I haven’t posted one of these in a while, so much so that “weekly reads” is a bit of a misnomer now. Hopefully as the semester goes on I’ll post a few more of these, no matter how busy I am.
Without further ado, here is another installment of Weekly Reads.
“Neil Gaiman Reimagines Hansel & Gretel” — Brain Pickings: I’ve somewhat forgotten about Brain Pickings in the last few months. It used to be a favorite of mine, and books reviewed on here have made up my Christmas book list for the past couple years. I like that Brain Pickings articles don’t have to be read the day or the week they’re posted. This article, from 2014, is about Gaiman’s adaptation of Hansel and Gretel. More importantly, though, it describes Gaiman’s thoughts on exposing children to dark stories and not talking down to them. “And for me, the thing that is so big and so important about the darkness is [that] it’s like in an inoculation… You are giving somebody darkness in a form that is not overwhelming — it’s understandable, they can envelop it, they can take it into themselves, they can cope with it.”
“Puffin Therapy” — National Geographic: A short article and photo essay on the Puffin population of an island off the coast of Wales. The photos (which are gorgeous) show the changes in beaks and eye “ornaments” that puffins acquire during the mating season.
“Norway Again Embraces the Vikings, Minus the Violence” — New York Times: At the end of the summer I took photos for a news story on a Viking camp for children in the Eau Claire area. Scandinavian heritage is big in Wisconsin and Minnesota. And the Vikings are being revived in Norway — that is, the historical craftsmanship of Vikings is being revived in a Norwegian government funded course. Viking history has been more or less downplayed since the Second World War in Norway, due to the appropriation of symbols by the Nazis. This article has a nice little history of the troubles in Norway of re-embracing Viking history, as well as how people are trying to overcome it. Oh, and be sure to check out the HappyViking blog.
“Beaver Tails: Classic Canadian Fair Food (No Real Beavers Involved)” — Food52: No Weekly Reads would be complete without a recipe I’ve been meaning to try out — but haven’t yet. This time it’s Beaver Tails! A Canadian fried dough topped with cinnamon and sugar. Does anything else need to be said?
Are there any interesting articles you’ve been reading? Any magazines/news sites I should check out?
A Storied Year 