Only six more shopping days ’til Christmas! Thankfully, the wholestyle roundups are blissfully free of stress-inducing holiday posts about parties (attending and hosting) and gifts (giving and receiving). Dive into this batch of articles and take some time for you!

And as an administrative note, I’ll be out of town December 20th – January 5th, so there won’t be any roundups until the second full week of the new year. I know, I know, you’re all heartbroken. But I promise great pictures of Baja when I get back.

Arts & Entertainment

• Agent Lover: Late Night Feelings – An Interview with Nathan Appel Talking with a contributor to a new erotic photography site, FLNGS
• BoingBoing (Lisa Katayama): Why it’s Time to Lighten up About “Weird” Japan Why do so many love to gawk at this mysterious, foreign “other” that is Japanese culture?
• The Daily Beast (Taffy Brodesser-Akner) Who’s Killing the Soaps? With the cancellation of As the World Turns, a former soap-opera magazine editor dishes on daytime’s dwindling world
• Manolo for the Big Girl: Big Girls in Art – Les Toil’s Pinup Art Loving, joyous, and vivid pin-up images of large women, and only large women
• M.I.S.S.: Fashion Meets Music – Francoise Hardy One of France’s Yé-yé girls produces both signature music and style
• Poetic & Chic: Amish Abstractions at the de Young An exhibition of Amish bedding the abstract designs that pre-date Abstract Expressionism and Op-Art

DIY

• Blogher (Karen Walrond): How to Use Photoshop to Enhance Your Best Images Not to give people alien-looking waist/thighs
• DIY Life: Make a Sweater Wreath Got a boatload of old winter clothes you need to get rid of? Make festive decorations!
• M.I.S.S.: She’s Crafty – DIY Multi-Chain and Ribbon Necklace Use your old chains to create a bold statement piece on the cheap

Education

• Blogher (sassymonkey): Publishing Wars – Hardcovers versus E-books The debate between a book in the hand and a book on the drive continues
• BoingBoing (Ned Sublette): Principles of Postmamboism A portable theory that places music at the center of understanding and uses music to interrogate other fields of study
• The Daily Beast (Douglas Rushkoff): The Decade Google Made You Stupid Technology has changed your brain over the past ten years, mostly for the worse
• Discover: With a Blood Sample & 20 Minutes, Nanosensors Could Detect Cancer The next leap in eradicating cancer is happening now
• Neatorama (Stacy): 43 Facts about 44 Presidents Fun factoids for every US leader (remember: Grover Cleveland counts for two)
• New York University, Office of Public Affairs: NYU Researchers Develop Non-invasive Technique to Rewrite Fear Memories Reactivating fear memories in humans allows them to be updated with non-fearful information

Fashion

• Bonne Vie: The Rebirth of – The Hat Love ‘em or hate ‘em, hats are back!
• Cupcakes and Mace: 5 Style Trends of the Decade – The Great and the Ghastly A personal look at styles to love and love to hate
• The Everyday Minimalist: How the French Keep it Simple and Obtain that Fabulous “je ne sais quoi” We could learn a thing or two from the French
• Retro Chick: An Evening of Vintage Hair Styling Styling demonstrations by Flamingo Amy in Norwich hair salon Flint followed by some live music in Lady Luck’s Boutique
• The Skinny: 4 Ways to Achieve Mixmaster Status Mixing prints may be risky, but it’s one of the easiest ways to rework your favorite garments and get more mileage out of your wardrobe

Food

• Closet Cooking: Candied Bacon That’s right. Candied bacon.
• The Daily Beast (Rachel Syme): How Top Chefs Stay Thin Yep – eat healthy, exercise, and indulge occasionally. Sound advice, I think.
• DIY Life: How to Hold a Wine Glass By the stem? Cupped in your hand? What’s correct?!
• EcoSalon: Got Mortar? Along with the Pestle it Makes the Kitchen Grind Greener An old-fashioned tool makes cooking greener and more satisfying
• EcoSalon: Test Tube Steak – It’s What’s for Dinner If test tube meat was made tasty, affordable, and cruelty free, would you willingly buy it?
• Gwen Bell: 5 Teas to Taste Even if you’re not a tea drinker, these picks sound perfect for chilly winter days
• Serious Eats (Chichi Wang): The Nasty Bits – Pork Neck Posole New Mexico can churn out some interesting and spicy food (and culture)
• Zested: Christmas Croquembouche Croquembouche, a spun sugar tower of cream puffs, is French for “crunch in the mouth.”

Positive Life

• In the Library with the Lead Pipe: How do You Say No? The abil­ity to say no to tak­ing on a new project is directly related to men­tal well­ness and a healthy work/life bal­ance
• Positively Present: The Best Ways to Embrace Solitude When we have the opportunity to spend time by ourselves, we should embrace it and realize that solitude is a gift
• Sexgenderbody (Millie Jackson): Something for Every Body – Well into the New Year Positively reframing our goals make them easier and healthier to achieve
• Through the Illusion: Stop Apologizing and Start Rocking Your Self-Esteem! Combating that evil voice in your head that tells you you’re bad

Sexuality

• Blowfish Blog: Why Did Gayness Evolve? A discussion of the evoluntionary benefits of homosexuality
• Psychology Today (Nigel Barber): Ladies in Heat? Scholars argue that women have estrus, or sexual heat
• Sexis (KalCobalt): Your Kiss, Your Fist What is it about fisting that captures the minds of its devotees?
• Tranifesto: Sexualized or Sexy – The Fine Line The fetishization of transpeople tends to erase “sexy” from the board
• Violet Blue: A Visit to the Musee d’Erotisme in Paris (NSFW) A visual tour of erotic artwork

Travel

• Almost Fearless: What Redesigning Your Life and Traveling the World Really Means The hard part? Giving yourself permission to be wildly, irresponsibly happy
• Blogher (Pam): Sleeping Well While Traveling Tips and tricks for getting the rest you need while you’re on the road
• Just a Titch: San Fransciso Re-Cap Amy’s weekend in that city full of hills (and tasty coffee, apparently!)

Work, Money & Organization

• Penelope Trunk’s Brazen Careerist: Underrated Career Skill – Asking Questions How to ask the best questions in order to get the best answers
• Wisebread: Hold that Resume! 5 Red Flags in Online Job Listings What to watch out for when looking for work online