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Em Splem

@emsplem.bsky.social
461 followers 412 following 402 posts

I like some stuff (art, poetry, history, philosophy, dogs, rhinos) I dislike some stuff (fascists and their enablers, mosquitoes, slugs) I do some things (gardening, walking, cycling, nursing) I don’t do others (drive, eat meat, walk my reactive dog much)

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by Em Splem
Merriam-Webster @merriam-webster.com · 07/10/2026
The grammatical 'colon' and the anatomical 'colon' are not etymologically related. The anatomical 'colon' comes from the Greek ‘kolon’ which means “large intestine.” The grammatical 'colon' comes from the Greek ‘kōlon’ which means “limb.” Both are a means to an end.
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Em Splem @emsplem.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Such a fabulous discovery and such a lovely little interview cut short.
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Em Splem @emsplem.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
The judge, Mr Justice Caulfield, in his summing up, asked why a man with such a fragrant wife would sleep with prostitutes. "Is he in need of cold, unloving, rubber-insulated sex," Caulfield asked, "in a seedy hotel round about quarter to one on a Tuesday morning after an evening at the Caprice?"
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Em Splem @emsplem.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
theguardian.com
The hill I will die on: not everything is a ‘girl’ thing – stop gendering and infantilising it all | Elle Hunt
No, I don’t want to go for a girl walk before my girl dinner with my girl mates: I am a grown woman who walks and eats and votes – and, patriarchy, I am on to you, says freelance journalist Elle Hunt
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Em Splem @emsplem.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
The best day to go to the beach is the 1st of October because it's dog liberation day and it's lovely to see them all let loose.
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Association for Scottish Literature @asls.org.uk · 01/10/2026
would thi prisoner in thi bar please stand fur thi aforesaid crime uv writn anuthir poem awarded the certificate of safety by thi scottish education department … —Tom Leonard from GHOSTIE MEN, in INTIMATE VOICES: Selected Work 1965–1983 (Etruscan Books, 2003) #poem #poetry #NationalPoetryDay
Tom Leonard
From GHOSTIE MEN

would thi prisoner
in thi bar
please stand

fur thi aforesaid crime
uv writn anuthir poem
awarded the certificate of safety
by thi scottish education department

fit tay be used in schools
huvn no bad language
sex subversion or antireligion

I hereby sentence you
tay six munths hard labour
doon thi poetry section
uv yir local library
coontn thi fuckin metaphors
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Em Splem @emsplem.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
I wish that BBC etc would stop having the headline: "LIVE someone famous dies". It really is jarring.
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Liam Connolly @connolly-lg.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
I want my country back. By that, I mean a country where I would be confident that a thug who livestreamed himself stabbing an RNLI dingy on an active operation would a) Be universally condemned b) Be swiftly arrested, put on trial and if found guilty, face many years in jail. I miss that country.
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Em Splem @emsplem.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Just had a Phoebe Buffay experience with a fire alarm that wouldn't stop. No battery, no way to stop it. Dog whimpering, ran outside and wouldn't come inside for ages. Once I'd stopped it, dog finally came inside, jumped on the sofa, fell asleep and farted.
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The Empty City @davidallengreen.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Thinking of John Coltrane on his 100th anniversary. Am small-a, non-militant atheist (I disbelieve in gods rather than one in particular). But am least atheistic, or wish I was not atheistic, listening to A Love Supreme. More than even Bach, this for me is most profoundly moving religious music.
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Em Splem @emsplem.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Look at the language used in this headline: "Anti-migrant activist arrested over video of dinghy slashing". Activist! Language matters and that is shocking choice of language from the BBC.
bbc.co.uk
Daniel Thomas arrested over video of dinghy slashing
Police had been looking into footage appearing to show the man, also known as Danny Tommo, slashing at a boat in the English Channel with a knife.
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Em Splem @emsplem.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
A beautiful late September surprise.
Photo of a pink rose with the early sun lighting it in such a way to make it seem almost translucent.
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Em Splem @emsplem.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
This times a million. Plus, stop the 10 minute preamble of 'what we're about to show you', the lingering arty time-filling shots, the constant musical background and the celebrities on their free jolly hols pretending to be interested in the subject. Programmes with intelligence and without filler!
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Em Splem @emsplem.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Maybe there is a benevolent deity after all.
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Tilt Araiza @tiltaraiza.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
I think what we've learned is, you need to pick your support acts carefully.
A magazine ad for Einstürzende Neubauten with Showaddywaddy at the National Club, Kilburn High Road, London NW6
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Pete Fraser @petefrasermusic.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
In the movie version of this, after Piddington runs out of food water and money as a result of leaving the UK, the residents apply for asylum and end up housed in a military base, with HILARIOUS consequences. www.bbc.com/news/article...
bbc.com
Piddington in Oxfordshire votes to leave UK over asylum plans
Piddington residents voted over proposals to house up to 1,256 male asylum seekers nearby
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Gregk Foley @gregk.co.uk · 16/09/2026
Thinking of/with antiwar activist A. J. Muste:
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Once a reporter asked him, "Do you really think you are going to change the policies of this country by standing out here alone at night in front of the White House with a candle?" A.J. Muste replied softly: "Oh I don't do this to change the country. I do this so the country won't change me.
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Jeremy Noel-Tod @jntod.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
The first sentence here explains why England is the home of Nonsense Poetry
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Hassinator @hassinator.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
a great letter in the times today. perhaps worth sharing in these troubled times. #RNLI #heroes
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Association for Scottish Literature @asls.org.uk · 13/09/2026
Soon it will be no time for gathering in gardens All too soon, my dears, it will be the weather For Brahms quintets, for leaves drifting 𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘦 past the windows… —Peter Davidson, “September Castles” from ARCTIC ELEGIES, @carcanet.bsky.social 2022 #poem #poetry www.carcanet.co.uk/978180017263...
September Castles
by Peter Davidson

First hints of our condition manifest:
Spite in the wind, mist-gauze across the moon,
Light chill, the spider’s filaments, blanched grass,
And two days as warm as the south change nothing at all.
A morning comes when you know this cannot end well.
Soon it will be no time for gathering in gardens
All too soon, my dears, it will be the weather
For Brahms quintets, for leaves drifting triste past the windows
Of those in their rooms alone for the duration,
For whom this is no time to build. Those now alone
Are going to remain so through this estranging season
Of reading, of writing emails as detailed as letters,
Of watching dry leaves grow sodden on empty pavements.
Rilke said this in lines that I last read in Edinburgh
With my most beautiful aunt in her later age
When, many things gone, she remembered those verses in German.
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Matthew Cobb @matthewcobb.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Betteridge’s Second Law.
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David Henig @davidheniguk.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Beginning to think we might want to worry more about out of control tech bros as compared to out of control AI.
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Em Splem @emsplem.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Name checks out.
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Enough Of That Now @andygilder.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
I think it's a sign of the strength of far right feeling in this country that many of those at Dover and Portsmouth gave up their weekend of supervised contact with their kids to shout at lifeboats
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Cold War Steve @coldwarsteve.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
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Em Splem @emsplem.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Went to the local garden centre and saw this cack. HOW much?
Photo of several jars of honey on a shelf with 'Diddly Squat Farm Bee Juice' and a drawn picture of Jeremy Clarkson on them. The price tag on the shelf says £17.99 and in smaller print £5.14 per 100g.
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JRho @jrho.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
The most absolutely massive flex from the state fair exhibit. This quilt is made of 40 years of prize ribbons from various categories at the New Mexico State Fair won by Carol St. Clair Johnson. She also won a prize for this quilt.
Massive quilt made of prize ribbons in blue, red, yellow, and whiteCenter square of quilt made of yellow and red ribbons and yellow rosettesBlock of quilt made of blue, yellow, red, and white ribbons. Ribbons state the year. Some have the prize winning object written on in markerCarol St. Clair Johnson
born 1954; resides Albuquerque, NM

O Fair New Mexico-41 Fair Years
2023
satin ribbons

After unexpectedly winning her first blue ribbon for a sewn cape in 1981, Carol St. Clair Johnson developed an enduring love for the New Mexico State Fair. The quilt Fair New Mexico-41 Fair Years incorporates more than six hundred of the ribbons she won at the fair every subsequent year except 2020 (when the fair was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic). Johnson earned ribbons for needlework, knitting, crochet, pies, cookies, cakes, canning, jewelry, flowers, vegetables, and potted plants. The title of the quilt is a reference to the state song, and the design places the state's Zia sun symbol at the center. The quilt earned Johnson yet another ribbon: Best in Category (miscellaneous quilt) at the 2023 New Mexico State Fair.

Courtesy of Carol St. Clair Johnson
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The Empty City @davidallengreen.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
We are Christopher Isherwood, watching the roving uniformed thuggish gangs in the Berlin street below from our apartment window above.
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NPR @npr.org · 03/09/2026
The Ig Nobel Prizes were awarded this week for humorous yet thought-provoking research. This year, the ceremony came with a twist. n.pr/4cnz08L
n.pr
Kissing apes, anti-splash urinals: This year's Ig Nobels showcase surprising science
The Ig Nobel Prizes were awarded this week for humorous yet thought-provoking research. This year, the ceremony came with a twist.
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Julie S. Lalonde @julieslalonde.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Gloria Steinem died with fewer rights than she had during her lifetime. That fact needs to be front and centre of every media report, every dedication, every discussion of her death.
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sophiacollins.bsky.social @sophiacollins.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Arguing.
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Prof. Catherine Rowett, ex MEP @catherinerowett.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
The solution to prison crowding is not more prison cells. Burnham needs to look at why the prisons are full and address the causes. Here are some. 🧵
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Em Splem @emsplem.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Beautiful.
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Trades Union Congress @tuc.org.uk · 26/08/2026
Reminder that Dolly Parton's 9 to 5 is a film about three women taking over an office and introducing free childcare, paid vacation, and flexible hours, resulting in a 20% increase in productivity.
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Em Splem @emsplem.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
It's #InternationalDogDay and this mutt can't believe that someone has cooked chicken in his house and he's not allowed any (his guts can't tolerate it, despite what his appetite says).
Picture of a brown dog looking intently at someone in a chair eating cicken (out of view)Picture of the most hard-done-for mutt in Christendom, not allowed the food that gives him the squits.
He is browny-red dog with a black nose, egyptian eyes and large ears that flop out at the side like a daschund, even though he is much bigger than one.
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Hope Dickson Leach @hopedickle.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
The Imagination Library website is overloaded right now, so I'm struggling to make a donation. Bookmark this and come back to it later. Do it for her. imaginationlibrary.com
imaginationlibrary.com
Dolly Parton's Imagination Library | USA, UK, IE, CA, AU
Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library is a book gifting program that mails free books to children from birth until they begin school in participating areas.
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Em Splem @emsplem.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Dolly Parton was so ace in so many ways, but this is just so lovely.
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Toby Miller @tobytram.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
The swallows were hunting in the last of the sun. Disco stitching over bone dry grass.
A smudge of dying light across a field of set aside grass. The last of the sun only a finger from the horizon. A single swallow, caught in full wing spread, almost silhouetted against the sun.
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Em Splem @emsplem.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Latest photo of the sky. This morning as the sun broke over the horizon.
Photo of a sunrise, sweeping clouds in the sky. An urban riverside, railings in the foreground, with a gull perched on the end of one of them.
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Domestique @domestiquecycling.com · 25/08/2026
Vuelta hotel flooded with five star reviews after 🇸🇮 Tadej Pogacar leads peloton to shelter 📰 www.domestiquecycling.com/en/news/vuel... 📸 Cor Vos
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Admirable Women @admirablewomen.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Microbiologist Elizabeth Hazen (b. #OTD 1885) & chemist Rachel Brown were granted a patent for Nystatin, an anti-fungal med in 1957. In 2016, it was the 217th most prescribed medication in the US w/ >2MM prescriptions. They gave all $13.4MM in royalties to a fund that heavily supported #WomenInSTEM
A black-and-white photograph of microbiologist Elizabeth Hazen (1885–1975) and chemist Rachel Fuller Brown (1898–1980), the pioneering duo who discovered the first safe antifungal antibiotic, nystatin. On the left, Hazen sits attentively in a white lab coat over a dark-colored vest andlight shirt. She is looking directly at Brown. Standing on the right, Brown looks intently at Hazen while gesturing with chemical glassware. She wears a white lab coat over a light blouse, her silver hair styled neatly. The lab table is filled with scientific equipment, including a glass Erlenmeyer flask, a specialized tube setup, and a rack brimming with cotton-plugged test tubes. The mid-century laboratory background features white storage cabinets with glass windows revealing stacked beakers, alongside an outdoor window framing dark foliage. The composition emphasizes their collaboration, casting a focused light on their work to evoke a mood of serious, dedicated discovery and monumental historical significance in STEM.
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Jess McLaughlin, PhD (they/them) @jfmclaughlin92.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
I think we can safely say the history department had the best stickers today
A large circular sticker for the UAA Department of History. It reads "god forbid women have hobbies" and features a reproduction of the famous illustration of The Women's March on Versailles, 1789
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Evans The Crime @evansthecrime.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Top work by Plymouth Albion RFC
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Em Splem @emsplem.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Really glad I sort out the garden waste and the recycling to see it all be chucked in the same bin lorry together. @southamptoncc.bsky.social
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Em Splem @emsplem.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
Searching for fence paint. 2 available in yellow, 22 in grey. What a dreary indictment.
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Em Splem @emsplem.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
'Tis the Sabbath day so I hope you're all bearing in mind the words of the Kirk elders and not doing anything as immoral as "idle walking through the streets and fields", (excerpt from 19th century Kirk minutes).
Screenshot of old written document which reads, 
“and suppressing of immoralities and profanity particularly on the Sabbath day, by putting a check to idle walking through the streets and fields that day, which they thought themselves in duty bound to take care of.”
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Em Splem @emsplem.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Not often you see a salmon using a camera.
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Em Splem @emsplem.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
London’s clean air zone linked to improvement in children’s lung health. "We already knew that the Ulez reduced air pollution but now we know that children’s lung health has improved at the same time"
ft.com
London’s clean air zone linked to improvement in children’s lung health
Study compared lung size and function of 1,600 six- to nine-year-olds with a matched group in Luton
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Guy's Wardrobe @guydressesup.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Had similar. Went for dinner. Took signed and dedicated hardback of new book as a present for hosts. Went to book sale in village a month later. There it was. I bought it, and then gave it back to them.
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Andy Arthur💃🏰⚓🦌 Threadinburgh 🧵 @threadinburgh.scot · 14/08/2026
Good morning, who fancies themselves the giant Commonwealth Games Tunnock's teacake? www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/auctio...
the-saleroom.com
G2026 - The Famous Giant Teacake Featured within the Opening Ceremony Note: The teacake is ...
G2026 - The Famous Giant Teacake Featured within the Opening Ceremony Note: The teacake is stored off-site, with viewing strictly by appointment. The purcha...
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