Winter Holiday List of Links, #4
Thursday, 26th December, 2024
Here is the fourth of a series of daily posts with some fun distractions over the festive period. In case you need a moment away from your loved ones, you know? If you’d like some more web-based distractions, I have a library of “links and listens” posts for you to dive into.
To start off today’s links, I loved this New Yorker article by Anna Wiener about Rivendell Bikes, a bike company that does everything just a bit differently from the ‘big brands’.
The company sells about fifteen hundred bicycles a year, alongside parts, pants, and other things that Petersen appreciates, including merino-wool socks and sweaters, copies of “The Wind in the Willows,” brass bike bells (“Noisy but friendly”), bandannas (“They come to you stiff”), and Olbas aromatherapy inhalers (“My often congested son-in-law tried it, and within two seconds asked, ‘Is it addicting?’”)
Christmas Day always starts a period of reflection for me - it’s not just the upcoming New Year but also my birthday a few weeks later, and I liked (and felt extremely called out by) this post from
. Yet another thing nudging me to get better at planning my weeks in 2025.
Laura Riedt also made this video about seven healthy habits to borrow from the Danes - I can second the recommendation for cold-water dips - it always makes me feel alive!
One thing I’m definitely not intending to do more of in 2025 is read the news. I’m following Laura Hazard Owen of Nieman Lab’s advice here - she says:
I’ll read news, not other people’s reactions to news.
I’m a huge fan of
’s podcast, You’re Booked - and I especially enjoyed food writer Rukmini Iyer’s episode. She seems a real kindred spirit.I just recently finished Ivy Fairbanks’s Morbidly Yours* (*ad - affiliate link). Set in Galway, Ireland, our main character is Lark - an American animator in town on a short-term contract to try to help in moving on from her husband’s sudden death. But what appears to be a charming bed-and-breakfast next door is in fact a funeral home run by the painfully shy Callum Flannelly. Great demisexual representation; I really enjoyed it.
I know it’s hard to believe that the Covid lockdowns are now almost four years ago… as well as the utter crapness of that time, there was also some funny stuff. I was recently reminded of this video from an online court case in Texas…
This is a tough time of year for a lot of people, and I thought
’s advice here on how to help someone who’s struggling was really excellent.
Some more home design goals to finish off today’s list of links: according to Tim McKeough in the New York Times, A Home Library Can Tell Your Life Story. (gift link)
Speak soon,
Lily
thank you so much for reading and happy new year!!