Seen and Heard in Edmonton

‘Tis the season, I suppose — you can’t swing a holly branch without hitting a gift guide in blogland these days. I’ve got a bit of bah-humbug in me, but these posts are actually pretty useful for a locally focused person like me.

And so, let’s begin with gifts and giving:

• Amanda Sutherland lists some local one-stop shops to visit.
• Deb Merriam encourages Christmas shoppers to show off their local shopping and participate in the next 124th Street Cash Mob.
• Stephanie Mitchell makes a Christmas wish list with a healthy dollop of local in it.
• Shayne Woodsmith looks at Marissa Loewen’s knitting bee to make toques, scarves and mittens for Syrian refugees.

Oh, those Oilers

• The Oilers’ rebuild has been a failure, but that doesn’t mean its core of players is rotten, argues Matt Henderson. (P.S. The team has been on a streak since these posts were written, but I still think they are worth reading.)
• He also excoriates a Hockey News writer‘s argument that the NHL shouldn’t let the Oilers win the draft lottery again.
• Wanye Gretz finds four reasons why this 30th-place Oilers team is not as bad as previous 30th-place Oilers teams.
• John Richardson is grateful that building the new arena is putting a lot of people to work.

History

• Vintage Edmonton’s collection of clippings from 1978 includes a story about the first Vietnamese refugees arriving in the city.
• Vintage Edmonton rounds up various ads for night life over the years, from “A Polite Vaudeville Co.” to strippers at Tita’s.
• Always interesting to find a route I travel a lot on Lost YEG.
• Colleen Murray tries to find the grave of a long-lived great-great-grandfather.
• Family Fun Edmonton makes the case for taking the kids to see the Magna Carta.

Let’s eat

• Lillian Tse shows she’s not afraid of a complex recipe with her how-to on Paris-Brest. I guess the difficulty level of macarons will do that for you!
• Margaret Bose-Johnson pushes back against the empty-nest syndrome she’s been feeling with a squares recipe she took with her when she left home.
• Chris Falconer reviews the Swine and Dine dinner at the Hotel Macdonald.
• The Edible Woman’s hibiscus and pomegranate jellies are practically good for you, and so pretty.

Experiences

• Fish Griwkowsky is getting rid of stuff using the minimalist game.
• Laura Frey has been BookTubing up a storm, with a wrap of Novellas in November and regular dips into the short story advent calendar.
• Jenna Marynowski reviews Burning Bluebeard, a particularly apt offering at the Roxy on Gateway, risen from the ashes of the Roxy on 124th.
• Kelly-Dawn Aulenbach shares the lessons she hopes her children learned on a recent trip.
• Stacey K features an incredibly stylish wedding in pink and black on yegwed.
• Alyssa Lau shows her winter style on a day with just enough snow.
• Chris Tse tries fatbiking through the snow and likes it.
• Paper Leaf launched a Twitter-powered robot and it became quite the Internet sensation, writes Jeff Archibald.
• Dave Forster does an instructive post-mortem after his company’s website was hacked.
• Kendyl Lauzon is home again, with plenty of lessons about herself under her belt.

Womanhood

• Natasha Chiam wonders angrily why women repudiate the term feminist.
• On I Heart Edmonton, Erin Hoskins shares how WINGS of Providence helped her escape an abusive relationship and make a new life.
• Tessa Stamp explores what it has been like to work as a theatre technician among mostly men, in the latest #bitchplease instalment on Lindsey McNeill’s blog.
• Lori Godin gives us an entertaining glimpse at the chaos of motherhood.

The gift basket of blogs runneth over at ShareEdmonton. If Flipboard is your deal, check out my magazine of picks The podcast roundup comes out on Fridays.

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