My listening through the embers of the year is the new 12-part BBC audio adaptation of Susan Cooper’s THE DARK IS RISING, with a new episode each day. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/w13xtvp7

[it must be time for @neilhimself’s annual reminder that you can listen to BBC Radio anywhere in the world]

A world without Tolkien would be very grey. In my episode of Talking Shop, from MasterClass Original Series, I talk about my love for Tolkien, and what I learned from him about creative writing, facing the impossible and creating fantasy worlds.

https://www.masterclass.com/series/talking-shop?utm_source=instructor&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=pp_%7C_inso_-_ng2_%7C_all

There were three men came out of the West
Three kings both great and high
And they have sworn a solemn oath
John Mastodon must die.

They took a tank and ran him down
With bullets in his head
And they have sworn a solemn oath
John Mastodon was dead

But when the Spring came kindly on
And showers began to fall
John Mastodon got up again
And did surprise them all...

Oh my.

@Mediaite conservative writer Isaac Schorr misread the Twitter account @joinmastodon as "John Mastodon," and said that the open source social media software was named after this imaginary person. https://www.mediaite.com/opinion/hypocrisy-and-fear-all-the-way-down-at-twitter/