Six Things, Volume 141
Optimism | Cats | Entanglogram | English | Wacky Races | Gridogram
Hello! And Happy New Year to those who celebrate. Before we get onto the Things, and on the basis that people either don’t read stuff or need to be shown it more than once for it to sink in, I’m just going to repeat the spiel I included at the beginning of the last edition of Six Things in 2025, detailing how things are going to go around here in 2026. I mean, obviously feel free to skip it, but do also (and this is my preferred option) feel free to read and act upon it as you deem appropriate.
Free subscribers:
weekly Six Things posts will continue until morale improves
after years of holding out, I’ve finally succumbed to the temptation to do a podcast. As Andy Warhol famously said “in the future everyone will have a podcast for 15 minutes – 15 also being, by lucky hap, the number of listeners it’ll have”. Now, I’m the first to admit that the world doesn’t actually need any more podcasts, but I think it’ll be a fun addition to the Six Things oeuvre. It’ll be a monthly affair, and each episode will feature a guest who will bring – you guessed it – six things to talk about. For the audio-averse there’ll also be a transcribed version of the conversation. I’ve got some superb guests lined up already, so that’s exciting. For me, at any rate.
to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Why Do Birds Suddenly Disappear? – my book about the year I spent trying to see 200 species of British bird – I’ll be revisiting it and considering where exactly I went wrong (and occasionally right). For free subscribers that’ll mean a short monthly piece about my birding progress in 2026, comparing it with the same month in 2016. For paid subscribers, read on.
Paid subscribers:
Ah, there you are! You made it. So, for the Why Do Birds Suddenly Disappear? revisit, as well as the monthly piece above, you will get:
an audiobook version of the book, one chapter a month
the e-book version as a PDF, one chapter a month
a 15% discount on the signed and dedicated copy of the paperback edition
a monthly piece in which I go into more detail about the writing of the book, as well as anything else that springs to mind as I reread it. Behind the scenes stuff, trivia, you know the deal.
monthly chat threads (in the Substack app) where people can ask questions about any aspect of the book – birds, music, places, the writing process, anything that occurs to you.
All of this will go out towards the end of the month.
So if you’re at all interested in the process of writing non-fiction or nature writing, and/or birding, the paid upgrade might just be for you. The cost is £4 a month or £40 a year. I’m torn about the whole paid subscriber thing. On the one hand I’d like to think that what I do has value – and it does take a fair amount of time; on the other, I don’t feel comfortable excluding those for whom a paid newsletter subscription is an unaffordable extravagance. So while I do earnestly invite you to sign up for the assorted goodies listed above, do please get in touch if you really want to take out a paid subscription but can’t afford it. No questions asked.
Ok. That’s enough. On with the things.
Thing 1 – Optimism
Optimism: we all like it, and we’ll take it wherever we can get it.
Here, then, is a small thing to keep you going as we roll inexorably into the new year: The Sunlight Optimism Calculator. Simply input your postcode (UK only, I’m afraid) and tick off the landmarks. For example, if you’re in London, today is the first day giving you eight hours of sunlight. The calculator is made by Matthew Somerville from an idea by Julia Cushion.
Thing 2 – Cats
Important cat news. About two-thirds of cats show a leftward bias in their sleeping position. There’s science to prove it and everything.
Thing 3 – Entanglogram
I’m allowed to call this “deranged” because that’s the word used by its creator, Matt Brown. He also describes it as “the whole of London’s history, presented as a Byzantine entanglement of trivia”.
The version above is small, but if you click on it you’ll get through to a version you can explore to your heart’s content. Pleasingly, I find you can get from Handel to The Goodies in five short steps, and from Charles Darwin to Mornington Crescent in just two.
Thing 4 – English
This is fascinating – a monologue by Simon Roper, starting in pre-literary Old English (c.450 AD) and gradually morphing to an urban northeastern dialect of modern American English. I understood (or could guess) the odd word from quite early on, but it wasn’t until c.920 AD that I was confident I’d understood a whole sentence. And then, almost immediately, it got difficult again.
After the reading, he talks a bit about his process, and then there’s a second version with subtitles and notes.
If you want to read a bit more about it, it was featured on Open Culture this week.
Thing 5 – Wacky Races
Easily addled by nostalgia (and always up for a few distracting minutes of comfort viewing) I immediately clicked on this when it popped up the other day. It’s a short video explaining that despite what you think you remember from your childhood in the 1970s (apologies to those of you who didn’t grow up in the 1970s) no in fact there weren’t endless episodes of Wacky Races, but just 17.
It’s also interesting on the origins of the show, as well as giving me an excuse to share the single best page on Wikipedia – a breakdown of all the Wacky Races results. The one thing that page fails to do is allocate points to the contestants. I’ve corrected this – as I say, always up for a few minutes of distraction – in the chart below (3 for a win, 2 for 2nd, 1 for 3rd). So we declare The Slag Brothers the Wacky Champions of Champions, as is only right and proper. Fans of the Ant Hill Mob might want to massage the points allocation in order to get a result they prefer.
Thing 6 – Gridogram
Thanks to friend of the Stack Richard Vodden for this wordy offering.
Swipe or tap adjacent letters to find words. Your first task is to find the quote. Then, if so inclined, crack on to find all the remaining available words. Quote words are gold, others are blue, and as you find them they appear in an alphabetical list, which is helpful if you’re struggling. A nice addition to the ever-expanding daily routine.
Bonus Thing
Here, have some sand.
Well this’s improved my morale but I think you should keep going nonetheless. Looking forward to the audio!
That's holy work right there Lev, finally awarding the winners of Wacky Races