An Impromptu List for a Much-Needed Reading Retreat
How are y’all doing out there in the big wide world? I hope you’re not still slamming ibuprofren after digging out from Winter Storm Gail. If—like me—you were wondering about the whole winter storm-naming thing, Wikipedia says it has happened intermittently in the U.S. since the 1700s, but really kicked in with the Weather Channel in the 2010s. This Mental Floss piece explores, Why Is It Controversial to Name Winter Storms? Webcams showed that, in solidarity, Hawaii Island had at least a dusting of snow on Mauna Kea last night. Meanwhile, we had four inches of rain in Lower Puna. Well, Read more…
This Christmas, Don’t Buy Your Books at Amazon
I’d intended to share this soapbox on Black Friday, but we spent the Thanksgiving holiday eating cans of soup and ramen, not Tofurkey and trimmings and leftovers, as we completely rearranged our house. It’s a small house, but there are a lot of books! And bookcases. We moved Every. Piece. Of. Furniture. And reversed our offices. Not only were my floor-scrubbing hands cramped into contorted claws incapable of holding a mouse, I didn’t have a place to plug in my computer. I’m happy to say I do now, though many less crucial items are still floating in search of a home. Read more…
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