"...maybe Trump, a historically unpopular candidate who just happens to have the good luck to be running against a man currently incapable of sentience, has simply acquired every single vote he can possibly get from the American electorate..."

"There are several entirely useful applications for IQ tests... but fetishising their results only really provides comfort to the type of person who wishes to make themselves feel superior by genetic fiat."

The appeal of Swift’s music seems much less puzzling to me than that of many others

"It seems clear to me that these authors each made a small stand at their own cost in the face of financial conglomerates seeking to wreath immoral wealth with the fig leaf of cultural philanthropy."

"The celebration we’re enjoying this weekend has only really existed in the UK and Ireland since 1972, when my dad was already an adult and — quite conveniently for him — about to become a father himself."

"Part of the show’s genius is in creating such compelling drama from protagonists who could read as stock in less nimble hands."

"...there have been enough distinct massacres that they now bear shorthand names to be more easily distinguished from each other; the flour massacre, the Jabalia massacre, the Al-Shifa massacre, to name but three..."

"I pay for my daughter’s childcare via a website that requires five-factor verification. Five. First, I input my username and password, then I get a text which gives me a code to enter so I can reach a set of three mystery questions which, once answered, will finally allow the payment to be made."

"It’s a coward’s bluff to say I shouldn’t care about recycling just because Taylor Swift takes a private plane from her bedroom to her kitchen if she wants a glass of water every night"

'Getting nostalgic for the Troubles is merely an absurdist stretching of that point, and a salutary lesson in the complacency of rose-tinted history'