News You Can Bruise for 2009 December 19 (entry 0)

Sat Dec 19 2009 18:37 Link Time: Holiday Special: The true meaning of Holiday is lost in the mists of time, but for now, enjoy some links.

• Giving Anonymously launders your charitable donations so that you can give money to someone you know without awkwardness, or give to a nonprofit without getting on their mailing list. Donations are not tax-deductible and "[i]t is against the law to use Giving Anonymously to pay employees as a way of avoiding payroll taxes."
• Printable holiday cards with Hubble pictures on them. Not pictured: the supernova remnant from Arthur C. Clarke's story "The Star".
• Seasonal desserts I want to make but haven't yet: butter cookies, pumpkin-hazelnut donuts.
• Not-directly-holiday-related metaspecial! Two friends of mine have joined group weblogs that talk about video games. Warp Skip! is like Adam Parrish's 20th weblog, and Alexei Othenin-Girard is reviewing casual games for Jay is Games. I myself am suspicious that Jay is not really Games, and Alexei promised he would investigate this, but I have not heard from him on the topic.

The crummy.com nostalgia-thon begins around Christmas. Pretty much all the nostalgia will be 2009-related, because end-of-decade nostalgia sucks. Everyone's opinions are already formed and all the links are broken.