You first.

I wonder how one possibly justifies any of these actions

Screenshot from "Letter from our correspondent" in "Papua New Guinea Courier"

The Papua New Guinea Courier is in rare form.

🤓

It was so enjoyable to listen to.

Thank you! It was driving me crazy. The lack of TORC and ROTA made me sad as well.

Tense Christmas I The Ghost of Christmas Past Perfect Progressive Midnight. Awoken by a ghost. I thought I must be raving. But then he went and showed me how badly I’D BEEN BEHAVING. II The Ghost of Christmas Present Perfect Simple The next night, a ghost again: with a much more recent scene. More evidence piling up of how unpleasant I HAVE BEEN. III The Ghost of Christmas Future Unreal Conditional A final late night ghostly vision. But this one lacked the pain and strife. I saw if I could be a kinder man, I WOULD CREATE a better life. Brian Bilston

Today’s poem is called ‘Tense Christmas’.

Clickbaity book titles:

5. Fifty Mind-blowing Shades of Grey (No. 7 is EPIC)
4. Nobody Can Figure Out Where Wally Is, and It’s Driving Them CRAZY
3. What Got Oliver in Such a Twist?
2. Every Single Year of Solitude, Definitively Ranked
1. You Simply Won’t Believe How Hungry This Caterpillar Is...

I have 214.6K followers, and I figure at least some of them are looking to gift books this holiday season, so:

HEY AUTHORS OF BLUESKY: In the comments to this post, tell us (briefly!) about your most recent book, and put in a link to where people can learn more and/or buy the book in question.

Go!

“Have Yourself A Merriam Little Christmas”

Merriam, a career-oriented lexicographer from the city, returns to her small town for the holidays and meets Webster, a ruggedly handsome librarian, who shows her the true DEFINITION of Christmas.

Hit us up @hallmarkchannel.bsky.social @netflix.com 🙏

Please tell your kids, every damn day if necessary, that chatGPT is not a goddamn search engine and you shouldn’t believe a word it says. Tell the adults too, but it’s especially imperative to inoculate kids against this

This is your Black Friday reminder that actual book shops can't afford to discount like Amazon and supermarkets do. If you can, get full price books but also a full heart.

Oh bother, I see my smugness is undeserved!

An advert for a company called Magibook. The headline reads "Turn HARD books into EASY books with Magibook! Maximize your reading potential and avoid difficult language today." Underneath is two covers of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Above the first cover is the original version of the opening sentence (captioned "Turn Hard Books"), which reads "In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since." Above the second cover (captioned "into Easy Books") is a simplified version, which reads "When I was young, my dad told me something that I still think about."

THE BELL JAR

HARD ❌

It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn't know what I was doing in New York

EASY ✅

That summer was sizzling, and so were the Rosenbergs

Great idea!

A mother helps a toddler to play by handing her string beans, which the child is a assiduously hanging on a toy washing line

And so begins another week to fill with meaningful activity 😊

Artist: Harry Wingfield

Perfection.

Typographical error Due to a typing error, Saturday's story on local artist Jon Henninger mistakenly reported that Henninger's band mate Eric Lyday was on drugs. The story should have read that Lyday was on drums. The Sentinel regrets the error.

Well, now…

It's very true!