Alistair King
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alistairking.bsky.social
Alistair King
@alistairking.bsky.social
If you’d be my bodyguard, I can be your long-lost pal.
Pinned
Nice to see my follower count rise. My policy is to follow back people I know from elsewhere and generally follow others after there's been a bit of interaction. If I haven't followed you back despite knowing you, it's probably because you're using a different photo. Just like this and I'll rectify.
Home after six hours minus three coffee break stops probably totally about 25 minutes.

30,500 steps, 15 miles, five boroughs, zero blisters.
Going on a very long walk to clear my head.

Let me know if you need anything from Muswell Hill, Friern Barnet, North Finchley, East Finchley, Hampstead, Gospel Oak, Archway, Crouch End or Hornsey, although bear in mind I’m only taking a small rucksack and it’s got three huge flasks of coffee in it.
February 1, 2026 at 6:18 PM
I’m not sure enough thought was put into how this name could be mispronounced.
February 1, 2026 at 2:56 PM
Great Aunt (Your loved one)’s graveside flower thing has arrived. God rest her soul.
February 1, 2026 at 2:49 PM
Help, I have a marketing problem. I’ve started a company called ‘Better No Junk Mail Signs For Your Front Door (signage, London) Ltd’ and our main way of promoting ourselves is with hand-delivered leaflets but, now I think about it, we might be missing out on getting through to our core demographic.
February 1, 2026 at 2:31 PM
Surely no one’s mouth is that big.
February 1, 2026 at 12:29 PM
Going on a very long walk to clear my head.

Let me know if you need anything from Muswell Hill, Friern Barnet, North Finchley, East Finchley, Hampstead, Gospel Oak, Archway, Crouch End or Hornsey, although bear in mind I’m only taking a small rucksack and it’s got three huge flasks of coffee in it.
February 1, 2026 at 11:58 AM
Feeling a bit nihilistic and have the urge to see how many random LinkedIn posts I can reply to with “Wise words, mate” before I’m pulled up on it in some way.
January 31, 2026 at 9:46 PM
Finally! The signed portrait of Brexit-supporting England goalkeeper Peter Shilton I’ve been hoping to stumble on for MONTHS. And it’s in our local charity shop. It’ll take pride of place next to my life-size cardboard cutout of Lord Botham.
January 31, 2026 at 4:36 PM
I read this interview with Mackenzie Crook yesterday and my mind keeps returning to this observation of his: “Everything seems to have been 20 years ago.”

So depressing. So true.
‘Watching The Office recently, my heart just sank’ – Mackenzie Crook on comedy, cruelty and being TV royalty
After a very hard landing into fame in the 00s, he decided to take a softer approach – and hit on a winning formula for classic comedy. The star talks about his fantastical new show Small Prophets, hi...
www.theguardian.com
January 31, 2026 at 3:23 PM
1/2

The thing about Epstein is that it seems that everyone who spent any time with him MUST have been aware of all the young women that surrounded and were associated with him.

The trouble is, though, there’s a superficial plausible deniability. “Oh, that’s just Jeffrey,” you can hear them saying.
January 31, 2026 at 10:25 AM
Cryptic crosswords demonstrate brilliantly how you can get through much of life by retaining not nothing but just the slimmest superficial memories of school.

Minute Cryptic - 31 January, 2026
"Plain, unsalted barnacle" (4)
🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣
🏆 0 hints – 1 under the community par (60,870 solvers so far).
Minute Cryptic
Solve a clue with a hidden meaning
www.minutecryptic.com
January 31, 2026 at 9:42 AM
Radio 4 newsreaders: for the next ten years or so, please refer to ‘Queen Camilla’ in the first instance rather than ‘the queen’; the latter is discombobulating, and I can’t be alone in taking a few moments to reset my brain, which is left thinking ‘hang on, the queen’s dead’. Wait till 2036, maybe.
January 30, 2026 at 6:31 PM
Oh no! And I’d been meaning to seek out and follow this quality account.
January 30, 2026 at 4:16 PM
The dangerous, rabble-rousing, right-wing gobshite, who dabbles in fringe politics that appeal to thugs because it's the only way he can stay relevant, is reported to have welcomed Robinson's support.
Labour accuses Reform candidate of ‘toxic politics’ after Tommy Robinson endorsement
Far-right activist tells 1.8m X followers to ‘Vote for Matt’, referring to Reform UK’s Gorton and Denton candidate Matthew Goodwin
www.theguardian.com
January 30, 2026 at 2:29 PM
Upsets a male in cinema nightmare (7)

#IfFilmReviewsWereCrosswordClues

(Haven’t seen it and don’t intend to, by the way, but I’m sure this is an accurate assessment.)
January 30, 2026 at 8:41 AM


Minute Cryptic - 30 January, 2026
"Fig 'n' ram!" (5,7)
🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣
🏆 0 hints – 6 under the community par (42,173 solvers so far).
www.minutecryptic.com?utm_source=s...
Minute Cryptic
Solve a clue with a hidden meaning
www.minutecryptic.com
January 30, 2026 at 8:34 AM
‘First crewed mission to the moon…’

Anyone else take half a second to process that Anna Foster on #r4today just now said ‘crewed’, not ‘crude’?
January 30, 2026 at 7:49 AM
Everyone's laying into guy - and, tbh, I can see why. What a twit.

Also, I know his style is 'high-energy scattergun list that's just separated by commas and without an "and" before the last item' but I'm enjoying reading 'and eggs' as though it IS a final item, rather than attached to 'eat steak'.
January 29, 2026 at 12:52 PM
Gorton and Denton in the tarmac in Muswell Hill. Probably a sign of some sort.

Unless it’s Australia. Or possibly Guinea.
January 29, 2026 at 10:55 AM
Aldi own-brand tampons. Hats off to their branding team: this is a clever product name.
January 29, 2026 at 10:47 AM
Everyone is sharing this but fuck me, I can see why - it's AMAZING.

Catchy upbeat major key; damning words.

If I lived in Minneapolis, I'd be weeping from the sense of heartfelt, angry solidarity that Springsteen is conveying. I mean, I'm genuinely crying a bit here in north London.
Bruce Springsteen - Streets Of Minneapolis (Official Audio)
YouTube video by Bruce Springsteen
www.youtube.com
January 28, 2026 at 8:36 PM
Another evening plodding on with tedious freelance work on my laptop in Wetherspoons, made more tolerable by a classical music mix.

I know this is quite a basic observation but how can we live in a world where something as beautiful as The Blue Danube can exist alongside something as ugly as Trump?
January 28, 2026 at 7:08 PM
Bowen therapy? No idea what this is but I bet it’s super, smashing, great.
January 28, 2026 at 4:59 PM
Reposted by Alistair King
Jewish descendent of holocaust victims and survivors here.

What he said was fine.

Neighbours hiding minority children from uniformed government thugs in service to a nativist agenda is bad enough.

I'm sure Anne would have preferred people spoke up BEFORE the Nazis got to the death camps stage.
January 28, 2026 at 12:06 PM
With China (including Hong Kong) our third biggest trading partner, the US our second, and all that he’s doing to grease the wheels of free trade, I can’t wait to hear Keir Starmer’s plans for improving things with whichever is our first. I bet there are some quick wins to be had. #wato
January 28, 2026 at 1:24 PM