Peter Robins

Constant reader, slow cyclist, incompetent euphonium player.

[Peter Robins @petrobins]

@PreachyPreach @simonk133 The existence of Catford Mews and Crystal Palace Everyman probably hasn't helped it

[Peter Robins @petrobins]

@rcolvile @thhamilton This is fun but misleading. The reason he says she clearly hadn't been close enough to touch it is because he's confident it *was* stone — an earlier paragraph implies he was privy to information about the commissioning of it, though not directly involved.

[Peter Robins @petrobins]

@rcolvile IIRC, Bottomley in this case was another traditional figure in newspaper history: the printer who quickly takes possession when the lads can't pay his bill. (He then fell out with the other partner in the printing firm, who got the FT in the split.)

[Peter Robins @petrobins]

@SnoozeInBrief Whatever the strategy, precision is clearly important to it; there used to be a rival 95p+ shop a few doors down towards the Rye, and it has not survived.

[Peter Robins @petrobins]

@Samfr The change over time is interesting. Telegraph readers were 64% Conservative and 14% Labour in 2005, per the table at the end of this Guardian post, while the Sun numbers look to have barely moved: https://t.co/muqKCTjniM

[Peter Robins @petrobins]

@legalstyleblog @davecykl @HoskingTheTimes The paragraph spacing is indeed weird, but it could easily be a printer's last-minute response to a copy shortfall (or to someone pulling a par out, if you want something more conspiratorial).

[Peter Robins @petrobins]

@legalstyleblog @davecykl @HoskingTheTimes The type also looks right for the period, and has printing artefacts and page glare that I think would still be fiddly to fake.

[Peter Robins @petrobins]

@yngvlgrn @philipjcowley The potentially more interesting thing about induction hobs is that you can buy a plug-in portable one that will heat up steel/iron-based pans faster than a gas burner for not much; there's a Tefal one under sixty quid at Job Lewis right now

[Peter Robins @petrobins]

@yngvlgrn The boringly generous interpretation is that the writer is a friend of the couple and was a guest

[Peter Robins @petrobins]

@SnoozeInBrief Correct sequel order:
Claudius the God
Claudius the Gods
Claudius3
Claudius: Resurrection

[Peter Robins @petrobins]

@flashboy @stephenkb @Mr_John_Oxley Dialing a phone?

[Peter Robins @petrobins]

@CricketErik For N.J Triton read Triton, N.J. etc etc

[Peter Robins @petrobins]

@CricketErik Mr. N.J. Triton's XI

[Peter Robins @petrobins]

@PreachyPreach Phase is "the wisest fool in Christendom", I think

[Peter Robins @petrobins]

@yorksranter @Fornbirkibeinn @PreachyPreach @CentristMum @AlunEphraim @OwenWMichael @BeijingPalmer @marwood_lennox @jkbloodtreasure An obituary writer once told me that the thing he found hardest to convey was: "This person was an unmarried heterosexual." I'd guess "This person was a strongly extroverted non-drunkard" presents the same sort of challenge.

[Peter Robins @petrobins]

@Griboyedov1 @stephenkb @PreachyPreach @BeijingPalmer @yorksranter And to survive as an image of a figure that may keep getting cited in social history — the 1950s Angry Young Man — "Lucky Jim" has just to outrun "Room at the Top" and "Look Back in Anger". Possible it's managed that already.

[Peter Robins @petrobins]

@stephenkb As some students know, Chelsea is indeed in south London, just across from Brixton tube: https://t.co/SEtvhsJAAZ

[Peter Robins @petrobins]

@JonnElledge @JenWilliams_FT Sometimes it feels better not to know the reason. On a motionless late-night suburban train in London Victoria, I once heard the announcement, "We are awaiting two things: a driver and the police."