Opened magic book with blowing black letters
Scientists achieved a breakthrough with nuclear fusion.
Today is solstice. In the northern hemisphere, it’s winter solstice, the longest night of the year; in the southern hemisphere it’s midsummer. Whatever holidays you observe during this week, I hope you enjoy them with friends and loved ones, with joy, health and safety.
Hanukkah started this Sunday and runs through December 25. This festival symbolizes hope and resistance against tyranny. The miraculous bottle of oil that burned for eight nights was not part of the original story of Hanukkah, which depicted the Maccabees’ resistance to the Syrian occupier Antiochus and was added later.
“The Holly and the Ivy” is a Christmas song, but it has plenty of respectful pagan imagery. Enjoy the Medieval Babes singing.
“In the dark of night, the candles stand for hope.” StandFour sings about Hanukkah.
You may be interested in a Washington Post article about the plight of those of us who own way too many books.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2022/12/19/used-books-stores-donation-fran-lebowitz/
(If you don’t have a subscription, you may need to temporarily disable JavaScript in your browser before clicking on the link to be able to read the content.)
My New Years resolution for 2023 is going to be: Buy no more than one book every six months until I have read close to half of all the unread books I own that are piled up everywhere. Have had a bad habit of buying short story collections that sound interesting but then reading mainly novels, which I’ve only started trying to compensate for the last two years.
Paul, thanks for sharing that link.
I would never make a resolution like this because I don’t like to set myself up to fail, but best of luck to you!
Well, there is also the extensive regional library system, where I tend to be in the hold queue for 8-10 books at any given time. I’m not making any promises about that!