Sid

“England, with all thy faults, I love thee still.” William Cowper

[Robert Wilkinson @robertwlk]

40 years ago today, l asked my childhood sweetheart, my best friend and the most gorgeous woman l know to marry me.

All three said no.

[Ancient History Hub @AncientHistorry]

Around 1,950 years ago in Pompeii, a weaver named Successus fell in love with a barmaid named Iris.

She did not love him back.

We know this because his rival, a man named Severus, decided to humiliate him publicly. He grabbed something sharp and carved this into a wall for the whole city to read:

"Successus the weaver loves the innkeeper's slave girl named Iris. She does not care about him at all. But he begs her to have pity on him. His rival wrote this. Goodbye."

Imagine walking to work and seeing that with your name on it.

Successus found it. And instead of letting it go, he carved his reply directly underneath:

"Envious one, why do you get in the way? Yield to a man who is better looking and being treated very unfairly."

Severus came back one more time to end it:

"I have spoken. I have written. You love Iris, but she does not love you."

Then, in 79 AD, Vesuvius erupted and buried the wall, the tavern, and the entire argument under 20 feet of ash. The thread was frozen mid-beef for almost two millennia until archaeologists dug it up and translated it.

We will never know who got the girl. We do not even know if any of the three survived.

Pompeii has over 11,000 of these inscriptions. Bar reviews. Bragging. Bad poetry. A bakery wall that says "Welcome, hungry people." Two guys fighting over a girl in the comments.

The technology changes. We do not.

[R O H I T @lwkyRohit]

i thought bro married a centaur 😭😭😂

[Andrew Neil @afneil]

But this is what Starmer wants us to get closer to.

[No Context Brits @NoContextBrits]

If you remember this, you’re old as fuck.

[Karl Hansen @karl_fh]

If you’re still having to clarify what your values are 11 years after becoming an MP, 6 years after becoming Leader of the Opposition, and 2 years into being Prime Minister, it’s because you don’t actually have any.

[Leah Hardy 🇺🇦 @LeahFHardy]

Who knew Stan Collymore would be the hero we needed right now? Feel proud to be British.

[Sharron Davies HoL MBE @sharrond62]

So there were 100s if not 1000s of underage & vulnerable girls trafficked to wealthy, hugely high profile men but we still only know about Epstein, Andrew, a gay man & a woman, that’s in prison? 🙄 it’s truly obscene injustice.

[Patrick Christys @PatrickChristys]

Mandelson, Lord Ali, Sue Gray, Tulip Siddiq, Louise Haigh, Angela Rayner, Lord Hermer, Rachel Reeves, David Lammy, China, Chagos, farmers, pensioners…Sir Keir Starmer’s judgement is *always* wrong.

[James Lucas @JamesLucasIT]

In 1936, J. R. R. Tolkien published a Christmas poem titled “Noel” in the annual magazine of Our Lady's Abingdon, in Oxfordshire. The poem was lost to history for nearly 80 years until scholars Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull rediscovered it in the archives. It reads:

Grim was the world and grey last night:
The moon and stars were fled,
The hall was dark without song or light,
The fires were fallen dead.
The wind in the trees was like to the sea,
And over the mountains' teeth
It whistled bitter-cold and free,
As a sword leapt from its sheath.

The lord of snows upreared his head;
His mantle long and pale
Upon the bitter blast was spread
And hung o'er hill and dale.
The world was blind, the boughs were bent,
All ways and paths were wild:
Then the veil of cloud apart was rent,
And here was born a Child.

The ancient dome of heaven sheer
Was pricked with distant light;
A star came shining white and clear
Alone above the night.
In the dale of dark in that hour of birth
One voice on a sudden sang:
Then all the bells in Heaven and Earth
Together at midnight rang.

Mary sang in this world below:
They heard her song arise
O'er mist and over mountain snow
To the walls of Paradise,
And the tongue of many bells was stirred
in Heaven's towers to ring
When the voice of mortal maid was heard,
That was mother of Heaven's King.

Glad is the world and fair this night
With stars about its head,
And the hall is filled with laughter and light,
And fires are burning red.
The bells of Paradise now ring
With bells of Christendom,
And Gloria, Gloria we will sing
That God on earth is come.

[Rafe Heydel-Mankoo @RafHM]

Complete madness. Such ignorance boils my blood

If "fire-man" is sexist, why isn't "wo-man" or "hu-man"?

The suffix "-man" is gender netural

An Anglo-Saxon male was a "waepman" (weapon-man), whilst a female was a "wifman" (origin of the word "wife")

Over time, "waep" was dropped from "waepman", so that a male was simply a "man".

Similarly, the female "wifman" evolved to "woman"

Thus, "mankind", "chairman", "spokesman" and "fireman", are as gender neutral as "human".

These are the real world consequences of ignorance + ideology👇

[Dr. Dad, PhD 🔄🔼◀️🔽▶️ @GarrettPetersen]

I decided to do a deep dive to figure out what it would take for European voters to change the law to allow them to deport migrants. For instance, say the voters of Italy wanted to deport Syrian terrorists to Syria. What would they need to do, legally to get that outcome? 🧵

[Sid @siddill]

@KieranGunner93 @reallymatesake Why would fans make excuses when their team is doing well?

[Andrew McCarthy @AJamesMcCarthy]

Last night I captured over 60k photos of the largest supermoon of the year using two telescopes to reveal the hidden color in 119 megapixels. I call the print "Artemis Beckons", after the next crewed lunar mission.

See the reply for the up close details and explanation 👇

[Nigel Farage MP @Nigel_Farage]

You can’t trust a word Rachel Reeves says.

[VeryBritishProblems @SoVeryBritish]

They’re swapping eclairs for flakes in Cadbury Heroes. It’s nice to get some good news now and then.

Eclairs are fine, but they never belonged in that mix. Much better to just have a bag of them on the side.

[Zia Yusuf @ZiaYusufUK]

It is not lost on anyone that nobody jailed for tweets has been “accidentally” released from prison under Starmer.

[Ben Green @BenGreenJeru]

Incredible from the Eintracht Frankfurt fans at home to Liverpool this evening in the Champions League!!!!

👏👏👏

“Every fan should be welcome everywhere! Maccabi Tel Aviv fans are always welcome in Frankfurt.”

🙏🇮🇱🇩🇪