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As you know, I am amused by Richard Scarry. I like his style — it’s beautiful — but I’m skeptical of his idealistic obsession with manic and uneneding labour. It’s all in good fun but there’s also a sinister calvinism just beneath the surface. “Children are workers too” reads a page of his What Do People Do All Day?. Look into the eyes of that fireman cat and you’ll see …

When it comes to bringing an old game a breath of fresh air, Age of Mythology: Retold not only lives up to its esteemed if underrated pedigree. Released on September 4, 2024, over two decades since Ensemble Studios’ fantastical spinoff to the Age of Empires series made it to shelves, it is setting a new benchmark for how to approach “remakes” properly. Given enough time and attention, it has the …

Editor’s note: This story is presented in a choose-your-own-path style. If you happen to have a D20 on hand, feel free to roll for your choices. In 1984, when I was 11 years old, a friend told me about something new, something exciting. He urged me to try it. He struggled to explain exactly what it was he was talking about, and I didn’t really understand what had so fired …

It’s been so nice to really delve back into personal art this month. Things are happening! Want to follow my newsletters? Find ’em here all for free: RSS | Mailing List | Patreon Public November Art I crosspost all my public Friday art over on tumblr, mastodon, pillowfort, bluesky and jpawlik.com/blog with sketches and thumbnails up over a month early for all Patrons and VIP members! Webcomic Updates We’ve wrapped …

Generative AI features have a large climate impact and water consumption. We can weigh that impact against those features' benefits, but what if they are left unused? If lots of people don't in fact use the thing? That seems like lots of avoidable waste. Which matters, we're in a climate emergency and we're dangerously far from that 1.5 degrees target. I know, we all want people to use features we …

100 Bow residents head to Ely for a Christmas day out

Paccheri with calamari and potato is a quick and flavourful Neapolitan pasta recipe traditional on the Sorrento peninsula and the island of Ischia. This divine seafood pasta dish only uses a handful of ingredients and can be on your table in just 45 minutes! History This paccheri with calamari and potato recipe originates from a... The post Paccheri Pasta with Calamari (squid) and Potatoes appeared first on The Pasta Project.

Sometimes you have a run of good fortune in fishing - and that certainly wasn't the case in November! Blank after blank after blank, a lot of time on the river without a run on the pike gear. Eventually managed a little jack on a lure during Storm Bert - and after not seeing a fish for weeks it was worth getting soaked for!! Let's hope the December pike are …

Did you know that you live in Avocado Land? “The citizens of the Golden State can make a better claim for having ‘invented’ the avocado than anyone else,” writes Rob Crisell in the opening chapter of his new book California Avocados: A Delicious History. I did not know this growing up because I, like Crisell, […] The post California Avocados: a delicious history, by Rob Crisell (book review) appeared first …

An Everlasting Meal by Tamar Adler (Scribner, 2011) An Everlasting Meal is a modern-day How To Cook A Wolf—a practical, no-nonsense, and economical approach to cooking that eschews recipes for methods that can be remixed and adapted to whatever is on hand. As with her predecessor, M.F.K. Fisher, Adler approaches cooking as if money were tight (or rations were short): cores of cauliflower and stems of parsley are boiled then …

I worked a 3.75 day week. My nice planned Monday off got somewhat messed up by spending half of it on a coach cos of the flooded railways coming back from Falmouth, but the National Express service was dead good (I’m a convert!) and I got a whole work-related book read on the journey. I took a couple more hours off on Tuesday to take Joel to an appointment – …

What caught my eye this week. With 2024’s decline in mortgage rates arrested – if not yet quite beaten-up for resisting said arrest – it is likely house prices will continue to go nowhere for a while. Especially given the higher stamp duty for buy-to-let landlords that came in with the October Budget. The now-5% stamp duty surcharge they pay is survivable. But it’s hardly going to spur animal spirits. …

Suffice to say, it’s been a very long year. I lived through some serious renovations on the house, moved my workshop to another room in the house, and generally just had so much going on professionally and socially I did far less woodworking this year than I would have hoped. But even with all that, […]

Got the kids’ Christmas stockings sorted? But what about your own? Or for the adult classic crime fiction fan in your life? Well don’t worry as for a limited time you can buy a Christmas stocking themed around vintage detective mysteries. If you have been hoping for such an item to exist, then your wait is over! Etsy Link: https://etsy.me/4igb4Ft Each Christmas stocking will contain: • 4 Books (Preloved but …

bookshop.org! a percentage of every sale goes to small independent bookstores that don't have their own infrastructure for shipping and the like -- they have raised over 34 million $ for bookstores in their program!Also: They are having a "Black Friday" sale right now!!!GO SHOP!!!!!!!