December 29, 2023

So this is the new year? 🤨

Boredwalk New Years Event GIF

WE DON'T FEEL ANY DIFFERENT

Here's hoping we can flip the script on the above sentiment with some new habits in 2024! We're closing out 2023 with a great deal on fun stuff to help those New Year's resolutions stick around past mid-January!

Now through Monday, get 15% off any of our Delve Decks, adult activity books, and Grievance Journals when you use the code NEW15 at checkout!

You don't need to spend a certain amount or download an app or sacrifice an innocent animal over a copper bowl while reciting "Auld Lang Syne" backwards — just use that code at checkout. That's it.*

*Though I would be very bad marketer indeed if I didn't mention that orders over $75 ship for free within the U.S. Do with this fine print what you will.

Such a relief GIF

It's been a long year, you deserve some easy savings!

GIF via CBS

Alright, sales-y stuff out of the way...

Happy Pepper Pot Day! No, not Tony Stark's right-hand woman Pepper Potts — I'm talking about the piping hot stew of veggies, peppercorns, and beef tripe! (Yum, I guess?)

Nicknamed 'The Soup That Won The War' in the aftermath of the Revolutionary War by fanciful Philadelphians who claimed it was the only food the Continental Army ate during the harsh winter of 1777-1778 as they fought for independence from British rule, this is a pretty ironic bit of myth-making given that Pepper Pot was originally brought to America by — wait for it — enslaved people from Africa and the Caribbean. Of course. Founding Fathers? More like Founding Fibbers, amirite?

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Alright! Let's send you off into the holiday weekend with some notable events and famous birthdays from December 29ths of yore! If that includes yours, happy birthday to you! Celebrate with some beef tripe (if you dare)!

• In 1845 the U.S. annexed the Republic of Texas and admitted it as the 28th state in the union, much to the chagrin of various Texans ever since

• In 1937 the catchily-named Irish Free State was replaced by a new, more efficiently-named state called Ireland following the adoption of a new constitution

 Birthday beef tripe stew — sorry, kids! — all around for: Scottish chemist and inventor of the modern waterproof raincoat Charles Macintosh (1766), chemist & engineer Charles Goodyear of tire & blimp fame (1800), pianist, saxophonist, jazz bandleader, and trans trailblazer Billy Tipton (1914), actress, producer, and Weezer muse Mary Tyler Moore (1936), Canadian singer-songwriter & bassist Rick Danko of The Band (1943), English singer-songwriter & actress Marianne Faithfull (1946), actor Ted Danson of Cheers, Three Men and a Baby, and The Good Place fame (1947), actress Patricia Clarkson (1959), comedian & author Paula Poundstone (1959), singer-songwriter & biologist Dexter Holland of punk band The Offspring (1965), filmmaker Lilly Wachowski of The Matrix film franchise fame (1967), English actor Jude Law (1972), actor & screenwriter Danny McBride of Eastbound & Down fame (1976), actress Katherine Moennig of The L Word fame (1976), Mexican actor & filmmaker Diego Luna of Andor fame (1979), and actress Alison Brie of Community and G.L.O.W. fame (1982)

Pour one out for: Austrian poet & author Rainer Maria Rilke (d. 1926), jazz trumpeter Freddie Hubbard (d. 2008), guitarist, drummer, and songwriter Ben Curtis of the bands Secret Machines and School of Seven Bells (d. 2013), Italian-French fashion designer Pierre Cardin (d. 2020), English fashion designer Vivienne Westwood (d. 2022), and Brazilian football icon Pelé (d. 2022)

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OK, that's it for this week! We'll be back here in your inbox on Monday with another email — because everybody deserves to receive something fun on New Year's Day — and MAYBE a fresh customer Q&A! If you'd like to be featured in an upcoming email reply to this and let us know!

Peace, love, and fresh starts,

Matt