Macy's Parade, Modern Manners, Chocolate, Holiday Poetry & More: Endnotes 25 November

Every Friday, we celebrate the weekend — and all the reading and relaxing and daydreaming time ahead — with Melissa's favorite book- and travel-related links of the week. Why work when you can read fun stuff?!

This post is part of our Endnotes series.

The photo above combines two American icons: The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and Poppin’ Fresh, the Pillsbury Doughboy. The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade debuted in 1924. It was originally conceived to promote ‘World’s Largest Store’ — 1 million square feet of retail space — at the kickoff of the holiday shopping season. In 1927, the enormous balloons were added to the festivities and included ‘a dinosaur 60 feet long attended by a bodyguard of prehistoric cavemen’ and ‘a 25-foot dachshund [that] swayed along in the company of gigantic turkeys and chickens and ducks of heroic size.’ Here’s the history of the parade and 47 fun facts about the world’s most famous parade. Our old pal Poppin’ Fresh was born on March 18, 1965, and starred in 500 commercials for Pillsbury products. This podcast tells the story of this adorable mascot in the words of its creator Rudy Perz.

• Lizzie Post and Daniel Post Senning are the descendants of Emily Post, of etiquette fame. They’re charming and funny, and a few years ago, I was obsessed with their podcast Awesome Etiquette. In this article, Lizzie talks about how the centennial editions of the epic guide to manners has been updated for the 21st century. It now addresses the challenges of digital communication, to hug or not to hug, and personal pronouns. ‘If you don’t know someone’s pronouns… asking is the polite thing to do: Joan, what pronouns do you use? Note that you don’t ask what pronouns Joan prefers — an unfortunately common construction for this question.’

• Did you know you can adopt a book at the British Library? It’s a little bit like The Cemetery of Forgotten Books but in real life.

• Sorta related: Helena Bonham Carter is the first female president of the London Library.

• These paintings of nighttime Japanese street scenes stopped me in my tracks. See more on Keita Morimoto’s website.

• Delicious! The Sweet and Sticky History of the Date.

• This essay from The Everywhereist made me laugh and speaks the truth. You Do Not Need to Make a Pumpkin Pie From Scratch. Ever.

• Delicious, Part 2: The Reckoning! On the podcast Obsessions: Wild Chocolate, host Rowan Jacobson’ elbows his way through the rain forest, crash lands into cocaine flyaways, and avoids a few too many anacondas, tagging along with modern-day Lara Crofts as they try to get their hands on some of the world’s most ancient — and expensive — cacao.

• YES! NPR just released its 2022 version of Books We Love.

• Also funny and full of truth, from LitHub: I beg you, don’t buy a novelty notebook for the book lover in your life this holiday season.

• This is a great poem from Typewriter Rodeo:

• Here’s an excellent gift for the mystery lover on your shopping list: a t-shirt or hoodie from Murder by the Book.

• Our pal Whitney Matheson — creator of the now-gone but never forgotten blog Pop Candy — wrote a short film called Denny Barracuda. ‘Who on earth is Denny Barracuda? William has no idea, but he’s about to let her into his apartment after spending eight months in quarantine.’ You can watch it on Vimeo.

• Test your knowledge on this quiz! You get a famous person, a landmark, and a food dish, then you guess the country. (I got 10/11.)

New Episode of The Library of Lost Time

In each mini-podcast episode, we discuss two books at the top of our TBR, then share a fun book- or travel-related distraction. Get all the episodes and books galore here.

In this episode, we get excited about two new books: The Secret History of Christmas by Bill Bryson and Wayward: A Novel (Wanderers Book 2) by Chuck Wendig. Then Mel takes us to the Germany of the Brothers Grimm. [transcript]

Links

• The Secret History of Christmas by Bill Bryson

• A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail by Bill Bryson

• Notes from a Small Island by Billy Bryson

• Wanderers by Chuck Wendig

• Wayward (Wanderers Book 2) by Chuck Wendig

• Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

• The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

• German Fairy Tale Route website

• Culture Trip’s guide to the German Fairy Tale Route

• Visit the Grimmwelt, the Brothers Grimm museum, and feast your eyes on Wilhelmshöhe Palace. Here are fantastic photos of the monument to Hercules and the fountains.

May your current read end as strong as it begins.

Top image courtesy of Gordon Donovan/Shutterstock.