Kurt Vonnegut’s first public reading “Breakfast of Champions” [Audio, LInk]

This is the very first public reading by Kurt Vonnegut of the classic Breakfast of Champions, three years before it was published. Vonnegut appeared at 92Y a total of seven times and he had much admiration for the audience at the corner of 92nd Street and Lexington Avenue.  Add 92Y to your list of sites if you’re interested in literature/ poetry/ biography etc.

A Thanksgiving letter to the family [Letters]

Margaret & Helen’s blog is always full of interesting views on life. I guess it helps that in your eighties, you’ve seen it all before. Every year, Margaret writes a letter to the family – and is happy for the interested parties in the rest of the world to read it too. Here’s the 2013 version.

Latest Revelations concerning the NSA, a division of the Claus Industries [Humor]

T Rob has the scoop:

It was revealed today in secret documents leaked to this reporter that the US National Security Agency (NSA) is actually a division of Claus Industries, LLC, a company synonymous with its eponymous founder and CEO, Santa Claus….Years ago, as world population rose beyond Santa’s ability to personally keep track of all of us, he first subcontracted, then eventually built his own surveillance teams.  Over the last decade, dedicated Claus Industries surveillance teams have been deployed to every country around the globe, all of them posing as government spy agencies.

The Shepherd who Twittered – [Article]

Herdy Shepherd who is a shepherd, & a late Twitter adopter, writes about his experiences with the technology. An engaging read:

If you spend your life working with sheep in the fells (what you’d call mountains) you perhaps don’t really need to be ‘connected’ and you probably don’t have time for, or need to have, fancy techno gadgets in your pocket. Our world is one of mountains, meadows, dry-stone-walls, sheep, sheepdogs and managing the landscape much as our ancestors have done over many centuries (it’s being nominated for World Heritage status because of its unique landscape culture).