1. 50 ways to be ridiculously generous — and feel ridiculously good from Alexandra Franzen.
2. Wisdom from Andrea Gibson: “When your heart is broken, plant seeds in the cracks, and pray for rain.”
3. 24 Powerful Ways To Finish The Year Off Right.
4. And then what? from Austin Kleon.
5. Best of 2022, a collection of lists on The New York Times.
6. The Bird Site is Fucked, Chuck Wendig from Terrible Minds on the current state of Twitter. In related news, Twitter Users Say Elon Musk Should Quit as C.E.O. on The New York Times. “After weeks of turmoil since he bought the company, Mr. Musk surveyed Twitter about whether he should remain in charge, and said he would abide by the result.”
7. Mike Birbiglia’s 6 Tips for Making It Small in Hollywood. Or Anywhere. on The New York Times. This piece is six years old, but I was reminded of it listening to Mike’s podcast Working It Out. For anyone who wants to be creative and authentic and funny and might be a little bit awkward, he gives the best advice.
8. The Kindred Adaptation Reclaims Octavia Butler’s “Grim Fantasy” for a New Era. In related news, ‘Kindred’ Review: Octavia Butler Comes to the Screen on The New York Times.
9. In case you missed it: You can order free COVID tests again by mail.
10. How Is Everyone Making Those A.I. Selfies? on The New York Times. “Images generated with Lensa AI are all over social media, but at what cost?”
11. How did Colorado community colleges double their graduation rate? By better meeting student needs.
12. My Biggest, Fattest Year Ever: Things I Did While Fat from Ijeoma Oluo.
13. Mary Oliver’s Drunk Cousin on Instagram. One of my favorite poems from this account is I’ll Hold it for You.
14. Poems from HannahRoWrites on Instagram: December, Same, and How to be lucky and sad.
15. Instagram Reel of a Peony opening.
16. Recipes I want to try (found on Instagram, all reels): Smashed Sweet Potatoes, and Gingerbread Cake, and Spicy Chili Garlic Peanut Noodles, and Creamy Tomato Basil Soup.
17. Cecily Strong says farewell to Saturday Night Live. I’m happy for these funny women when they have other opportunities and I can’t even imagine one year of the grind that is producing SNL, let alone eleven, and yet I’m still sad to see them go.
18. Gift wrapping ideas: Furoshiki (“Yoko Nakazawa grew up wrapping her bento boxes with her mother using furoshiki, which is a traditional Japanese patterned cloth used to wrap items,” video) and this video.
19. Surreal Narratives Energize Karlotta Freier’s Vibrant Dreamlike Illustrations.
Open Space Practice, (AKA: A Thousand Shades of Gray) 