It’s one of those things that sounds much tastier than it is in reality. I can remember going to NYC in winter when I was 19, and being so thrilled at finally getting to try roasted chestnuts from a street vendor. Umm... I’ll take one of those oversalted pretzels instead, thank you very much.

Perfect!

I have a friend who has started mispronouncing some words as though he’s reading them aloud in his head. “Giuliani” is Ghee-oo-liani, “Angelo” is angle-oh, “cicada” is chee-cada. One time, “larger” (as in bigger) was larg-ur. I honestly don’t know if this is significant or not. The funny thing is that he used to say…

All sound strategies :) I especially agree with the delay of decorations removal. We all need as much seasonal colour and light as we can get!

I really like the first one below! There are others that are better animated, but the balance of warm interior and cool exterior is well judged. I especially love the harp music, which is delicate and calming.

You sound like a very kind person. I hope you and they have a good Christmas together.

This is the first year I’ve seen my neighbours putting up their Christmas trees, lights and wreaths markedly ahead of the usual time.

I’ve never cared for spinach dip particularly, but I do love Brussels sprouts. Any particular dip recipe you’d like to recommend?

I’m in Canada and it seems to vary from one province to another, but ... I found my (previous!) optometrist was super-reluctant to provide that information. I always had to argue: to say I was going out of the country and wanted the script for emergency purposes (which was true).

Absolutely! I must request the PD before the optometrist provides it — in my [Canadian] jurisdiction, anyway. If you’re buying eyeglasses online, you need this information.

Is this why sometimes people bounce their leg up and down continually when seated (on a chair at the doctor’s office, when sitting on the bus...)? I’ve always been curious, but I’ve never asked because (a) I don’t want to make the person feel self-conscious, (b) it’s not hurting me, and (c) it’s honestly not my…

The only useful thing about a peppermint stick!

I grew up Anglican (Church of England, Episcopalian). As a child I used to peruse the Book of Common Prayer in church. I remember being surprised that the Table of Kindred and Affinity says nothing about marrying first cousins.

Or maybe buy an assortment of interesting ales from microbreweries... maybe a Belgian witbier, a German-style Dunkel, that kind of thing. Less of a commitment per bottle and a lot more tastes to explore.

I’d love to hear some recommendations of foreign-language TV series. I started watching Netflix’s Mystic Pop-Up Bar (from South Korea) - another one-season show, just finished shooting in early 2000. It’s surrealistic, funny, tragic, more than slightly bonkers, but the characters grew on me despite all of it — and by…

My rental apartment has window sills so narrow, they’re functionally non-existent. I could perhaps balance a very tiny pot there, but most herbs require more soil. I’d like to harvest more than a scant teaspoonful.

tl;dr: “No.”

There used to be a phone app called Cafe Wifi. It was meant primarily to identify cafes with free wifi (back when that was relatively rare), but it also flagged a number of other attributes that made the cafes more people-friendly, such as natural lighting and so forth.

Hopefully they’ll send it up north to us in Canada!

That wouldn’t have worked with the basketballs that the local kids kicked against the outer wall of our flat (which was at the end of a row of flats, facing the adjoining street). I could try to ignore the noise with my ears, but the WHUMP WHUMP WHUMP of the impact was something my body could not ignore.