It’s the last links post before the holidays start. Merry Christmas! Happy Hanukkah! And for those who celebrate anything else or nothing at all, I hope you have a peaceful time filled with love!
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Sarah was a guest on a recent episode of Read It and Weep. This time, they were talking about the movie, Merry Kissmas. Here’s a description of the episode:
Netflix thought Tanya would give this movie 4 stars.
Sure, it’s a Christmas movie written by interns, shot in Palo Alto in the middle of summer, and produced in 3 days. But Netflix thought Tanya would like it because she likes cheesy movies. Maybe not this cheesy though.
Kayla is engaged to a super famous choreographer (I know!) but it’s not going well because his fake British accent is too annoying. Then a magic/cursed elevator (really!) forces her to kiss a charming chef with a surprising number of platonic female friends and together they get a dog. Homeless Santa doesn’t help much a group of time traveling robots caught in a Christmas loop serenade them. That’s the book?
Anyone else love watching cheesy Halmark holiday movies?
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I know many of us experience anxiety, so I found this article really helpful. Using sound therapy research, neuroscientists have located a few songs that have shown to reduce anxiety:
The study was conducted on participants who attempted to solve difficult puzzles as quickly as possible while connected to sensors. The puzzles induced a certain level of stress, and participants listened to different songs while researchers measured brain activity as well as physiological states that included heart rate, blood pressure, and rate of breathing.
As someone who experiences anxiety right as they’re going to sleep, I appreciated the Spotify playlist they put together. I can put it on as a nice alternative to my white noise app.
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Carrie looks forward to AdequateMan’s Hater’s Guide to the Williams-Sonoma Catalog every year. If you haven’t experienced it before, here is 2016’s edition:
You listen to me, you shameless fonduemongers: There’s a reason no fondue pot on Earth has been used since 1988. Fondue is a complete pain in the ass. I have three small children. You really think it’s a good idea for me to hand them very sharp forks and then put a fucking CAULDRON of boiling hot cheese on the table, within their reach? Are you fucking insane? I still have scars on my arm from The Great Beef Fondue Incident Of ’85 at my parents’ house.
Admittedly, I like some of the items in the catalog. What I don’t like is the price tag.
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And, if you’re not a frequent watcher of Saturday Night Live, you missed out on a great sketch set in an erotic bookstore called The Scorched Corset (sound familiar?) The host was wrestler and actor John Cena:
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iGo Keyjuice Keyring
The iGo is an itty bitty tool that unfolds to one USB connection, plus a USB and a USB Micro, so you can plug your phone into your laptop, or into a portable battery. Excellent for tiny emergency kits, too.
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Don’t forget to share what super cool things you’ve seen, read, or listened to this week! And if you have anything you think we’d like to post on a future Wednesday Links, send it my way!
That SNL sketch was brilliant.
Also, not a thing I’ve read, but more a thing I’ve done. My little “it makes me laugh, but really, this is actually how I show that I love you” thing is that I give my kids’ teachers romance novels paired with a gift card for coffee or soda or whatever they can drink for $5. The more the shirtless the man on the cover, the higher the likelihood I’m handing you that one. I rolled up into my daughter’s classroom (she has two teachers this year), and watched as she handed over the two Monica McCarty Highland Guard novels that I had picked up with the gift cards sticking out of them like bookmarks. I have rarely seen teachers laugh that hard, and one of them goes, “Well, this is just the best.” Then they put the books where a bunch of 10 year olds couldn’t peer at them curiously (though let’s be real, that would have made it even better).
My hubs saved SNL just so I could watch that sketch the next day (I’m never up late enough to watch it real time). He thought it was funny, but he could also tell that there were a bunch of inside jokes that he was missing. It kind of reminded me of those funny Harlequin commercials last year.
How much you want to bet that Rabbit Electric Sucking Corkscrew has been in more than one emergency room with a turgid manroot stuck in it?
Seriously, though, I got the BEST cookie sheets from Williams-Sonoma ages ago. I think they’re steel, and they’re tied with the KitchenAid for Best Thing I Own After 72 Easy Payments.
I once picked up a free (really free, not just a “gift” from an overheated clerk) bookmark with a picture of a mostly shirtless man whose long hair was blowing in a (carefully angled) breeze to send to a friend. OF COURSE she opened it in the crowded elevator and OF COURSE the bookmark fell out, face up.
I think she’s forgiven me ….
@Crystal, that is brilliant! Wish I had thought of that when my kids were in school.
I used to work at Williams-Sonoma for a while, and I still go there to get their Mexican vanilla. It has a much smoother, mellower flavor than regular Madagascar vanilla and makes baking taste so SO much better. Worth the ridiculous price tag. Going there this year for our Christmas crackers since for once I can afford the really cushy ones. 🙂
“Be My Nutcracker Whisperer” should be a collaboration between Chuck Tingle and one of those Dinosaur Rape writers.
Re: anxiety and music article, I have such awful insomnia I am willing to try nearly anything to get to sleep (short of actually going on prescription meds; I have a friend who drove while sleeping thanks to Ambien and I am not willing to fuck with it). I’m absolutely going to download the 10-hour version of “Weightless” and give it a listen before bed tonight. I normally don’t like to listen to music before bed because I get songs stuck in my head really easily, but since “Weightless” doesn’t really have an identifiable tune, I’m hopeful.
Seriously, anything is better than lying there listening to my heart race and panicking because I can’t sleep and I have to be up in a few hours. Thank you for the link.
@Dread Pirate Rachel: I know those feelings so much! Wishing you some restful sleep sometime soon.
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I really want those chocolate mice! Last winter I had a real mouse invasion, and that was nowhere as fun as I bet these mice would be. And if the real ones returned, I could use a chocolate one set in a bowl of mouse poison as date bait.
Love the SNL clip-it gave me much needed comic relief, thanks for sharing! As far as sleeping problems/anxiety I wholeheartedly recommend gentle yoga about an hour before sleep. Also, I try and avoid any screens an hour before sleep (sometimes I don’t follow this and I have a much more difficult time falling asleep).