Weekend Reads v. 14.12.2024

Is hot cocoa medicinal? Asking for a friend.

Credit: Black Lollipop

I was on the coast of Florida for work this week and now I write to you from a very cold (and soon to be snowy) corner of the country where the Northeast glides into the Midwest. I suppose the weather whiplash of my week explains why I left the house for this trip lacking a hat and boots. I apparently lost the winter life skills I gained while living in New England!

What are you doing this weekend? Is it a busy one with lots of to-dos and maybe a holiday party? Or are you one of the lucky ones and have planned a long stretch of stretching out on the couch in front of holiday movies, armed hot cocoa all weekend. If that’s you, know I am pea green with envy.

This week sure was a doozy in terms of news. I suspect we could all use a nice distraction in the form of fun reads from around the web!

An explanation as to why some people succeed after failing while others fail, fail, and fail again.

Public intellectuals are disappearing.

This free online course about Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol looks quite good.

My dear friend Kathy gifted me a month subscription to Matt Taibbi’s Substack Racket News, and oh gosh is it a gem! I was howling while reading his piece “Justin Trudeau’s Painful Last Faceplant.”

“The troll war between Justin Trudeau and Donald Trump is on. Nearly a millennium ago, in the Summa Theologica, Saint Thomas Aquinas listed the coming to pass of this event as the sixth proof of God’s existence. We made it, humanity! Congratulations, and getcha popcorn ready. This is going to be hilarious. Unless you’re Trudeau:

Canada is a net-funny country that’s produced some of the world’s best comics, but Trudeau is uniquely toolless in a troll war. He’s a man who in a previous life surely had a name like Prince Microballs and in the present seems to think humor was outlawed with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. A key to winning any troll battle is forfeiting all pretensions to dignity, and he’s up against a man, Donald Trump, who used a picture of himself sitting next to Joe Biden’s wife to sell cologne using the tagline, “A fragrance your enemies can’t resist!” Trump is capable of anything, including firing an ICBM filled with cat shit at Parliament Hill. Meanwhile, Trudeau remains the person who posed for this picture:” (Source – and I encourage you to click through to see that glamour shot!)

Maybe winner of most-random find for this week: cute caps for the tire valves on your car. I told ya this was rando!

I had a dollhouse when I was younger, and I was so fascinated by all the miniature things you could buy for it. Sure, there were pieces furniture and pairs of tiny curtains, but somewhere out there people were also making tiny bowls and cups and boxes of brand name cereal. Nowadays I marvel over the very intricate details people put into a dollhouse. Like this magical dollhouse all dressed up for Christmas with a very British touch. Swoon!

Do you use reddit? I’m finding I turn to reddit more and more for instructions and reviews. (and ok sometimes gossip on the random influencers I follow). Here’s an example of how reddit can shine for you in the kitchen – a thread on how to make the perfect gooey brownies.

Some may be interested in the data provided via this article about employee morale in federal agencies. I, however, am fascinated by how many federal agencies exist that I’ve never heard of!

La Dolce Vita Orient Express would make for a remarkable trip. Sigh! These itineraries are giving me major wanderlust.

Really hoping I get a second wind in me this holiday season so I can try this recipe for peppermint bark.