text:
· Updated on Nov 22, 2017
22 Famous Writers Told Us About The Book They're Most Thankful For
Celebrate Thanksgiving with the books Stephen King, Joyce Carol Oates, Jonathan Franzen, R.L. Stine, James Patterson, Rainbow Rowell, Michael Chabon, Lemony Snicket, Chuck Palahniuk, and more of your favorite authors are grateful for.
by Jarry Lee
BuzzFeed Deputy Books Editor
Jarry Lee / BuzzFeed
1. James Patterson: the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
David Burnett, Scholastic
"I'm thankful for the Harry Potter series for a lot of reasons, but mostly because it has gotten many, many kids reading — and continues to do so. To me that's the greatest thing any book can do. Reading saves lives, and that series saved thousands of them. It's why I write children's books myself."
James Patterson is the world's bestselling author, best known for his many enduring fictional characters and series, including Alex Cross, Women's Murder Club, Michael Bennett, Maximum Ride, Middle School, I Funny, and Jacky Ha-Ha. Patterson's writing career is characterized by a single mission: to prove to everyone, from children to adults, that there is no such thing as a person who "doesn't like to read," only people who haven't found the right book. He's given over a million books to schoolkids and over $40 million to support education, and endowed over 5,000 college scholarships for teachers. He writes full-time and lives in Florida with his family. Learn more at jamespatterson.com.
2. Celeste Ng: Bright Dead Things by Ada Limón
Kevin Day Photography, Milkweed Editions
"This year has been terrible — but if there's one thing I'm thankful for, it's that many people are using their voices to say, 'This is not normal, this is not okay, this has to change.' Ada Limón's Bright Dead Things was one such voice that buoyed me in this dismal year. I'm thankful for this collection, for its wisdom and generosity, for its insistence on holding tight to beauty even as we face disintegration and destruction. And it reminds me how thankful I am for poets, who distill many of the feelings that have flooded me in the past months, and speak directly to me in words I didn't know I needed to hear."
Celeste Ng is the author of the New York Times bestselling novels Everything I Never Told You and Little Fires Everywhere. Her writing has been awarded the Pushcart Prize, the Massachusetts Book Award, and a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, among other honors. She earned an MFA from the University of Michigan and lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts. To learn more about her, visit celesteng.com or follow her on Twitter (@pronounced_ing).
3. Stephen King: Sleeping Beauties by Owen King and Stephen King
Shane Leonard, Scribner
"The book I'm most grateful for this year is Sleeping Beauties. I ordinarily wouldn't say that about a book I had a part in creating, but a man doesn't get a chance to collaborate with one of his children very often, or to find himself hardly able to keep up with that grown child's brilliant work. We also had a chance to go on tour together, and since we both have our own families and concerns, that was a rare opportunity."
Stephen King has published over 50 books and has become one of the world's most successful writers. King is the recipient of the 2003 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to the American Letters and the 2014 National Medal of Arts.
4. Jonathan Franzen: The Undoing Project by Michael Lewis
Watter Al-Bahry, W. W. Norton & Company
"Right now I'm feeling grateful to Michael Lewis. Last week I was at Heathrow Airport, facing a 12-hour flight with nothing good in hand to read, and the Terminal 3 'bookstore' was terrible: exclusively crap titles, except, miraculously, The Undoing Project. I'm grateful to Lewis for making 5,000 miles disappear with a compelling story and not one sentence that was flabby or uninteresting."
Jonathan Franzen is the author of Purity and four other novels, most recently The Corrections and Freedom, and five works of nonfiction and translation, including Farther Away and The Kraus Project, all published by FSG. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the German Akademie der Künste, and the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.
5. Joyce Carol Oates: Ulysses by James Joyce
Charles Gross, Vintage
"Last year I chose a book for its immediacy, one just published and filled with brilliant insights into our contemporary condition — The Best American Essays 2016 edited by Jonathan Franzen; this year I am choosing a timeless work of art, James Joyce's Ulysses. I once spent a thrilling six weeks teaching this novel at the University of Windsor, to graduate students — though 'teaching' is probably not the most adequate term — and can attest to the power of Ulysses to bring an incalculable richness to one's life. Such virtuosity, such dazzling voices, such intelligence, and such a great sense of humor, in a masterly, sustained work that immerses us in the lives of others, in Dublin, Ireland, June 16, 1904 — subsequently immortalized as Bloomsday. Ulysses is a true celebration of life, as it is a celebration of the art of the novel. Just read it slowly — one chapter at a time. No need to hurry. A great novel is like a journey — by the time you get to your destination, you will have absorbed it into your life."
Joyce Carol Oates is the author of such national bestsellers as The Falls, Blonde, and We Were the Mulvaneys. Her other titles for The Mysterious Press include High Crime Area and The Corn Maiden and Other Nightmares, which won the 2011 Bram Stoker Award for Short Horror Fiction. She is also the recipient of the National Book Award for Them and the 2010 President's Medal for the Humanities.
6. R.L. Stine: Razor Girl by Carl Hiaasen
David Livingston / Getty Images, Vintage
"I needed some laughs this year, and Carl Hiaasen's Razor Girl provided a lot. A fast-moving, skillful caper, the book captured the edges of Florida insanity, as only Hiaasen can. No kidding — it had me laughing from beginning to end."
R.L. Stine is the bestselling author of more than 300 books, including the phenomenally bestselling Goosebumps series.
7. Daniel Handler (Lemony Snicket): Dear Martin by Nic Stone
Meredith Heuer, Crown Books for Young Readers
"What I wanted this year was hope — not just optimism or some visionary schemes for the future, but real live hope, solid and built to last and sustain. Nic Stone's Dear Martin gave me hope in all directions. It's a hopeful novel — a bracing and harrowing story, in a fierce and unsparing voice, but it takes us, steadily and triumphantly, to a genuinely hopeful place. It's not a flashy book but it's a stylish one, with the sort of zaggy sentences that give me hope just seeing them on the page. It's a book for young people, at a time when so much young people's literature is mired up, and when my kid read it he asked if we could buy an extra copy for his school library and the library of the school he used to go to, so more people would find it and read it and get hopeful. And — maybe this is a conflict of interest or something — I palled around with the author at a couple of literary festivals, and raising a glass of bourbon to a terrific and serious debut novel appearing on the New York Times bestseller list is my new definition of hope and it's springing goddamn eternal."
Daniel Handler's most recent books are All The Dirty Parts and, as Lemony Snicket, The Bad Mood and the Stick.
8. Rainbow Rowell: the Wayfarers series by Becky Chambers, the Small Change series by Jo Walton, and The House at Pooh Corner by A.A. Milne
rainbowrowell.com, Harper Voyager
Tor Books, Puffin Books
"I'm so glad I found the Wayfarers books by Becky Chambers. (I keep saying they're like a really good Star Trek series, but with even more focus on character and identity.) They remind me of the books that made me fall in love with sci-fiction as a teenager. A Closed and Common Orbit, about clones and artificial intelligence, is especially great.
I'm always looking for books that let me turn off my writing and editing brain. So I'm ever thankful for Jo Walton. I'm in the middle of the Small Change series right now, a terrifying alternate history where the United Kingdom bails on World War II and slides into fascism. WWII alternate histories are extremely not my jam, but Jo Walton extremely is. I can't put it down.
The book that's meant the most to me this year is A.A. Milne's The House at Pooh Corner. I'd tried to read it to my older kid when he was 6, and he was pretty meh about it. (Parents, we're giving our children Pooh Bear before they're ready). My younger son took an interest at 10, and Pooh Corner blew us both away. It's hilarious. And beautiful. Poetic. You sort of take Pooh for granted because he's everywhere, but this book... It didn't take me out of my writer brain though. I kept thinking about how I could never write something this perfect."
Rainbow Rowell is the No. 1 New York Times bestselling author of Eleanor & Park, Fangirl and Carry On. She is currently writing the monthly Runaways series for Marvel Comics.
9. Michael Chabon: the Sherlock Holmes series by Arthur Conan Doyle
courtesy of Michael Chabon's agent, Bantam Classics
"I'm thankful for many books but I guess I'd have to say the works of Arthur Conan Doyle, the Sherlock Holmes stories. That's the first literature I fell in love with, and the first short story I ever wrote was a Sherlock Holmes story, and I still read and reread them every few years. I go back to them and still get just as much pleasure out of them as I did when I first read them."
Michael Chabon is the bestselling and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, A Model World, Wonder Boys, Werewolves in Their Youth, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, Summerland, The Final Solution, The Yiddish Policemen's Union, Maps and Legends, Gentlemen of the Road, Telegraph Avenue, and the picture book The Astonishing Secret of Awesome Man. He lives in Berkeley, California, with his wife, the novelist Ayelet Waldman, and their children.
10. Chuck Palahniuk: Jesus' Son by Denis Johnson
Allan Amato, Picador
"Since his death in May, Denis Johnson's story collection Jesus' Son has always been within my reach. It combines prose and poetry the way the Doors combined jazz and rock. The book is a marvel."
Chuck Palahniuk is the author of 14 novels — Beautiful You, Doomed, Damned, Tell-All, Pygmy, Snuff, Rant, Haunted, Diary, Lullaby, Choke, Invisible Monsters, Survivor, and Fight Club — which together have sold more than 5 million copies in the United States. He is also the author of Fugitives and Refugees, published as part of the Crown Journeys Series; the nonfiction collection Stranger Than Fiction; the short story collection Make Something Up; the short story collection and coloring book Bait: Stories for You to Color, the coloring book and novella Legacy and the New York Times best-selling graphic novel Fight Club 2. He lives in the Pacific Northwest. Visit him on the web at ChuckPalahniuk.net.
11. Curtis Sittenfeld: Paulina & Fran by Rachel B. Glaser and Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right by Jane Mayer
curtissittenfeld.com, Harper Perennial
"I'm so thankful for Paulina & Fran by Rachel B. Glaser. This novel has been in my to-read stack since it was published in 2015, but I only just got to it last month. It's about the intense friendship and quasi-love-affair between two young women at an art school. It's so funny and real and vivid, and its details are just spectacular. It's basically exploding with magnificent observations and scenes.
"On the nonfiction front, I'm profoundly grateful for the meticulous research and fearless reporting that went into Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right by Jane Mayer. Dark Money helped me understand how our country has arrived at this surreal and scary political moment and how it reflects the will not of the American people but of a few fringe-y billionaires."
Curtis Sittenfeld's books include the novels Eligible, American Wife, and Prep and the story collection You Think It, I'll Say It, which will be published in April 2018.
12. Tom Perrotta: The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Ben King, Dover Publications
"In this bewildering, depressing, and sometimes cathartic moment of sexual upheaval, when every day brings new revelations about the predations and misbehavior of powerful men, I'm grateful for The Scarlet Letter, that most prophetic of classic American novels. Hawthorne saw it all — the explosive intersection of power and desire, the punishment of the victim, the hypocrisy of the perpetrator, and the complicity of the culture. But he was also writing about a different time, when people still believed in sin, and were capable of shame. Dimmesdale literally dies of a guilty conscience; we're living in the age of scripted apologies and defiant denials, led by a proud pussy-grabbing president who is incapable of shame and revels in his own hypocrisy. For all of its darkness, though, The Scarlet Letter is about Hester's resilience and ultimate triumph; it's a true survivor's story."
Tom Perrotta is the author of the New York Times bestseller Mrs. Fletcher, and eight other works of fiction, including Election and Little Children, both of which were made into Oscar-nominated films, and The Leftovers, which was adapted into a critically acclaimed, Peabody Award-winning HBO series. His other books include Bad Haircut, The Wishbones, Joe College, The Abstinence Teacher, and Nine Inches. His work has been translated into a multitude of languages. Perrotta grew up in New Jersey and lives outside of Boston.
13. Sloane Crosley: Transit by Rachel Cusk
Caitlin Mitchell, Farrar, Straus and Giroux
"This year, I gravitated toward anything that could be classified as escapism. Escapism can go one of two ways — the flashy way that involves other galaxies and haunted gardens or the quiet way that involves imagining a life not focused on our nation's broken moral compass. The novel that most seamlessly put me into the mind of another person (albeit in a country with an uncertain future of its own) was Rachel Cusk's Transit. I love her writing in general. It's so clean and stylish. Transit was a perfect follow-up to Outline. But if I had to pinpoint the moment it really got me, I'd say it's the chapter at the hair salon. Every bit of dialogue and description is executed to the fullest without being tedious. I have total recall for that scene and the book came out in January, meaning there were lots of novels that got read between then and now. But I can still see it getting dark outside the salon window. I can still smell the ammonia from the hair dye."
Sloane Crosley is the author of the bestselling essay collections I Was Told There'd Be Cake and How Did You Get This Number, as well as the novel The Clasp. Her new book of essays, Look Alive Out There, will be released in April. She is a contributing editor and books columnist at Vanity Fair.
14. Porochista Khakpour: Hunger by Roxane Gay
porochistakhakpour.com, Harper
"I'm very thankful for Roxane Gay's Hunger, which should be and should have been on every award list if people were really reading. This is her best book, in my opinion. I've known and read Roxane for a while but I did not know most of what was in this book. I love that it takes an unconventional road to storytelling and that the structure often spirals within itself in interesting ways. I also love that it is a story about sexual assault and the ways in which that can change your life. It's a deeply moving, somewhat experimental, gorgeously written and brilliantly thought-out memoir. And it's one of those books that no matter what your relationship to the body, this book is for you, all of you."
Porochista Khakpour is the author of the forthcoming memoir Sick (Harper Perennial, June 2018) and the novels The Last Illusion (2014) and Sons & Other Flammable Objects (2017). Her writing appears in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Bookforum, Elle, Spin, Slate, Conjunctions, and many other publications around the world.
15. Colum McCann: Rice by Nikky Finney
Brendan Bourke, Triquarterly
"There comes a time — especially around Thanksgiving — when we all need a book that gracefully complicates our idea of America and its history. I like the Whitmanesque idea that we are large and contain multitudes. When chasing this idea of healthy contradiction, I inevitably end up turning to my poetry shelf. Give me any number of poets — Rankin and Muldoon and Darwish have been among my go-to writers recently for no reason that I can discern except that in these times of ugly simplicity I wanted my world to become a little more nuanced. Among the books I found on my shelf alongside these poets was Nikky Finney's Rice, which is a book I hadn't read in a couple of years. Opening it up was like returning to a friend. I used to know many of the lines off by heart. I'm a little rusty now but it was so nice to explore it again. Nikky hails from South Carolina and she writes about so powerfully about landscape and family, and their intersection with history and commerce. In these poems she explores the way a single grain of rice might contain everything, not least our ancestors and eventually ourselves. She is so open to the world and she illustrates, for me at least, a history that we need to know more about at this time of year."
Colum McCann, originally from Dublin, Ireland, is the author of six novels and three collections of stories. He has won numerous international literary awards for his work, including the Pushcart Prize, the Rooney Prize, the Hennessy Award for Irish Literature, the Irish Independent Hughes and Hughes/Sunday Independent Novel of the Year 2003, and the 2002 Ireland Fund of Monaco Princess Grace Memorial Literary Award. Additionally, his fiction has been published in over 30 languages and has appeared in the New Yorker, the Atlantic Monthly, and the Paris Review, among others, and he has written for numerous publications including the Irish Times, the New York Times, the Guardian, and the Independent. His novel Let The Great World Spin was the winner of the National Book Award in 2009 and the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award in 2011. His most recent book is Letters to a Young Writer.
16. Chang-rae Lee: The Fortunes by Peter Ho Davies
Annika Lee, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
"I was very thankful for Peter Ho Davies' panoramic novel The Fortunes, a moving, often funny, and deeply provocative novel about the lives of four very different Chinese Americans as they encounter the myriad opportunities and clear limits of American life. An essential tale gorgeously told."
Chang-rae Lee is the author of five novels, most recently On Such a Full Sea. He was recently awarded the Dos Passos Prize for Literature, and teaches creative writing and literature at Stanford.
17. Lauren Groff: Sleepless Nights by Elizabeth Hardwick
Kristin Kozelsky, NYRB Classics
"This has been a year of rupture and dread, days of paralyzing anxiety and nights during which I pace the house, unable to sleep. I'm most grateful for Elizabeth Hardwick's Sleepless Nights, which has kept me company through many months of insomnia. I couldn't write and could hardly read at all in the beginning of the year, and I picked the book up to reread for the nth time out of last-ditch desperation (as well as the private joke of the title). I fell into Hardwick's spiny and brilliant prose and insanely sharp characterizations with almost shaky relief; the surface plotlessness of the book allowed me to come and go from it without worrying that I'd forgotten something important. With so much being ripped from us, day to day, it felt good to surrender myself to a ringing voice of authority I that I trusted and loved."
Lauren Groff is the New York Times bestselling author of three novels, The Monsters of Templeton, Arcadia, and Fates and Furies, and the celebrated short story collection Delicate Edible Birds. She has won the PEN/O. Henry Award, and has been a finalist for the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award. Her work has been featured in the New Yorker, along with several Best American Short Stories anthologies, and she was named one of Granta's 2017 Best Young American Novelists. She lives in Gainesville, Florida, with her husband and sons.
18. Alexander Chee: The End by Anders Nilsen
M. Sharkey, Fantagraphics
"This Thanksgiving, the book I'm most thankful for, after a year when I lost so many loved ones, is Anders Nilsen's The End, his extraordinary graphic memoir conducted in a series of meditations on love, grief, and mortality after the death of his fiancée. It picks from and includes some of the territory of his first book on this loss, Don't Go Where I Can't Follow — the first book I ever cried to while reading it standing in a bookstore — and moves into new terrain, creating something between a sequel and a revisitation. Moving on here like a sequel to grief, and a continuation of it."
Alexander Chee is most recently the author of The Queen of the Night. His collection of essays, How to Write an Autobiographical Novel, is forthcoming in 2018.
19. Diane Cook: The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, What It Means When a Man Falls From the Sky by Lesley Nneka Arimah, and Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado
Katherine Rondina, Penguin Classics
Riverhead Books, Graywolf Press
"I'm thankful always for The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. I have read it many times over the years and am always lifted up by its soaring writing and then made depressed and insane by the injustice it lays out. I love its politics, structure, philosophy, characters, how everything in it matters so much, and for that one section which follows a turtle around, just because. It's a radical book that feels scarily relevant no matter when I pick it up. I read it most recently before this awful election cycle. I wish everyone had.
"I'm thankful this year for What It Means When a Man Falls From the Sky by Lesley Nneka Arimah and Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado, two long-titled, kickass story collections, and Hunger by Roxane Gay, a short-titled, essential memoir that managed to show me shadowy parts of myself through her story."
Diane Cook is the author of the story collection Man V. Nature. She is the recipient of a 2016 fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. She lives in Brooklyn.
20. Alexandra Kleeman: The Second Body by Daisy Hildyard
Graham Webster, Fitzcarraldo Editions
"I'm thankful for The Second Body by Daisy Hildyard, a moving, book-length essay that examines the different ways in which human and animal bodies are linked, both at a physical and visceral level and at the most difficult-to-picture planetary level. Hildyard's writing stretches the mind, pushes you to not just acknowledge but feel the connection between a piece of meat at the butcher's shop and the flight path of a pigeon. An expanded view is always, I think, something to be grateful for."
Alexandra Kleeman is the author of the debut novel You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine and Intimations (Harper, 2016), a short story collection, and the 2016 winner of the Bard Fiction Prize. Her work has been published in the New Yorker, the Paris Review, Harper's, Vogue, and n+1. She lives in Staten Island and teaches at Columbia University.
21. Jessica Knoll: The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
Leslie Hassler, Penguin Classics
"In this moment of cultural reckoning, I feel a cosmic connection to brilliant women whose brilliance was not recognized while they were alive. Dismissed by critics as a middlebrow genre writer, Shirley Jackson took on themes of domestic oppression, mental illness, and the occult as a means for women to harness power in a time when they had very little opportunity for power. The Haunting of Hill House is a frightening, funny, and at times, sad tale about a lonely young woman who joins an occult scholar and his team seeking evidence of psychic activity in a grand old house that, over the course of a summer, seems to turn on everyone inside it, a metaphor for the way housewifery smothers women's creativity and ambition. Published in 1959, the book enjoyed commercial success but not critical acclaim — that was reserved for Jackson's philandering husband, the literary critic Stanley Edgar Hyman.
"Jackson has been on my mind recently, as people are already asking how soon we can forgive men in power who abused their power. They're so talented! Surely our culture will suffer without their unparalleled genius. Instead, let's focus on stocking their void with new talent — women, people of color, people with disabilities, members of the LBGTQ community, etc. People who have been overlooked the way Jackson was, 60 years ago, in favor of a man who sure, had talent, but no less and certainly no more than his extraordinary wife."
Jessica Knoll is the New York Times best-selling author of Luckiest Girl Alive and the forthcoming novel The Favorite Sister.
22. T.C. Boyle: Essays After Eighty by Donald Hall
Jamieson Fry, Mariner Books
"A book I am most thankful for in this autumnal season of the earth's annual trip around the sun and my own gathering years is Donald Hall's Essays After Eighty. These are witty and moving dispatches from old age, seasoned with Mr. Hall's lyrical observations of nature and life in the farmhouse his great-grandfather once inhabited. A lovely, lively, sustaining book that resuscitates the world over and over again."
T.C. Boyle is the author of 27 books, the most recent of which, The Relive Box, was published last month.
Want great book recommendations in your inbox every week? Sign up for the BuzzFeed Books newsletter!


Thanks for bringing your question to the Disney Parks Moms Panel. You must be very excited to see your family perform at Walt Disney World this summer. I'm excited for all of you.
Have a wonderful trip this summer!


Our most unusual and technically challenging project has recently been completed; an international badminton court entirely below ground.
Challenging ground conditions with water bearing sand were encountered.
The wall and base slab are held in position and protected against uplift by the use of ground anchors.
The internal structure is a steel framed composite design using in-situ concrete slabs on permanent steel decking.
The building is characterised by a high tech stainless steel staircase and a vaulted roof.


DAL Law Firm: What is the Probate Process?
At DAL Law Firm, we provide counsel to individuals throughout King County who have questions or concerns about administering the estate of a loved one. We provide every client with a high level of personal service and attention. When you retain our firm to assist you, we will explain the probate process and provide the personal representative with the guidance necessary to execute his or her responsibilities to the estate. As a part of our initial consultation, we will help you decide if a probate is the right process to administer your loved one's estate.
We work with executors, administrators and personal representatives, to complete all the duties required by the probate court to settle the estate. Below is a list of just a few of the matters that our firm can manage for our clients.
We will prepare all the necessary documents to complete the process, and will handle the hearing in court to open the probate, effectively administer the estate and handle any issues that may arise during the probate.
Please contact our office at (206) 408-8158 or dallawfirm.com  if you believe you or someone you know may be in need to assistance with a probate.


*Attendees must check in at the front office. You will then be escorted to the event room.
Dates and times are subject to change. For up to date information call 1-877-669-2228 (Option 2) or email contact@azctp.org.


text:
2021 guide to Christmas and holiday events around Metro Vancouver
From concerts to plays to craft markets, there are plenty of events on the December calendar for those looking to celebrate the season with some festively themed entertainment.
Shawn Conner, Stuart Derdeyn
Nov 25, 2021 • Last Updated December 13, 2021 • 6 minute read
Vancouver Christmas Market is on until Dec. 24 at Jack Poole Plaza. Photo by Lindsay Elliot /Vancouver Christmas Market
Heading into the Christmas season 2021, many if not all of Vancouver's traditional holiday events are back.
Most are returning as live events, too, with safety protocols in place, although a couple of have stayed online. So if you're looking to shop for something special at a local market or celebrate the season with some festively themed entertainment, there is plenty scheduled to make sure this December resembles last year's in name only.
Lumagica Surrey
When : Dec. 3 – Dec. 30, daily 4 p.m. – 10 p.m. (except Dec. 25)
Where : Cloverdale Fairgrounds, Surrey
Tickets and info : From $16, children under four are free. At lumagica.ca
A 1km light walk featuring such holiday-themed features as a Gingerbread Land, North Pole Village and more. Over 210 features and ornaments to take in as you enjoy the displays. The North Pole Village will feature a full dine and drink menu courtesy of the Joseph Richard Group. There is also a festive holiday marketplace for picking up a holiday gift idea or two.
Fleurs de Villes NOËL
When : Dec. 10 – 19
Where : Downtown Vancouver
Tickets and info : fleursdevilles.com
Presented by the National Bank of Canada and hosted by the Downtown Vanouver BIA and Robson Street Business Association, this annual festive floral display will feature 40-plus unique floral art installations designed by Vancouver's top florists. The floral trail begins in the lobby of the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver and then follows a route up Robson, back on Alberni Street and winds up at the Vancouver Art Gallery. QR codes and maps will be available.
An Evening With Sinatra: Big Band Classics and Holiday Magic
When: Dec. 5, 7:30 p.m.
Where: Chilliwack Cultural Centre, 9201 Corbould St., Chilliwack
Tickets : From $30 at chilliwackculturalcentre.ca or 604 391-7469
Join the Bruce James Orchestra with Steve Maddock as they celebrate the holiday season and the singing-sensation that was Frank Sinatra. The late crooner was renowned for his holiday jazz shows and this one will highlight some of ol' blue eyes fave tunes.
The Bruce James Orchestra (Chilliwack Cultural Centre).
Vancouver Christmas Market
When: Until Dec. 24
Where: Jack Poole Plaza (at the Olympic Cauldron), 1055 Canada Place, Vancouver
Tickets: From $10.39 at vancouverchristmasmarket.com
Vancouver's largest and longest-running Christmas market is a traditional German-style event with mulled wine, treats and baked goods, carousel rides, festive music, and magical lighting displays.
Yaletown becomes CandyTown on Nov. 27. Photo by Jade Stone /Jade Stone, Jade Stone Photograp
CandyTown 2021
When: Nov. 27, noon-6 p.m.
Where: Yaletown (Mainland, Hamilton and parts of Davie St.)
Info: yaletowninfo.com
Roaming holiday characters, live ice sculpting, and a holiday gift market with local vendors take over Yaletown for an afternoon. There is also an updated CandyTown Cocktail Tour and a life-size CandyLand board game. Returning favourites include by-donation horse-drawn carriage rides with proceeds benefiting B.C. Children's Hospital Foundation, and live ice carvings. For those bringing their kids to the all-ages winter festival, a Letters to Santa workshop will be available.
The Western Front's Toque Craft Fair stays online for this holiday season. jpg
Toque Craft Fair
When: Dec. 1-5
Info: toquecraftfair.com
The annual fundraiser for Western Front's artistic program is staying online for a second year in a row. Visitors are invited to browse and buy online from a curated selection of textiles, ceramics, jewelry, flowers, books, crafts, and home and body products by 30 B.C.-based artists, designers, and artisans. Purchased items will be available for pickup at Western Front, 303 E. 8th Ave., Dec. 11, noon-7 p.m. and Dec. 12, noon-4 p.m. The participating artists and designers donate 30 per cent of all sales to support the program.
Tim Howe, Jenny Andersen, and Sean Hara are among the performers in Gateway Theatre's A Broadway Holiday Dec. 16-23. jpg
A Broadway Holiday
When: Dec. 16-23
Where: Gateway Theatre, 6500 Gilbert Road, Richmond and online
Tickets: From $29 at gatewaytheatre.com
Gateway Theatre presents its first in-person, indoor audiences since February 2020. Created by Barbara Tomasic and Christopher King (Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat and The Music Man), A Broadway Holiday features selected hits from Broadway shows such as Let it Snow, Sleigh Ride, and White Christmas. Seven singer-musicians playing a variety of instruments including the accordion, piano, and the kazoo perform. For patrons who would like to sing along in the comfort of their own home, a digital VOD version will be available.
Community Caroling at Kits Point
When: Dec. 7, 5:30 p.m.-8 p.m.
Where: Vancouver Maritime Museum, 1905 Ogden Ave., Vancouver
Info: vanmaritime.com
The Kits Point Residents Association and the Vancouver Maritime Museum present an evening of outdoor caroling, cookie decorating, and admission-by-donation to the museum. The Salvation Army Band will play familiar carols outside the museum for a community sing-a-long. Lyric sheets will be available.
Christmas with Chor Leoni
When: Dec. 17, 18 and 20 at 8 p.m., Dec. 18 at 2 p.m. and 5 p.m., and Dec. 20 at 4:30 p.m.
Where: St. Andrew's-Wesley United, 1022 Nelson St., Vancouver
Tickets: From $20 at bardonthebeach.org
It's the return of the holiday tradition, Christmas with Chor Leoni. Violinist/fiddler Cameron Wilson joins the men's choir in celebration of festive favourites in the newly restored St. Andrew's-Wesley United. The program includes holiday classics and carols such as Hark the Herald Angels Sing and Winter Wonderland, and new arrangements of God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen from Marques L.A. Garrett; Noel from Naomi Laviolette; and Auld Lang Syne from Chor Leoni's Erick Lichte, as well as brand new Chor Leoni repertoire It's Almost Time by David Wilcox, arranged by Keith Sinclair; Ring Out by Zachary Wadsworth; and Looks Like a Cold, Cold Winter, arranged by Ken Cormier. The concert ends with Chor Leoni's signature, singalong candlelit encore of Silent Night.
Dawn Pemberton | Jodi Proznick: O, Come All Ye Soulful
When: Dec. 3 at 8 p.m.
Where: Studio Theatre, Shadbolt Centre for the Arts, 6450 Deer Lake Ave., Burnaby, and online
Tickets: $30 for the live show, $15 for live-stream at tickets.shadboltcentre.com , and coryweeds.com
Vocalist Dawn Pemberton joins bassist/bandleader Jodi Proznick to deliver soulful takes on holiday classics. They will be backed by a band composed of Cory Weeds (tenor saxophone), Chris Davis (trumpet), Tilden Webb (piano), and Jesse Cahill (drums). Songs by Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder, Ella Fitzgerald, John Legend, Donny Hathaway, Otis Redding, Darlene Love, The Eagles, Vince Guaraldi and more are featured.
Music on Main presents Music for the Winter Solstice
Where: Heritage Hall, 3102 Main St., Vancouver
Info: musiconmain.ca
Music on Main's annual tradition returns with warm and inspiring music for the winter season. Musicians include Veda Hille, Patsy Klein, Lucien Durey, and Nicholas Krgovich (vocals); Chloe Kim (violin); and Julia Chien (vibraphone).
Hudson and Oak, Jones Baby & Co, and Good Boy Collective are among the vendors going online as party of the BCIT Alumni Holiday Market online until Dec. 31. jpg
BCIT Alumni Holiday Market
Where: Online at bcit.ca/alumni/enjoy/holiday-market/
Info/tickets: bcit.ca/alumni/enjoy/holiday-market/
BCIT alumni-owned businesses are featured in this online market. Products include local artwork, artisan chocolates, wellness products, modern home décor, and more.
Weirdos Holiday Market
When: Dec. 4-5 and Dec. 11-12, 10 a.m.-6 p.m.
Where: The Venables Hall, 1739 Venables St., Vancouver
Tickets: $4 at the door for ages 13+ (by donation for children 12 and under)
Since its launch in 2017, the Weirdos Holiday Market has established itself as the go-to market for the region's most eclectic selection of holiday gift ideas. In 2019, the market attracted more than 5,000 patrons in a single weekend. This year's features more than 25 vendors selling "witchy wares, anatomical curiosities, unique collectibles, quirky clothing and eccentric art" according to the media release, as well as "magical pottery, one-of-a-kind prints, candles, books, stickers and much more." A portion of the door proceeds will be donated to the Urban Native Youth Association.
The Tzimmes Trio as part of the inaugural Chanukah Market Nov. 28 under heated tents in the parking lot the Jewish Community Centre Nov. 28. jpg
Chanukah Market
When: Nov. 28, 11 a.m.-5 p.m.
Where: Jewish Community Centre, 950 W 41st Ave., Vancouver
Info: jccgv.com (admission free with a donation to the Jewish Food Bank)
For the inaugural Chanukah Market, the JCC transforms its parking area into a marketplace with entertainment. Performers include Tzimmes, singer/guitarist Anders Nerman, children's entertainer Monika Schwartzmann, the Vancouver Jewish Folk Choir, singer-songwriter Auto Jansz, and the klezmer sounds of the Klesbians, along with bands, singers, and dancers. The day's festivities culminate in the lighting of the first candle on the menorah at sundown.
Jamesy (Alastair Knowles) and his buddy James are back for O Christmas Tea at the Centennial Theatre on Dec. 22. jpg
Oh Christmas Tea
Where: Centennial Theatre, 2300 Lonsdale Ave., North Vancouver
Tickets: $19-$44 at jamesandjamesy.com/o-christmas-tea
British comedy duo James and Jamesy return with their seasonal show O Christmas Tea. The premise: As the world floods with tea, the duo must find solutions to keep them afloat as they try to make their way back home.
Know of a holiday event that should be added to our list? Email details to sderdeyn@postmedia.com.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Q: When is memset to 0 nonportable? From this comment in GCC bug #53119:

In C, {0} is the universal zero initializer equivalent to C++'s {} (the latter being invalid in C). It is necessary to use whenever you want a zero-initialized object of a complete but conceptually-opaque or implementation-defined type. The classic example in the C standard library is mbstate_t:
mbstate_t state = { 0 }; /* correctly zero-initialized */

versus the common but nonportable:
mbstate_t state;
memset(&state, 0, sizeof state);

It strikes me as odd that the latter version could be unportable (even for implementation-defined types, the compiler has to know the size). What is the issue here and when is a memset(x, 0, sizeof x) unportable?

A: The reason for this has to do with how types are represented.
Section 6.7.9p10 of the C standard describes how fields are initialized as follows:

If  an  object  that  has  automatic  storage  duration  is  not
initialized  explicitly, its  value  is indeterminate. If an  object
that  has  static  or  thread  storage  duration  is  not  initialized
explicitly, then:

*

*if it has pointer type, it is initialized to a null pointer;

*if it has arithmetic type, it is initialized to (positive or unsigned) zero;

*if it is an aggregate, every member is initialized (recursively) according to these rules, and any padding is initialized to zero bits;

*if it is a union, the first named member is initialized (recursively) according to these rules, and any padding is initialized
to zero bits

And p21 also states:

If there are fewer initializers in a brace-enclosed list than there
are elements or members of an aggregate, or fewer characters in a
string literal used to initialize an array of known
size  than  there  are  elements  in  the  array, the  remainder  of
the  aggregate  shall  be
initialized implicitly the same as objects that have static storage
duration

The difference between this and setting all bytes to zero is that some of the above values may not necessarily be represented by all bits zero.
For example, there are some architectures where the address 0 is a valid address.  This means that a null pointer is not represented as all bits zero.  (Note: (void *)0 is specified as a null pointer constant by the standard, however the implementation will treat this as whatever the representation of a null pointer is)
The standard also doesn't mandate a particular representation for floating point types.  While the most common representation, IEEE754, does use all bits 0 to represent the value +0, this is not necessarily true for other representations.

A: memset(p, 0, n) sets to all-bits-0.
An initializer of { 0 } sets to the value 0.
On just about any machine you've ever heard of, the two concepts are equivalent.
However, there have been machines where the floating-point value 0.0 was not represented by a bit pattern of all-bits-0.  And there have been machines where a null pointer was not represented by a bit pattern of all-bits-0, either.  On those machines, an initializer of { 0 } would always get you the zero initialization you wanted, while memset might not.
See also question 7.31 and question 5.17 in the C FAQ list.

Postscript: One other difference, as pointed out by @ryker: memset will set any "holes" in a padded structure to 0, while setting that structure to { 0 } might not.

A: Noting a difference in behavior between the two methods...
In ...= {0}; if padding bytes exist, they will not be cleared.
But a call to memset() will clear padding.
From here

"Possible implementation of mbstate_t is a struct type holding an array representing the incomplete multibyte character, an integer
counter indicating the number of bytes in the array that have been
processed, and a representation of the current shift state."

In the case mbstate_t is implemented as a struct it is notable that  {0} will not set padding bytes that may exist to zero, making the following assumption debatable:
mbstate_t state = { 0 }; /* correctly zero-initialized */

memset() however does include padding bytes.
memset(state , 0, sizeof state);//all bytes in memory region of test will be cleared

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Q: How to validate data of two models in the django-admin when using inlines? Update: Reading directly the django source code i got one undocumented missing piece to solve my problem. Thanks to Brandon that solved half of the problem by giving me one of the missing pieces. See my own answer to see my solution (i dont want to mix things here).
I have the following (simplified) models:
Order(models.Model):
    status = models.CharField( max_length=25, choices=STATUS_CHOICES, default='PENDING')
    total = models.DecimalField( max_digits=22, decimal_places=2)

    def clean(self):
        if self.estatus == 'PAID' or self.estatus == 'SENT':
            if len(self.payment.all()) > 0:
                raise ValidationError("The status cannot be SENT or PAID if there is no payment for the order")

Payment(models.Model):
    amount = models.DecimalField( max_digits=22, decimal_places=2 )
    order  = models.ForeignKey(Order, related_name="payment")

    def clean(self):
        if self.amount < self.order.total or self.amount <= 0:
            ValidationError("The payment cannot be less than the order total")

In my admin.py i have:
class paymentInline(admin.StackedInline):
    model   = Payment
    max_num = 1

class OrderAdmin(admin.ModelAdmin):
    model   = Order
    inlines = [ paymentInline, ]

The validation in the clean method of the Order does not work because there is no payment saved when the validation occurs (obviously it has not been saved to the database).
The validation inside the payment works fine (if editing or adding a new payment).
I want to validate if the order has a payment if the status is 'PAID' or 'SENT', but as i cannot doit the way is in the clean method.
My question is, how can i access the 'payment.amount' value entered by the user in the inline (payment) of the Order form, to accomplish my validation? (considering im in the clean method of the Order model)

A: After reading the django source code i found one property of the BaseInlineFormSet that contains the Parent Instance of the Inline, in my case, the Order instance being edited.
Brandon gave me another important piece, iterating over the self.forms of the BaseInlineFormSet to get each of the instances (even not saved or not cleaned or empty), in my case, each Payment Instance being edited.
These are the two pieces of information needed to check if the Order with status 'PAID' or 'SENT' has a payment or not. Iterate over the cleaned_data of the formset would not give Order data (i.e. when not changing the Order, just changing the Payment, or when not adding a Payment -and an empty Payment- but changing the Order) which is needed to decide to save the model if the order status is different than 'PAID' or 'SENT', so this method was discarded before.
The models are keep the same, I only modified the admin.py to add the next:
class PaymentInlineFormset(forms.models.BaseInlineFormSet):
    def clean(self):
        order = None
        payment = None

        if any(self.errors):
            return

        # django/forms/models.py Line # 672,674 .. class BaseInlineFormSet(BaseModelFormSet) . Using Django 1.3
        order = self.instance

        #There should be only one form in the paymentInline (by design), so  in the iteration below we end with a valid payment data.
        if len(self.forms) > 1:
            raise forms.ValidationError(u'Only one payment per order allowed.')
        for f in self.forms:
            payment = f.save(commit=False)

        if payment.amount == None:
            payment.amount = 0

        if order != None:
            if order.status in ['PAID', 'SENT'] and payment.amount <= 0:
                raise forms.ValidationError(u'The order with %s status must have an associated payment.'%order.status)

class pymentInline(admin.StackedInline):
    model   = Payment
    max_num = 1
    formset = PaymentInlineFormset

class OrderAdmin(admin.ModelAdmin):
    inlines = [ paymentInline, ]

admin.site.register(Order, OrderAdmin)
admin.site.register(Payment)

A: It sounds like you just need to validate that there is at least one valid formset in the inlines...you might give this code a try: http://wadofstuff.blogspot.com/2009/08/requiring-at-least-one-inline-formset.html
Hope that gets you going.
[Edit]
I took a look at some code I had written for another app that had custom validation on inlines based on a property on the related model. Of course, you may need to make some adjustments, but give this a try. You'll need to specify an inline to use in your admin model too.
#I would put this in your app's admin.py
class PaymentInline(admin.TabularInline):
    model = Payment
    formset = PaymentInlineFormset

#I would put this in the app's forms.py
class PaymentInlineFormset(forms.models.BaseInlineFormSet):
        def clean(self):
            order = None
            valid_forms = 0

            for error in self.errors:
                if error:
                    return

            for cleaned_data in self.cleaned_data:
                amount = cleaned_data.get('amount', 0)
                if order == None:
                    order = cleaned_data.get('order')
                if amount > 0:
                    valid_forms += 1

            if order.status in ['PAID', 'SENT'] and len(valid_forms) > 0:
                raise forms.ValidationError(u'Your error message')


text:
How to find out if your Facebook Account was Hacked
The popular social networking sites like Facebook show a complicated record on privacy. Earlier, there was a news about a vulnerability discovered in Facebook 'View As' feature. It unknowingly exposed information of 50 million accounts. Now, reports have emerged that hackers had access to the users' important information. This is a worrying development. If you are interested in checking whether your Facebook account was hacked or not, read the instructions below.
Check if your Facebook Account was breached
Log in to your Facebook account and visit the Help Center.
There, scroll down to the section "Is my Facebook account impacted by this security issue?"
Here you'll see a Yes or No answer under 'Was this information helpful?' section.
This indicates your account was not compromised and you were not one of the 30 million users impacted.
The breached Facebook accounts, on the other hand, will show a 'Yes' alongside some confirmation from Facebook. Here, you might find yourself belonging to one of the following categories –
One in the 15 million users' whose personal information like name, email or phone number was compromised.
One in the 14 million users' whose latest activities were noted.
One in the 1 million users whose access token was stolen.
The only fortunate event in all the above cases was no hackers could access sensitive information like user's financial credentials, credit card info or passwords. There's no evidence that data was accessed in the attack. Nevertheless it would be a good idea to change your password and use a strong one.
For other accounts, especially the ones belonging to the 2nd group, it is advisable to resort to more secure ways like adding a pin code to your account information. Doing so will help in adding an additional layer of security and not falling prey to any sort of social engineering attacks.
Lastly, if you are of the view that the networking website does not feature adequate safeguards for your privacy and doesn't deserve to host what you share, you can consider quitting Facebook.
Take care, stay safe, and be aware of the consequences of Oversharing On Social Media.
HemantS@TWC
The author Hemant Saxena is a post-graduate in bio-technology and has an immense interest in following Windows, Office and other technology developments. Quiet by nature, he is an avid Lacrosse player. Creating a System Restore Point first before installing a new software, and being careful about any third-party offers while installing freeware is recommended.


text:
Environmental groups call for new Martis Valley plan
Erich Sommer
Two dozen meetings and over two-and-a-half years of planning have failed to produce a plan for the Martis Valley that local environmental groups say they can support.
Sierra Watch, the Tahoe Group of the Sierra Club and the Mountain Area Preservation Foundation are all calling for major revisions to the preliminary draft of the Martis Valley Community Update Plan, which was released last month.
In fact, one group, Sierra Watch, would like to see a new plan entirely.
"This general plan is really just a collection of development proposals, and unfortunately, is so bad that tinkering around the edges won't fix it," said Tom Mooers, executive director of Sierra Watch, an environmental groups that monitors growth and planning in the Sierra. "The area deserves a plan that restricts resort and golf course development in the area. A great step to take would be the formation of a true community plan."
The 135-page preliminary draft of the Martis Valley Community Plan is designed to serve as an update of the 1975 Martis Valley General Plan.
According to the Placer County Planning Department, it seeks to guide development and address "new environmental and land issues."
"[The plan] is Placer County's constitution for development in the Martis Valley," said Planning Director Fred Yeager said at a Jan. 21 meeting in which Placer County Planning Department introduced the plan.
But with no representatives from the town of Truckee or Nevada County on the Citizens' Advisory Committee, which met monthly with Placer County planners in formulating the plan, Sierra Watch and the Sierra Club's Tahoe Group fault the plan for what they call a lack of regional planning.
The Placer and Nevada county line bisects the Martis Valley and also serves as the southern boundary of the town of Truckee.
Currently the 12-member Citizens' Advisory Committee includes representatives from service agencies such as Truckee Donner Recreation and Park District, Truckee Sanitary District, and the developments or resorts of Lahontan, Northstar, Waddle Ranch and Siller Ranch. The committee also includes two representatives from homeowner's associations.
"What we need is a joint planning process between the town of Truckee, Nevada County and Placer County. A plan that attracts businesses that pay living wages … and follows the American Planning Associations principles for conservation design. We would then truly have a Martis Valley rural community plan," the Tahoe Group of the Sierra Club said in a prepared statement.
Mooers of Sierra Watch said the golf course communities allowed under the plan will create more service jobs and exasberate the current shortage of affordable housing.
"The plan will make the current housing crunch worse, because it will increase the demand for affordable housing but provide none itself," he said
The preliminary draft also calls for the expansion of Highway 267 to four lanes, from Interstate 80 to Northstar Drive. Such expansion would require an additional bypass bridge next to the one currently under construction. The plan would also widen Schaffer Mill Road to four lanes, and add stoplights at the intersection of Highway 267 and Northstar Drive and at Schaffer Mill Road and Highway 267.
In addition, it would allow up to 5,000 new homes in the valley and several communities with 18-hole golf courses.
Still, with all the development the plan would allow, it is, according to the plan itself, a 37 percent reduction in the amount of homes that would have been permitted under the 1975 plan.
"But those reductions [of the number of units] are based on the developer's proposals and were not outlined in the plan by Placer County," Mooers said
The Tahoe Group of the Sierra Club added in their response that the reduction of units results from the trend toward larger, second-home communities that are centered on golf courses.
"The Tahoe Group maintains the developers have traded the number of units [they want to build] for golf courses," stated the Tahoe Group of the Sierra Club.
Representatives of the major landowners and developments in the valley have cited this reduction and their belief that the plan will direct future growth into and around existing developments as improvements over the 1975 plan.
But it's not just environmental groups that have concerns with the initial draft of the plan.
One Citizens' Advisory Committee member said the amount of development and the proposed expansion of the roads needs to be reexamined.
"There are some groups that don't want any development at all, but there is always going to be development," said Lynne Larson, a representative for the Ponderosa Palisades Homeowners Association. "What we need is development with responsibility, and that is what I would hope this plan would address. But there are some real weaknesses in this plan. It is a developer's dream."
Larson and Mike Moretti of the Northstar Homeowner's Association both said they oppose the connections of roads through the Sierra Meadows neighborhood to Schaffer Mill Road and the extension of Schaffer Mill Road all the way to Northstar.
"We are concerned about the addition of a connecting road between Lahontan and Northstar," Moretti said.
"I think there are people that have really congested lives, and Northstar is a sanctuary for them, and they are going to lose that, but I don't know how to deal with that, I really don't," he added. "I don't want to tell them you don't have a right to that sanctuary, but I don't want to tell Northstar you can't expand your business, either."
The Citizens' Advisory Committee will make an advisory recommendation on the plan to the Placer County Planning Commission. That recommendation may come as early as Feb. 25, the next meeting of the Citizens' Advisory Committee.
The impacts of the plan will be assessed in an environmental impact report due out in March.
Placer County is accepting written comments on the draft plan until Feb. 25.
Copies of the preliminary draft are available through the Placer County Planning Department at (530) 889-7470 and online at .