And there you have it, friends—another Challenge in the books. I’ll keep this uncharacteristically brief except to say that I realized I’m always asking others to bravely post in-the-moment LDBC-elfies when I haven’t done it myself in a while. (Last year was just my hand.) So here’s my characteristically grim countenance, which looks the same in winning and in defeat. Plus a bit of “I’ll just smash my hair down” grooming for good measure. (You’d think I’d look happier, considering I also woke up to a nifty write-up on Boing Boing. But my face has just one setting, expression-wise: Easter Island moai.)

You know the drill, all. Share your victory LDBC-elfies as comments to a post on the Facebook page, tweet it out and tag @LDBChallenge, or post it to Instagram and tag @ldbchallenge.

Don’t forget to fill out the form (bit.ly/LDBCform) so that I’m working with comprehensive stats when I crunch all the numbers and post the wrap-up (halfway through January, at the rate I’ve been going).

And if you can, please send a little something to Americares, which is our chosen charity. A donation is not something anyone has to do, but if you’re so inclined, the money goes to a great organization, and you can donate here.

Oh, and some of you have asked where you might find my books, which I appreciate. You can read about the series here.

Thanks, as always, for helping to keep me sane during the season, people. Happy Holidays to you and yours, and I’ll see you when I post the wrap-up.

For Peter!

“All the world will be your enemy, Prince with a Thousand Enemies, and whenever they catch you, they will kill you. But first they must catch you…”

— Richard Adams

There’s a moment in one of my favorite books, Watership Down, that reminds me of the point in the game we’re at now. (And if you’ve never read the novel or seen the 1978 animated movie, I highly recommend both. Just don’t assume that cartoon bunnies are suitable fare for younger kids, however, because the film’s pretty dark, bloody, and violent.)

Bigwig, the toughest fighter among the hero rabbits of the tale, has acquitted himself in battle far better than his opponent, the much larger General Woundwort, expected. And though bloodied and badly wounded, Bigwig uses a break in the fighting to reposition himself for a final face-off. When Woundwort returns to kill him, the general realizes that’s going to be much harder than he’d bargained for and offers to let Bigwig live if he’ll switch sides.

“My Chief Rabbit has told me to defend this run,” Bigwig replies, “and until he says otherwise I shall stay here.”

And oh, does he.

That’s about where we are in this Thing of Ours, friends. We passed the milestone of 500 fallen four days ago, and we’re steadily marching toward 600 today. We’re hurting, we’re tired, and we’re not sure who’s going to make it when so many haven’t.

But we’re here. And that stinkin’ kid better watch his ass, lest we knock him on it to get to the daylight behind him.

Hang tough, people. We’re not far now.

Do it for yourselves.

For those no longer with us.

For Peter.

Look sharp, stay vigilant, and cross that line as one.

But as always, should you fall, fill out the reporting form (https://bit.ly/LDBCform), share an LDBC-elfie by commenting on a Facebook page post, or tweet it out and tag @LDBChallenge.

(And my apologies for the inability to create a new post on the page; I’ve checked every setting, and though you should be able to, you can’t. I blame Zuck.)

We’re almost there, folks.

LDBC-Elfies: A Chronicle of Faces Fallen

Shana Tognazzini had a problem. With a capital P, and that rhymes with B, and that stands for Boy.

Shana, like all of us, was devoting nearly all of her waking hours to keeping The Boy at bay, letting the rest of her life lie fallow just to survive. But her four-year-old daughter had a date with the Dread Drummer to practice for her holiday pageant. So what was Shana to do?

Look at that face. What would you do? Are you really gonna tell that face: “Sorry, kid, but you’re on your own and are doomed to humiliate yourself in front of everyone, so please consider it a character-building exercise?”

No.

Hell, no.

She’s a mom. She’s a fighter.

So she took one for the tyke. (Which, yes, technically means the girl’s out, too, but the child doesn’t appear to be too broken up about it.)

For that’s what we do in this Thing of Ours. We stick together. We help our kid get ready for her thing. We don’t say anything as the song’s playing in the store because our pal may not have noticed it. So we wait until we’re safe in the parking lot to ask if they did, and if they give an honest “no,” we fill out the reporting form for ourselves and root them on.

I mean, is there anything more noble than understanding the wound is mortal and waving the survivors on with an empassioned, “Go without me”?

If running this Thing of Ours has taught me anything, friends—and 13 years in, wouldn’t you think I’ve learned something?—it’s that we’re all in it together. (OK, not all of us, but that’s why we have the “Hoist with His Own Petard” rule.)

It’s not a new lesson, of course; I’ve talked about it before.

But these days it’s pretty much the classic Moe Tucker–Lou Reed duet. You held up a stagecoach in the rain. And I’m doin’ the same.

For I may technically be able to win without you, and you without me, but it’s not nearly as much fun. So stay together. Watch each other’s backs. And do it for Peter.

Again, if you do take a tumble, please fill out the reporting form (https://bit.ly/LDBCform), and post an LDBC-elfie like one of those in the latest batch, below, by commenting on the Facebook page or by tweeting and tagging @LDBChallenge.

Ever vigilant!

LDBC-Elfies: Defeated but Not Forgotten

I need to get something off my chest that’s bothered me for nearly four decades, people. Band Aid‘s “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” grew out of good intentions, but what’s with the part where Bono sings, “Well, tonight thank God it’s them instead of you”? I mean, can’t we help those less fortunate than ourselves without an injection of, “Better you than me”?

Rest assured, there’s no such pettiness in this Thing of Ours. Some of us may inwardly celebrate the downfall of friends and loved ones and laugh at their expense, to be sure, but at least nobody’s singing about it.

On the contrary, many of us do our best to shield ourselves and others (OK, maybe it’s mostly ourselves) from The Boy’s reptilian kiss, employing various strategies involving when to visit stores, wearing earbuds, and calling ahead to see if restaurants are playing holiday music. Those people are called preppers, while those who throw caution to the wind and trust their fate to luck are pantsers (as in: flying by the seat of their pants). And no, I can’t take credit for that since I borrowed those terms from the author side of my life after LDBCer Lori Sly asked if we called those groups anything.

Thus, it’s the preppers you can thank for a slew of safe, LDB-free playlists created for your anxiety-free enjoyment this holiday season. Now, I do want to stress that I haven’t checked these over to make sure there isn’t any stray Boy venom hidden inside of any of them. So do your due diligence and check them yourself to make sure someone hasn’t inadvertently left some LDB in there or isn’t actively trying to Nickroll you. (I love that term, invented by Elayne Wylie, for those who apply the principles of Rickrolling to our annual tradition. And no, it wouldn’t count thanks to our “Hoist with His Own Petard” rule, but you have no way of knowing whether the creator did it on purpose or not. So check.)

One other thing to watch out for, as BE Eliza so presciently warned, is to make sure you have the auto-suggest feature (as it’s called on Spotify, though it may be termed something else on other services) turned off so that it doesn’t start playing random holiday tunes without warning once the playlist is done. Two people that I know of have gotten stung that way thus far.

With all of that said, here are the lists, organized in no particular order by contributor name, and we thank all those who put these together:

• Thom Downing (Spotify)
• Kelsey Rubenking (Spotify)
• Justin Fermenich
  • Midcentury Xmas Favorites (Spotify, Tidal, Apple)
  • Xmas Offbeat (Spotify, Tidal, Apple)
  • Chill Christmas (Spotify, Tidal, Apple)
• Carole Newton McManus (Spotify)
• Alvin McNeely (Apple)
• Nathan Face (Spotify)
• Julianna Taylor-Gomia (Spotify)
• Joseph Max (Spotify)

Prepper, pantser. The Boy is happy to harvest you whatever your approach. And as proof of that, we present the gallery below, which is a visual roundup of those who’ve been taken from us too soon. (And it’s but a sample; more than 100 have reported in as slain only four days in.)

And that’s it for this gray Monday. Continue to be ever-vigilant, and be kind to one another. But should you take a fall, please fill out the reporting form (https://bit.ly/LDBCform) so that you’re duly memorialized at the end of the game, and feel free to contribute your own LDBC-elfie by adding it to a comment on the Facebook page or by tweeting and tagging @LDBChallenge.

Puh-rum-pum-pum-pum, people.

For Peter! (Or, as Anne Sussman suggested, for Pete’s sake!)

LDBC-Elfies: Defeated but Not Forgotten