Ice Cream, Booker Winners, US Accents, Hiking Slovenia, Diary Ideas & More: Endnotes 02 February

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.

News you can use: Tomorrow is Ice Cream for Breakfast Day! The holiday has three simple rules: (1) Eat ice cream. (2) On the first Saturday of February. (3) For breakfast. It was started by Florence Rappaport in Rochester, NY. Legend has it the tradition began in 1966, when an epic blizzard hit the city, keeping kids home from school. Florence’s children were bored, and — we can only assume — she was probably fed up with the snow herself. So she declared they would all have ice cream for breakfast, and it became a family tradition that spread. Over the decades, Ice Cream for Breakfast Day has been celebrated in Nepal, Namibia, Germany, New Zealand, Chile, Honduras, China, and Israel. And this week, probably Prague. Get the scoop in these vintage newspaper stories from UPI and The Washington Post. We humbly suggest you loll in pajamas tomorrow morning, eat a bowl of ice cream, and watch some cartoons. Here’s a video with four easy ways to make homemade ice cream without an ice cream maker.

• This is fun! In late 2020, blogger Martin Vovk decided to read every Booker Prize winner. He had a pretty good time with it. (Although in his ranking of worst to best, Wolf Hall is only number 29. I must protest.)

• What is punctuation for? ‘[A] logical approach to punctuation is only a few centuries old. Prior to that, punctuation was largely a guide to reading aloud.’

• If you’re still looking for new reads for 2024, here are Nerdette’s 12 books to read this year and BBC’s recommendations for 45 releases in 2024.

• A Brief History of the United States’ Accents and Dialects. ‘Today, dialects affect Americans on a largely subconscious level, through a phenomenon known as language ideology. The term refers to the connections we make in our heads between the language features a speaker uses and our social perceptions of what that speaker’s like.’

• Remember when Dave talked about the sand theft in our podcast episode Jamaica: Let’s Get Together and Feel All Right? Scientific American peaks inside the crime rings trafficking sand.

• The Alpe-Adria-Trail in Slovenia looks fantastic.

• Fancy a trip to Cookie Town, Oklahoma? Maybe follow it up with a trek to Hot Coffee, Mississippi? Here are 6 U.S. small towns with names inspired by food.

• Whitby looks nice (so long as Dracula doesn’t show up):

• Maybe you’d like to nerd out on 17th-century ballads? Here’s a massive list of songs with sound files, mini histories, and related artwork.

• The paintings of Pieter Bruegel the Elder are delightfully bananas — and The Fight Between Carnival and Lent is one of the best. (Banana-est?)

• Cool and inspiring ideas: 6 Ways to Use a Diary.

• Dashiell Hammett, Henry Miller, Anaïs Nin, Kafka, and more — Nine Movies About Real-Life Writers.

• We were so happy to see Strong Sense of Place featured by the Museum for the United Nations:

• A parliament of owls, a murder of crows: How Groups of Birds Got Their Names — with illustrations.

• Ooh, I think you’re going to love this fairy-tale paper-cut art.

• Dreamy: Retracing Julia Child’s Footsteps Through Paris, 75 Years Later.

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 books: Broughtupsy by Christina Cooke and The Curse of Pietro Houdini by Derek B. Miller. Then Mel celebrates the birthday and work of author Judith Viorst. [transcript]

This episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/StrongSense and get on your way to being your best self.

Links

• Broughtupsy by Christina Cooke

• The Curse of Pietro Houdini by Derek B. Miller

• Podcast: Jamaica: Let’s Get Together and Feel All Right

• Video: Christina Cooke reads from Broughtupsy

• Christina Cooke website

• SSoP review: Butter Honey Pig Bread by Francesca Ekwuyasi

Distraction of the Week: Judith Viorst’s Birthday

• Video: Alexander 1990 animated special

• NPR: For 50 years, Alexander’s been having terrible, horrible, no good, very bad days

• NPR: ‘Nearing 90,’ Judith Viorst Says She’s Never Been Happier

• Video: Scholastic interview with Judith Viorst

• Judith Viorst’s Decades

• Podcast: The Other F Word with Judith Viorst

May you have the opposite of a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

Top image courtesy of Tobias/Unsplash.