Hello there Glibbies! Long time no links.

I’ve got so many things whirling around in my mind I rather don’t know where to begin.

A couple mornings a week I look after a toddler who belongs to two of my employees before I go about my errands for the coffee shop. A couple days ago I was claimed by one of the outdoor cats who lives in the yard. She’s incredibly sweet and has decided her best life is lived riding around on my shoulders.

I arrived yesterday morning and went about my usual routine. I got the kid up, changed, and fed. I was making myself coffee when I heard a very faint “meoowww” by the door. The child toddled over, as he does, and said, “cat!”

That, in and of itself, was quite a big deal. He is autistic, and has a very restricted vocabulary. His usual words are, “hi” “hug” “help” “outside” and “Tractor Supply.” Yes, Tractor Supply the retailer. It’s adorable.

For about a month now, I’ve been studying Arabic. It quickly came to my attention if I really want to do a good job of this, I need to study Modern Standard Arabic, Egyptian Arabic, and Levantine Arabic. The dialects are similar, but not as similar as I had hoped, which makes the journey even more challenging. The child has mastered the word عفواً (afwan), which translates to “pardon” and is also used as a response to “thanks” شكراً (shukran).

I also introduced the child to the world of Terry Pratchett. We’ve watched Going Postal twice this week now. I highly recommend it if you haven’t seen it. It wasn’t until this most recent re-watching that I noticed Alex Price from Father Brown has a small role. I rather enjoy the mini-series they made of Pratchett’s work, even if they’re not 100% true to the books. I watch Hogfather every Christmas Eve, and feel it’s really the best Christmas Movie (next to Die Hard, of course).

In other news, l0b0t and I have been arguing about something for a little bit now: are operas musicals? My position is operas are musical, but are not musicals. l0b0t thinks operas are in fact musicals in and of themselves. l0b0t also thinks musicals are the highest form of theatre, but I’ll leave that argument for the comments. 😉

Onto links…

Some of these links might be repeating what’s popped up in the comments lately. I’ve been too busy to keep up with the site. But here’s what’s caught my eye this week.

This writer really likes hats

A very useful list

Babylon Bee kills it with an article about the new female Twitter CEO.

For a mere €950,000 this charming property in County Wicklow can be yours.

I recently got my hands on a bottle of Widow Jane Decadence. If you’re interested in bourbon, I strongly suggest hunting one down. One of the better bourbons I’ve ever had.

This Twitter thread about the magical bakery box at Costco.