Alexander Rose @alexrose.com · 01/04/2025Advice to Authors: Whenever I’m down I like to head over to Amazon to read all my one-star reviews. The exemplary cavalcade of stupidity never fails to entertain. 010
Alexander Rose @alexrose.com · 21/03/2025Been busy for a bit finishing the new book ("Phantom Fleet"--out May 20), but here's a new post about historical intelligence from my Spionage Substack-- open.substack.com/pub/alexande...open.substack.comA New Golden Age: The Secret Letters of Mary Queen of ScotsAI is aiding codebreaking, but humans still matter more 000
Alexander Rose @alexrose.com · 15/02/2025One of life's sweetest revelations was the discovery that in the late 70s Telly Savalas narrated a series of three touristy documentaries on Britain's most splendid cities (Birmingham, Portsmouth, and Aberdeen), despite never visiting them. www.youtube.com/watch?v=EoHV...youtube.comTelly Savalas Looks at BirminghamYouTube video by seacaptainjoe 000
Alexander Rose @alexrose.com · 14/02/2025You know what I love about @scrivenerapp.bsky.social? It's that in the Release Notes they use words like "erstwhile." (They missed a trick, though, by omitting, "we daresay.") 051
Alexander Rose @alexrose.com · 09/02/2025Just returned from a most enjoyable @socintelhist.bsky.social conference at the Spy Museum. Here I am, in mid-sentence, lecturing a rapt audience eagerly awaiting the next speaker. 031
Alexander Rose @alexrose.com · 04/02/2025I think I would definitely watch a spin-off to “Parks and Recreation” centred on the crazy adventures of Jean-Ralphio and his sister (with frequent Henry Winkler cameos as Dad). Also bingeable: “The Life and Loves of Ron Swanson.” 000
Alexander Rose @alexrose.com · 31/01/2025Recently learnt that the fellow who named Everest pronounced his name as “Eve-Rest,” not “Ever-Est.” Handy bit of pedantry to one-up opponents whenever this particular subject pops up in conversation. 143
Alexander Rose @alexrose.com · 29/01/2025Don’t care what you urban elites say; Brut aftershave rocks. It’s the kind of thing Buzz Aldrin would splash on when he’s heading out for a walk on the Moon, or Cortes before he burns his ships and conquers the Aztec Empire. Just gets the job *done* and makes you smell like Evel Knieval. 000
Alexander Rose @alexrose.com · 25/01/2025Somehow, inexplicably, the cat, despite having an IQ of roughly three, continues to trick me into feeding her twice. But I’m getting wise to your traps and snares, my feline friend. 000
Alexander Rose @alexrose.com · 09/01/2025Spammers are getting frighteningly good. I almost fell for this one, it’s so eerily professional. 000
Alexander Rose @alexrose.com · 08/01/2025I’ve been nurturing, via strategic allotments of seeds, a family of rare black squirrels in the garden; there’s now four or five of them, I think. I like to believe that my name (Hu-Man Who Walks Among Us) is whispered with the piety reserved for the Lord among the Israelites of yore. 000
Alexander Rose @alexrose.com · 04/01/2025Discovered this morning that Sid Vicious’s favorite ABBA song was “Fernando.” Given the terribleness of that song, seems a pretty punk move. 200
Alexander Rose @alexrose.com · 23/12/2024I learned today that it’s not “Britannia rules the waves” but “Britannia, rule the waves.” It’s an aspirational exhortation, not a declarative statement of fact. (Also, a handy piece of pedantry to one-up know-it-alls.) 110
Alexander Rose @alexrose.com · 18/12/2024I had no idea that the person who could out-Bob Fosse Bob Fosse was Bob Fosse. www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcrZ...youtube.comBob Fosse dance numbers - " The Rich Man's Frug "YouTube video by Freds Channel One 010
Alexander Rose @alexrose.com · 12/12/2024When you text me, or anyone, and cryptically say, “Can we talk soon [or similar]?”, please append a note briefly stating the subject about which you’d like to talk and include an executive summary of its relative urgency. Otherwise, it sounds worryingly ominous. 000
Alexander Rose @alexrose.com · 07/12/2024No kidding around, the theme to “Knots Landing” is super-catchy. Been humming it all day. Seems like a nice place to live.youtu.beKnots Landing Opening Season 7YouTube video by Foxokles 000
Alexander Rose @alexrose.com · 03/12/2024I'll tell you who's making bank right now: the owners of Bluesky.com.bluesky.comBlue Sky | 2025 Daily, Weekly, and Monthly PlannersThe Blue Sky planner is the solution to your planning needs. Select from our assortment of 2025 daily, weekly, and monthly planners for the new year! 000
Alexander Rose @alexrose.com · 02/12/2024The most terrifying words in the English language: “I’d like to invite you to join my professional network on LinkedIn.” 000
Alexander Rose @alexrose.com · 02/12/2024I’m reading Hare’s 1883 guidebook to Pompeii, which contains this soundly Whiggish opinion: “The windowless houses . . . look more like ruined cow-sheds or pig-sties than anything else . . . A winter of the nineteenth century would be unendurable in the comfortless toy houses.” 000
Alexander Rose @alexrose.com · 02/12/2024For the sake of curiosity, I'm trying to trace the first use of the following dialogue: "It's quiet." "Too quiet." I noticed that James Coburn says it in Peckinpah's "Cross of Iron," but surely that can't have been the first time. 000
Alexander Rose @alexrose.com · 23/11/2024I believe I have found the Least Informative Table of Contents of all time. 2456
Alexander Rose @alexrose.com · 23/11/2024So, anyway, here's the cover of my new book coming out in May. We spent an exciting three weeks debating the subtitle: "and" or an em-dash, "World War II's" or "of World War II," that kind of thing. 161