iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Alistair King @alistairking.bsky.social · 8h

My attempt to type ‘initially’ into a WhatsApp message led autocorrect to first suggest ‘Hitler’ and then ‘I ritually’. It seems absolutely determined to get me into trouble. BIG triglycerides.

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Alistair King @alistairking.bsky.social · 11h

I’m fascinated by this story. Burnham hasn’t given much away here but saying anything at all is a huge departure from all of his predecessors of the past 10 years who stuck rigidly to the weary ‘free and fair vote’ line. Will this fizzle out or was it a testing of the water for more to come?

theguardian.com

Andy Burnham says it is clear Russia interfered in Brexit referendum

PM says he asked question upon entering No 10 but does not reveal who gave him ‘clear answer’ that Russia meddled

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Alistair King @alistairking.bsky.social · 16h

‘It’, not ‘I’, I of course meant. I’ve actually deleted the original post. I didn’t set out to piss people off.

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Alistair King @alistairking.bsky.social · 16h

It’s definitely not new but it’s certainly been popularised enormously in recent years. I agree there’s a semantic difference too. I’m not hugely moved by it. I was just a slightly grumpy throwaway post. (I’m sure I have plenty of little writing/speaking tics of my own that annoy people too!)

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Alistair King @alistairking.bsky.social · 16h

We’re all judging each other all the time, I’m sure, but we’re usually too polite to point it out. As I say, though, I don’t think this is about pedantry. It’s not wrong, exactly, and I know languages evolve. I just find this construction a bit annoying - but loads of people I really like use it.

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Alistair King @alistairking.bsky.social · 16h

Well, you got there first. Also, I think it’s less obvious if you’re not subconsciously pushed down the nautical route of Moby Dick.

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Alistair King @alistairking.bsky.social · 16h

Ruin a book by adding a word The Mill on the Dental Floss

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Alistair King @alistairking.bsky.social · 17h

Gah! Just literally did this a few seconds after you on seeing Paul’s post. Have deleted and will try to think of something else.

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Alistair King @alistairking.bsky.social · 17h

Hahaha. That’s going to keep me smiling all day.

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Alistair King @alistairking.bsky.social · 17h

I realise I risked making myself look like a joyless dick but (and I appreciate the irony in what I’m about to say), I don’t think it’s about pedantry. It’s just personal preference, really.

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Alistair King @alistairking.bsky.social · 18h

Sam’s not wrong. Also, this way M&S underlines certain words must stop. Underlining indicates italicisation, therefore stress. Why stress the ‘just’ in ‘not just food’? It makes it sound like it’s been stuffed with weird additives. And it doesn’t work with the ‘the’ here in this shitshow either.

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Alistair King @alistairking.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

I rather suspect it was a mad fan, actually, because while the episode was first broadcast on 20th July, the Wayback Machine only has records on it dating from 23rd July that year. (That said, I might have misunderstood the limitations and implications of this internet tool.)

web.archive.org

Wayback Machine

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Alistair King @alistairking.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

I've been watching an old episode of That Mitchell and Webb Look on the BBC iPlayer. It's the second of the fourth series from July 2010. I'm very impressed to see that, for a sketch they did on a TV advert for a website, they - or a mad fan - built Dosh4Gold.com, and the site still exists in 2026.

dosh4gold.com

Dosh4Gold

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Alistair King @alistairking.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

My mind has been racing through the plausible scenarios that inspired this observation and is left reeling at the possibility it was written during the post-coital consumption not of the traditional cigarette but a pork pie, and that this habit might be at the heart of this bad sex-haver’s problems.

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Alistair King @alistairking.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

That said, I wouldn’t pronounce the ‘t’ of ‘chocolat’ in ‘pain au chocolat’, but then I suppose ‘chocolat’ is slightly different from ‘chocolate’.

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Alistair King @alistairking.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

… half-arsed attempt at pronouncing it authentically; if it’s a word we already have (or it was imported much earlier), say it the English way. And then this leads to hybrids like this that switch halfway through.

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Alistair King @alistairking.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

I hadn’t thought about ‘pain au raisin’ before but it’s a good point - although I’ve been unthinkingly saying it the way you hate. I wonder whether it’s one of those unconscious rules one often picks up: if the word is imported (and we already have a word for it), retain the spelling and make a…

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Alistair King @alistairking.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Aaaaah. This explains the name of the tribute band Bagrandmarama. I’d always wondered.

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Reposted by Alistair King

Richard Sales @theblueacorn.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

I learnt a new one recently. Apparently if you have two bananas you can only call one of them banana. The other one is begrandma.

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Alistair King @alistairking.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

We need conventions on this sort of thing. Another bugbear is when newsreaders adopt a sombre tone and start a sentence along the lines of “Sally Jones, the beloved 1970s children’s television presenter and kitten charity fundraiser, has” and then, once you’ve fallen over, end “been awarded a CBE”.

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Alistair King @alistairking.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

I went to Sainsbury’s earlier and saw that The Times was carrying a big front-page picture of Dame Judi Dench. I had to peer quite closely at the tiny caption to see that she is still with us. What a thing to do! I didn’t take a pic as I didn’t want to do to you what they did to me.

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Alistair King @alistairking.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

FUN FACT: technically, you should only really say ‘amen’ at the end of multiple prayers. If you limit yourself to one, it should be ‘aman’. I ignore this rule, though, in the same way that I generally use ‘dice’ for the singular as well as plural, as ‘die’ makes you sound pedantic.

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Alistair King @alistairking.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

YES! It’s all about - in my case, at least, and it seems yours too - remembering *in the moment*. With time, it’s fine, but you don’t always have time, so I approve of your proposed solution and will be saying ‘slivther’ henceforth. On a related note, not that this is about similar-sounding words…

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Alistair King @alistairking.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

This is a really interesting thread from one of my most thoughtful mutuals. Do read it. He’s not saying LLMs are conscious and can suffer. He’s providing a framework to approach these issues, both now and in the future, without relying on a knee-jerk (and very natural) ‘don’t be so silly’ response.

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Alistair King @alistairking.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Thanks to LinkedIn and one of its user’s astonishing prowess in navigating it, it looks like I’m set to receive a £2 million grant for the cutting-edge business of which I’m the founder, ‘Freelance’. Drinks are on me, lads!

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Alistair King @alistairking.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

We’re not yet halfway through Trump’s second term in office. If at this point, ahead of midterms his party is expected to do badly in, his Brylcreemed henchmen are planning to livestream executions, what can we expect by the end of this horrific trajectory? What would you confidently rule out?

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Alistair King @alistairking.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Of course, he’d argue that he’s caring, compassionate and tolerant, and perhaps even he has his moments. Few people are irredeemable. But he doesn’t apply those feelings fairly. I still can’t get over what he did when painting over a children’s mural at an asylum centre. Christ almighty.

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Alistair King @alistairking.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

I know what you mean. Sadly, I think he IS culturally compatible with a section of British society. It’s definitely a minority. Maybe a quarter. And a much bigger minority aren’t just not in that bracket, they stand opposed to it. But it’s depressing that Jenrick’s group exists.

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Reposted by Alistair King

The Anti-Christ Brosnahan @chrisbrosnahan.com · 09/10/2026

There's rarely dignity in death, let alone in executions. But livestreaming it for people to get their kicks from is another level of inhumanity.

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Alistair King @alistairking.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

In my case, yes, I’d almost certainly have said ‘I’m Alistair King from Ware in Hertfordshire’ and, as an undergrad 20-year-old who came home in the university holidays, that would have felt totally natural and honest, but some students have circumstances/recent histories where nuance is legitimate.

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Alistair King @alistairking.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

As for the idea that this country might change over the course of a century. Yes. That tends to happen. Look at 1926 compared to 1826, 1826 compared to 1726 and so on, you daft race-baiting political opportunist. Other that that, great work. You prick.

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Alistair King @alistairking.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

‘Millions and millions’? Is it, though, Robert? ‘Millions’ implies at least 4 or 5 million and you’ve pluralised it so that’s what? 10 million? And what’s the relevance of ethnicity if you claim you want people to integrate? Civic Englishness, if Englishness is important at all, is all that matters.

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Alistair King @alistairking.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Thanks. She's 13 next month, to be fair, but yes, I think she's good for her age. I hope she sticks with it because I'm not sure she gets as much from secondary school art as we'd like.

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Alistair King @alistairking.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

(Now to rummage around her room to see if I can find the other picture, ‘Duncan Party’. Let’s get ready to rumble!)

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Alistair King @alistairking.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Such detail! She used to be prolific for several years from the ages of 7 to 10, and I had an old Twitter account for her daily work. It’s tailed off a little bit (her art, I mean; I left Twitter) but she’s still got it, I think, and it’s so lovely to this guileless manifestation of her creativity.

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Alistair King @alistairking.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Such a long journey home, having been away from my family for a fortnight. My 16-year-old son went off to bed just as I arrived. My wife and 12-year-old daughter were already asleep in our bed. So I’ve been consigned to her room - where I’ve been cheered up enormously by this drawing on her desk.

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Alistair King @alistairking.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

The words sort of sound similar, I suppose, but it falls into the category of wordplay for me where it’s acceptable if it’s saying something… but… is it? If text messages were part of this service somehow, I guess it would be quite clever. But it seems to be saying ‘come into a branch’.

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Alistair King @alistairking.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Ah! Yes, it could be. Certainly I have nothing better to suggest.

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Alistair King @alistairking.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

I’m not going to look and I suggest you don’t either but can you *IMAGINE* the salivating and tumescence over on Twitter at the news of this planned live-stream?

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Alistair King @alistairking.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

I got lucky. We pulled in two or three minutes after the fast train was due to leave but: - It was delayed by five minutes so I caught it - I’d misremembered what time the first train had been due in and we comfortably went past the half-hour mark Cash back! £££

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Alistair King @alistairking.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Thank God I’m not missing something obvious - or even opaque.

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Alistair King @alistairking.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

has more than one meaning, one being based on recent ancestry, for whatever that is worth, and the other being civic identity?’ If they did and the interviewee didn’t accept this or waffled evasively, they’re an idiot or a race-baiting bastard.

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Alistair King @alistairking.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Honestly, it’s fucking dreadful. I rarely turn the radio off in a fit of pique but I did 15 seconds into that stupid item this morning. Maybe Robinson did this - I’ll never know - but if we HAVE to give this nonsense the time of day, interviewers should start by saying ‘stop, do you accept “English”

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Alistair King @alistairking.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

“No, Mr Pants. This is different. It’s spontaneous and it’s called wit.”

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Alistair King @alistairking.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

I’m quite touched that they’d have a policy just for me.

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Alistair King @alistairking.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Haha. Yeah, I think you can make a case for North London. I just think central feels a bit more accurate.

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