Six Things, Volume 163

Hello! I’m still here! But only briefly. The eagle-eyed among you will have noticed that I missed last week, and also there was no bird update last month and nor has there been a podcast for two months.

Perhaps you didn’t notice, in which case carry on never mind everything’s fine.

But if you did, all I can offer is a two-word explanation:

BOOK DEADLINE

Anyone who has ever faced one of those will understand. There it sits, like a big ol’ brick wall, impassively reflecting everything back at me. No light passes through a book deadline. It deadens sound, muffles thought, paralyses action. And I am determined not to experience that whooshing sound. Unlike Douglas Adams, I don’t like whooshing sounds.

Hence no posts or podcasts. And that, I’m afraid, will be the state of play until September. I apologise in advance. I’ll be pausing paid subscriptions, with a promise to catch up with everything in the autumn. Meanwhile, here’s a desultory collection of six thinglets to keep you going. Thanks for your patience.

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Thing 1 – Twilight of the Velocipede

Lovely stuff, here, from the Public Domain Review – typesetting races before the age of Linotype.

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Thing 2 – Nearby

I’m not in fact in the sea off Pembrokeshire, but I just thought I’d try to throw any stalkers off the scent.

Are there interesting things in your neighbourhood? HOW DO YOU KNOW?

NearbyWiki shows you places near you that have Wikipedia articles. A cool resource. Thanks to Naomi Alderman for sharing this today on Bluesky.

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Thing 3 – Chicken

Simon Roper’s always good. Here he asks why chicken doesn’t rhyme with sicken. And if you have your arm raised, ready to dispute his opening statement, then as always he’s way ahead of you.

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Thing 4 – Vertical Churches

From Richard Silver, mind-bending 180-degree vertical panoramas of cathedrals.

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Thing 5 – Lego

This is the kind of thing I grew up with.

A history of Lego building instructions.

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Thing 6 – Country Draw

You’re given a country. You draw the outline. You are, if you’re me, hilariously bad at it (except when it asked me to do Finland and I think I did sort of ok – I’m taking “recognizable” as a compliment).