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As I’ve done for the last five years, I’ve spent the past few weeks scouring the internet for the best 2018 gift guides and pulled a few of the most interesting items from each. Think of it as a curated meta-guide for your holiday giving. Let’s dig in.
Charitable giving always tops this list. Check out GiveWell and Charity Navigator to find organizations that will put your money to the best use. (Read up on big charities like Red Cross and Salvation Army…they are often not the best use of your charity dollar.) GiveDirectly sends money directly to people living in extreme poverty around the world. I always recommend Volunteer Match to find local volunteer opportunities but they force you to log in now, so just an FYI. Alternate sites for volunteering are the AARP’s Create the Good and United Way. If you’re giving to the local food shelf, skip buying food yourself for the donation bin and set up a direct debit or CC payment instead…that will put your donation to better use.
If you’re looking for great gift ideas for kids (and/or Toys for Tots), the best place to look remains the excellent The Kid Should See This Gift Guide. I use this almost exclusively for all of my kid-related holiday and birthday shopping. This year’s stand-out items include The littleBits Space Rover Inventor Kit (littleBits stuff is huge in our household), The Atlas Obscura Explorer’s Guide for the World’s Most Adventurous Kid (got this for my daughter for her birthday), SET (a pal also recently recommended this game), and a set of four board books including Quantum Physics for Babies. And whoa, the Harry Potter Coding Kit from Kano? Accio Coding Kit!
The Accidental Shop is a collection of products I’ve previously linked to on kottke.org. It is heavy on books…I’d particularly recommend Emily Wilson’s The Odyssey, Small Fry by Lisa Brennan-Jobs, and Arbitrary Stupid Goal by Tamara Shopsin. Oh, and I’m flying through Madeline Miller’s Circe right now…what a read!
For those of you into food, you’ve probably already have an Instant Pot and Anova Sous Vide Cooker, so check out the gift guides from Eater, Food52, Serious Eats, Kitchn, and Ruth Reichl. Among their recommendations are a Korean fermeting crock (for making kimchi), the Five Two double-sided cutting board, Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat by Samin Nosrat, a Taco Passport, Anita Lo’s well-regarded Solo: A Modern Cookbook for a Party of One, and aged fish sauce (!!).
I love my Kindle Paperwhite and there’s an updated version this year that’s waterproof, lighter & thinner, has Bluetooth for audiobooks, and has more storage.
I’ve seen several guides touting so-called “inexpensive” gifts and then going on to recommend $50 bars of soap, so Slate’s The Good Enough List is a welcome effort. They’ve recommended a bunch of items that are almost as good as the best available options but more affordable. My favorite pick is their rec for a $7 pedometer over a Fitbit or Apple Watch. They also highlight the Gulliver crib from Ikea, which I have taken apart and put back together approximately 30 times. It’s a basic, durable, simple, and fantastic crib.
The kids and I have been playing two games pretty heavily this year: Sushi Go Party and Harry Potter Hogwarts Battle. I really like Hogwarts Battle because it’s cooperative — all the players play together against the villans on the board and it’s fun to strategize how to allocate tokens and hearts to get everyone through the danger areas.
The 2018 Engineering Gift Guide from Purdue University is full of “gift ideas that engage girls and boys in engineering thinking and design”. Their picks this year include Duct Tape Engineer and Kiwi Crate’s monthly subscription service for project kits (which a friend also recently recommended).
The Astronomers Without Borders OneSky Reflector Telescope is probably the best $200 telescope you can buy. I got one this summer and it’s been great for looking at the Moon, planets, and even some nearby galaxies.
My kids would flip out if I bought the family a Nintendo Switch with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe but I don’t think it’s going to happen. [crying emoji]
Whenever I need to buy something for around the house, Wirecutter is the first (and often only) place I go for recommendations. From their Gifts We Want to Give in 2018, I found Blue Planet II (the perfect family holiday entertainment), a Carhartt tool bag, fleece blankets from Uniqlo, and a pack of Blackwing pencils.
Remember Viewmaster? Now you can Create Your Own Reel Viewer.
The 2018 Christmas Catalog from Tools & Toys is blissfully heavy on the nerdy stuff. Their picks include an instant photo printer for your iPhone, the Field Cast Iron Skillet, these enamel steel signs from Best Made, and this clever magnetic wrist band for keeping track of errant screws and parts while you’re doing projects. And Lego has a Voltron kit? Holy nostalgia.
Every year I “recommend” this 55-gallon drum of personal lubricant because why would anyone actually buy this? (Have any of you ever bought this? Report back, please!)
I recently did a round-up of Adult Nonfiction Adapted for Younger Readers, including The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan and Howard Zinn’s A Young People’s History of the United States.
Recommended this last year but gonna repeat: a Christmas storybook based on Die Hard. Self-recommending. See also this sequined Jeff Goldblum pillow.
Some friends of mine love this Ooni portable pizza oven…it can cook a pizza at 932°F in just 60 seconds.
I’m lucky to know so many people who have written books or built companies that sell great products. Here are some of them: Advencher, prints from Mari Andrew (a rare occurrence), This Book is a Planetarium, Legal Nomads, 20x200, Tattly, The Bloody Mary, SDR Traveller, Cora Ball, Austin Kleon, Happy Cooking Hospitality, you think you know me, Gracie’s Ice Cream, Kingston Stockade FC, Storyworth, The Aviary Cocktail Book, Chris Piascik, Salty Avocado, Hoefler & Co, Tinybop, Fat Gold, Hella Cocktail Co, Storq maternity wear, Milkmade, and Field Notes.
From The Colossal Shop, multi-colored toy soldiers doing yoga. See also this maddening puzzle…the pieces change colors depending on how you look at them.
My daughter endlessly rereads her Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls books (sequel). I Am A Rebel Girl Journal is their newest product and just might be under our family tree this year.
Socks inspired by Eric Carle’s Very Hungry Caterpillar? Yes, please. And they make them for adults too! The same company makes all sorts of book-related products, from Harry Potter t-shirts to Kurt Vonnegut necklaces.
From the NY Times’ collection of gift guides, a US National Parks annual pass (I put mine to good use this summer), a phone mount for your car (I got one of these this summer and love it), and these Jabra wireless earbuds that the Wirecutter rates as better than Apple AirPods. Oh and Bananagrams.
From Curbed’s 21 holiday gifts for people who like nice things, this ramen puzzle and a radio designed by Charles and Ray Eames in 1946 but was never produced (until now).
More gift guides: Cup of Jo, Canopy, Engadget (tech), The Guardian, Buzzfeed, Daily Nous (philosophy), Tom’s Guide (tech), and Red Tricycle (kids).
My gift guides from the last few years have yet more ideas: 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, and 2013.
Update: A few miscellaneous gifts suggested by readers. Island Creek’s Oyster of the Month Club. A retro SNES game console from Ghostly and Analogue. From Richard Eaglespoon’s 2018 Holiday Gift Guide, these small metal tins of Malden’s sea salt for bringing to restaurants.
I’ve also posted my yearly round-up of best books of the year. Among the most frequent recommendations for 2018 are Madeline Miller’s Circe, David Blight’s biography of Frederick Douglass, Educated by Tara Westover, and How to Change Your Mind: The New Science of Psychedelics by Michael Pollan.
Update: I wasn’t going to update this anymore but I’m making an exception for this: a firelog that smells like Kentucky Fried Chicken when you burn it. !!! Only $18.99 (incl s&h).
Tags: kottke.org
Sometimes in journalism, like in child-rearing, it takes a village.
In the wake of the Parkland school shooting, an investigative news outlet called the Florida Bulldog reported on Kalashnikov USA, a shady gunmaker with ties to Russia. The company, it seemed, had found a way to produce Kalashnikov-branded AK-47s in the U.S. without running afoul of U.S. sanctions. And in 2015 it had inked a deal with Gov. Rick Scott’s administration to open a factory a few miles from Parkland in exchange for tax breaks. (The tax deal fell through when the company failed to create enough jobs, but the gunmaker did move to Broward County.)
At TPM, we’ve been reporting on the NRA’s Russian links, so the story piqued our interest. We dug into Kalashnikov USA’s relationship with Kalashnikov Concern, the Russian company that makes Kalashnikovs and is subject to sanctions, raising questions about just how separate the two firms really were. It also seemed weird that Kalashnikov USA had been promising for years to start making the AK-47s, but there was very little evidence that they had succeeded. And when we asked a Kalashnikov USA official about the company’s activities, he hung up on us.
Then last month Bloomberg picked up the torch, reporting on ties between a top Kalashnikov USA exec and the CEO of Kalashnikov Concern, and exposing a system of shell companies that may link the two firms.
Finally, on Thursday, Rep. Ted Deutch (D-FL) called on the Treasury Department to probe whether either of the companies had violated sanctions. Citing news reports, Deutch accused Kalashnikov USA of using a “web of shell companies to hide its relationship” to Kalashnikov Concern. “This case deserves a full investigation to determine whether federal laws were broken to protect Kalashnikov’s profits,” he said.
It’s nice to see some validation for our instinct that there was something fishy going on here. Let’s hope Deutch and co. can get some answers.
Religion scholar Kate Bowler used to believe God had a plan for her life. Then, at 35, she was diagnosed with incurable stage-4 colon cancer. "I really had to rethink what trust and hope looks like," she says. Her new memoir is 'Everything Happens For A Reason (And Other Lies I've Loved).' Also, critic Ken Tucker reviews the 'Black Panther' soundtrack, which features Kendrick Lamar, The Weeknd, and SZA. And Finn Murphy has logged over a million miles hauling people's belongings across the country. His new memoir, 'The Long Haul,' is filled with insights about life on the road, and the subculture of truckers.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Tuesday that President Donald Trump isn’t advocating for a government shutdown — though Trump said “I’d love to see a shutdown” if his demands weren’t met earlier in the afternoon.
The government will shut down if Congress doesn’t pass additional funding by the end of the day on Thursday.
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The Lions defensive staff is starting to fill out.
With Matt Patricia inked to become the next Detroit Lions head coach, it’s time for him to start building his surrounding staff. According Pete Thamel of Yahoo Sports, Detroit will be adding Boston College defensive line coach Paul Pasqualoni to their staff.
Source: Defensive line coach Paul Pasqualoni is leaving Boston College for the Lions.
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) February 5, 2018
Thamel doesn’t get into specifics, so we don’t know what job Pasqualoni will be accepting with the Lions. A couple weeks ago, NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reported that Pasqualoni was a candidate for the Lions’ defensive coordinator position, but he walked that back a little in a later tweet:
More on Paul Pasqualoni: His name was buzzing in Mobile, based on his past relationship with Matt Patricia. They haven’t spoken yet, but are expected to — about a senior position on the staff — when the #Lions officially hire Patricia.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) January 25, 2018
At this point, we just don’t know if he will be the coordinator, the defensive line coach, or maybe just a senior defensive assistant.
Pasqualoni has a history as an NFL defensive coordinator. He spent two years with the Dolphins at that position and one year with the Cowboys. You can view our longer profile on Pasqualoni here, which includes his ties to Matt Patricia from his days in Syracuse.
Pasqualoni will join two other reported hires from Patricia: offensive line coach Jeff Davidson and defensive backs coach Brian Stewart. Detroit will also reportedly be promoting George Godsey from defensive assistant to quarterbacks coach.
Here’s how the staff currently looks:
Offense
Offensive coordinator: Jim Bob Cooter
QB coach: George Godsey
WR coach: Robert Prince
RB coach: David Walker
TE coach: Al Golden
OL coach: Jeff Davidson
OL - quality control: Michael McCarthy
Offensive assistant: Evan Rothstein
Coaching assistant: Payton McCollum
Defense
Unknown position: Paul Pasqualoni
DB coach: Brian Stewart
Defensive quality control: Steven Williams
*Indicates a new hire or move in position
I love the retro, sterile, futuristic, bright (and also somehow dull) look of these swimming pool photos by Maria Svarbova. She’s collected them into a book called Swimming Pool coming out in November. (via colossal)
Tags: Maria Svarbova photography
Jim Harbaugh did not exactly stick to sports last month. Michigan's head coach, who is a member of the Legal Service Corporation's "Leaders Council," offered a critical stance on initial reports that President Donald Trump's initial budget proposal had plans...
Finn shared this interesting photo and text on his Instagram today..
Finn Andrews:
Ever since the cops stopped us rehearsing in my mum’s tiny garage in Devonport when I was 14 (jerks) I have dreamed of having my own room to make noise in. Last night we finished soundproofing a little studio in London to call our own. Best of all I can finally play the piano without it falling through the floor. The plan is to get another Veils record written in here before the end of the year. Yes, yes, yes.
So, it looks like work on album no 5 will start pretty soon..
Some new album contenders (‘Weakness’, ‘Bit On the Side’) have already been performed live and can be heard on our forum.
Mike Florio talks with Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press to discuss the on-field impact of wide receiver Calvin Johnson as he looked to set NFL records in his playing career.
The above quote comes from Peter Drucker, a management consultant who wrote on running businesses for the better part of the 20th century.
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