Friday, December 30, 2016

December 30 Link Log

I'm still behind the e-mail. The cafe stayed open through Christmas, hosted many holiday parties and supplied many holiday treats, and will be closing for a well-earned vacation during the first ten days of January. Book reviews should appear each day, but I may not be online to post anything else. Today's Links are in the Categories: Animals, Books, Christian, Crafts, Fashion, Food, Free Nazanin, Fun, Maryland, Obituary, Phenology Snippet, Politics, Psychology, Science, Writing. Also a Phenology Snippet, without a link; sorry.

Animals 

 What a beautiful big fluffy cat...

http://thevagabondtabby.tumblr.com/post/155147652331/pagewoman-norwegian-forest-cat-by

Reminds me that all the cat links I've shared lately have been to short-haired cats. There's a reason for that. I live in a part of the world that gets a lot more heating days than cooling days, and long-haired cats I've known have generally looked to me as if they were burning up in those heavy coats. I don't like the idea of breeding more of this trait into our local population. However, further north, heavier coats may be less of a problem. Since this web site has readers even further north than the places I can search on Petfinder, here are long-haired cat links, this time from the northern rather than the eastern tier of the United States.

Maddie
Maddie from Chicago: https://www.petfinder.com/petdetail/36145771

Roxy
Roxy from New Jersey...may need a weight control diet, even under that fur: https://www.petfinder.com/petdetail/36852238
Day
Day (or Mesha) from Colorado: https://www.petfinder.com/petdetail/31974134

Dog pictures. (This web site has no objection to pictures, as long as they behave well. It's the pictures that pop up, pull out, squiggle around the page, or crash the browser, I hate.)

http://thebookofbarkley.blogspot.com/2016/12/wabbit-tracks-in-memory-of-easy.html

Books 

Barkley's Human's novel deserves its chance to live, Gentle Readers.



Christian 

Note that although it's loaded with photo, video, audio, and Facebook clips, Faithandvictory.com still makes this web site's cut because one click has (so far) consistently sufficed to bring the page under control and allow us to read it. 


(Note, further, this example of elitism at work, pursuant to 


Earlier today, I offered to do something for someone I know before asking for a small favor. The person whined, stalled, blathered, and then yielded, growling, "But you have to do..." the very thing I'd offered to do, first. The person is old enough that this could be a symptom of Alzheimer's Disease, and if it is I may one day repent of yelling "You deserve for me not to do that!" minutes before doing it. Competent people who know me know that, if I offer, I'll do it--come flood, come fire--or be found in a ditch beside the way. I at least get the other person's permission before I let "things come up." As will the people I count as friends. But in the non-Christian world this person might not even be senile. There are real non-Christian people in this world who will volunteer to do a thing and then not do it. Especially when unacknowledged elitism is involved; one of the signs of unacknowledged elitism is that elitists will actually call someone who has less, offer to do something, then backwater and decide they um uh don't feeeel like it.)

On a different track: should Catholics talk about religious freedom? Why not? They can live and learn like anyone else can't they? Even if living and learning is likely to lead them to Protestantism...Thomas More is also credited with "Sharp medicine, but a cure for all diseases" as the last words he actually said, but then again it used to be traditional for people to get their official last words written down well before they died.


Crafts 

For those who enjoy wearing headbands (I do, in winter when I've let my hair grow; don't think they're a flattering look, don't really care): Why would you want to go as far back into retro-fashion as gluing frankly faux berries, birds, feathers, and leaves all over a headband? Because, if you have unruly hair, every snag you can attach to a headband makes it harder for your hair to slither or shove out from under the band. Thanks to Elizabeth Barrette for sharing:


This web site joins +Marsha Cooper in celebrating the completion of 38 handmade backpacks. 38! Wow! 


(Something about not having electricity prompted me, during the past year, to explore random stitch--the genre of knitting you get by working plain and purl stitches in random numbers, as they turn up while you're reading, or watching television, or looking at signs while riding in a car/train/bus. I still have a shopping bag jammed full of random stitch hats, plus a sweater in random stitch, and I've sold some towels and baby blankets in random stitch. The push seemed to come from the fact that it's hard to follow a fancy pattern while knitting by candlelight. Right. So why random stitch, and not plain garter, stock, or moss stitch? I have no idea.)

Fashion 

Some readers might want to check out this designer of touchable shirts. (Yes, the big splashy pictures behave well in the browser.)

http://www.dailygood.org/story/1470/two-brothers-join-together-in-fight-to-cure-blindness-marissa-sanfilippo/

Food 

This dog blog post meanders off into a recipe that probably can't be made gluten-free, but it looks like fun for the wheat eaters out there. (Nice dog pictures, and food pictures...Repeat: this web site likes nice, small pictures that align with the text, don't distract the reader, and don't crash browsers. Pictures, including ads, can work for blogs...it's just that too many blogs, and Niume's format has leaped forward as an example, have started using graphics in ways that work against them.)


#FreeNazanin 

Update from her husband, obviously biased and unlikely to tell what...apparently, just isn't being told to the English-speaking world. You can sign a Change.org petition only once, but there's no limit on sharing it.


Fun Facts, Especially for Men 

The kicker in Dan Lewis's post is the "Related" postscript-type paragraph at the bottom of this post:

http://nowiknow.com/reversing-the-charges/

Maryland 

Who doesn't love the Eastern Shore? For those interested in espionage, here's why a gorgeous upscale getaway might be your chance to participate. Shared with a twinkle in the eye and a shout to our FBI friends on the Eastern Shore. For other readers, pretty pictures qualify as eye candy:


Obituary 

The Making Light blog emerges from semi-retirement to remember Carrie Fisher and her mother, and others the world lost this year...


I don't think obituaries should be political; I'm not pleased that CF's has become a censorship issue.


Phenology Snippet 

We got just a salting of snow this morning. Not enough, however, to create a snow panic, even in Virginia.

Politics 

Fewer guns, more crime? (Though the numbers are arranged differently, reflecting individual work, this article basically restates the point made in a National Review article linked on Wednesday. Okay to skip one if you read the other.)


This is so not a problem. (1) I don't plan to go to Honolulu. (2) I did not, in fact, vote for Trump, although the popular vote seems to have been close enough that the case may be made that not voting for Clinton amounted to voting for Trump. I couldn't bear to vote for either of those two tacky extroverts after having had a respectable introvert on the ticket. And still: (3) I wouldn't want to patronize a business that discriminates based on politics. Yes, businesses have the right to do that, and to discriminate based on lifestyle choices, clothing choices, the fact that your beautiful sister once dumped the owner's son, whatever else...and we have the right, and the obligation, to help those businesses die.


Psychology 

Does part of your brain write fiction in your dreams? Mine does...sometimes suspenseful or horror fiction, sometimes comedy, sometimes cozy fiction, and sometimes I wake up remembering that the dream seemed to be about fiction (or poetry!) but I don't remember the content...sometimes I "see" a printed page, sometimes seem to be watching a movie.


Science 

Plussed for the quote...yes, that quote is a dependent clause in a sentence, so please click the link to see the whole sentence before reacting.

"
I say BOTH sides of the debate look 100% convincing to a non-scientist such as myself
"

http://blog.dilbert.com/post/155121836641/the-illusion-of-knowledge

Writing 

 Here's a blog that's primarily about visual art, yet it's printer-friendly and browser-friendly...it gives you lots of links to the pictures you really want to see, instead of crashing your browser with a ton of pictures. Exemplary!

http://best-of-3.blogspot.com/

Here's a general checklist for bloggers:

http://www.problogger.net/end-of-year-blog-audit-checklist/

Here's a gig for which I'm not really qualified, but some readers Out There probably are!

http://problogger.com/jobs/job/need-women-who-hunt-and-fish-for-weekly-blog-writing/

Here's a publisher, or e-publisher, that deserves a horrible business-death:

http://blogcritics.org/publisher-all-romance-ebooks-closing-hits-new-low-in-stealing-from-authors/
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