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We visited #ArundelCastle today (highly recommended and run by a trust, which may matter to you if you're concerned about giving money to the aristocracy) and Mrs B decided to play Sharon from Bootle all day. Much fun was had when one of the castle guides turned out to be from Liverpool herself.

… (c) leaving the garden centre sticker on the pot of narcissi that they had supposedly grown themselves.

This is a familiar scenario. Mrs B judges the children’s classes in our village horticultural society’s shows and has had to disqualify disconsolate children (or their parents) for (a) using felt pens in a painting competition, (b) entering a plant pot in the Flowers in a Vase class and …

Thank you! 24 GB, so should be more than adequate ... Yes, images are embedded, but not much more than 100 of them. I'm perhaps being a little unkind in saying that it can't handle a file the size of a book - it's workable; I just have to get used to it taking 4-5 seconds to change pages.

The route that’s usually recommended of using Markzware to convert .pub files to InDesign format was woefully disappointing, with Markzware ignoring drop caps and misinterpreting kerning - odd.

Yes! It’s incredibly strongly featured (especially as it’s free) and it’s (surprisingly) more accurate than InDesign at recreating editable files from pdfs. It can’t really handle a 240-page book (it slows to a crawl) but otherwise it’s more than a substitute for Publisher.

I can't tell you how excited I am to be setting up an old laptop with a copy of Office 2021 so that I can continue to access 10 years of work and hundreds of files when @microsoft.com decides to kill MSPublisher for Office 365 users later this year!

Thanks to the generosity of my sponsors, I can offer one free place on the class to anyone who would otherwise be unable to afford it, especially if you are from a part of society that's under-represented in crosswords. Apply here and expect decision in August: boatmancryptics.co.uk/crossword-ma...

Places on my autumn online masterclass for aspiring setters and advanced solvers are starting to fill up, so this is a good time to make sure of your place ... Release your inner fiendishness over two afternoons on Saturday 7 and 14 November: boatmancryptics.co.uk/crossword-ma...

Very sad to read, but a lovely obituary

No turning back now … Oh, and it was 39 for me.

At the same time, both a correct statement and an incorrect answer! JAM today.

What Radio 4 flippancy are we indulging in tonight?

Ha ha ha …

Now I want to start a punk string section called Beathoven’s Filth. Or possibly a soul vocal quartet, The Four Jacks.

Ha ha ha …

Getting ready for our set at the Love Supreme Festival …

… at the end of which are subordinate claws?

I now have a mental image of a polar bear with 11 feet. I did not ask for this.

I'm so proud of Yassin. He made Bristol and Britain his home. He has contributed so much as a Green Party Cllr to his city and to the community in Lawrence Hill. Solidarity in the face of this Reform fuelled racist hate. Hope always wins!