Dymvue
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dymvue.bsky.social
Dymvue
@dymvue.bsky.social
Retired librarian. Wrote 3 books (see pinned post). Now carer for OH with dementia. Likes music, books, cats, choirs & silent films.
Pinned
From Doodlebugs to Devon: one woman's letters & curious wartime tales
www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0C8Y4RMHV/
The secret diary of a 1970s secretary: romance in a BBC lift
www.amazon.co.uk/Secret-Diary...
Short skirts and shorthand: what being a secretary was really like.
www.amazon.co.uk/Short-Skirts...
From Doodlebugs to Devon: Amazon.co.uk: Shaw, Sarah O: 9798223341840: Books
Buy From Doodlebugs to Devon by Shaw, Sarah O (ISBN: 9798223341840) from Amazon's Book Store. Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders.
www.amazon.co.uk
Reposted by Dymvue
These new recruits to ICE revelling in senseless, anonymised violence: is there much sense of the jobs they were doing before?
January 25, 2026 at 7:20 AM
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It was never about immigration. Pam Bondi wants Minnesota’s voter roles. Trying to rig the elections. All is to scare us, and now all the US murders are collateral. SHAME
January 25, 2026 at 5:24 AM
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The task for political leadership now is not just to tell the truth, but to make people care about what is true and what is not.
January 24, 2026 at 11:28 PM
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"I think Xi Jinping, when he looks at the world around him, sees a place beset by threat, especially from the West."

James Kynge on the worldview guiding China's foreign policy.

Watch in full➡️ https://bit.ly/4qwKdJ7
January 25, 2026 at 7:30 AM
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Am reading this … already noting that Marshall Plan not entirely benign as it also meant a big culture change towards US at least in Uk. Hence jeans, Cola, The Lone Ranger, the (white) Hit Parade and Chewing gum.
As we return to a pre-WW2 order, the middle powers face a challenge
With economic stagnation and extremes of inequality comes corrosion of trust in democratic institutions. So Trump may be a symptom, not a cause, of what Carney called a
www.bbc.co.uk
January 25, 2026 at 6:48 AM
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J: F Tennyson Jesse; A Pin to See the Peepshow
Excellent neglected feminist novel from the 1930s--'Therese Raquin'-meets-the-Thompson/Bywaters case. Perceptive, subtle and surprising in the small details, if not the grim arc of the plot.
January 23, 2026 at 7:36 AM
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Rembrandt as a Shepherd with Staff and Flute: portrait painted in 1636 by one of Rembrandt’s accomplished pupils, Govaert Flinck, Dutch artist, born #OTD 1615.
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
January 25, 2026 at 6:05 AM
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Good morning, BlueSky.

#Caturday
January 24, 2026 at 2:33 PM
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“What is the meaning of life? That was all - a simple question...”
To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf, English writer, born #OTD 1882; Woolf’s most autobiographical novel, with dust jacket designed by her sister Vanessa Bell, published 1927.
British Library, London
January 25, 2026 at 6:12 AM
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Mum was cross when I came round this evening.

'Why did no one tell me I have dementia?'

Me after a pause, 'We did', and luckily she saw the funny side.
January 24, 2026 at 6:39 PM
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

My Dad, a journalist, told me he met the Marx Brothers in the 1930s but I doubt he will be mentioned in this programme! I had better not repeat what he thought of them, it was probably a clash of cultures!
The Marx Brothers in Britain - BBC Sounds
Glenn Mitchell profiles the visits to Britain of legendary comedy team The Marx Brothers.
www.bbc.co.uk
January 24, 2026 at 6:40 PM
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Closest anyone will ever get to an apology from The Orange ManBoy - now he should say something similar to the other 31 countries whose military he insulted
January 24, 2026 at 5:47 PM
Smiley's People
Seminal spy drama series from 1982.
www.bbc.co.uk
January 24, 2026 at 6:33 PM
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"Do you know what's killing Western Democracy, George? Greed... and constipation... moral, political, aesthetic. I hate America very deeply. The economic repression of the masses, institutionalised. Even Lenin couldn't foresee the extent of that." - Bill Hayden, "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy"
January 23, 2026 at 6:55 PM
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The Smiley trilogy, which ends in a mostly unambiguous victory for the titular hero.
The BBC series of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier Spy and Smiley's People, starring Alec Guinness, are particularly good, though the more recent TTSS film starring Gary Oldman is darn good too.
January 23, 2026 at 10:22 PM
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If Governor Walz orders the National Guard out to protect his citizens from Gestapo goons, what that sets in motion is functionally indistinguishable from civil war.

So the real question is whether that's an improvement on the status quo. I'm...damnit. It may be at this point? If not now, when?
January 24, 2026 at 6:25 PM
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For the six or seven people from #York on here, I'm playing a lunchtime concert Friday Feb 6th as part of Esk, 12:30 at the Unitarian Chapel. It's a fundraisier for the York Energy Advice free service for vulnerable York residents. All the details at yorkcommunityenergy.org.uk/event/luncht...
Lunchtime Concert & Energy Cafe – York Community Energy
yorkcommunityenergy.org.uk
January 24, 2026 at 6:27 PM
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Starmer/Trump call
January 24, 2026 at 5:54 PM
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Fuck’s sake, not again! That’s Central and West Devon and the whole of Cornwall cut off by rail. While everyone burbles on about the King In The North, there’s an entire ignored region in the South West at the mercy of our shitty infrastructure.
January 24, 2026 at 2:31 PM
We have resorted to indoor ninepins using empty cans, a small thermos, an old Horlicks bottle, 2 spice jars and a bog roll tube. And an old tennis ball.
Have to say it was an exhilarating competition and OH has fallen asleep on the sofa comforted by his victory.
In other words, #rain.
January 24, 2026 at 4:00 PM
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I'm back with a car full to the brim of:

89,000 plates
6 million glasses
Trifle bowls from the 70's: big, small, hideous.
More bedsheets
Doiles
Saucepans, mainly pre 2000
Casserole dishes, lots
Vases, heavy vases.
A stupid amount of ceramic and glass jugs.
a minivan is parked in front of a house with a sign that says trendizisst on it
ALT: a minivan is parked in front of a house with a sign that says trendizisst on it
media.tenor.com
January 24, 2026 at 12:55 PM
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My dad, annoyed that all his pants keep coming out the washing machine inside out, has messaged me to say he's marked all his pants and is keeping a record of whether they go in and come out inside out. He now has a spreadsheet of 3 months of data to analyse. Gotta have a hobby, I guess.
January 24, 2026 at 11:43 AM
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In any other country, what is happening right now in Minneapolis would be called ethnic cleansing.
January 24, 2026 at 2:31 PM
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Councils have been unable to afford to meet statutory obligations for years. As NHS and LA budgets get squeezed both entrench and the most cost effective ways of working are abandoned. It is scandalous.
January 24, 2026 at 12:40 PM
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What would it take for someone senior in the Democratic Party to commit to investigating these crimes the moment they’re in office
January 24, 2026 at 3:54 PM