Batch of links

- Today is the anniversary of when the world as we knew it changed (or, as one of my contacts on Twitter put it, the “pandammit”). I really enjoyed this article by Mackenzie Chung Fegan, a skeptic Brooklynite looking to mysticism to help her find some certainty (and it was published in Bon Appétit, if that wasn’t enough paradoxes for you). 

- An article by Julia Turshen (of Small Victories), titled How Writing a Cookbook Helped Me Break Free From Diet Culture. 

- Around the World in Rare and Beautiful Apples. This makes me miss living someplace where apples grow well… 

- I also read that the iconic McIntosh apple might well disappear. 

- There are people who will absolutely insist on using the Oxford comma, but others actually make a case against it. Since one must not put a comma before “et” in French, it wasn’t my reflex to use the Oxford comma; these days, I lean towards simply making sure the sentence is clear. Here are some examples. 

- My youngest, who just turned four, has the habit of licking the skin around his lips, which ends up giving him a rash, especially in the winter. I had been using Glaxal Base to soothe the area at night, but he eventually put up a fight and wouldn’t let me use it anymore. So I switched to Earth Mama’s Face, Nose & Cheek Balm, and it’s going really well! My kid is fine putting it on (perhaps because there are ingredients like coconut oil in there?), and it’s working wonders for that rash – things are literally better overnight, and with the warmer weather now, the rash has healed completely.