Thursday was my last working day of the year. And as sometimes happens during these times, my department was up against a ridiculous deadline, so I worked very late. But I’m free for at least a while!
Anyway, here are links to stories I found interesting, sorted by category.
Links of the Week
Tell a different story about Santa this holiday season.
Black Santa And Me – The Rest Is History
10 SOCIAL JUSTICE ORGANIZATIONS THAT ROCKED 2016 — AND NEED YOU IN 2017.
This Week in Holidays
Neil Gaiman: Hanukkah with bells on.
How Christmas Songs Help Us Fake It Through the Despair Times.
Fuck The Nutcracker: Why You Should Go See Every Ballet But This One. (Written by the daughter of a Russian Jewish ballet instructor…)
Christmas Ghost Stories: The Ghost of Christmas Past Goes Further Back Than You Might Realize.
News for queers and our allies:
Holiday Self-Care Package By LGBTQ For LGBTQ Encourages Self-Love For The Season.
A Conservative Defense of Transgender Rights.
Drawn to Comics: Queer and Trans Women and Nonbinary Creators To Support This Holigay Season.
Homeless Charities Warn Of ‘Dramatic Rise’ In Number Of LGBT Youth Being Thrown Out Of Home.
Transgender woman shares graphic videos of her facial feminisation surgery.
What Does Lesbian Mean in 2016?
Science!
5 Scientific Myths You Probably Believe About The Universe.
The 10 Weirdest Animal Stories of 2016.
An accelerating river of molten iron has been discovered under Alaska and Siberia.
Physicists have observed the light spectrum of antimatter for first time.
Why don’t we teach Einstein’s theories in school?
‘Blue-eyed Humans’ do not ‘Have A Single, Common Ancestor.
Dwarf planet Ceres is a really icy place, NASA’s Dawn spacecraft shows.
Thundersnow with ‘continuous’ lightning hit Hawaii on Sunday.
How Science Is Helping Us Understand Gender.
Science Fiction, Fantasy and Speculation!
Tabletop Gaming has a White Male Terrorism Problem.
Sci-Fi Tried to Warn Us About Leaders Who Want to ‘Make America Great Again’.
Give Us Back Our Fucking Gods.
‘Rogue One’ had a huge box office opening, which must be really awkward for the alt-right.
A quick rewrite which totally fixes the film Passengers.
This week in Writing
Q & A with Peter Stampfel, Submissions Editor of DAW Books. “…As a rule, the unsolicited manuscripts tend to be of a higher quality, by-and-large, than the ones coming from agents.”
Five Archetypes That Can Steal the Hero’s Spotlight.
How to Not Waste Your Words: The Secret to Writing a Crappy but Usable First Draft.
You keep using “Write what you know”.
This week in Words
The Dictionary Folk at Merriam-Webster Sum Up 2016: Surreal.
This Week in History
This Week in Tech
Barnes & Noble’s New $50 Nook Tablet Ships with Bonus Malware. Not just any malware: “the most complete rootkit/malware/spyware packages on the planet”
We’re Getting Rid of Comments on VICE.com.
Culture War and Hate Crimes
Black Santa Claus Is A Hit At Mall Of America, But Faces An Online Backlash
Sex Shop Owner Receives Threats After Putting “Dildo Nativity Scene” in Window.
After One Woman’s Parents Voted for Donald Trump, She’s Holding Their Pastor Accountable.
Anti-LGBT activists are boycotting 58 different retailers for being gay-inclusive.
Texas Just Topped Itself With Pure Misogynistic, Transphobic Insanity.
This week in Difficult to Classify
LESBIAN TEENS ‘ARRESTED FOR KISSING’ ACQUITTED IN MOROCCAN COURT.
The movie that doesn’t exist and the Redditors who think it does.
This Week in Fighting Back in the Culture War:
The Most Useful Guide to Resisting Donald Trump: It’s the Tea Party playbook, minus the nooses.
This week in Politics:
Obama adds to historic number of federal prisoners granted clemency.
It’s official: Clinton swamps Trump in popular vote.
The Stolen Election: Hillary Clinton should be president; why isn’t she?
First Amendment Defense Act Would Be ‘Devastating’ for LGBTQ Americans.
This Week in Racists, White Nationalists, and the deplorables
Can American Fascism Be Stopped?
Trolling in the name of “free speech”: How Milo Yiannopoulos built an empire off violent harassment.
O’Reilly: Left wants ‘power taken away from the white establishment’. You can’t claim it isn’t racist while literally saying you are defending the white establishment.
GOP lawmaker’s Obamacare alternative: Make kids sleep on broken arms to avoid costly ER visits.
Trump’s Pick For OMB Director Has Vowed To ‘End Medicare As We Know It’.
Six Times Bill O’Reilly Defended The “White Establishment” Against “The Left”.
Trump denies Gingrich claim that he’s dropping ‘drain the swamp’.
Trump Insists He’ll ‘Drain the Swamp’ as Gingrich Walks Back ‘Boo Boo’.
This Week in Delusion
Catholic Exorcist: Here’s How I Know the Difference Between Mental Illness and Demon Possession.
Farewells:
Things I wrote:
Weekend Update: gunman stopped without a gun and other news.
Everyone’s heard of Rudolph, everyone knows his story….
It’s the most wonderful production number.
Videos!
Hand Jive Jingle, Christmas 2016, Gay Men’s Chorus San Diego:
(If embedding doesn’t work, click here.)
Eartha Kitt – Santa Baby (1954):
(If embedding doesn’t work, click here.)
The Little Drummer Boy – Pink Martini (a friend who used to detest this song told me that this won him over; and it’s a very different and fun version):
(If embedding doesn’t work, click here.)
Kay Thompson’s Jingle Bells – The Williams Brothers (a jazzy alternative):
(If embedding doesn’t work, click here.)
Sleigh Ride – Christmas Charity Single – Out of the Blue:
(If embedding doesn’t work, click here.)
Font Folly 