The Seattle Times releases its annual Christmas cookie recipe booklet, which has some good-looking cookies. 2009 is so the year of the speculaas. (Note to the Times: Given our modern times, wouldn’t it make sense to take PayPal instead of money orders and deliver the booklets via PDF/email?)The News Tribune in Tacoma rates boxed holiday meals from grocery stores, including Fred Meyer, QFC, and Metropolitan Market. We’re not confessing to cutting out this list and saving it, but you might want to.The Wall Street Journal reports that there are almost 2000 bagel-related injuries every year in the United States, and surveys the bagel slicing gizmos used to combat this deadly

pitiful painful epidemic. Voracious confesses we have a paisley-shaped scar on our pinky from a finger that slipped into the hole in 1986; laughable now, the injury sidelined us from the school orchestra for weeks. Don’t let this happen to a cellist in your home.The Food Section reports that Naked Chef Jamie Oliver has launched a dating site, which is both hilarious and somewhat creepy. One pictures Mr. Oliver sitting in front of his laptop at midnight, clad only in saggy briefs, furiously clicking through the profiles of all the women posting their favorite chocolate truffle cake recipe in the hopes of luring a potential mate. We’re a bit late to this story, but a few weeks back, the Ethicurean posted a sensible essay: Fad aside, backyard chickens are chickens, the author argues, not pets. They crap all over the place, they need to be penned in so they don’t get killed by predators, and someday they’ll run out of eggs and you’ll have to figure out what to do with them…Side note: Chicken diapers really exist?Bonus link: Doing your holiday decorating? Regretsy posted a link to this crocheted Starbucks Frappucino holiday wreath on Etsy. Sadly, it has sold out, but feel free to copy the design to give to your favorite Partner.