Year: 2020
Children’s Games, the Feline Version
24 Festive Tasks: Door 11 – International Children’s Day, Task 2: Get out and play any children’s game: hopscotch, jump rope, tag, yo yo – anything. Children’s games, in my home, are strictly the cats’ games, of course — and one they like in particular, and which we’re practically playing every day, is hunting after […]
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When Charlie Tried to Rearrange My Office Shelves …
24 Festive Tasks: Door 13 – International Day for Tolerance, Task 1: If you have kids or pets, tell us about something “bad” they did that was so funny you couldn’t help but forgive (“pardon”) them. If you have neither kids nor pets, was there such an event in your own childhood – or with […]
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Posthumous Nobel Prize in Chemistry for Sherlock Holmes
24 Festive Tasks: Door 7 – International Human Rights Day, Task 1: Nominate a (fictional) character from one of the books you read this year for a Nobel Prize – regardless which one – or for a similarly important prize (e.g., the Fields Medal for mathematics) and write a brief laudation explaining your nomination. […]
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Terry Pratchett: Hogfather (Annual Holiday Read)
24 Festive Tasks: Door 24 – Hogswatch, Book: Read any Terry Pratchett book or a book with a pig on the cover. So, I listened to Hogfather today … and that’s my Festive Task reads done and dusted! (I may do another couple of non-book tasks tomorrow, though.) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Other Hogfather-related Posts: 16 […]
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St. Martin’s Day Procession: Germany’s November Bonfire Tradition
24 Festive Tasks: Door 2 – Guy Fawkes Night, Bonus Task #1: Post pictures of past or present bonfires, fireworks (IF THEY’RE LEGAL) or sparklers. As a kid, one of my favorite holiday traditions used to be the St. Martin’s Day processions: The holiday celebrates St. Martin of Tours (France), a 4th century Roman military […]
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Book Editions and Licensing: A Matter of Regional Profit Centers
24 Festive Tasks: Door 2 – Guy Fawkes Night, Task 1: Start a (publishing) revolution! What would you change / reform / get rid of in the book world? One thing that is increasingly getting on my nerves are regionally restricted licenses, particularly when it comes to audiobooks (and movie / DVD formats). Surely in […]
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An Untraditional Christmas Tradition: A Nighttime Stroll Through My Neighborhood
24 Festive Tasks: Door 21 – Christmas, Bonus Task #1: Christine PNW’s untraditional family tradition for Christmas dinner is to gather around the fondue pot with her husband and children after spending the entire day in her pajamas and watching movies, playing video games or reading. Do you have any “untraditional” traditions for the day? […]
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Treasured Christmas Decorations
24 Festive Tasks: Door 21 – Christmas, Task 1: Post a picture of a holiday decoration that is unique to your Christmas celebration and tell us about it. My mom and I have two sets of Christmas decorations with a special meaning: My set of Mexican and Native American (-styled) decorations, which I brought from […]
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Festivus Scale of Strength: Weighty Books
24 Festive Tasks: Door 20 – Festivus, Task 2: The Scale of Strength: Pick 3 of your weightiest tomes and place them on a scale. Tell us the total weight. I used Shakespeare’s Complete Works, my copy of the illustrated guide to Houses of the National Trust, and Eye to Eye, a collection of […]
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Women’s Carnival: Sacrificial Neckties
24 Festive Tasks: Door 10 – First Day of Carnival, Bonus Task #2: Any man unwise enough to be found wearing a necktie during Women’s Carnival will have his tie cut off, as a symbolic curtailment of male rule. Obviously, men who don’t want to play along don’t wear a tie on that day in […]
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A Retro Playlist for a First Day of Carnival Party: 1970s-80s Disco & Dance Music
24 Festive Tasks: Door 10 – First Day of Carnival, Task 2: Burn a few calories from the meal above [in Task 1: your First Day of Carnival meal] and have a dance party. Tell us what songs / artists get your toes taping. Let’s build a playlist! Let’s go full on retro and make […]
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Staying Zen in Stressful Times
24 Festive Tasks: Door 12 – World Philosophy Day, Task 2: How do you stay zen / sane over the holidays or in other stressful periods? And / Or: How did you manage to stay (more or less) zen throughout 2020 … if you did? This, too (like my favorite rainy day reads can easily […]
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Favorite Rainy Day Reads
24 Festive Tasks: Door 5 – Bon Om Touk, Bonus Task: List / tell us about your favorite rainy day reads. I suppose it only takes one look at my list of read books this year to determine my favorite rainy day books, as 2020 was essentially one extended rainy day: Golden Age mysteries and […]
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COVID-Year Everyday Saints
24 Festive Tasks: Door 8 – St. Lucia’s Day, Bonus Task: Post a picture from your most recent or favorite vacation on the sea (or a lake, river, or any other body of water larger than a puddle), or if you’re living on the sea or on a lake or a river, post a picture […]
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Corsica
24 Festive Tasks: Door 5 – Bon Om Touk, Task 2: Post a picture from your most recent or favorite vacation on the sea (or a lake, river, or any other body of water larger than a puddle), or if you’re living on the sea or on a lake or a river, post a picture […]
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Christmas Tea, a Book, and a Candle
24 Festive Tasks: Door 2 – Guy Fawkes Night, Bonus Task #2: Host a traditional English tea party, or make yourself a nice cup of tea and settle down with a good book to read. A mug of Christmas Tea with a Yuletide candle and this year’s final (recently republished) Golden Age mystery, Brian Flynn’s […]
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2020 Gävle Goat Guess
24 Festive Tasks: Door 8 – St. Lucia’s Day, Task 2: Guess (and strictly no googling!): Is the Gävle goat (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%A4vle_goat) going to survive until after Christmas this year? December 26, 2020: I’ve admittedly been pushing this task until the very last moment (for purposes of this game, today counts as part of “Christmas”, as […]
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My Reviewing and Rating Philosophy / Use of (Half-)Star Ratings
24 Festive Tasks: Door 12 – World Philosophy Day, Task 1 & Bonus Task: Task 1: What is your reviewing / rating policy? Do you accept book review requests? Bonus Task: Half star ratings or not? Tell us what you think and whether you use them. My rating philosophy is set out HERE — tl;dr […]
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Susanna Gregory: A Killer in Winter
24 Festive Tasks: Door 3 – Saturnalia, Book: The god Saturn has a planet named after him: Read any work of science fiction that takes place in space, or a nonfiction science / popular science book. Or read a book revolving around a large party, ball, or festival, or a story where roles are reversed, […]
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Santa in Literature: Theodor Storm’s “Knecht Ruprecht” and DEATH as Department Store Santa in Terry Pratchett’s “Hogfather”
24 Festive Tasks: Door 6 – St. Nicholas’ Day / Sinterklaas, Task 2: Share with us a paragraph / quote / description / image of your favorite Santa Claus / St. Nick depiction in popular culture, and then tell us why it resonates with you?” E.g., here is the description of Father Christmas from The […]
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