Title: “Les Misérables”

Author: Victor Hugo

Rank: 41

Blurb: “Victor Hugo’s towering novel of Jean Valjean, his unjust imprisonment, and his lifelong flight from a relentless police officer.”

Review: “Have a dictionary handy as there are many words that need translation.”

Customers Also Bought: “Les Miserables In Plain and Simple English”

Footnote: Is that the one with the cookies?

Les Misérables [Amazon]

Buy or Die [Stinque@Amazon Kickback Link]

It’s not Christmas — at least for us — without Sascha Burland and the Skipjack Choir undermining the whole gaudy extravaganza. Mom can keep her Tennessee Ernie Ford holiday album — between this and Vince Guaraldi’s Peanuts music, we’re covered.

Title: “TIME for Kids BIG Book of Why: 1,001 Facts Kids Want to Know”

Authors: Editors of Time for Kids Magazine

Rank: 93

Blurb: “Kids will be desperate to share what they’ve learned with their parents, teachers, and friends… and anyone else who will listen.”

Most Helpful Favorable Review: “I enjoyed reading this book with my grandson and we both learned some new things.”

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Gangnam Style hits one billion views, Google adds a dancing animation to the hit count, we tremble in abject fear.

[via David Chartier / Tumblr]

Remarks from the NRA press conference on Sandy Hook school shooting [WaPo]

• Moon crashes into Earth: 1,000,000:1
• Ring of Fire erupts simultaneously: 1,000,000:1
• Downton Abbey canceled: 500:1

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So there’s this facility known as the “Y-12 National Security Complex” in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, which “maintains the safety, security and effectiveness of the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile”. We know this because they say so, on the same page where they show a handsome soldier vigilantly guarding our nukes.

Not shown: The hole in the fence.

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