Monday morning roundup

Okay everyone, my laptop is having issues so it's blogging from the iPad... We'll see how this goes...

Grief is an individual and often manageable thing.

How (and how not) to give.

Anne Applebaum calls out the ANC.

Ukraine on the brink.

States point fingers over coal pollution.

If the best case Jose Andres can make for immigration reform is himself, it's best he stick to restauranteuring. Seriously: his places are going downhill in quality.

Carolyn nails the boundaries thing as always.

Perihelion and why the day of the shortest sunset doesn't fall on the solstice.

Who knew: here's another blogosphere tempest in an teapot that was entirely off my radar until now, and I don't even have to pretend to have an opinion about it because, really, I just hate all xmas music (except Joni Mitchell's "River"). I'm going to play it (rather, the Indigo Girls' cover) right now. But here's perhaps the most quotable part of the post:

There are plenty of problematic things that I like -- and recognizing that other people's interpretations of things might also be valid is one of the first steps to liking problematic things without being a jerk about it.

But let's talk about the one aspect of the holidays that I actually like, in theory: holiday cards. When did they become uber-impersonal?