Well folks, we’ve done it. We’ve almost made it to the end of the year, and we’ve reached the last weekly roundup of 2023. Next week’s entry is a surprise, and I wouldn’t want to spoil that for you.
As a thank you for being here, I present to you: Ms. Patti LaBelle looking for her backup singers. If you have never seen this video, truly, it’s one of the best of all time. There are so many questions that need answering here, chief amongst them being: how did a White House production fail this badly?!1 My brother introduced it to me and now we just randomly send it to each other when we need a laugh. It is my Christmas/Festivus/mid-December festivities gift to you.
What I’m reading:
Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley. This is one of many ‘classics’ that I haven’t yet read. Remember, I’m inheriting my Dad’s leather bound books when he dies,2 which includes a collection of 20th century classics. So my logic was to wait until I had all of them in my possession before reading them. I never claimed to be a rational person.
Anyways, I’m teaching a course on Book Bans, Censorship and Disinformation at Salve Regina in the Spring (only for undergrads, sorry) and before assigning a bunch of books to students, I figured I should read them first you know?
I’m only 5 pages in at this point, so I can’t offer much commentary, but I think this will be a good fictional representation of our course work.
Great for: dystopian fiction fans
Bad for: haters of high falutin language
What I’m writing:
My novel! No fun progress pictures to share, though.
Great for: my novel
Bad for: the syllabi that I have yet to complete
What I’m listening to:
Like every other person on the planet, my Spotify wrapped came out earlier this month, so I’ve been listening to my top 100 songs on repeat. Because I don’t already do that enough, apparently.
I figured out a workaround3 if you want to share your Wrapped playlist: select all the songs in the Spotify generated one, copy, paste, and share. Viola!
As I revealed on Tuesday, I am a secret data nerd, so I am always eager to see which songs I had on repeat for an ungodly amount of time at year end. I do wish there were graphs, though, but beggars cannot be choosers.
Great for: pop fans, indie rock fans, people who like songs in different languages
Bad for: people with actual musical taste
Mug Moment of the week:
So much goodness in one photo. It includes not only the literal incarnation of my true Beverage Goblin nature,4 but also an atmospheric candle from The Paris Market in Savannah, Georgia, and room spray from Smudged.5
Obviously the key player here is the mug. This is a Paris Christmas themed mug from Anthropologie. I was buying a present for my parents from Anthropologie on Black Friday, and I needed something to hit the free shipping minimum, so I *had* to get this mug. It is purple and includes the majority of the most famous Parisian landmarks. Inside it says ‘Joyeuses Fêtes Depuis Paris, ” which appears to be a rather literal translation of Happy Holidays from Paris, but what do I know.6
I wish you and yours a very Joyeuses Fêtes, wherever you are. I’ll be here next week because not only do I have no life, but also I am a stickler for routines. Plus I’ve got some cool graphs to share with you as I look back on my reading for 2023. And I wouldn’t want to leave you bereft of graphs!!!
That’s a rhetorical question, I guess.
Which isn’t any time soon, but this has been decided and foretold.
And by figured out I mean: I used the power of the Internet.
IYKYK
None of these things are ads, just things I like.
I have never been the best at French grammar. But given the absolute grammatical massacre of French that I have seen on other US clothing and accessories, I wouldn’t be surprised if someone just Google Translated Happy Holidays.