As you might have guessed from the title, this is our final post of 2013. We’ll return to a light posting schedule in early January, followed by our regular schedule later that same month. If your grades aren’t in yet, we hope that they will be soon, and if you are traveling over the break, whether to visit family or friends or maybe to attend AHA/MLA/APA/or another major conference, we hope that the travel gods smile on you. Here are some links to keep you busy while we are away.
Tis the season of The Nutcracker. This perennial winter favorite delights adults and children alike, and it not only takes a village to stage the show, but The Huffington Post reveals that it also takes lots and lots of shoes. 8500 pairs to be exact.
The Washington Post announced that Vincent van Gogh’s “Green Wheat Fields, Auvers” will go on display in the National Gallery of Art today. The oil on canvas painting dates to 1890 and has not been seen in public since the 1960s.
Dangerous Minds reports that instead of selfies, The Guardian is currently accepting “shelfies,” pictures of readers’ bookshelves.
A development that is a different kind of chilling: Inside Higher Ed‘s Scott Jaschik reports on the new social media policy enacted by the Kansas Board of Regents in “Fireable Tweets.” Dean Dad‘s Matt Reed has posted a response titled, “A Lump of Coal for Kansas.” Peter Schmidt also has a piece in the Chronicle (paywalled).
One for the dog lovers among us: “Service dog allowed to remain with 7-year-old patient during surgery.” And for the cat people, “Ten Destinations for Cat Lovers.”
If you still need more to read, you might check out Large-Hearted Boy, who has compiled an impressive list of the various Best of 2013 book lists. Included in his variorum are three lists from the New York Times. I mentioned a few of my favorites in the 2013 ProfHacker Gift Guide. I forgot to mention NOS4A2, a novel by Joe Hill that features an especially creepy amusement park called “Christmasland” and a seasonally appropriate (and also creepy) new cover. Finally, The Daily Beast has compiled a “Best of the Best” list, which has tallied 40 different “Best of” lists and come up with an its own ranking. I’m currently reading #2 (Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch).
“It’s a major award!” And our video, from my favorite holiday movie, A Christmas Story:
Bonus video: the trailer to It’s a Wonderful Life:
[Creative Commons licensed image by Flickr user George Deputee].
