Some NYTimes articles...

On Kazakhs and horses

( Read more... )

On the World's Largest Laundromat

( Read more... )

On Brazilian immigrants in NYC

( Read more... )

On Ghana's "Embrace of Slavery's Diaspora"

( Read more... )

On global warming....

( Read more... )

On a new cooperative restaurant

( Read more... )

On Muslim women in Europe

( Read more... )

And a few more...

On church-hopping teens

( Read more... )

On co-sleeping

( Read more... )

Long-term goal (not a resolution!)

I'm going to work on my French. I'm not completely hopeless - for things normally said within a family, I have a basic passive not-quite-fluency. But I want to improve on that for a few reasons:

1. I think that it's important for me to get back in touch with my cousins, and it's more polite to do that in their language.
2. I ultimately want to learn Walloon, and I need to get to work on the French if that's going to happen.
3. I think it's important for Jenn's kids, and just hearing it from their Nanen isn't going to help them much.

The third has a sub-goal - I'm going to find or make a playgroup of people who speak French or want to with their kids. Because something within me chafes at the idea of paying a large-ish sum of perfectly good money to watch toddlers play in French. I found a program that is $15 per session, drop-in, which is much better than paying a full sum in advance, no worries if you miss a session, but it still seems silly when you don't need to and there's no underlying ethical obligation. Cows, milk, you know the adage.

Any advice on the goal and sub-goal?

My clock says 11:59, but people are already screaming outside.

So, uh, have a happy new year?