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Susan McCallum Smith

@susanmccallum.bsky.social
191 followers 116 following 451 posts

Reader, writer, teacher.

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Reposted by Susan McCallum Smith
DismalChips DIED FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS VERY NIGHT @dismalchips.bsky.social · 7h
This was a very effective act of terrorism, for something that doesn't appear to be in any way an act of terrorism.
The US has withdrawn all of its bombers from RAF Fairford, the British military base at the centre of an incident being investigated by counter terror police.
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Rebecca Solnit @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social · 6h
It's shocking this is not shocking: "The UK’s largest private-sector employer is offering up to three days of paid leave which can be taken flexibly for activities such as attending court hearings, arranging emergency accommodation, changing locks, securing childcare or separating finances."
theguardian.com
Tesco is first supermarket to offer paid ‘safe leave’ for victims of domestic abuse
Exclusive: Britain’s largest private-sector employer has also trained managers to spot signs of domestic abuse
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The Daily Britain @thedailybritain.bsky.social · 10h
"Alzheimer’s is no joke. I watch people battle this disease daily and it is one of the cruellest and most painful things a family can go through. Turning someone’s inability to recognise their own son, and a son no longer being recognised, into a cheap punchline is repulsive."
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Susan McCallum Smith @susanmccallum.bsky.social · 21h
www.theguardian.com/world/ng-int...
theguardian.com
Incinerated novels and destroyed warehouses: Russia’s war on Ukrainian books
A Ukrainian publishing boom sparked by the 2022 invasion is now under threat from the force and frequency of Russian attacks
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The New Yorker @newyorker.com · 03/10/2026
Sorry we missed your call. Halloween takes precedence. Surely you understand. Cartoon by Michael Maslin.
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Karen Attiah @karenattiah.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Today, 8 years ago, my friend, Saudi Journalist and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi was murdered.
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Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani @mayor.nyc.gov · 02/10/2026
Calling all NYC artists — painters, filmmakers, poets, musicians and more! Did you know our city provides grants to support your work every year? And this year, we're DOUBLING the amount — from $5,000 up to $10,000 per artist! Deadlines are approaching fast — apply today at nyc.gov/artistgrants.
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Razzball @razzball.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Announcing the merger with Titanic footage is an incredible bit
David Ellison • @ellisonskyd... 2h
What once was the peak, is now just the beginning.
Paramount and Warner Bros. shaped over a century of culture. By combining them, we aren't rewriting history — we're equipping these iconic studios with a more powerful engine. Together, we are Skydance: a creative-first ho Show
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Susan McCallum Smith @susanmccallum.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Oh, FFS, Marina. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
It's true: this is my final column. You have exactly 24 hours to complain before my inbox self-destructs | Marina Hyde
Yes, after 25 years I’m signing off, and I’ve cherished every moment – especially storming the French embassy with a (toy) AK-47, says Guardian columnist Marina Hyde
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Susan McCallum Smith @susanmccallum.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
The Guardian view on the death penalty: Christa Pike’s execution was botched, but cruelty is inherent | Editorial
Editorial: Three-quarters of nations have rightly abolished capital punishment in law or practice, but killing by the state has surged in the US
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Susan McCallum Smith @susanmccallum.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
After rape allegations at Cornell University, why are women again being urged to talk to their sons? Why not men? | Gaby Hinsliff
Boys learn by watching how the men they respect treat their partners, female colleagues, women on the street. Now is the time for those men to step up, says Guardian columnist Gaby Hinsliff
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Susan McCallum Smith @susanmccallum.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Surely, there must be a way of ensuring that unqualified ghouls aren't allowed to monetise life-threatening 'advice.' www.theguardian.com/society/2026...
theguardian.com
‘Self-healing’ coach who was banned from working in Australia to speak in UK
Barbara O’Neill has previously claimed that cancer is a fungus that can be treated with bicarbonate soda
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Susan McCallum Smith @susanmccallum.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Ok, Nige, spin this one. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...
theguardian.com
Suspect in RAF Fairford case called police to report incident
Man dialled 999 before he and four others were arrested near military base in Gloucestershire, it has emerged
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Susan McCallum Smith @susanmccallum.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Oh, FFS.
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The Bookseller @thebookseller.com · 30/09/2026
Cherise Saywell has been named as the winner of the BBC National Short Story Award 2026 for Ditto. 👇
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BBC National Short Story Award 2026 winner named as Cherise Saywell
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Darryl Jones @profdarryljones.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Congratulations to @cferguson.bsky.social on her amazing scholarly edition of Conan Doyle’s unforgettably bizarre spiritualist novel.
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The Onion @theonion.com · 29/09/2026
Area Dad Sure Knows A Lot About Local Weather Woman theonion.com/area-dad-sure-knows-a-…
Area Dad Sure Knows A Lot About Local Weather Woman
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Luke O'Neil @lukeoneil47.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
The byline left up there like a head on a spike outside a castle
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Jim Pickard @pickardje.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
as a satire on so-called late stage capitalism how could one beat investors pouring a trillion into a company offering to wipe out humankind
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General Boles @generalboles.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
"did you HAVE to invite him to China?" "sorry dear" "don't sorry dear me"
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London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 26/09/2026
‘Whatever regrets she had, Anita Brookner preferred the world her way, which is the reason that the terrifying self-encirclement of her best characters is so completely authentic.’ Andrew O’Hagan on the novelist. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
lrb.co.uk
Andrew O’Hagan · Omelettes and Whisky: Anita Brookner’s Edge
Over the course of 24 novels and 87 years, Anita Brookner achieved many dislocations of selfhood and may have become...
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Reposted by Susan McCallum Smith
James Butler @piercepenniless.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
When was the last time our Secretary of State for Culture displayed anything approaching this degree of public enthusiasm for our world-class arts industry? Has she been seen anywhere? Given impending charter renewal... did she even bother to visit a single prom?
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The Bookseller @thebookseller.com · 25/09/2026
Shakespeare’s Globe has opened its newly renovated research and collection centre, which features London’s only publicly accessible dedicated Shakespeare library and archive. 👇
ebx.sh
Shakespeare library and archive containing 6,000 books opens under the Globe theatre
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Patrick Dunleavy @patrickdunleavy.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Tom Watson’s move to Palantir is the latest sign of how far the rot has spread in UK politics www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
Tom Watson’s move to Palantir is the latest sign of how far the rot has spread in UK politics | Clive Lewis
When a former Labour deputy leader joins a firm built on surveillance and military targeting, it deepens public cynicism – and democracy depends on trust, says Labour MP Clive Lewis
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Duncan Hothersall @dhothersall.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Today, Alison Ann-Dowling, a Scottish Labour councillor who is a member of the party's ruling body the SEC, together with fellow Scottish Labour Women's Declaration activist Norma Austin Hart, will take their trade union, Community, to court to try to overturn its trans-inclusive policy.
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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 23/09/2026
“the english are a mongrel people (laudatory)”
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The National @scotnational.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Macklemore has announced a Free Palestine tour with all proceeds going to charities and organisations that support Palestinians after he was kicked off Ed Sheeran’s tour for opposing Israel’s genocide in Gaza
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Andrew Male @andrewmale.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Grab a calendar and pull your fucking heads out of your asses; it’s *fall, fuckers. Yes, also autumn, shitheels.
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derek guy @dieworkwear.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
It's great to see tailoring accommodate such extreme movement today. This level of tailoring was a bit more common in the past, as you can see in old films featuring Fred Astaire or Gene Kelly, but many modern suits will lift off the wearer's neck even when they're just walking.
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Josiah Mortimer @josiahmortimer.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
“We think it will be of public interest that the most expensive house in British history was acquired in a way that saved £18.5m of stamp duty.” Sold by Reform's treasurer, no less open.substack.com/pub/londonce...
open.substack.com
London’s most expensive house, Reform UK’s treasurer, and a massively reduced tax bill
A £265m mansion in the heart of the Chelsea • Sold by billionaire Nick Candy and his ex-wife Holly Valance • Bought by a Labour-donating hedge fund boss • Why was the tax bill so small?
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Susan McCallum Smith @susanmccallum.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Kick the Latch was brilliant!
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BladeoftheSun @bladeofthes.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Palantir should not have a seat in the house of Lords. Tom Watson shouldn't be allowed to work for Palantir and be a Lord he should be fired ASAP.
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The New Yorker @newyorker.com · 21/09/2026
Can reading make you happier? newyorkermag.visitlink.me/_qRcqY
newyorkermag.visitlink.me
Can Reading Make You Happier?
After the First World War, traumatized soldiers were often prescribed a course of reading.
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EMILY WILSON @emilyrcwilson.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
I wrote a little essay on substack about how actually, quite a lot of people outside the academy are interested in books and other real things. The main reason to read this piece is that I discuss Frances, she of the bread-and-jam. emily613.substack.com/p/let-us-eat...
emily613.substack.com
Let Us Eat Cream-Cheese-Cucumber-Tomato-Sandwiches, On Rye-Bread
I love my students and my colleagues, and I love the discussions that are possible in the classroom and among scholars, in academic contexts.
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The National @scotnational.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Scottish author Frances Crawford shares the 10 things that changed her life 👇
thenational.scot
Scottish author shares what shaped her journey to becoming award-winner
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Frankie de la Cretaz @thefrankiedlc.news · 18/09/2026
I'm really glad that Code Switch included this part of my interview, because I think these are the points that so often get lost in the discussion of trans panic and why the WNBA might be an ideal target for those anti-trans groups to latch onto. www.npr.org/2026/09/15/n...
We're talking about actual bigotry and the belief that this group of people shouldn't have, like, the same human rights as another group. It legitimizes them. And so the WNBA is a big platform for them to be able to do that. But I think what's actually really insidious about being the target is that transphobia is rooted in white supremacist ideas of who is allowed to be a woman and what a woman should look like. Those beliefs have, you know, negatively impacted Black and brown and non-Western women throughout history.

So what you have is a league in the WNBA that is full of Black women, 7-foot-tall women, masculine women, women who don't fit kind of the traditional markers of conventional white Western ideas of womanhood. And so I don't think it's surprising that transphobic ideas around the acceptable kind of woman are coming and impacting this league.

And I think the last piece that I will say is, I think, in some ways, the lack of visibility that the league had for a lot of years really protected it. Like, it wasn't as successful as it should have been because of racism and homophobia and misogyny. And once it becomes successful, the flip side of that is it really does become a different kind of victim of those ideas. And the fact that you have a league that is all women, predominantly Black women, largely queer women who have been successful and they don't need men to do it, and their product is not necessarily for men. I think that's a threat to the status quo. And so it's not just about protecting women's sports. It's actually about dismantling them from the inside.
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Alec Finlay @alecfinlay.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
1. The general evisceration of culture at University of Edinburgh is appalling; how can a centre of learning in Scotland justify cutting these courses? Religious Studies and Scottish Literature (UG) History of Art and Scottish Literature (UG) Celtic and Scottish Lit (UG), conts.
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Jon Cooper @joncooper-us.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
👇👇👇👇
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The Paris Review @parisreview.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
“I tell people, Make a list of ten things you hate and tear them down in a short story or poem. Make a list of ten things you love and celebrate them. When I wrote Fahrenheit 451 I hated book burners and I loved libraries. So there you are.” —Ray Bradbury buff.ly/i5O3KkG
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Anne Billson @annebillson.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
I ranked Busby Berkeley! Now have to rid myself of an infernal medley of Harry Warren-Al Dubin earworms. (I urge you to seek out the full Lullaby of Broadway number; official Warner Bros clip linked to in the artcle doesn't do it justice, though this one is better: www.youtube.com/watch?v=RT9L...)
theguardian.com
Human harps, massive bananas and dogging: the 20 best Busby Berkeley dance routines – ranked!
To mark 50 years since the director and choreographer’s death, we count down his best fantastical, kaleidoscopic numbers, from erotic silhouettes to sinister tap dancers
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Susan McCallum Smith @susanmccallum.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Love this woman.
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Susan McCallum Smith @susanmccallum.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
He is monstrous.
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Lisa Guerrero @lisaguerrero.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Not only did I meet Robert Kraft, I worked for him. His kid Jonathan asked me to “remove the black music” from my gameday playlist in ‘94 & I refused so they fired me. I was the cheerleader director at the time.  I sued them for wrongful termination and won. So yes, I know that motherfucker. 
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John Self @john-self.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Helen Garner on the cons and pros of being a writer. (From ‘On Turning Fifty’, from True Stories: Collected Short Non-Fiction)
and grim stubbornness required in order to keep going; the episodes of elation, the occasional sense of hitting your stride, or of being in tune with the force that creates the feeling that now you've got it, now you can't put a foot wrong then the guilt you feel, when your work's going well, that you are allowed to spend your days having this much fun and ultimately being paid for it, while others have jobs in offices or schools, and bosses, and laid-down work hours they have to stick to—then the arrival next morning at your desk, the dropping away of the floor from under your feet as you see the thinness of what yesterday seemed so rich and right; the picking up of the pen, the dogged keeping going-the sickly envy of people with jobs, because they have got bosses to tell them what to do next, and work hours that finish at a certain regular time so they can go home, and holidays, and secretaries, and superannuation-and they're allowed to ask for help; the pathetic pleas for encouragement you make, invariably to the wrong person—a child, a husband, a parent— someone who can't possibly know the right thing to say, or who is in the grip of some barely conscious hostility towards you that they can't help expressing at the most destructive possible moment; the hatred of your own name, because of its connection with this slogging labour and with the expectations which you have caused the outside world to have of you, and that you're afraid you'll never live up to; the despair of feeling trapped inside your own style.
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Neil Mackay @neilmackay.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
How a guilty admission by James O’Brien nails the problem of England’s domination over Scotland, Wales & NIreland The LBC presenter had the courage to admit he knows little about the other home nations and it’s coloured his politics. Therein lies the rot in the union In @heraldscotland.bsky.social
heraldscotland.com
James O’Brien’s guilty admission nails the problem of English domination in Scotland
The LBC radio presenter says he knew little about the history of the other home nations. This indifference, our Writer at Large says, lies at the…
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Susan McCallum Smith @susanmccallum.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
And today's 'no shit, Sherlock' headline goes to: www.theguardian.com/science/2026...
theguardian.com
Climate crisis likely behind devastating Nepal-Tibet floods that killed more than 1,300, first study finds
Scientists say global heating was a destabilising factor in collapse of 200,000 sq metre glacier in August
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Neil Norman And His Cosmic Orchestra @fubsyshabaroon.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Kim Trilby.
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Another Cinna @anothercinna.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
ICYMI... ICHH www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/... 👇
bbc.co.uk
Drama on 4 - It Can't Happen Here - BBC Sounds
Sinclair Lewis's prescient 1936 satire adapted for radio by Mike Walker. Stars Ben Miles.
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