Welcome 2026

 

As the regular readers of this page will know, we are devotees of that Bard of Prestwich, the late Mark E. Smith. Mark was the father of "the undilutable slang truth", which is a big part of our creed. I like to think that most who follow us have a general sense of undilutable slang truth. 

"There are six people in the world. The rest of you are paste." MES

For any who may be unclear on the concept, this quote from the mouth of Mark himself, is an excellent distillation of the undilutable slang truth.  It is at once undeniably true, yet utterly inconvenient to conventional wisdom; delivered in a snarling oblique criticism, unrepentant for it's honesty. As his words, so was the man. That is the ethic we strive for, otherwise we would not dare proclaim the undilutable slang truth on our banner.

Well, now that we have that out of the way, I suppose that I should at least mention that we have crossed the finish line of yet another year. Congratulations! If you're here, it means that you survived 2025. It's a new year and the beatings will continue until morale improves. Welcome 2026! What a fine hour to visit this gem of undilutable slang truth.

What was that thing they came up with? That whole "six degrees of separation" thing?  This posits that the world has presumably shrunk to a degree that every person on the planet is separated by no more than a succession of six common acquaintances. It does not mean that the earth has literally shrunk. Most have a common understanding of the idea this term is meant to convey.

So, when Mark said ,"there are only six people in the world", he of course did not mean that literally. Think of this expression as the inverse of the six degrees of separation; instead, a six stages of insulation.  These are the six individuals one can go to where there is a shared interest. Individuals with and in whom there is trust. Everything else that happens around this is only background noise. Everything else is strange, it's colorless, odorless, it's not your concern. It's just paste.

Not everyone has the same circle. Some may be larger than six, some are often smaller than six. For argument's sake we can say that six is the average. Plus, it maintains a nice symmetry with the whole "six degrees" thing. The changing of a year brings about a great deal of background noise. One becomes more acutely aware of the paste that surrounds us; thus, in contrast, one becomes more acutely aware of those six individuals who comprise their world.

I guess this is the part where I'm expected to offer a good word. Trying to stay positive. Add this to your voluminous collection of unsolicited advice left over from the holidays. In this new year, worry about the six people in your world. Or the four, the twelve, whatever your number. The rest of the world are paste pushers. They're gonna do what paste pushers do. No matter how many different ways they reshape or rename it, REMEMBER: it's still just paste.

Coming soon, here at Midnight and other beasts...

We will be featuring part two of the short story Bail. If you're catching up, part one was posted on 12 December.

Also, coming soon, we'll be doing something we have not done before on these pages. We'll be talking about a film, a film to be released later this year. Ok, we'll give you a clue. It's a sequel. I think. Prequel? Maybe? Anyway, stay tuned for that.

We will soon be entering our third year. There might be some kind of party. We'll see...