Links of the week June 27 2022 (26)

A perfect example of this Glaswegian-as-central-character occurred during a recent photo shoot. There was Denise posed for the camera on Sauchiehall Street-a pedestrianized street in Glasgow's city center-wearing a magnificent green feathered stole as two young men photobombed the shot directly behind her. The result was in turn photographed and tweeted. Denise was delighted right down to the ground. "That's such a great picture!" she said. So great, in fact, she tracked down the photographer, "The guy printed a copy, and I met him in the street and bought it. He's a student, but what a fantastic photograph, his focus was so great. And he said, it was the first print he's ever sold. But those wee guys [who photobombed the pic], I mean, honestly, and they're perfectly aligned. They're like backup singers!"

Another said:

"Isn't the sixth century, like, the darkest corner of the Dark Ages?"

"Yes," I said, "but it's only dark to us. It wasn't dark to the people actually living there."

An archaeologist friend was equally flummoxed.

"Why would you do that to yourself?" he said. "There are no written records of life in Britain in the sixth century. Londinium was unoccupied, abandoned, crumbling. How do you even begin to make it come to life?"