What an amazing life! I’m really pleased to have learned a little bit about this rather magical person thanks to a kind of random post about a book cover blurb. The wonders of BlueSky.

That’s just bananaskates. At a Long Covid clinic! 🤯😤

Haha that’s excellent!

Makes me want to reread the whole oeuvre now. Or at least the Smiley-related books.

Yeah I like Smiley being a greater or lesser presence in different books. So many authors have one compelling character, and then they just ride that character as far as they can. Having someone as intriguing as Smiley float in and out of focus makes the whole thing more interesting.

This is fabulous! Just a taster of all the stories I bet. (Wait, what, bricked up in a spiral staircase in a castle for 22 days?) BBC plummy for sure, but I hear the storytelling flair of the Welsh and the scouser underneath that.

/6 Public health could become an organizing force for a restructuring of American life, a better definition of prosperity and success, for actual health. Gregg Gonsalves has been a serious public health leader for decades, and I’m going to see how I can support this movement.

5/ hypertension, diabetes, depression, anxiety, increased susceptibility to infection, on & on. We are isolated from friends & family because we have no free time to do anything but recover from work.

4/ Almost 1/2 of renters pay >30% of their income in rent. Buying a house? Ha! And even the young, healthy, educated, socioeconomically privileged are buried under unending work as millionaire executives strip workforces to the to max “shareholder value.” Stress causes illness. Heart disease,

/3 and vegetables, adequate rest and vacation time, medical and family leave. But then the constant grinding stress of trying to hold it all together, when one serious illness or injury can throw a family into bankruptcy, one traffic ticket can result in jail for people who can’t afford to pay fines

/2 Expanding on the idea that American life—specifically the profit motive run rampant — is bad for health: this shouldn’t surprise anyone. Stark inequities in access to quality medical care, of course. But also unequal access to green spaces, socially-bonding recreation opportunities, fresh fruit

Gregg, this is powerful stuff. Thank you.

How amazing, and yeah, I’m sure you would have wanted to hear those stories in person!

Oh, I didn’t take it as demeaning, I just wanted to boost the great Smiley and the commenter’s grandad! (Anti-fascist mandolin player gets all the benefit of the doubt always 😁)

Dude that’s so cool! Your grandad was Rupert Davies? Also Maigret in the BBC adaptation? (Also, Welsh in the family at all?)

Yeah but still! Smiley is an epic character in spy literature. If my granddad had played Smiley in anything, but especially a Richard Burton film, I’d be stoked!

Popcorn at the ready!

I know, I can’t drink anymore either and my meds are giving me mild (or moderate) anhedonia. But this election night is giving me a bit of a buzz.