How Is It A ‘Superpower’ If It needs This Level Of Encouragement?

Stormzy called reading a “superpower” as he backed an initiative aimed at encouraging people who don’t see themselves as readers to pick up a book.

What sort of people ‘don’t see themselves as readers?’ you might ask, Reader? Is it once again the demographic that dare not speak its name? 

“Reading helped me when I was young and it still does today,” said Stormzy. “Books have the power to carry you through life.” 

Not as much as being a DEI media darling who can do no wrong in the eyes of the MSM…

“I encourage anyone who doesn’t usually read to pick up a Quick Read – because reading really is a superpower,” he added. “Music and books are both about finding your voice. We are all made of stories – they define who we are.”

If it really was a ‘superpower’ would you have to plug it so hard, or water it down to suit the audience you are aiming at, though? 

“Having never read a book until the age of 24, I wish I had come across Quick Reads sooner,” said Owusu. “They’re accessible, affordable and gentle in their approach, allowing new or lapsed readers to find their way into the pleasure and fulfilment of reading fiction and nonfiction. “I’m excited to be part of their legacy and to add my voice to something that helps people feel confident enough to pick up a book and look forward to spending time with it,” he added.

So what sort of literary masterpieces are you creating? 

Owusu is also the author of That Reminds Me, Losing the Plot, Borderline Fiction and the editor of Safe: 20 Ways to be a Black Man in Britain Today.

 Gosh, I’ll leave you to it…

Expecting People To Exercise A Little Self-Control In 2026 - Is That Futile?

'I have a thing with the broadcast,' she said in her press conference shortly after the loss. 'I feel like certain moments - the same thing happened to Aryna (Sabalenka) after I played her in the final of the US Open - they don't need to be broadcast.

 Well, don't do them then. Is that so hard? 

'I tried to go somewhere where I thought there wasn't a camera, because I don't like breaking rackets. I broke one racket at the French Open and I said I would never do it again on court, because I don't feel like that's a good representation. 

Well, you’re right, it isn’t. This isn’t the 70s anymore, we got over the John McEnroe era, and decided to push good sportsmanship instead. 

'I went somewhere where I thought they wouldn't broadcast it, but obviously they did. Maybe some conversations can be had, because I feel like at this tournament the only private place we have is the locker room.'

 So you're fully aware of how it looks, yet you can't possibly control yourself?

She was then asked about the benefits of letting her frustrations out on the racket, revealing it calmed down her emotions ahead of speaking to her team. 

'Yeah, definitely,' she said. 'I think for me, I know myself. I don’t want to lash out on my team. They’re good people. They don’t deserve that. I know I’m emotional. 

'I just took the minute to go and do that. I don’t think it’s a bad thing.'

Well, if you don't want people to see you do it, you clearly realise that it is.  Are you a moron?

She is world No 3 and despite her young age, has spoken confidently and passionately about various cultural and political controversies, always handling them delicately and professionally. Therefore, it came as a shock to see her red mist descend after the quarterfinal loss, which saw her dumped out at the hands of the 12th seed Svitolina.

Did it really? 

Unforseen Consequences

A horror about mythical Welsh fairies had filming relocated to north Yorkshire after crew found out about strict non-smoking rules on sets in Wales.

Does it matter these days, when so much film scenery doesn't exist outside of a hard disc anyway? 

The ban made it impossible to make key scenes look authentic, according to Rabbit Trap, external director Bryn Chainey, as the main characters Darcy and Daphne Davenport - played by Dev Patel and Rosy McEwen - are chain smokers.

It's a film, an original script - if the filming in Wales was felt to be so necessary, just write them differently to please the prodnoses, surely?  

In England, there is an exemption if someone is required to smoke as part of a role, according to the British Film Commission, external.

Relaxing the rules around film sets in Wales was discussed in detail more than a decade ago in the Senedd, with the BBC warning it could move filming of prestigious dramas over the border, but proposals were dropped after opposition from campaign groups.

Well, that's about the level of decision making we've come to expect from the Labour fiefdom in Wales, after all. 

While the Rabbit Trap team had encountered other issues around filming in the country, the director called the smoking ban "the nail in the coffin" for its original plans in Wales.

"It gives the audience a visual hint at the anxiety they're not talking about."

You're hiring these people to act, surely they can convey that some other way? 

"The only workaround would have been using CGI (computer-generated imagery) to make the cigarettes appear to burn and produce smoke," Chainey said. "That would have looked fake and was out of our budget."

As he is half-Welsh, the project was inspired by Chainey's desire to connect with his roots, with the film set entirely in a remote cottage. Welsh actor Jade Croot, from Merthyr Tydfil, whose character is bilingual, was cast in a main role. The production team then spent months searching Wales for the ideal location for filming.

And flouncing off to Yorkshire when he came up against the nonsense that has overtaken the land of his roots, rather than change his script. 

The Usual Contrast...

The killer:

The benefit claimant, whose only child is in foster care, has amassed a record of criminal offending for repeated shoplifting, theft, drugs and assault in both Scotland and England but has never previously served a jail sentence, the court heard.

The victim:

ex-Royal Marine Alun Harris-Richards...who had an undiagnosed heart disease, 'suffered such physical and emotional stress that he then and there sustained a heart attack, fell to the ground, struck his head and died'.

The punishment...perhaps

A judge told Smith, formerly of North Grimsby, Arbroath, that the only possible punishment for her offending was 'a significant custodial sentence'. The hearing was adjourned for sentencing at a later date and Smith was remanded in prison.

Adjourned so reports can be written, no doubt, reports that will outline how leniency is expected for the killer. They certainly won’t mention the gulf between the victim with his decent life and worthwhile job and the worthless waste of skin who killed him, will they? 

OK, Kenneth, Let's Expand This, Shall We?

Trump didn’t pull the triggers that killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti, but he bears political responsibility for having greenlighted the agents’ regularly lawless conduct.

Say I accept your reading of the current sitauation, Kenneth. Who, then, is responsible for the killings of Iryna Zarutska, Ashli Babbitt, Laken Riley, Decara Thompson, Lizbeth Medina? 

Could it be the politicians who let their killers into the country or who argued that their killers shouldn't be judged too harshly because of years of 'racism'?

Or could it be, Kenneth, that you don’t think about Iryna Zarutska, Ashli Babbitt, Laken Riley, Decara Thompson and  Lizbeth Medina at all? Are they not even worth remembering to you, simply offerings to your god of Diversity?

What's Another Barmy Idea From The World Of Education, After All?

Pupils should not automatically be sent home if they are suspended from school in England and could instead remain on site, the government has said. Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said being sent home could mean children "retreating to social media". She said on-site suspensions should be used for pupils who had not been violent.

Starmer is getting pretty deseperate to avoid pupils reading that he's a wanker on Twitter and Snapchat I guess. Everyone already knows, Kwier... 

And why is there such a desperate need to suspend pupils anyway?

The number and rate of suspensions had been increasing before Covid, but the rise has accelerated ever since.

Ah, Covid panic - the gift that really does go on giving. 

What About The Harms Done To Them By Parents Like You?

Esther Ghey has called on MPs to vote for an age restriction on social media in the coming weeks, as she accused the government of “kicking the can down the road” with its planned consultation.

Who she? How quickly one forgets, eh, Reader? 

She has previously detailed how she believes her daughter’s social media addiction contributed to her mental health issues, leading her to take risks with her personal safety.

Except she didn’t have a daughter, she had a son. A mentally ill son who believed he was a girl, and who she supported and encouraged in that belief, instead of getting him the help he needed. And now she has the gall to believe anyone should listen to her on this subject:

“Brianna wasn’t alone. We know that there are each day, in England alone, 500 mental health referrals for children and we need to really think what is impacting this, why is there such an increase in mental health issues, why is there an increase in peer and peer violence in schools, why is there a difficulty retaining teachers in schools. 

“We need to move now because as we’re waiting, more and more children are being harmed.”

They are. But not all of them by social media. 

Another Of Those Things That 'Never Happens' Has Happened...

...and produced this surreal situation for the judge:

The jury was told they will be taken to the scene of the incident in a site visit. Judge Daniel Sawyer said: 'Ordinarily I would tell you not to go to the location but in this case it's just out the back of the building and it would be utterly pointless, you can see most of it from your jury retiring room.'

I'm surprised he didn't just tell them anyway, since the justice system loves futile gestures. 

Feels As If The Muzzle Was Serving A Useful Purpose, Kristen

Stopping you from embarrasing utterances like these ones, for a start:

Stewart first read the book in 2018, while on the set of the movie JT LeRoy. She saw the visual potential in this mass of chaotic images and quickly decided it would be her first feature-length film as director. “Forty pages in, I was so rallied and so viciously adamant that nobody else could make the movie but me,” she says.

Really? Yet you've never made one in your life. 

“It was so physical. So vital. Such a permeating secret. There’s an unearthing quality to the way that [Yuknavitch] talked about trespass, and how your desires are carved into your body. As a woman, we have these seeping birthplaces that are our orifices, and it’s where we hold our power, but it’s also where we’re taken advantage of.”

This particular line generated much amusement over at Tim's place... 

At this point, less than two minutes in, it’s fair to say that it isn’t quite turning out to be your run-of-the-mill movie-star promotional chat. “We’re all so muzzled,” Stewart says. “And it just felt like the muzzle was off. That’s the fun part. It’s got a loud mouth. A big, wide-open mouth.” So she sent Yuknavitch an email.

Didn't pick up the telephone and use your loud mouth, then? Luckily for her, the auther appears to be cut from the same cloth: 

“A wildly exciting email,” the author says, from her home in Portland, Oregon. “She was explaining to me why I could never let this book be a regular biopic movie, and how I had to let her make a piece of art out of it. The language she used went under my skin immediately, because it wasn’t regular-person language.”

No, you're not kidding!  

Yuknavitch, obsessed with films since she was five, was, of course, familiar with Stewart’s work. “I even wrote a novel with her in mind, a while ago. She was younger. She had just punched through the Twilight experiences, and she was moving toward independent art films, and I pictured her in my brain when I wrote this novel.” It is called Dora: A Headcase. It sounds like a spooky connection, if she believes in that kind of thing? Artists, Yuknavitch replies, have a tendency to find each other.

Words fail me... 

Is The Clue In The Name?

The Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children (GOSH) released a report on Thursday into the actions of the former orthopaedic surgeon who treated hundreds of children over five years. The review found that 98 patients (12.4%) experienced some level of harm, and 94 of these cases were linked specifically to the care provided by (him.).

Why was he allowed to continue for so long? Could it be because he wasn't British?