Christmas approacheth, and naturally, you’re stressed. You have gifts to purchase, parties to wince through, and hey, those lampreys aren’t gonna exsanguinate themselves. So stop, take a break—and enjoy a tasty link.
As the festival of Sol Invictus draws nigh, Eternally Cool offers a Gladiator Gift Guide.
At Unlocked Wordhoard, one of Doc Nokes’s students sets “Caedmon’s Hymn” to music.
Michael Drout shows how witty rhetoric betrays a lazy mind.
Victoria Strauss looks at layoffs and cutbacks in publishing. It’s not a pretty picture.
Along those same lines, Steven Hart notes the passing of Bantam.
Maggie says it’s hard to name a werewolf.
Open Letters Monthly praises a new biography of Samuel de Champlain.
At My Life in Books, Nicole ponders Edgar Allan Poe.
Need a musical break that highlights the consistency of pop music? Compare the folk song “Lovely Joan” with “Touch and Go” by Emerson, Lake, and Powell.
Finally, as the year fizzles out, assess your accomplishments fairly, but keep in mind that whatever you achieved, you’re certainly no Alma Mahler Gropius Werfel.
Thanks for reading! More medievalism, and another harrowing kitchen encounter with galangal, are on the way.
Quid Plura? 