‘Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the White House...

The Cambridge Dictionary #WordOfTheYear2024 is … 🥁   "manifest" (verb) 🏆 Find out more about #manifest: cambrid.ge/3CjqfNF #Manifest #CambridgeWOTY #WordOfTheYear2024 #Manifestation #CambridgeDictionary

Authors Against Book Bans has posted an open letter demanding that publishers prepare for 2025 by protecting authors and the freedom to read. lithub.com/authors-agains…

Libraries around across the U.S. are helping people get healthier. They offer fitness classes, food pantries, cooking classes, conversations about loneliness and mental health, and even blood pressure monitors that can be checked out just like books.

Poet laureate Simon Armitage creates haiku, first of many, for the Lost Gardens of Heligan in Cornwall. #poetry #gardens bit.ly/417n5Hn

Merriam-Webster picks its Word of the Year—and highlights nine others that defined 2024 time.com/7200740/polari…

From the Booker to the Pulitzer, the Nebula to the Edgar, here are the award-winning novels of 2024. bookmarks.reviews/the-award-winn…

The Wexford Carol, one of the oldest surviving Christmas carols. Thought to have been written in Ireland in the 12th century but the melody may be much older, originally sung to celebrate the winter solstice. Happy solstice from the west of Ireland

Happy #WinterSolstice! Pic taken today 📸:Tess Robeson

“O Holy Night,” sung by Katherine Jenkins #ChristmasEve2024 #MerryChristmas youtu.be/4vx6MeuSHw4?fe…

Presenting our 2024 BBC News/Channel 4 News musical Christmas collaboration. Ciaran Jenkins and I perform In The Bleak Midwinter. Wherever you are in the world, whatever you may be celebrating, our very best wishes. Ciaran Jenkins BBC Radio 3 BBC News (UK) Channel 4 News

Love came down at Christmas,      Love all lovely, Love Divine; Love was born at Christmas,      Star and Angels gave the sign. —Christina Rossetti poets.org/poem/christmas…

More than just repositories of printed material, libraries serve as protectors of history and curators of knowledge—not to mention beautiful spaces that inspire us. bit.ly/4jpLoH1

#HappySunday!

Words related to DEI, climate change, vaccines and a host of other topics are being scrubbed from government websites. “How can we have... difficult conversations if we can’t even use the words, the most basic unit of meaning?” asks Jonathan Friedman 📚. More: pen.org/banned-words-l…

“This closure not only compromises Canadian visitors’ access to a historic symbol of cooperation and harmony between the two countries but also weakens the spirit of cross-border collaboration that defines this iconic location.” theguardian.com/us-news/2025/m…

“These poems share a sense of urgency that reflects the overwhelmingly stressful events swirling around them—matters of war, race, gender, politics, health, immigration, climate change, rule, and misrule.” bit.ly/4j2YXff

Our latest update includes additions from Philippine English, Malaysian English, Singapore English, South African English, and Irish English. Find out more in our release notes by OED Editor, Danica Salazar: oxford.ly/4ccw0un

Today we remember literature laureate Mario Vargas Llosa, who passed away yesterday at the age of 89 in his native Peru. Vargas Llosa was a significant figure in Latin American literature and culture. His extensive body of work includes over 30 novels, as well as plays, essays,

“The measure of the greatness of a society is found in the way it treats those most in need, those who have nothing apart from their poverty!” ~ Pope Francis