First of all, our friend Roy Jacobsen of Writing, Clear and Simple discusses the all-important matter of “crappy first drafts.” I’ve said this before myself, but Roy marshals the awesome authority of Ernest Hemingway in support. And he’s even got an official “Crappy First Draft License” in .pdf format, which you can print out to post in your writing space. (link removed)

I found this fascinating post by Christine at Mirabilis. She links to an article from The New Scientist which proposes what looks to me like a very strong argument as to what the “real meaning” of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is. It all goes back to the author’s being a mathematician. Although I’m hopeless with numbers, the gist of the thing makes sense as far as I can tell. (link removed)

And finally, from the redoubtable Dr. Gene Edward Veith at Cranach, a link to an article from the Biblical Archaeology Review, giving further support to an argument we’ve noted here before–that there’s actually not a lot of evidence for the oft-repeated claim that “Christians celebrate Christ’s birth on December 25th just because they took the holiday over from Roman pagans.” Share this with that irritating guy in your church who tells you you’re going to hell because you have a Christmas tree. (link updated)