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David Cottis @davidcottis.bsky.social · 14h

If the OP really did beat seven other swimmers while doing breaststroke, then I suspect the disqualification was for showing off.

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David Cottis @davidcottis.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Back in the '80s, the late Stephen Jeffreys used to run a writing workshop in which you would study dramatic structure by putting the same story into 2- 3- and 4-act versions. The story he chose? The Rise and Fall of Jeffrey Archer.

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David Cottis @davidcottis.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

On similar lines: What's white and can't climb trees? A fridge. What's white and blue and can't climb trees? A fridge in a denim jacket.

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David Cottis @davidcottis.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

A snake winding itself round a child's cuddly toy in 'A Town Like Alice'. Not least because I owned a similar toy myself.

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David Cottis @davidcottis.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Clerkenwell vignette: As I'm walking past Spa Fields, I see a group of people in full lion dance costume, getting ready to rehearse. Some, but not all, are Chinese. As I move on, one guy arrives late and apologises in German. He takes his place, the rehearsal starts.

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David Cottis @davidcottis.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

I've heard some kids recently call them 'chatterboxes'

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David Cottis @davidcottis.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

I'd actually seen it before, but had forgotten whodunnit, which tells you something. A very strange, and archetypely '70s cast - surely having Raquel Welch and Dyan Cannon in the same film is the definition of redundancy? (3/3)

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David Cottis @davidcottis.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

... it's acquired a cult following, and a bit of a cultural footprint, as a template for the Knives Out franchise. It becomes a lot less interesting after the murder, as increasingly elaborate plot twists pile up, with little concern for probability or character logic. (2/3)

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David Cottis @davidcottis.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

A cult item, because of its script by Stephen Sondheim and Anthony Perkins, based on the elaborate puzzle games they used to organise for friends in NYC (which also provided the inspiration for Anthony Shaffer's Sleuth). A famous flop at the time... (1/3) www.imdb.com/title/tt0070...

imdb.com

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David Cottis @davidcottis.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Some people have a type, some don't. My exes all look and behave very differently - the only thing they have in common is that we've loved each other.

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David Cottis @davidcottis.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

It says something about the nature of pantomime that the person playing the title role is bottom of the cast list.

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David Cottis @davidcottis.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

I once overheard a guy in a record store saying 'I didn't know that Dave Grohl was in a band before the Foo Fighters.'

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David Cottis @davidcottis.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

To be fair, cats look judgemental and disappointed most of the time - it's part of their charm

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David Cottis @davidcottis.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Sorry about the reason this came up on my YouTube feed, but still... good lord: www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2Xc...

youtube.com

Harris, Parton, Ronstadt on Late Show, March 24, 1999 (full, stereo)

YouTube video by Don Giller

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David Cottis @davidcottis.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Ah, sorry - misunderstood your emoticon

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David Cottis @davidcottis.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Wonder if i should go and see Home Alone 2...

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David Cottis @davidcottis.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Just got back from watching a Tim Curry film (Times Square) to discover he's died. This happened with Gene Hackman as well.

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David Cottis @davidcottis.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Lovely place - one of my guaranteed visits every Festival

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David Cottis @davidcottis.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Is that supposed to be George VI?

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Reposted by David Cottis

Mr. Blabalino 🇳🇴🇺🇸💙 @blabalino.com · 22/08/2026

Found this recording of Rita Moreno performing “Fever” on The Muppet Show from 1976. 14/10

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David Cottis @davidcottis.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Two people behind me in the Piccolo Theatre, Edinburgh: She: Would you mind if I sat next to you? He: I would be delighted. I may have just witnessed a real-life meet-cute.

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David Cottis @davidcottis.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Overheard in the Courtyard of Surgeon's Hall, Edinburgh: 'I'm polite to everybody, but I hate loads of people.'

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David Cottis @davidcottis.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

I'm a great believer in the importance of learning foreign languages, but I'm a monoglot myself. (Not from choice; I'm just really bad at learning them.)

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David Cottis @davidcottis.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

Not quite all, but I take your point

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David Cottis @davidcottis.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

Interesting that we're both non-drivers - maybe links with getting lots of trains at an early age?

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David Cottis @davidcottis.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

Put two bets on horses, one time when I was making a thing of doing things i'd never done before. They both came in, so I figured i'd better quite while I was ahead.

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David Cottis @davidcottis.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

Never learned to drive, been on a stag do, or bought a Lottery ticket

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David Cottis @davidcottis.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

What exactly is Captain Comet doing with that sword?

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David Cottis @davidcottis.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

As a child it never struck me as odd that the ITV kids' magazine was fronted by a Radio 1 DJ. Now I wonder what the hell they were thinking.

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David Cottis @davidcottis.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

At my school, if you opted for golf, you were allowed to play at your local club. it was common knowledge, even among teachers, that no one who said they were doing this ever actually went.

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David Cottis @davidcottis.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

Saw these guys at the Cambridge Folk Festival this weekend - a little hymn to one of my favourite parts of town: www.youtube.com/watch?v=51va...

youtube.com

Somerstown

YouTube video by Man The Lifeboats - Topic

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Reposted by David Cottis

Tracy Wise @frauwise.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

#Booksky Just received my copy of my friend @davidcottis.bsky.social HOW STAGE PLAYWRIGHTS SAVED THE BRITISH CINEMA, 1930-1956 Recommend picking up a copy if you are interested in first-half 20th C British theatre and film.

Book cover. Black and white photo of woman in bathtub. Title is HOW STAGE PLAYWRIGHTS SAVED THE BRITISH CINEMA, 1930-1956: THE WELL-MADE SCREENPLAY by David Cottis.

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David Cottis @davidcottis.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

Yes, but what difference does it make?

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David Cottis @davidcottis.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

We played a variation on the Six Million Dollar Man called the 5 1/2 p man.

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David Cottis @davidcottis.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

... which fused national styles in a similar way. JC: (after a brief pause) 'Good analogy. That's why you got the Nobel prize.' (2/2)

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David Cottis @davidcottis.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

At the NFT, to see Jonathan Coe and Kazuo Ishiguro introducing this. At one point KI commented on its combination of British comedy acting with Germanic visual style, and compared this to Arsene Wenger's management of Arsenal...(1/2) www.imdb.com/title/tt0023...

imdb.com

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David Cottis @davidcottis.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

I agree with you about the first sentence, but not the second - I'd say the withholding of information till the end is a deliberate effect for maximum impact.

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David Cottis @davidcottis.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

'Verify your age' I handwrote all my University essays.

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David Cottis @davidcottis.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

Me too - it made quite an impression on me as a teenager. I think the notion that the socially excluded might actually be geniuses is quite an attractive one to a lot of geeky adolescents.

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David Cottis @davidcottis.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

it's not quite the same plot as the one you describe, but it's the same premise.

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