Piñata

'Tis the season for making the annual Christmas piñata in my household. Last year a rather mangy cat kept the niece and nephew and the neighbours' kids amused for a long, long, l-o-n-g time (maybe fewer layers this year...). And then there was the supplementary just-in-case one, the 'piñata of shame', covered in pictures of people who well deserved to be whacked with a stick. This year, thanks to instructions in the local paper on making a papier-mâché piggy bank, I think I'll try a big pink pig piñata. I think the paper may have pinched the 'recipe' from here.

Sisyphus

Another great gift for the classicist with everything from the brilliant Unemployed Philosophers Guild: "Eternally condemned, Sisyphus pushes his rock round as the seconds tick by." You can get your 'Freudian Slippers' here too.

Remembrance Day

Image source.

More Condensed Soup

How condensed soup is made.

Campbell's Soup Barbie

What more can I say?

Source: the vintage kid collection.

Frog cake ephemera

Support local enterprise at Decibel Clothing Co., esp. their Frog Cake t-shirts and hoodies.

Books in Long Rows

In her memorial essay for Sylvia Beach of 'Shakespeare & Co.', Janet Flanner wrote: "Sylvia had a vigorous clear mind, an excellent memory, tremendous respect for books as civilizing objects and was really a remarkable librarian. She loved the printed word and books in long rows."

Source: Shari Benstock, Women of the Left Bank: Paris, 1900-1940 (U. Texas Press, 1986).

Book Lust

From the publisher Chatto & Windus: "An entirely new kind of biography, Oscar’s Books explores the personality of Oscar Wilde through his reading. It argues that reading exercised a formative influence on Wilde’s character and was the inspiration for his own writings."

One review. Not released in Australia until November.

Image source: (c) Chatto & Windus/Random House.

Pâtisseries of Paris

I had to order this book...

More information from the publisher, The Little Bookroom.

Thinking about Christmas

Christmas presents? The DVA's 2009 calendar features posters such as 'Join Us in a Victory Job'. Available from the Australian War Memorial shop. Buy some Flanders poppy seeds too.

Image source (with full description): Australian War Memorial.