Anyone have a vegan cookie recipe they'd recommend? The more straighforward the better.

Appointment-non-cancellation~ma, Cass

Dana, here's a recipe for vegan snickerdoodles that looks pretty easy: [link] I haven't made this specific recipe, but I've made a fair handful from this site, and they're pretty easy to follow and the results tend to turn out as advertised.

Congratulations and best wishes to your son and his girl, Cindy.

Just quick jumping in here to offer that I've had a couple masks that tied around the back of my head. I cut the strings, tied them in a comfortable loop around each ear, and trimmed the strings. They work fine, now.

Thanks Laura, Sheryl, Hec, askye, Jen, Cass, Beverly and anyone I missed.

Good luck with your MRI, Cass.

Going back a bit, normally conventions have a fair bit of kids' programming, Worldcons especially. There had been a lot of chaos around this con, and kids' programming was added at practically the last minute.

Sheryl, a heads up — I saw someone on Twitter announce that they just found out they have Covid, and they think they might have been contagious at WorldCon. They're wordfey on Twitter (I think they're Strange Horizons' Vanessa Rose Phin). [link]

Cindy, there's a gap in vital stats here, and they didn't start requiring births to be registered until 1908. Anything between 1877-1908 was registered after the fact. So for whatever reason, it may not have gotten registered. Perhaps it was your grandmother's baptismal records, which might have been the only thing they had, that got lost in the explosion. [link]

Thank you for all your help, Sue. The records gap is funny. They collected records from the 1860s to 1877, said "never mind" for 31 years, then started up again. I do remember Nana talking about her father going in to Halifax to register the births. He must have done it in 1908 and/or thereafter.

They didn't live near Halifax. They were in the general Windsor area (near the Gypsum mines), so her baptismal record (if there was one) wouldn't have been affected by the explosion.

I talked to my mom, who insists that when my grandmother requested her birth certificate (as an adult), she was told by the province that it had been lost in the explosion, which is why her brother swore out an affidavit to use in her US citizenship application.

In the last couple of years, my mother has started to take questions like, "Do you think Nana was told they didn't have one and assumed it was destroyed in the explosion?" as if you were questioning her (my mom's) mental competence. Since I don't want to get screamed at, I suspect I'll never know. It's not important why her record is missing, just that it is missing. Thank you, again.

I don't suppose you know an immigration attorney?

Thanks, Steph!

I don't suppose you know an immigration attorney?

I don't. Sorry.

Happy solstice, everyone!

Congratulations to the happy couple, Cindy!

Anyone have a vegan cookie recipe they'd recommend? The more straighforward the better.

A friend of mine makes cake mix peanut butter cookies [link] and nothing is easier. If you picked a vegan cake mix (many/most are) and swapped out the eggs you'd be all set.

I feel like they work because the peanutbutter does all the heavy-lifting. I've made them chocolate too.

Wow, solstice. I wish I could build a huge bonfire. I mean, I always kind of wish that unless it's the middle of summer, but... happy solstice back to you!