Batch of links

- Here’s some help to fix food flubs; it’s really about Thanksgiving food, but I feel like we all make basically the same thing again at Christmas, so it’s still relevant. I particularly liked the link because it could have saved us a lot of grief at one particular MeatFest… The Legal Chef hadn’t thawed the turkey early enough, and it was still a bit frozen. This led to an epic fit during which he literally broke the turkey’s neck, declared it ruined and ordered pizza instead. It turns out that a turkey really can be cooked even if it’s still frozen! (Also, I feel less badly about occasionally eating a piece of crispy chicken skin, considering it only has 3 g of saturated fat per pound of meat.)

- Ever paid attention to Christmas song lyrics? There’s one in particular that sounded quite suggestive to me, until I looked it up. In Winter Wonderland, there are the following lyrics: “He’ll say, ‘Are you married?’ / We’ll say, ‘No man, but you can do the job / While you’re in town”. This always sounded to me like they were offering a stranger to play house for a while! It turns out that they are pretending that the snowman they built is a parson, a man who travels from town to town and can perform wedding ceremonies. So it’s really nothing weird. Something that IS weird, though, is Baby, It’s Cold Outside, which basically glorifies date rape. (The link is to 5 offensive Christmas songs that we should stop singing.) The woman in the song keeps saying she wants to leave, but the man keeps coming up with excuses as to why she should stay (it’s cold outside, she’d hurt his pride, etc.). He eventually tells her to go put on some records while he makes her a drink, and the implication is that he’s drugged her (‘Say, what’s in this drink?”). I noticed this for the first time when listening to She & Him’s Christmas album (available for free online on the Tiffany website; you can see the video here. They turned it around in such a way that it’s the woman who’s coming on to the man in an appropriate manner. I am fully aware of the double standard, and while I have to admit it does make things better, I still think I won’t be able to enjoy that song anymore.

- I did it for Hurricane Sandy, not here it is for Sandy Hook: a list of all the victims, with their name and picture. Here’s to hoping for better laws about access to firearms and mental health care.

- How a gun-loving West Texas girl learned to fear assault weapons: a wonderful essay.

- Today marks the 200th anniversary of the first publication of Grimms’ Fairy Tales. I remember the shock I got after reading some of their original work after seeing the Disney versions… I tend to prefer the Grimms’ versions, though. And I just happened to watch The Brothers Grimm earlier this week, because I’d never gotten around to seeing it. The tales are better than the movie.

- Great profile on Jerry Seinfeld (really long, but worth it if you enjoy him).

- Portraits of people who look alike but aren’t related at all, by photographer François Brunelle.