks04]

Note my grandpa wrote in his copy of Infinite Jest 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

[Adam Smyth Institute @ASH_Smyth]

This copy of Kapuściński's IMPERIUM, which I have failed to read for years... has pages missing 🤦‍♂️

[Al Carns @AlistairCarns]

24 years in the military and never seen someone bomb this badly.

[Neil Renic @NC_Renic]

Don’t compare your output to 19th century writers, they were taking cocaine at 8am!

[Adam Smyth Institute @ASH_Smyth]

*shitterati

[Ian Duhig FRSL @ianduhig]

Amazed this groundbreaking volume by two great modernist authors isn't better known among the literati.

[Steve McGuire @sfmcguire79]

A Berkeley history professor said he’s gone from assigning 100 pages of reading per week to 35.

Another “said the earliest version of the…course he taught required seven full books, while his most recent iteration exclusively consisted of excerpts.”

“We are now reaching a crisis point where if the number (of pages) goes down further, it’s unclear to me whether my discipline of history can really be taught,” the first one said.

[Jozef Koztelo @jokers_tailor]

I don’t know who this bloke is, but he looks like he’s stepped straight out of a different era.

The suit. The tie. The moustache. The confidence.

A proper throwback to an England that valued character, individuality and a bit of class. 👏👍✊🇬🇧👌❤️🙏

[Adam Smyth Institute @ASH_Smyth]

'My' copy of Pat Barker's REGENERATION — as found on actual army base 😳

[Matt @mattrum91]

@GremlinIndustry Didn’t realise my copy of Dune had been previous owned by a monster until the bright pink inanities started turning up in the margins

[Stan Veuger @stanveuger]

Better economic analysis from Wallace Shawn than 99% of what we see here: “In a way, I’m still downwardly mobile from my parents…But I don’t think my mother ever had a cappuccino. So am I downwardly mobile or upwardly mobile? Because I can have cappuccinos all the time.”

https://t.co/DGMeRf0lRZ

[Adam Smyth Institute @ASH_Smyth]

Some people take this sort of thing *quite* seriously... 😬
https://t.co/CSTTylovoq

[ithaca rising 🇫🇷 🇬🇧 @ithacarising]

I loved the film back then, and I love it even more today. I still remember staying up way too late on a school night, watching Colin Welland bound up to the stage to collect his Oscar, punch the air, and bellow "The British are coming!" like a gleeful revolutionary.

Back in 1981 Chariots of Fire snuck up and stole Best Picture like a quiet outsider winning the 400 metres. It wasn't loud or flashy, it was smart, restrained, and genuinely beautiful at a time when Hollywood was drowning in explosions. It won Best Picture not because the Academy had suddenly developed a taste for Scottish Congregationalist scruple and Cambridge atheism, but because Hugh Hudson's film understood that the true English epic is often small, private, and conducted with a restraint in manners.

What still holds it upright, 40 odd years on, is the way it refuses to sentimentalise its own decency. Eric Liddell's faith and Harold Abrahams' driven Jewish ambition are not presented as cuddly quirks, they are serious impediments to the easy life, and the film respects them as such.

Vangelis' score still gives you chills and those slow-motion runners on the beach remain a visual shorthand for aspiration that no amount of CGI can render obsolete. Chariots of Fire reminds us that grace under pressure is still the rarest medal of all.

[paul bassett davies @thewritertype]

How to write a children's book:
Step 1: Be famous for something else.
Step 2: Have lunch with a publisher.
Step 3: Talk about your brilliant ideas.
Step 4: Tell them to turn the ideas into a book and publish it. How hard can it be?
Step 5: Remember to thank them for lunch.

[Adam Smyth Institute @ASH_Smyth]

Alas, we are a little short of trains here in the Falkland Islands... But otherwise, I'm in!

[Alexandra Wilson @amwilson_opera]

Welcome to new followers! I write about opera and cultural history. My latest book is Someone Else's Music: Opera and the British. At a recent event, another speaker said it "reads wonderfully", is "hugely inspiring" and a great book to read on a train!
https://t.co/dLmGbzywsG

[Adam Smyth Institute @ASH_Smyth]

**PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT**

Clicking on seemingly perfectly-sensible links will ruin your life.

[Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins @daniel_dsj2110]

In your opinion, what is the best intellectual history book written since 2000.

[tmuxvim @tmuxvim]

I put a prompt injection into my LinkedIn bio and recruiters are messaging me in Old English and calling me Lord.

[John Attridge @John_Attridge]

Sure sex is great but have you ever refrained from making a joke in a meeting and woken up feeling relieved

[Adam Smyth Institute @ASH_Smyth]

✋

'whom'

[NYTPitchbot @DougJBalloon]

Doctors say that fluoride helps build strong teeth. A guy who snorts cocaine off toilet seats and takes raccoon penises home for “further study” says it causes autism. For busy parents, it can be hard to know who to trust.

[Iona Fyfe @ionafyfe]

This literally is an episode of the Thick of It

[The Critic @TheCriticMag]

RRS Sir David Attenborough is a ship worthy of the great man’s name, writes @ASH_Smyth
https://t.co/yvfWuzK1UM

[Adam Smyth Institute @ASH_Smyth]

Beautiful stuff.

[Hugo @lowlandsapien]

Happy 100th David Attenborough

[Adam Smyth Institute @ASH_Smyth]

Did he win...?

[WhoRemembersPod @whorememberspod]

Election day today, so great excuse to post the greatest campaign video of all time