Good morning everyone,

After some #content intensive Fem Fridays, normal linky service is restored today. I hope you enjoy it. Also, happy new year!

Our first link comes from Elizabeth Stokoe, conversation analyst, who has featured here before. These are tips for how to convey a delight you don't feel on receiving a disappointing Christmas present. Obviously if you've already got and reacted to a disappointing gift, that particular chicken has flown the coop, but this is a good one to keep on file for the future and birthdays:

let’s assume that people select gifts that they think you will like. There may still be reasons for you not to like it. If you once collected “cat things”, or enjoyed the music of Bruce Springsteen, it’s quite possible you later stopped liking cat things or listening to Bruce Springsteen.

https://theconversation.com/how-to-lie-politely-when-you-receive-a-bad-christmas-present-108635

On reading this, I took the obvious next step of searching for "BIGGEST COLLECTION OF CAT THINGS". This particular honour is held by Carmen de Aldana of Guatemala, who has twenty one thousand distinct cat things. She started collecting at 13 and is now 76. I wonder if she is easy or hard to buy presents for. I would hate to buy her a cat thing that would occupy the bottom quartile of her 21K other cat things.

“Empecé con tres gatitos. Eran unos angelitos que tocaban música, pero solo sobrevive uno y fue con el que comencé a coleccionar más gatitos”, comentó doña Carmencita […] Fue así como su casa se empezó a poblar de gatos. Tazas, decoraciones, tablas, prensapapeles y hasta cuadros. Las barandas de las ventanas de su casa tienen un toque felino que hace que las personas vuelvan a ver hacia esta curiosa vivienda.

https://www.soy502.com/articulo/fallece-carmen-aldana-poseia-record-guinness-izabal-24039

Here's another cat thing (apparently) – it's acting. Animals are getting better at acting and this article explains why and how it manifests itself. The example used is a film with a woman director and lead actor, so obvious relevance to the Fem Fri brief here:

There is a moment in the film where he [Towne, a cat] gazes toward McCarthy “sort of sympathetically, and also judgmentally, and you feel all of that,” she added. [Marielle] Heller ended up commissioning a prop modeled after Towne that cost thousands of dollars — the most expensive one for the production. Towne’s efforts did not go unnoticed. “This cat is out-acting me,” [Melissa] McCarthy thought as they worked.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/02/movies/animals-acting-movies-tv.html

Oh and also before I go! Not relevant to los gatos but I wrote a review of the books I read last year and it's here:

https://medium.com/@Vincennes/vincennes-review-of-books-2018-d7b6593d6c72

Happy first Friday of the year!

A xx.