Category Archives: Blog Hops

Happy New Year’s Eve! Here is this week’s list of comic strips, poems, and other links from my favourite corners of the web.

All of today’s links are related to winter or the New Year in some way. Next week we will be back to the usual assortment of topics in Suggestion Saturday posts. This was a fun experiment.

Preparing for Winter. If you live in the northern hemisphere, are you ready for winter?

Birthday of the World. The first stanza of this poem was my favourite one. I’ll quote part of it here for you:

On the birthday of the world

I begin to contemplate

what I have done and left

undone

Happy Holidays! Here is this week’s gigantic list of comic strips, articles, recipes, and other links from my favourite corners of the web.

I have been slowly collecting all of these Christmas, Hanukkah, and other winter-holiday-themed links since last March, so there are more of them than usual. I hope you enjoy reading them as much as i enjoyed finding them for you.

Christmas Field Guide. The reindeer section was my favourite one.

The Christmas Armistice of 2014 via JamesTheo. While this post is a few years old now, the subject matter of it is as relevant as it was when it was first published.

It Needs to Be Said: Holidays Can Really Suck Sometimes. If this is a hard time of year for you, know that you’re in my thoughts.

‘Twas the Night Before Christmas via MBTTTR. I can’t stop laughing at this.

We Wish You a Merry Chrismukkah. How do you balance Christmas and Hanukkah in an interfaith household? It isn’t a question I’ve wrestled with personally, but I love this family’s creative approach to it.

Festive Eating. Hopefully none of you will be overindulging this holiday season, but this is a pretty funny take on the problem of having one stomach but wanting to eat more like two or three stomach’s worth of special holiday food.

Authentic Victorian Christmas Pudding via MimiMatthewsEsq. Would I eat this? I’m honestly not sure, but I’m glad to finally know what Christmas pudding is.

The Best Santa Letter Ever. No, this title isn’t an exaggeration. Your mileage may vary, but it was the best Santa letter I’ve ever read as well.

More Thoughts on Santa Letters. Read The Best Santa Letter Ever before you check out this link.

Jolly Secrets You Didn’t Know About Mexican Christmas via fabiolaofmexico. Some of these traditions sound like a ton of fun!

Festival of Reason via 18thCand19thC. What an interesting way to approach the holiday season. I suppose that Festivus is the modern equivalent of this!

Thomas Nast. Why am I sharing the biography of a man who died well over a century ago? Well, Thomas was responsible for the creation of one of the most iconic and recognizable parts of Christmas. If you haven’t already guessed what I’m talking about, click on the link to see what this cartoonist drew.

From How Can You Help a Grieving Friend During the Holidays?:

Grief is hard any time of year, but the holiday season can feel particulary brutal. If you’re trying to support someone you love, this comic is for you. And if you’d like some help educating friends and family on the best ways to support you, this comic is for you, too.

Dear Satan, the short film below, is narrated by Sir Patrick Stewart. It’s about what happened after a little girl accidentally sent her Christmas wish list to Satan instead of Santa. I can’t recommend it highly enough.

Here is this week’s list of comic strips, poems, blog posts, short stories, and other links from my favourite corners of the web.

“But I Was a Sheep Last Year….” The Plight of Every Curly-Headed Child During Nativity Season via joannesarginson. I’m saving most of the winter holiday posts I’ve found for next week, but I thought you’d all enjoy a few references a bit earlier in the month. This is an excellent place to start.

Christmas Chelsea Buns. This sounds like the perfect thing to bake on Christmas Eve and then eat Christmas morning while people unwrap presents.

Merriam-Webster’s 2017 Words of the Year.This was a funny look back at some of the most popular words of 2017.

Five Reasons Zombies Could Never Defeat the Military via mythcreants. Don’t worry. There’s nothing gory in this link. It’s actually about how easily modern militaries could end a zombiepocalypse before it really had a chance to begin. I found it fascinating since I’ve never seen a zombie show or movie acknowledge most of these points.

What if You Knew Alzheimer’s Was Coming for You? This was quite the thought-provoking article.

Hundred-Year-Old Directions on How to Mail Christmas Cookies. Wow, I had no idea this tradition was so old. I know one person who still mails them out, too. She’s quite a good baker.

Which Which? via ‪MichaelTMiyoshi‬. Tongue twists both amused and irritated me when I was a kid. I always wanted to be better at them than I was. Regardless of how you feel about them, this is an interesting take on how social media is changing the English language, homophones and all.

From Cookie Jar:

“Speak up, Dale. I’ve got all day, but you probably don’t.”

“Well…you remember before there was TV, right?”

Rhett smiled, even though he felt this was a question to which his great-grandson should already have known the answer. He restrained an urge to say, Don’t they teach you kids anything, because it would have been curmudgeonly and impolite

Here is this week’s list of comic strips, recipes, and other links from my favourite corners of the web.

Quiz. If sexual harassment and assault are ever going to end, this is how that will happen.

Secret Santa via via MonsterMermaids‬.  I hope that this won’t be your experience if you’re participating in a Secret Santa gift exchange this holiday season.

Christmas Mince Pies. Mince pies never sounded particularly appetizing to me, but this recipe is quickly changing my mind about that. Yum.

Winter Feast 01. This is so very true for this time of the year.

The Hunt for the Gluten-Free Fruit Cake via ‪andre1begin‬. Wow, I had no idea there was such a thing as gluten-free fruit cake. This was quite the entertaining read.

From This Is How To Use Mindfulness To Make Better Decisions:

Your brain makes thoughts. That’s what it does. And some of those thoughts will always be negative because your grey matter lives by the motto of “better safe than sorry.”

From  Will I Ever Listen? via ‪notquiteold‬:

I’m very good at doling out the advice.

And lots of people seem to appreciate it.

Apparently, I am not one of those people.

Here is this week’s list of comic strips, poems, short stories, recipes, and other links from my favourite corners of the web.

How to Make Sure You Don’t Gain 10 Pounds Over the Holidays. This made me grin.

Christmas Gingerbread. My mouth watered as I read this. Doesn’t it sound good? It’s dairy-free, too.

A South Floridian’s Guide to Moving North via ‪SickChristine‬. Now we need a similar post from someone who was used to cold, northern weather and then moved down south.

Children on the Mammoth Steppe. Take the time to look through this guy’s site in general. He specializes in paintings of paleolithic scenes, and they’re really beautiful. Children on the Mammoth Steppe is my favourite painting of his so far, though.

Uplifting Words: The Constructive Power of Words via RavenHeart81. This was good stuff.

The Green Knight’s Wife. I first found this story last August and saved it to share with you today. It’s the perfect way to begin the month of December.

From Spread Laughter This Holiday Season via bjknappwrites‬:

And that’s the thing that causes people stress this time of year—running out of time, and wanting to get the absolute perfect gift for everyone on their list that they lose their damn minds at Christmas shopping time.  And do you know who takes the heat for it?  The cashiers and staff in the stores.

People, your stress over the holidays is no reason to be nasty to people who are just trying to do their jobs.  It’s not the cashier’s fault if a store policy doesn’t go your way.

Happy Thanksgiving to my American followers. Since my Canadians followers were given a bizarre Thanksgiving photo last month, I decided to continue the tradition for you as well.

I hope that all of your pumpkins and other squash are cooked into delicious pies and that none of them make you feel somber unless that’s actually how you feel about the idea of eating pumpkin pie. Haha!

Here is this week’s extra-large list of links from my favourite corners of the web.

6 Reasons Why I Avoid Black Friday via ‪ShykiaBell‬. I couldn’t agree with this more. It’s so much better to stay home and enjoy your fridge full of delicious leftovers unless you there’s something you really need to go out and buy on Black Friday.

Mrs. Ellis’s Pumpkin Pie: a 19th Century Thanksgiving Recipe via MimiMatthewsEsq. Nobody will ever top my grandmother’s recipe for pumpkin pie, but this does sound amazing. Just like last month, this won’t be the only recipe I’m sharing for the second Thanksgiving edition of Suggestion Saturday. It has been so much fun finding a wide variety of them to share my readers.

Thanksgiving: A Time for Gratitude. This is exactly how I think of Thanksgiving as well.

8 Traditional Thanksgiving and Christmas Sides Made Vegan. There are people in my extended family who have diabetes, food allergies, food intolerances, and all kinds of other health issues that make planning a big meal that everyone can enjoy quite tricky at times. I am always in awe of how my sister-in-law manages to tweak her dishes so that everyone leaves her table with a full, happy stomach. (I really ought to tell her that the next time we’re with her for the holidays!)

Raising Turkeys for Market in the 1800s  via 18thCand19thC‬. Vegan readers, you may want to skip this post. For everyone else, I loved hearing about the free and happy lives turkeys lived in the 1800s before they were slaughtered. They were perfectly free to wander around in the woods or under their owner’s chestnut trees and eat anything that caught their eye. All animals should live these kinds of lives, I think.

Letters of Note: Unhappy Franksgiving. In 1938, President Roosevelt changed the date of when Thanksgiving would be celebrated from that year onward. Some people were so unhappy with him for doing this that they wrote letters of protest. This link includes six of them, and I thought were all funny and well written.

Thanksgiving, Special Needs Family Style. This was a very interesting peek into how a family who has a son with special needs prepares for and celebrates Thanksgiving.

Friday Favourites: Carribbean Thanksgiving via ‪naditomlinson‬. I’m drooling. Wow, this menu sounds delicious.

The Turkey Tryptophan Myth – Uncle George Keeps Repeating It. If you’re eating turkey this weekend, you may be happy to learn that it isn’t actually responsible for the grogginess many folks feel after a huge Thanksgiving dinner.

Angela’s Deep Dish Sweet Potato Pie via thekitchenista. This doesn’t seem to be a recipe that I could make dairy-free very easily, but it sure does sound good. I hope one of you who can have milk products makes it.

Here is this week’s list of blog posts, comic strips, short stories, and other links from my favourite corners of the web.

How the Horrific 1918 Flu Spread Across America. This is what our ancestors were dealing with nearly a century ago. I’ve read that this epidemic killed more people than World War I itself. It surprised me as a kid that, to the best of our knowledge, none of my ancestors lost any family members or good friends to it. Many people weren’t so lucky a hundred years ago.

Coping with Tinnitus or Hearing Loss Over the Holidays via tinnitustoolbox. Whether you’re personally dealing with hearing loss or care about someone who is, these tips are wonderful.

Five Star Trek Technologies Taken to their Natural Conclusion via mythcreants. It’s nice to be reminded about Star Trek episodes that I’d half-forgotten about, especially when their writers didn’t fully think through how certain inventions would actually change a society.

Coming Out for the Holidays. This is fabulous advice for the upcoming holiday season.

Winter Fashion – Expectation vs. Reality. With winter just around the corner, this is going to be very true soon.

Top 10 Ways to Prepare for a Canadian Winter via ‪andre1begin‬. There was a lot of good advice here.

From Untilted:

Firstly, my name is Marcus.

Grandma sumtimes calls me Marcy. Marcy is a girls name.

I should make her stop caling me by a girls name. But I cant. She washed my soiled diapers when I was litle. She didnt sleep nites. She personaly received me from the stork. She pulled me from the cabbage patch. She did loads of other stuff for me too.

Here is this week’s list of comic strips, poems, articles, and other links from my favourite corners of the web.

Harry Potter: How I Became a Fan 20 Years Later via ‪mandysantos‬. There’s something interesting about seeing how people react to pop culture events that they didn’t experience until years after the book, movie, etc. was released.

Amazing Fall Migrations. The last one was my favourite one.

10 Things to Consider Before Dating a Time Traveller via Blondewritemore‬. This made me grin.

My Chronic Pain Journey Before Surgery via ‪notebksglasses‬. I have a few friends who live with chronic pain. Blog posts like this one are helpful when it comes to understand what that sort of experience must be like without asking my friends a thousand questions about their health.

The Web Began Dying in 2014. Here’s How. Do you think there’s anything we can do to reverse this?

These Are the Things Restaurant Workers Wish You Knew. A lot of this is common sense, but it was still a good article.

From Democracy:

When you’re cold—November, the streets icy and everyone you pass

homeless, Goodwill coats and Hefty bags torn up to make ponchos—

someone is always at the pay phone, hunched over the receiver

Here is this week’s list of short stories, photo essays, recipes, and other links from my favourite corners of the web.

Ogres of East Africa. This seriously needs to be a full-length book. Wow.

In Photos: The Big Five at Masai Mara Kenya via ‪MagicalKenya‬. Lions, and leopards, and elephants, oh, my! I never grow tired of seeing large animals like this. How about you?

Compliments – Can You Take Them? via KarinSieger. There’s nothing trivial about this skill at all.

10 Myths and Facts About Depression via ‪HDuggalMD‬. I like the fact that this was written by psychiatrist. The rest of his blog posts are excellent as well.

Microwave S’Mores. Wow, I had no idea it was possible to make s’mores in a microwave. They look pretty close to campfire s’mores, too, other than their colour. The photo I found above might be a way to warm up marshmallows in doors while still giving them that crispy, brown shell. I might just have to try one of these the next time I take a break from my low-sugar diet.

What Boredom Does to You. As someone who loves to daydream, this is excellent news.

Boko Haram Strapped Suicide Bombs to Them. Somehow These Teenage Girls Survived. Read this one with caution if you’re at all sensitive about violence or the death of children. It talks about some pretty dark stuff, but it was a fantastic read.

From Seven:

By far the best age is seven, when the summer grass grows around splayed fingers and each winter breath forms little clouds that morph into animals and pirate ships. When your older cousins watch with barely masked envy as sparks fly from your fingertips and pigtails as you spin. You show off for the little kids, their eyes wide with awe and anticipation. Seven, when the barrier between worlds is so thin you can cup the last glow of sunset in your palm and hold it up to the white walls of your bedroom.

Happy Halloween! Here is this week’s gigantic list of comic strips, essays, videos, poems, bonus photos, and other links from my favourite corners of the web.

I’ve been slowly collecting them for months to ensure that everything you read here this week is somehow related to Halloween. It’s a challenge that I relish every once in a while for my Suggestion Saturday posts, and I couldn’t bear to leave any of them out.

Spooky Species. Keep an eye out for these little tricksters if you’re going to a party or taking the kids in your life out trick-or-treating this weekend.

A Victorian Halloween Party via MimiMatthewsEsq. Doesn’t this sound like a good time? I sure would have enjoyed it if I were alive back then.

The Cider That Comes from Beyond the Grave. If you enjoy alcohol and are anywhere close to New York, this sounds as though it would be a fun way to pass the time.

A Stroll Through Highgate Cemetery via ‪DrCarolCooper‬. If you have any interest in all in the art of beautiful, antique headstones, definitely check this link out. I thought it was an incredibly respectful and fascinating post.

We Found Love in a Spooky Place via AmberLeventry. Halloween doesn’t always have to be scary. Sometimes it’s downright sweet.

Annual Transformations via jdubqca. Ooh, this made me shudder.

Halloween and Martinstag. One of my German friends on Twitter recently informed me that Halloween is a very new holiday over there. He didn’t write this article, but I thought it was quite interesting to read about their traditions at this time of the year that have and haven’t been influenced by North American customs.

The Ghosts of Queen’s Park. Here are a few Toronto ghost stories for you. While I have no idea if any of this is rooted in  historical truths, I love the way communities come up with interesting stories about their pasts.

Halloween Candies: How to Choose the Merely Unhealthy Over the Absolutely Ruinous. 30% of the reason why I’m recommending this link to you is because the title made me grin.

From The Top 3 Japanese Ghosts via ‪matthewmeyerart‬:

As scary as Japan’s modern day horror movies are, they are the result of a long tradition of ghost story telling that goes back much further than the invention of films.

From An Honest to God Ghost Story via bjknappwrites‬:

I didn’t expect to actually see a ghost.  But the history and the stories were fascinating.  But then, as we stood in the base of the guard tower, I felt something brush my hair off my shoulder.

I really loved this history of Halloween and explanation for how and why it became such a commercialized holiday: