Obligatory Backpost

This New Year's eve, I selfishly opted to take the girls to a fondue party rather than update my blog. This led to numerous discoveries. A.) dipping little squares of bread into a warm cheese sauce is surprisingly worth the trouble. B.) to a 4 year-old, eating carrots dipped in chocolate sauce seems like a very good idea, even after the chocolate has separated into something resembling brown sludge. C.) Left to their own devices, said 4 year-olds will happily plunge their grubby little hands directly into the aforementioned sludge, thereby obviating the need for cumbersome fondue forks and concomitant extraneous bits of fruit.

Moving right along, two of my favorite blogs have recently featured MGM cartoons from the same era as my Swing Social post a few days ago. Dr. Wes found a gorgeous treatment of Strauss' Blue Danube that involves copious numbers of charmingly naked wood nymphs. And Revel posted an utterly remarkable cartoon, also from 1939 and produced by Hugh Harman, which manages to combine Christmas sentimentality, disgust with the human race, and breathtaking beauty. Amazing.