I climb a pylon! and an owl update!

• I make a brief cameo in Let's Learn Everything's Christmas special (a lot of strong language): one of the final guest facts on their show is from me. Although, not wishing to spoil things, but if you saw the link about the telethon in the newsletter a while back, you do already know it — and there's a very nice "Lateral" question from one of the hosts in there, too!
   
• And I make a couple of appearances with William Osman's projects (occasional strong language in both): first, a returning appearance on his podcast Safety Third! It's rambling and unfocused, and that's the point. We talk about ridiculous ideas, a TikTok moneymaking scheme, what pants are for, and — as before — deliberately nothing about my personal life. And second, I'm in the B-plot of his chaotic second channel vlog, firing guns. 
   

• Jim Lill tests microphones. And, look, I know that doesn't sound like something you'd want to click on, but this is a wonderful half-hour that tells a personal story, includes really useful information about how microphones work, and solidified my like for the Shure SM57. There's even jokes!
   
• J Draper, from the London History Show (and sometime Lateral guest!), sits back with a drink and asks: how accurate is "The Muppet Christmas Carol"? Not just to the book, but to 1840s London. If you've got a spare hour this Christmas, then this is a lovely little video essay.
   
• Matt Gray tries road painting! This is the second in Matt's new series, and normally I wouldn't link to a second episode from the same person so soon, even from a friend — but this is just lovely to watch! There's interesting camera angles, giggling laughter, and a good comparison at the end.
   

• Facebook is being overrun with stolen, AI-generated images that people think are real. It really does seem like fewer and fewer people my age are posting anywhere: whereas we all used to update Facebook and a good number posted on Twitter-as-was, these days the reward isn't worth the risk, and so there are Professional Content Creators, private group-chats with friends, and the only thing in between is... well, whatever this murky wasteland is.
   
• The 2023 Headline of the Year Nominees. Not an actual formal award, just a series of excellent headlines.
   
• Bird news! Earlier this year, I mentioned Flaco, the escaped eagle owl that was flying around New York. There was concern whether he could survive outside captivity. Update: he's doing fine, he's bulking up by eating city rats, and he's unexpectedly peeping into people's windows.

Also, a bit of admin: the archives of this newsletter are now online! I'm not sure how I feel about this, despite being the one who coded it. As I'm soon putting the main channel on hiatus, it seemed right to offer the newsletter up to a somewhat wider audience, to keep something going publicly. And old newsletters can act as an incentive to subscribe! (Indeed, people reading on the web don't get to see these newsletters until Wednesdays; email subscribers get them early.) But it feels different to post something on the web rather than email. These messages are no longer being shared just to an "elite club" who've bothered to subscribe: they're also going out to the increasingly AI-poisoned wasteland of the web, and sucked into the Internet Archive to haunt me forevermore. I'm not sure that's an improvement.

Wow, that was bleak. Merry Christmas, everyone.

Actually, I can't end on that, can I? Despite my inherent Scroogery, it is Christmas Day, after all. So let me point you to one of the best bits of editing I've seen in a while. For many, many years, legendary singer Darlene Love would be invited on David Letterman's Tonight Show every Christmastime to sing Christmas (Baby Please Come Home). One editor from the show's archive YouTube channel has combined many of those performances into one big four-minute video of Christmas joy. Even if you don't know the song, surely you can appreciate the spirit of it all, the almost-seamless editing... and how they've successfully snuck in at least one key change where a lot of people won't notice it.

If all goes well, I'll be back next week, New Year's Day, 4pm UK time, with the final weekly video. See you then. And this time, I'll say it sincerely: wherever you are, I hope your Christmas is is whatever you want it to be.

All the best,

— Tom