Morning Coffee (11/12/13)

This Ariel Levy essay is beautiful and devastating.

Ooh: Literary hotels

The CW has given full seasons to all its new show. I am thrilled about one, happy about another, and the third made me make a lot of faces. You figure it out! (It's not hard.)

Ralph Lauren unveils Team USA uniforms for 2014 Winter Olympics

I am all in favor of the dry cider renaissance.

21 Reasons to Be Thrilled It's Finally Almost Winter

Richard Curtis's appreciation of White Christmas is spot on.

Mirrors finally bring winter sun to Rjukan in Norway

My Ten Essential Christmas Movies (UPDATE: Eleven!)

The old Love, Actually debate cropped up on my Twitter timeline this morning, which made me start a list of the movies I must watch each Christmas. There are plenty of others I like, or even love, but these are my top ten that make Christmas complete. (I think. I feel like I'm forgetting something. What am I forgetting?) The order is alphabetical; if it were by preference, White Christmas would be first, but after that I don't want to try to rank them. What are yours?

• A Charlie Brown Christmas
• Christmas Eve on Sesame Street
• Goodfellas
• The Holiday
• How the Grinch Stole Christmas (The original. Don't come near me with that new abomination.)
• Little Women
• Love, Actually
• The Muppet Christmas Carol
• The Nutcracker (Baryshnikov)
• White Christmas

EDITED TO ADD: I can't believe I forgot You've Got Mail!

Morning Coffee (10/15/13)

HA: How the Media Would Have Covered Columbus’s Discovery of the New World

Kelly Clarkson's Christmas album is coming out at the end of the month, and this snippet of her cover of "White Christmas" is amazing.

Speaking of, ABC Family has unveiled its 25 Days of Christmas programming lineup.

Seth Gabel (Lincoln from Fringe) is playing Cotton Mather in the new Salem Witch Trials show!?!?!? Cotton Mather?

The AV Club's article about Charlie Hunnam leaving Fifty Shades is pretty hilarious.

Laura Lippman on being Female in Public

Everything Jonathan Franzen Currently Hates

This is fun, but several selections made me say "No, it's NOT!" - The Most Famous Book Set in Every State

Morning Coffee (2/25/13)

Ah, Monday again. If you missed the Oscars, you can catch up with my liveblogs of the red carpet and the show itself.

Quvenzhane Wallis will star in Annie. As long as she can sing, I think this is good news.

John Brascia, who danced with Vera-Ellen in White Christmas, has died.

Fascinating: The babies who nap in sub-zero temperatures

Favorite entertainment headline of the week: Huckleberry Pie Joins 'Strawberry Shortcake's Berry Bitty Adventures' (Exclusive Video) (It's the "exclusive video" that pushes it over the top, somehow.)

Knitters, this is brilliant and so obvious in retrospect: No more estimating tail length for a long tail CO

Hilarious and sad: Cultural Appropriation Bingo

Related: Malinda Lo On Why White Creators Default To Colorblindness

Music Break: "Snow" from White Christmas

It snowed last night, which means, in my world at least, that Christmas music is now fair game. I'll try to hold out a little while before going all-Christmas-all-the-time on you, but I had to mark the occasion. I was going to find the clip of this song from the movie, but then I found these obviously amazing people who reenacted it in their dining room. May I be friends with them?