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  • Influential writer Joan Didion, one of the great voices in American writing in the last century, has died. She was 87.
  • The pandemic has apparently shaved two years off the average American's lifespan.
  • Phish has postponed their New Year's Eve show at MSG.
  • Did you know that there are a bunch of people who are legally named Santa Claus in the U.S.?
  • Here's how older Americans are handling the winter omicron surge: “I don’t have more time in front of me — I have more time behind me. So that is getting irritating, knowing that I’m losing time for social gatherings.”
  • Vice has compiled a list of Christmas horror stories, from hospital visits to run-ins with exes to pee incidents.
  • What's the difference between a red flag and a personal quirk/interest?
  • Vulture ranked every Guillermo del Toro movie, and they got the #1 very right and everything else very wrong (justice for Hellboy!).
  • Williams-Sonoma fired over 100 remote workers right before the holidays.
  • Was LCD Soundsystem's residency at Brooklyn Steel a superspreader event, or are people just looking for someone to blame after getting infected with COVID?
  • The third season of Atlanta will finally premiere on FX on March 24th, 2022.
  • And finally, there is absolutely no evidence that George did anything unseemly to the gingerbread house: