Robert Hanks
@roberthanks.bsky.social
The man who never was but sometimes looked as though he might be. Cultural commentator for hire. Will work for food.
PS Breaking Away was for a long time my father's favourite film. Also, had you considered this as an alternative?
October 19, 2025 at 8:18 PM
PS Breaking Away was for a long time my father's favourite film. Also, had you considered this as an alternative?
@nytpitchbot.bsky.social From the NYT Opinion Today newsletter:
October 7, 2025 at 1:04 PM
@nytpitchbot.bsky.social From the NYT Opinion Today newsletter:
Subject of one of the great tabloid headlines.
October 7, 2025 at 12:24 PM
Subject of one of the great tabloid headlines.
Find someone who looks at you the way Romy Schneider looks at Orson Welles.
September 29, 2025 at 7:15 PM
Find someone who looks at you the way Romy Schneider looks at Orson Welles.
Obit in Independent contains this (he'd left Cambridge for Johns Hopkins, immediately suffered depression, asked for his old job back):
September 1, 2025 at 1:33 PM
Obit in Independent contains this (he'd left Cambridge for Johns Hopkins, immediately suffered depression, asked for his old job back):
Hope you're fluttering your virtual eyelashes too. OED online
August 24, 2025 at 3:45 PM
Hope you're fluttering your virtual eyelashes too. OED online
My three-year-old granddaughter channelling Groucho.
June 30, 2025 at 6:05 PM
My three-year-old granddaughter channelling Groucho.
Puzzled that the BBC website feels the need to explain away the lacklustre attendance at Trump's military parade. (As so often at the BBC, the headlines let down the specialist reporters, who say nothing of the sort.)
June 15, 2025 at 12:07 PM
Puzzled that the BBC website feels the need to explain away the lacklustre attendance at Trump's military parade. (As so often at the BBC, the headlines let down the specialist reporters, who say nothing of the sort.)
Viz maintains its high standards.
May 16, 2025 at 2:10 PM
Viz maintains its high standards.
Nobody could look as much like a Reform UK candidate as the Reform UK candidate for mayor of the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority does. Surely an AI construct.
April 27, 2025 at 9:02 AM
Nobody could look as much like a Reform UK candidate as the Reform UK candidate for mayor of the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority does. Surely an AI construct.
I went and found Zadie Smith's review in @nybooks.com. That last para, in particular, feels horribly relevant ("The Dream of the Raised Arm" would be a great title for a history of the last ten years).
April 9, 2025 at 1:33 PM
I went and found Zadie Smith's review in @nybooks.com. That last para, in particular, feels horribly relevant ("The Dream of the Raised Arm" would be a great title for a history of the last ten years).
Do you think this guy got to the end of the story?
April 7, 2025 at 5:48 PM
Do you think this guy got to the end of the story?
18th May 1981, says BBC Genome.
March 22, 2025 at 11:39 AM
18th May 1981, says BBC Genome.
It's a toss-up between
March 13, 2025 at 7:08 PM
It's a toss-up between
Currently reading: Puffin, 1976 (orig. published 1964). I read this and its sequel, The Marsh King (1967), approaching 50 years ago. On reacquaintance, it’s … OK. I always like Hodges’ illustrations, but his prose hasn’t got the life of Sutcliff or Treece (or Trease).
February 25, 2025 at 7:34 PM
Currently reading: Puffin, 1976 (orig. published 1964). I read this and its sequel, The Marsh King (1967), approaching 50 years ago. On reacquaintance, it’s … OK. I always like Hodges’ illustrations, but his prose hasn’t got the life of Sutcliff or Treece (or Trease).
The most hilarious/depressing part of the article.
February 23, 2025 at 10:15 AM
The most hilarious/depressing part of the article.
I like Guillermo del Toro's Hellboy, but I'm not convinced that a guy mainly known for that film and a version of Alien vs Predator that never got made is in a position to condescend to The Simpsons. I'm not even sure Robert Bolt was in a position to do that.
February 12, 2025 at 2:45 PM
I like Guillermo del Toro's Hellboy, but I'm not convinced that a guy mainly known for that film and a version of Alien vs Predator that never got made is in a position to condescend to The Simpsons. I'm not even sure Robert Bolt was in a position to do that.
George Sand, in Indiana, on the banality of evil.
February 5, 2025 at 2:24 PM
George Sand, in Indiana, on the banality of evil.