'Prove the rule' actually comes from the idea that a king or queen had the legal right to punish criminal offenders -- thus coming down hard on 'exceptions' to the law was proving the power of their rulership. Either that or it's an obscure ELO lyric that became a proto-meme on Laugh-In.

#920; In which an Exception is made

  — March 12th, 2013

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A good thread on Terrible Dickens Sequels

December 25, 2025 by David Malki !

Over on Bluesky, Ryan Estrada has done a deep dive on the 22 (!) Christmas stories that Dickens wrote in the aftermath of the success of A Christmas Carol.

An old thread is making the rounds again, so here's an updated version. Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol is one of the most enduring and adapted works of literature in history. But did you know that he wrote 22 sequels? Some are great! Some are trash! Some are bizarrely fascinating.

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— Ryan Estrada (@ryanestrada.com) December 24, 2025 at 6:24 PM


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