shewhomust | Clearing my desk five things at a time

I did not recognise the name Alison Prince, but the Guardian's obituary suggests I should. She wrote, among other things, the scripts for Trumpton, and I enjoyed the description of how that came about. This turned out to be drawing heavily on an earlier 'making of' article (and all you need to know about Trumpton - indeed, all I know about Trumpton - is that it's about life in a small town from the point of view of its Fire Brigade):
...So I was dispatched to a bitterly cold converted church in the East End of London, where Trumpton's creator Gordon Murray was filming a test sequence using stop-motion animation. It dawned on me how quaint the remit was. You can't depict flames using stop-motion, nor can you do smoke and water. So I realised I would have to write 13 stories about a fire brigade that never went anywhere near a fire.

I love stories about how a piece of art is shaped by the constraints of its material - but what made Gordon Murray, working in stop motion animation, choose this particular subject?

Myfanwy Tristram spent a half term holiday in Barcelona, and then she published her sketch diary online. Warning: her website is very ad-heavy; also (though this may just relect the sizr of my screen / state of my eyesight) I did quite a lot of clicking through to larger image / struggling to find my place on the large image. I was really glad that I had read the taster of this and other travel diaries in Two Birds, her collaboration with Zara Slattery. But it was worth persevering to read the full diary, and it made Barcelona look like a great place to visit.

radiantfracture asked about newsletters. One that I not only subscribe to, but actually (mostly) read is Warren Ellis's Orbital Operations. In the latest, he is dipping a toe into poetry, specifically Alice Oswald's Nobody. I was very taken with one three-line fragment that he quotes - the rest of it, not so much, but this, yes:
There is a harbour where an old sea-god sometimes surfaces
two cliffs keep out the wind you need no anchor
the water in fascinated horror holds your boat

Why yes, thar's 'Nobody' as in Odysseus, that talkative, bald-headed seaman: the book is a collaboration with painter William Tillyer (there's just a glimpse of the paintings on his website.).

There was a takeaway pizza menu on the doormat, in among the election literature (only the LibDems so far, which I find odd). Previously unsuspected pizza options are the Northern Delight (cheese, tomato, layers of kebab, onions and jalapenos) and the London pizza (cheese, tomato, chips). Or perhaps it's just a spoof? Can they really be selling a Seefood Delight ((cheese, tomato, garlic, prawns, muscles & tuna)?