Morning Coffee (11/26/14)

The Thanksgiving Recipes Googled in Every State

Cheddar ice cream for apple pie?!?!

Russia is considering a reindeer police force, about which I really just want an adorable movie.

Awesome: Martha Stewart Launches Line of 3D-Printable Home Products

Follow That Bird is my favorite.

The Rice portrait and the great Jane Austen debate

I have always wanted to see Queen Mary's Dolls' House.

23 maps and charts on language

Morning Coffee (11/25/14)

Like everyone else, I've been glued to the news watching events in Ferguson; my thoughts are with Michael Brown's family and all affected. If you want to catch up on overnight developments, here are liveblogs from the Guardian and Vox.

Also from Vox: How to Survive Your Family's Thanksgiving Arguments

I haven't had a chance to read this yet, but I bookmarked it for when I have a moment over the weekend and you might want to as well: A Rape on Campus: A Brutal Assault and Struggle for Justice at UVA

I lost track of whether anything came of this last night, with everything else going on, but someone hacked Sony.

Check this out, The Good Wife fans: LetMeChumHumThatForYou.com

Netflix's Marco Polo series looks epic and lots of fun.

Is Your Governess Really a Spy?

Reasons Why I Would Make An Excellent Druidess And You Should Consider Me For The Position

Morning Coffee (11/24/14)

Programming note: Posts may be erratic for . . . the rest of the year, really. I'm traveling a lot, and taking random days off to do things like bake a ridiculous number of cookies, and my schedule is generally out of whack. I'll try to keep getting link posts up MOST days, but it may not be every day, and sometimes it might be later in the day than usual. Thanks for understanding!

Me elsewhere: TV news; Haven recap.

This is my new favorite thing: TV’s geek girls need to rise above being tech support

Sad: The Duchess of Alba has died.

Sigh: ESPN Suspends Keith Law From Twitter For Defending Evolution (Okay, they now say it wasn't because of his opinions [on scientific fact] so was it . . . disagreeing with a coworker?)

Your Monday would probably be helped by the Disneyland cats Instagram account.

I have been calling for 24-hour bookstores for years and I'm glad someone is finally listening.

Oh my gosh. Pumpkin Tetris.

How to Successfully Hijack Your Family's Thanksgiving

25 questions about Band Aid 30's new version of "Do They Know It's Christmas"

How are we feeling about the Peanuts movie trailer? It's . . . much better than I'd feared, really.

Morning Coffee (11/21/14)

Quick departure to the non-happy but time-sensitive: Daniel Handler, Racist Jokes, and the Disclaimer. If you want to help make good come out of this, Handler is matching donations to We Need Diverse Books today.

Now for your regularly scheduled Happy Friday links:

"Unnecessary apostrophes hurt Tiny Tim." How to Make Your Last Name Plural This Christmas Season

Author Alexandra Duncan is doing a great holiday giveaway with a prize pack that includes her book Salvage (which I LOVED) AND a $50 donation to the charity of your choice. Enter here.

15 feminist-improved pages for the computer engineer Barbie book

Study shows the media has a clear bias — in favor of dogs

What to Read if You Love Taylor Swift’s “Blank Space” Video

Classic Houses In Literature Go On the Imaginary Real Estate Market (I got all these answers right and am very proud.)

Hee: Famous Author Bios

Just What You Need: Cats Sleeping in IKEA Dolls Beds

Snuggly Bookish PJs for Winter Reading Time

Morning Coffee (11/20/14)

Me elsewhere: Thoughts on last week's Elementary.

NBC Has Killed Its Bill Cosby Project

Sigh: Barbie book about programming tells girls they need boys to code for them

New Cinderella trailer!

A taco emoji may be coming!

Words That Should Actually Be Banned

This is long but fascinating and worth the read: The Hollow Crown: Shakespeare’s Histories in the Age of Netflix

Guy Tries to Hook Up With Wife's Nurse in Worst Craigslist Ad Ever

The Onion: Report: None Of Good Cousins Coming To Thanksgiving This Year

Morning Coffee (11/19/14)

People's new Sexiest Man Alive: Chris Hemsworth. I'll allow it.

The one basic thing men still don't seem to understand about women

Living on a Prayer: Why Does God Kill So Many Children in Idaho?

Ugh: Oprah Expects Hula Hoopers to Accept Payment in the Form of Exposure

At Brigham Young, Students Push to Lift Ban on Beards

Oh good: Twitter is allowing URLs in DMs again.

Lower Education: How A Disgraced College Chain Trapped Its Students In Poverty

Five ways Sesame Street changed the world

Morning Coffee (11/18/14)

Visiting the U.S.: Pope Francis; the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

Awesome: Church of England clears way for female bishops

You Can Now Send Cash to Friends Via Snapchat, and doesn't THAT sound like a terrible idea?

The Harry Potter Alliance’s #MyHungerGames Brings Awareness to Stories of Income Inequality

The Butter has launched!

Uh-oh: We're running out of chocolate.

I hate "Do They Know It's Christmas?" with the passion of a thousand suns, but if for some reason you don't, here's the new version.

Billy Joel on Taylor Swift: "She catches a lot of junk, maybe because she's so popular with young girls." YEP.

Morning Coffee (11/17/14)

Me elsewhere: TV news, Haven recap, Bones review.

Every year, my friend Beck writes a hilarious review of the Oprah's gift guide. Here's this year's.

This potential New Yorker documentary series sounds interesting.

Jude Law as an Arthurian villain? Yes please.

So, on New Year's Eve, Ryan Seacrest's show will have Taylor Swift in New York and now Harry Styles in Hollywood. Hee. I hope she plays "Style."

Huh. Greg Berlanti is writing the Oscars.

Fascinating: Some Guy Scooped The Baseball Media On The Biggest MLB Contract Ever

This cannot actually be efficient: Westminster gardener ordered to remove autumn leaves one by one

you guys didnt have to do this!
i honestly would have been fine with just like half a dozen putti
and three or four handmaidens
like a dozen handmaidens max would have been FINE honestly

Morning Coffee (11/14/14)

Happy Friday!

Today in Christmas ads that made me cry: Sainsbury's. (It's set in 1914. I'm sure you can guess where this is going.)

Eeee, Netflix UK is making a giant epic drama about Elizabeth II's reign. I am beside myself.

Ooh: Clinton Library wins 'West Wing' scripts

How love and integrity made Welcome to Night Vale a massive success

My friend Laura accidentally baked 404 gingerbread men. Trust me, you want to read this.

Caveat: My parents are very good at understanding/learning about my various jobs. That said, I have run into all of these with other people in my life: 22 Things That Happen When Your Parents Don’t Understand Your Job

This is a great Q&A with Taylor Swift.

The Rise Of The 'Lumbersexual' (I am in favor.)

Video Games Set During The Protestant Wars Of Reformation That I Wish Existed

Morning Coffee (11/13/14)

Ooh! The First Close-Up Image of Comet 67P From the Philae Lander

I love this: Taylor Swift and the Myth of the Mean Greedy Artist. I can't even decide on a line to quote. "The bottom line is that artists’ rights are workers’ rights. You are not being progressive or radical by denying artists the right to control their own work. You are not helping the underprivileged by making it impossible for anyone who isn’t already rich and privileged to take up artistic careers. Your pirated Taylor Swift song isn’t feeding the poor."

You probably already saw this, but Time's annual word-banning poll is terrible in general and includes "feminism" as an option. No. Let's not ban that.

Escape from Jonestown

This essay on Mallory Ortberg is great.

About The Time Shonda Rhimes Gave Me A Christmas Cat Intervention

21 Times Tumblr Told the Truth About Cats

Songs You’ll Never Hear On A Sufjan Stevens Album

Morning Coffee (11/12/14)

Me elsewhere: Sleepy Hollow thoughts

Amazon won the auction for the .book domain. I'm sure you'll be shocked to hear that people are freaking out about this.

An important read: “Did You Ever Mind It?”: On Race and Adoption

The Online Legacy of a Suicide Cult and the Webmasters Who Stayed Behind

Michael Chabon is now a lyricist.

Here's the trailer for the Grumpy Cat Christmas movie, if you're into that kind of thing.

I am totally this person: Man Has No Idea What To Do With Visiting Friend Between Meals

What Shakespeare character are you?

Sorry I Murdered Everyone, But I’m An Introvert

Morning Coffee (11/11/14)

Happy Veterans' Day, and thank you to all who have served. The Google doodle for today is cute.

And it's a good day to show you the video from the NatPro race my family participated in to benefit the Veterans' Oasis my dad is involved with at the college where he works. (Well, my brother and his fiancee participated. My parents and I volunteered.)

The new Taylor Swift video is amazing. (And filmed at the Royal Pains house!)

Martha Stewart has some great-looking meatless Thanksgiving recipes.

Ooh, you can stream Kristin Chenoweth's new album.

I want to go to The Last Bookstore.

Whoa: Jennifer Lawrence Hunger Games cake wins gold

"Out of the Woods on a Snowy Evening"

Morning Coffee (11/10/14)

Me elsewhere: TV news roundup for the week, Haven recaps, thoughts on Bones and Elementary.

Some of the SiriusXM holiday stations start tomorrow! (But my favorite one is apparently now only December 24-26. When I won't be in my car much, if at all. Boooo.)

Today in Christmas ads that made me cry: Marks and Spencer.

Also: John Lewis. (Penguin alert!)

Also: Coca-Cola. God, I'm a mess.

NBC is staging live production of A Few Good Men. Interesting.

A Playmobil movie?!?! I'm . . . listening. Cautiously.

Hee: Mallory Ortberg summarizes classic books in 140 characters or less

Women Rejecting Marriage Proposals In Western Art History

Morning Coffee (11/7/14)

Happy Friday!

Promising news: Twitter is working with an advocacy group to investigate the harassment of women

There's a new Into the Woods trailer, and . . . fine. I'm in.

If your Friday could use twenty minutes of pure delight, I highly recommend I Ship It, a romantic comedy set in the world of wizard rock, by Yulin Kuang, who's making a good case for become The Nora Ephron of My People. It stars Mary Kate Wiles of The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, Sean Persaud of Shipwrecked Comedy, and Joey Richter of StarKid. (If none of those words made any sense to you, you might not entirely get this, but it will still be funny and adorable.)

Ooh: Vlogbrothers Bring “Crash Course” Videos to PBS Digital Studios

I read this oral history of Sports Night and now I need to rewatch the entire show immediately.

OPI has Peanuts nail polish and I want "WHO ARE YOU CALLING BOSSY?!?" with every fiber of my being.

Speaking of things I want, look at this Rainbow Brite bib necklace.

20 Style Tips On How To Wear a Plaid or Flannel Shirt I didn't necessarily realize this was a difficult subject requiring 20 tips, but this is absolutely speaking my language.

Two Words: Kitten Graduation

What I Read: October 2014

A Hero at the End of the World by Erin Claiborne: A delightful romp. An unusual take on the "chosen one" trope with hilarious British magicians, diverse characters, and swoony romance (both gay and straight). So many references to tea and scarves. So many things I love. This comes out next Tuesday (11/11) and I highly recommend it.

Burned by Sarah Morgan (Miller Sisters #2): I didn't like this as much as the first Miller Sisters story, but it was a fun, quick romance.

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel: I was going to say that I am so over dystopians, but I'm not at all sure that I was, as they say, ever really under them. That said: This is a magnificent book, beautiful and terrifying, and Mandel's gorgeous writing kept me turning pages even though the subject matter usually wouldn't interest me.

All Fudged Up by Nancy Coco (Candy-Coated Mysteries #1): An entertaining cozy of my favorite flavor - a female small business owner who gets thrown into a murder investigation in a quirky small town and meets a hot detective. The townsfolk were a little too quirky at times here, but the main character was likable and had a nice edge of humor. I didn't love this, but it gave me a nice evening curled up under a blanket drinking tea, and I'll probably try the next in the series next time I'm in the mood. My main quibble was that it could have used a good copy editor.

Roomies by Sara Zarr and Tara Altebrando: Loved this one - sweet but real, warm and heartbreaking and funny and poignant all at once. I thought Zarr and Altebrando did a really good job of getting into the characters' heads, and though I'm long out of college, their correspondence (and their thoughts about it and the meaning of friendship) made me think about my faraway friends I text/IM/email/etc. all the time who often know more about me than the people I see every day do.

Cloche and Dagger by Jenn McKinlay (Hat Shop Mysteries #1): A decent start to a cozy series. The hat shop stuff was fun and I liked the supporting cast, though it took me a while to warm up to the main character because a lot of her thoughts and actions seemed neither rational nor particularly supported by the text. I really liked the romantic interest, so I may check out the next one at some point to see where that dynamic goes.

Popular: Vintage Wisdom for a Modern Geek by Maya Van Wagenen: A fascinating experiment and a charming, funny, and thoughtful memoir. Van Wagenen is clearly very talented and I can't wait to see what she does in the future.

(Disclaimers: I know A Hero at the End of the World's publicist and she gave me an advance copy; after reading and loving it I started chatting with the author on Twitter. I got Burned from NetGalley and the rest of the books this month from the library.)

Morning Coffee (11/6/14)

Me elsewhere: Haven recap

Eee, Kirkus gave The Shadow Cabinet a star and a great review I very much agree with. I love this book.

7 Brutal Literary Breakup Texts (Which is to say that Mallory Ortberg's Texts from Jane Eyre is out and I'm very excited.)

Whoa: Scotland Shut Out of World Whisky Bible Top Five in International Booze-Ranking Surprise

Finding Marlowe

For knitters: Do I really have to knit (and wash, and block) a swatch?

Ooh, trailer for the new show by the Borgen people.

How a Secret Squad Saved London From Flooding in the WWII Blitz (Do we really have to specify WWII? Do people not automatically know which blitz we mean, these days? Sad.)

Why I Think I Would Make An Excellent Vestal Virgin And You Should Consider Me For The Position

Morning Coffee (11/5/14)

Me elsewhere: Thoughts on the most recent episodes of Sleepy Hollow and Elementary

Local people, check out this charity event with Amber Benson in Lawrence.

An interesting take: The Right to a Sexual Narrative: On the Lena Dunham Abuse Claims

Should Boston Become A City Of Canals? Sure! Sounds fun!

Nifty: The British Museum Will Now Let You 3D Print Copies Of Its Artifacts

Whoa: My Grandma the Poisoner

Feast Your Eyes on This Beautiful Linguistic Family Tree

This Is What Happens When You Send Tinder Guys The Emails From “You’ve Got Mail”

WARWICK: will your marriage settle the question of succession?
EDWARD IV: oh my god no not at all
her name is Elizabeth and she’s literally nobody
WARWICK: why did y–
EDWARD IV: idk
she seems nice
itll work out

Morning Coffee (11/4/14)

Happy Election Day! The Google doodle is cute. Go vote!

Sad news: Car Talk's Tom Magliozzi has died.

Whoa: CNET is starting a print magazine.

My friend Sarah wrote a great essay on living with her daughter's spina bifida.

An important clarification from Ann Patchett: commas are important and she did not marry her dog.

Read All the Things – it’s not WHAT we read, it’s HOW we read that matters.

Hee: Literary Starbucks

We Regret To Announce That Your Request Of “Gotta Hear Both Sides” Has Been Denied

Morning Coffee (11/3/14)

Me elsewhere: Thoughts on last week's Bones, pilot posts on The McCarthys and Benched, the week's TV news.

A few belated Halloween links that I found on Halloween:

7 charts that explain Halloween

When Did N.H. Towns Start Calling The Shots On Trick-Or-Treating?

This Halloween history video featuring Kate Hackett of Classic Alice is cute.

Whoa: Starbucks delivery is coming. Probably not coming here, but still.

#GamerGate's scary plan to wipe Gawker Media from the face of the Earth

They're publishing the first bilingual Goodnight, Moon. Awesome!

Sarah Rees Brennan is parodying The 100 and it's as funny as you might expect.

Amazing: Dirtbag Mrs. Whatsit