Frank Bruni offers this in his latest newsletter

Also in the Times, Gia Kourlas previewed the New York City Ballet’s “All Balanchine III” program, which includes a performance of “Symphony in C.” Its “glittering finale, with lines of dancers performing superhuman feats with nothing more than their brains and bodies, is practically a protest dance against artificial intelligence.” (Sharon Gurwitz, Manhattan)

If  people cannot write well, they cannot think well; and if they cannot think well, others will do their thinking for them.

● George Orwell via World Poetry Collective

I read and listened to a bunch of reports about Renee Good. Nothing struck me with the impact of this short remark reported in Frank Bruni's newsletter—

Rachel Louise Snyder appraised the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent who killed Renee Good: “The man, with his face covering, his tactical vest, his handgun and his shorn hair, was kitted up to playact in a war against unarmed everybodies. He was frailty wrapped in fatigues.” 

The story of a MacBook that stopped an artillery shell but kept on working recalls a deep-rooted story from 2014, of a soldier whose life was saved in Afghanistan by his iPhone. I still remember the chaplain who told even older stories of battlefield rescues.

Mother's Christmas Bread, my favorite of holiday breads.