Welcome back to Links! How are we all doing?!
I have such a busy week and I’m running on fumes due to a minor cold and from still recovering from the previous busy week. But we will get through it!
I’ve come to realize that I really do love the Christmas season and now living in a place that gets snow has only reinforced that. Like…Florida has its own brand of Christmas style, but it certainly isn’t a snowy one. However, I am toying with the idea of celebrating next year’s Christmas at Disney. Have any of you experience a Disney Christmas? Was it too packed or simply magical?
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If you’re curious what we’re all talking about in the SBTB Slack and Patreon, it’s this latest book drama! Sarah and I have also toyed with bonus content episodes where we dish about what the latest scandal is in the book world.
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My partner sent this link to me. It’s all about funeral cheese, which is going to be the name of my death metal band if I ever start one.
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RIP to the Chuck E. Cheese animatronics. Does anyone have fond memories of the place? I remember it was one of the few places my dad would take me when he had weekends with me. It was either that or Texas Roadhouse.
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Sarah shared this with us: Saveur is coming back to print! Are any of you subscribed to print magazines still?
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Don’t forget to share what cool or interesting 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!
Christmas — the actual few days before and after — are a madhouse at Disneyworld. But considering that Disney Christmas starts around November 11, you can experience all of the decorations, magic, etc., away from the lunacy. And don’t forget Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party; the first night is packed, but there are others throughout the week, very small crowds because a separate ticket is required. (I prefer Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween party, but YMMV.)
Funeral cheese? Interesting.
I subscribe to Oh Reader – it’s a lovely quarterly magazine about the love of reading and filled with great essays on a wide variety of topics, beautiful photos, and almost no ads. By readers, for readers, and exactly what I want from a magazine about books and reading. If you have a Barnes & Noble or other stockist near you, I highly recommend checking it out; their winter issue just came out this past week. They also have a discount code available on their Instagram right now for print subscriptions. They also have a digital option.
I also will pick up the quarterly Forks Over Knives magazines and occasionally VegNews at the newsstand.
Magazines are going to be one of those things that goes out with older millennials, I think. We seem to be the last generation who grew up with them as formative information sources in our teenage years.
You might also try New Years or just after for Disney. I’ve done that in the past and the parks have been almost empty. But the Christmas parades and such still go on.
I went to Chunk E. Cheese a few times as a child. What I loved were the games, tickets, and prizes, not the animatronics. The animatronics were creepy, weren’t they? I mean – look at that photo in the NPR article. Creepy!
Yikes to that book drama. Amazing that someone can show act with no sympathy other people in the same situation they’re in.
I remember ads for Chuck E. Cheese but never went to one.
Please start a death metal band so there will be one with that name!
No print magazines for me — I don’t use print anymore if I can avoid it.
I have made trips to Walt Disney World at least 15 times and I consider it my “happy place.” That being said, I have told people you couldn’t pay me to go the week of 12/25-1/1 – busiest week of the year. But as @Darlynne said, if you want to enjoy the season without the major major crowds the parks are all decorated and events happening starting in November (although I believe some of the Epcot events don’t start until late November). If you are going to do the holidays at WDW, really plan to spend time seeing the resorts all decorated especially those with large gingerbread displays (Grand Floridian, Boardwalk, Beach/Yacht Club, Contemporary).
I still subscribe to Real Simple. There’s just something relaxing about paging through a magazine that you don’t get with digital. It’s relaxing. And it’s nice to get mail I actually want.
Thank you for all the Disney suggestions! Growing up in FL, we were more of a Universal family so didn’t go to Disney much. I think my partner and I want to try and spend one major holiday down there (Thanksgiving or Christmas) as a means of avoiding family obligations.
@Amanda then I would suggest Thanksgiving for sure – the crowds are still very high but not like the week of Christmas and you still get all of the decorations and events going on. I have gone at Thanksgiving once.
I still have a couple of print magazine subscriptions.
I’m probably the only person who hasn’t been to a Disney property, not for lack of want, but because my parents had no money and my husband had no interest. Yes, my kids feel deprived. My husband thinks their annual free trip to Hershey Park courtesy of his employer is enough. lol Honestly, he doesn’t do the rides.
My memory of taking the kids to Chuck E. Cheese is crappy pizza, miles of tickets, and tons of quarters/tokens spent for a few junky toys. But, the kids had fun, and that’s all that matters.
My friend took me to a Chuck E. Cheese when I visited her in Pittsburgh (ca. 1983) and I thought it was the best restaurant I had ever seen. I remember crawling through a tunnel under the stage (a mouse tunnel) and playing skee ball. I think we liked the animatronics. But life was a lot different then?
I subscribe to The New Yorker, and I read it like it’s my job, although I’m currently 5 or 6 issues behind. I’m a bit obsessive reading it pretty much cover to cover, for reasons too complicated to explain. And it does make me feel very well informed about the most arcane topics.