A local shop owner asked why big kid wasn’t at school. When I told him it was closed because it was being used as a polling station we got talking about the elections. He asked me who I voted for, and then he told me he thinks “it’s going to be another hung parliament”.

Unusually productive morning. taught big kid how to convert fractions into decimals and percentages and vice versa voted for Mayor of London, constituency London Assembly Member and London-wide member bought some fruit and brown baps collected big kid’s prescriptions and recycled his expired epipens got six freshly baked garlic naans from my local naan shop got some decent exercise

My local polling station was deserted when I went to vote around 11am.

Never listened to Buffalo Tom’s eponymous first album before. Produced by one Joseph Donald Mascis (as was their second album Birdbrain, although there he was credited as the more familiar J. Mascis).

Yesterday morning I took my little kid to see his best friend Lorenzo. Yesterday afternoon I took my big kid to see his best friend Lorenzo. Both Lorenzos live at number 13 and (perhaps less surprisingly) have Italian mothers. Our town is 95% BAME.

Nine year old said he wanted to grow some potatoes, so we planted chitted seed potatoes in bags tonight. He said he didn’t know it was so much work!

I think I was taking Tramadol for pain relief when I wrote this: Both sets of players would be awarded (honorary) knighthoods for their part in simulating Barnsley versus Grimsby Town at a freezing cold Oakwell on New Year’s Day in the late 1990s/early 2000s and no doubt the two managers would be encased in marble as a living testament to their obduracy. The World Cup on Drugs: Pure-Grade Heroin Cut With Shavings of Clive Tyldesley

A TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE

Andy’s post on Kingstonian Football Club losing their home reminded me of the loss of Southall’s football ground, and a chance meeting I had with an old supporter a few years ago. Jim had lost his coat. He remembered leaving it in the Halfway House pub next to the entrance to the Southall football ground on Western Road. He told me he lived in neighbouring Hayes with his wife, who would be very angry with him if he went home without his coat.

4 year old was born four years ago today, funnily enough.

Zack, 35, says: “I got pretty disillusioned after I found myself consistently matching with anti-Zionists, even when I set it to ‘Jewish only’.” Zack put an Israeli flag emoji on his profile to rectify the situation. “It’s annoying because the more creative personalities I normally go for tend to be more anti-Israel.” Now he’s having fewer awkward conversations about the conflict, but the people he’s matching with are “less interesting”.

…blanket denial of Israeli war crimes has served to quiet the consciences of Israel’s most ardent supporters, ensuring their unreserved backing for the war. After all, if it can be argued that the rest of the world is lying, or, failing that, the devastation and casualties in Gaza can all be blamed on Hamas, then what is there to feel guilty about? Source: Six months of liberal Zionist doublethink

This is the story of how I got there. A chronological curriculum vitae. (Need to get around to completing mine….) Writing a web-first resumé werd.io

The agenda now is all-Israeli: There is no one else but us. Only our disasters, our suffering, our sacrifices – and everything else can burn for all we care. We have become as monsters. Not only in our actions, but above all in our apathy. Gideon Levy via Hippy Steve

Front page of today’s Independent newspaper, headlines: Biden calls for immediate ceasefire in Gaza. UK legal experts, lawmakers and military leaders call for a ban on arms sales to Israel.

WHERE'S DADDY?

We have AI that can decide who is a terrorist and then track their every movement so we can wait until they’re home to drop a bomb on their whole family. But the 3 successive precision air strikes on #WCK aid workers coordinating with and following route instructions from the IDF was just a ‘tragic mistake’ because it was night time. Hippy Steve

Hamas wants a permanent end to the war and full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. Mr Netanyahu’s office said the proposals were “unrealistic”.

Can’t remember the last time I wore a watch. My nine year old wants it. Timpsons fitted a new battery free of charge.

JOURNALING

My nine year old started keeping a journal at school so we can read what he’s been doing at school every day. (Replaces the “What did you do at school today?” “Can’t remember” alternative). It’s terrific. He wanted to know what I’ve been doing, too, so I am reciprocating. I’ve never kept a diary a journal before, but I’ve enjoyed doing it these past couple of days. It’s fair to say, though, that my lad’s days are far more interesting and fun than mine.

Currently reading: Yesterday’s Man by Branko Marcetic 📚 He would indeed spend his Senate career showering Israel with unquestioning support, even when its behavior elicited bipartisan outrage. He helped to secure an unparalleled amount of US aid for Israel early on and to scuttle a 1998 peace proposal with Palestine, and he told an assembly of lobbyists that Americans “cannot afford to publicly criticize Israel.”

BATH NIGHT

My little kid (now two months from being a not so small four) has gone right off the idea of having a bath at all in recent weeks. It takes two of us to get him in and give him a quick shower every couple of days. To get him into the bath tonight, I tried something new. I got on all fours so he could ride me like a horse into the bathroom while I hummed the theme tune to The Lone Ranger.

6/12

Back cover image of the dec 1975 issue of “issues in radical therapy” (via danielle carr on Twitter.)

The Crisis in Gaza: Navigating Difficult Conversations A Q&A with Dr. Gabor Maté & Daniel Maté February 16, 2024 • 9:00 – 10:30am PST

Pancake Day!

the Biden administration does in fact have tons of leverage it can use to stop the genocidal massacre in Gaza, it just doesn’t want to because it would be “politically unpopular” and because “Biden himself has a personal attachment to Israel.” How has Israel managed to kill some ten thousand Palestinians in Gaza without managing to do any real damage to Hamas if Hamas fighters are hiding amongst all those civilians?