I GUESS THEY CAN LOOK MORE SEASONALLY FESTIVE 👆

Happy National Dunce Day! Today we're commemorating the anniversary of the death of Scottish philosopher John Duns Scotus, who believed that wearing cone-shaped headwear made the wearer smarter due to...reasons, I guess? 

You know what's not dumb (I think)? Boredwalk's 2021 Holiday Gift Guide! While it barely scratches the surface of all the extremely cool Boredwalk stuff you can get for yourself (or the handful of people in your life that are worthy of your gift-giving generosity), it does offer a nice sampling of the various wares that can save you from supply chain disappointment this winter! Plus it's funny as all heck, which might come in handy on this first Monday following the mistake that is reverting to standard time. Click here to check it out!

*****

OK, birthday time! Let's slice some cake in honor of:

• The great state of Montana, which joined the Union on this day in 1889 as the 41st state! I've never been, but I hear it's quite lovely!

• Culinary loudmouth Gordon Ramsay, born this day in 1966! Have you ever seen someone be so angry surrounded by food? I sure haven't!

• Blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist Bonnie Raitt, born this day in 1949! How's this for persistence: Ms Raitt's first album came out in 1971, but her commercial breakthrough didn't happen for almost TWO DECADES until her 1989 album Nick of Time was released. 

• Irish literary proto-goth Bram Stoker, born this day in 1847! Mr. Stoker is, of course, famous for popularizing the Dracula myth among English-speaking audiences with his 1897 novel Dracula. 

• Actress Tara Reid, born this day in 1975! Ms Reid is, at this point in her career, most famous for slaying a few hundred (at least) CGI sharks with a prosthetic chainsaw hand in the Sharknado series of films, but in a fun bit of cosmic synchronicity her first film role was in 1987's vampire flick A Return to Salem's Lot.

• Swiss psychoanalyst Hermann Rorschach, born this day in 1884! Either the famed "ink blot test" that he invented which bears his name really is insightful, or he just REALLY liked symmetrical abstract art. 

• Legendary science fiction writer Ben Bova, born this day in 1932! Mr. Bova was so prolific and influential that The New York Times declared him "the last of the great pulp writers" in 2004. Sadly, COVID-related pneumonia got him last November. 

• Social networking entrepreneur Tom Anderson, born this day in 1970! The co-founder of social network MySpace, Tom has a LOT of friends (including you, if you ever had a MySpace account), so I'm not really sure he needs our help celebrating today, but hey — free cake is free cake. 

*****

OK! Scroll on down to learn a bit about fellow Boredwalk fan Samantha C.! If you want to be briefly quasi-famous with your own Q&A segment, reply to this and let me know and I'll send you some questions!

We'll be back in your inbox on Wednesday morning with links to fun distractions! If you're in a shopping mood after checking out that gift guide I linked to above, be sure to use the code YAY10 at checkout to save 10% on orders of $100 or more! Until next time...

Peace, love, and holiday gift planning,

Matt

Samantha looking very much like a software project manager in her It's Not A Bug It's A Feature v-neck tee!

1. What's your actual day job and what's your dream day job?

I'm a Product Manager for a Library Software Company.  My team is building a very cool new Discover system to help you interact with all the materials and services that your library offers. I'm also an artist who makes moderately irreverent religious icons of cats and other animals. I do love my job...but being a powerful harpy whose only purpose is to terrorize terrible people with too much power or an artist who somehow has enough money to be a world traveler would be a dream job.

(Editor's note: these are worthy endeavors. Besides, Hecate had three forms; why can't you?)

2. What's your biggest pet peeve?

People who harass service staff — may they all enjoy eternity in the River Styx.

(Hear, hear!)

3. What keeps you up at night?

My snoring cat and *gestures vaguely*...everything.

4. What's a book you think the Boredwalk community should read?

Ask a librarian for ONE book?! Ha!  Anything by Vonnegut, Pratchett, Solnit, or Atwood.

5. If you could have any super power what would it be and why?

Teleportation, hands down. Beam me up, Scotty.

6. You can curse your nemesis with a minor annoyance for eternity; what do you choose?

Someone is always obliviously listening to a particularly vapid kid's program loudly on an electronic device near them anytime they're anywhere in public for eternity.

(That is...very specific.)

7. Clear up a misconception (about your job, where you are from, some other topic you know a lot about).

Librarians have Masters Degrees, and we don't get to read books all day.  Also we all have a lot of hubris around being superheroes that protect your access to knowledge.

(Is it hubris if it's true?)

 8. Where can the rest of the Boredwalk community find you?

On Facebook @CunningCuriosities