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Caroline explores archives and record keeping and the daunting reality of impermanence in “what we leave behind...”

https://carolineeliz.substack.com/p/what-we-leave-behind

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Whoo! I love this, it’s the highlight of the month.

Here’s mine:

https://open.substack.com/pub/practicespace/p/no-20-bones?r=1tks3b&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post

Description: Andrei Atanasov has never broken a bone, and that used to make him feel like a loser; but are broken bones really a sign of prowess, or are they just painful reminders of stupidity?

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John Halbrooks provides his idiosyncratic guide to the recordings of Leonard Bernstein, complete with a playlist, just in time for the new Bradley Cooper film *Maestro*: https://open.substack.com/pub/johnhalbrooks/p/bird-bolts-and-cannon-bullets-xxi?r=kyg3a&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcome=true

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Hermann J. Diehl analyzes lyric by lyric the song Santa Claus is Coming to Town, for could there be a hidden message in it?

https://www.subconsciousfat.com/p/lessons-from-santa

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https://buildinghope.substack.com/p/talking-back-to-walden-4cb

For December’s Talking Back to Walden, Julie Gabrielli spends a rainy afternoon with a magnificent triple poplar tree in the foothills of the Appalachians not far from the Shenandoah River, acting on advice to take a new view.

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Natalie discovers time is an infinite loop vortex

https://subverse.substack.com/p/north-woods-by-daniel-mason

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In this somewhat unconventional book review, Terry Freedman tackles The Kreutzer Sonata by Tolstoy: https://terryfreedman.substack.com/p/reposted-and-updated-the-kreutzer

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David writes about a memory of how his 12 year old son reacted in shul to a story about a loaf of bread, Dostoyevsky’s Grand Inquisitor and his argument with Jesus, and how it all remains relevant today.

https://robertsdavidn.substack.com/p/the-og-fascist-dostoyevskys-grand

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Inspired by Harry Brewis' recent video on YouTube plagiarism, Mikhail Skoptsov shares a personal story of how one of his original articles was stolen by an editor working at a formerly respectable mainstream film blog known as 'Slashfilm,' which has basically turned into a content mill:

https://textualvariations.substack.com/p/slashfilm-plagiarism

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Kathryn interviews Christine who answers in comic art images about the complex relationship between art and mental health.

https://createmefree.substack.com/p/answer-in-images-art-and-mental-health-d74

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Isaac Kolding asks: should we have contempt for ugly things?

https://open.substack.com/pub/amateurcriticism/p/love-and-beauty?r=716j&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

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As well as essays on psychology and human behaviour, Rolando writes Short Fiction Stories. This one, "Violins against War Machines", is a metaphor about War, the power of Love and Art over violence, fear and destruction, because "She doesn't know him. Before today, their paths had never crossed. She with her musical instrument, He with his instrument of war. Both are masters of their craft." https://rolandoandrade.substack.com/p/violins-against-war-machines

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In Robin Reardon’s short story, a young man searches a rural cemetery for the unmarked grave of his late father.

https://robinreardonwrites.substack.com/p/graves-end

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Bess has thought a lot about tombs and transitions in the year leading up to this winter solstice, both because she didn’t expect her husband, Jake, to survive to see it, and because it marks the tenth year she's spent as an attending emergency physician; her work patrolling the border between life and death is unusual, and she's borne witness to nearly a hundred patients’ last moments on Earth.

https://bessstillman.substack.com/publish/post/140027148

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James Ron tells a panhandling tale.

https://jamesron.substack.com/p/panhandler

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M.M. McGuire writes about the time he met Maximón in Guatemala, an un-saintly saint for those who chase prayers with booze.

https://themundaneexotic.substack.com/p/meeting-maximon-guatemalas-decidedly

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