Tom Smith @tomper.bsky.social · 05/10/2026Classic BeeGees product differentiation. It's like one has hair and beard; one has no hair and beard; one has hair and no beard. 1172
Tom Smith @tomper.bsky.social · 02/10/2026I love this. It's always been my favourite too, and you give the reasons more eloquently than I could. It IS, in many ways, all in the "little touches". 130
Tom Smith @tomper.bsky.social · 26/09/2026Yes, but it's viral in the memetic sense also. Bad actors are producing memes with intent to infect people. 120
Tom Smith @tomper.bsky.social · 26/09/2026It's Leibniz, not Liebniz. (Sorry, I can't help myself). 040
Tom Smith @tomper.bsky.social · 17/09/2026Fair point. It is, in its way, affectionate. The narrator is empathizing with and/or envying the protagonist, even as he exposes his hollowness. But that invites the listener to hold both the protagonist and the narrator in contempt, I reckon. 010
Tom Smith @tomper.bsky.social · 17/09/2026I think 'Well Respected Man' is an exception, Andrew. It doesn't merely describe a conservative person with critical sarcastic intent, it describes him *as* conservative with critical sarcastic intent: 'Doing the best things so conservatively' 100
Tom Smith @tomper.bsky.social · 17/09/2026Shakespeare's Henriad: the second tetralogy of history plays: Richard II, Henry IV Pt 1, Henry IV, Pt 2, Henry V. 000
Tom Smith @tomper.bsky.social · 17/09/2026Yes that checks out. George Michael, Michael Jackson, Bowie, Madonna, Elvis: extremely weird. Will Young: not weird. 010
Tom Smith @tomper.bsky.social · 02/09/2026Genuine question: Why is everyone making a big deal of Griffith's role in the Truss mini-budget, when the Chief Sec to the Treasury at the time was Chris Philp, who has been Badenoch's Shadow Home Secretary for nearly 2 years? 020
Tom Smith @tomper.bsky.social · 02/09/2026Genuine question: Why is everyone making a big deal of Griffith's role in the Truss mini-budget, when the Chief Sec to the Treasury at the time was Chris Philp, who has been Badenoch's Shadow Home Secretary for nearly 2 years? 000
Tom Smith @tomper.bsky.social · 29/08/2026My hot take (I was there last night) was that it was like watching a charismatic evangelical preacher: trembling hands, odd body jerks, communal singing, messages of love and change. Nick Cave and David Byrne have something similar. (Does it go back to Elvis?) 191
Tom Smith @tomper.bsky.social · 27/07/2026Is that the one full of (affectionate) Ken Russell jokes about him, as director, wanting to put naked nuns into every scene? It took me about 30 years to get those jokes. 120
