"The names, I think now, are the most important thing in the novel. The names I gave the characters, and the names they gave themselves, and the freedom those names gave them."
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/dec/12/roddy-doyle-on-writing-the-commitments-whenever-i-needed-a-name-i-used-the-phonebook

“Having your book turned into a movie is like seeing your oxen turned into bouillon cubes”― John Le Carré

RIP, sir.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/13/books/john-le-carre-dead.html

There’s a special onus on the villains in crime dramas. They have to be wicked, but they also have to make that wickedness interesting. #cosobookclub https://theamericanscholar.org/rogues-gallery/

"The animal motifs in marginal illustrations were neither aimless doodles nor inside jokes. They were allegorical figures descended from the menageries of Medieval bestiaries, repeated thematically to represent human vices and virtues." https://www.openculture.com/2020/12/why-butt-trumpets-other-bizarre-images-appeared-in-illuminated-medieval-manuscripts.html

The discovery of a stunning new fifth-century mosaic suggests the dark ages weren’t quite as grim as we’d thought, at least initially. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/dec/10/stunning-dark-ages-mosaic-found-at-roman-villa-in-cotswolds

A 1964 article from the New Yorker, in which Calvin Trillin recounts a plane ride with MLK and an exchange with a white passenger. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1964/08/29/letter-from-jackson

Researchers restore lost sight in mice, offering clues to reversing aging https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/12/researchers-restore-lost-sight-mice-offering-clues-reversing-aging

With a new filling and a new crust, American innovator Monroe Strause changed pie forever. Strause considered pie to be the “Great American Dessert,” and deemed it superior to just about every other food. One problem in particular vexed him. He was supremely unsatisfied with cream pies, which were thick, heavy, and reminded him of cornstarch pudding. So he began experimenting, and Chiffon Pie was born.
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/american-pie-history

The always interesting, and particularly so in this particularly crazy year, Google Search Trends. https://trends.google.com/trends/yis/2020/US/

In America, Christmas trees are a multibillion-dollar business. But who’s making the money? https://thehustle.co/the-economics-of-christmas-trees/

I did not have "monk covering Enter Sandman" on my bingo card today.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0gwg0A5uOw&feature=emb_title

Henry VIII’s toilet block at his Hampton Court Palace was known as the Great House of Easement, a phrase that, in my opinion, should enter the general bathroom lexicon right alongside the “oval office.” https://reviewcanada.ca/magazine/2020/11/bathroom-reading/

Eighty years ago, a small single-seat fighter was largely responsible for defeating Germany’s attempts to invade Britain. But it wasn’t the Spitfire. https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20201127-the-forgotten-fighter-plane-which-won-the-battle-of-britain

Bentley is 40,000 man-hours into its painstaking reverse-engineered, laser-scanned copy of the 1929 Bentley Blower, and has just announced the completion of "car zero" – the master prototype from which 12 "Continuation Series" cars will be built. https://www.bentleymedia.com/en/newsitem/1164-the-first-new-bentley-blower-for-90-years

This is one area where we humans still beat computers. https://www.futurity.org/cut-out-cookies-cutter-geometric-problem-algorithms-2483542-2/

An artist talks through how he creates mesmerizing wooden kinetic structures. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROP45rjvOHg&feature=youtu.be&mc_cid=753a67fe0f&mc_eid=89b7e25825

TIL The Postal Service began receiving letters to Santa Claus more than a century ago. Operation Santa dates to 1912, when Frank Hitchcock, postmaster general at the time, allowed postal workers to open and respond to letters addressed to the North Pole. https://about.usps.com/holidaynews/operation-santa.htm

This was the most upvoted post on reddit during 2020. https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/haucpf/ive_found_a_few_funny_memories_during_lockdown/