sonia | Links: Good words, including updated Yuletide rec posts (Reply)

Yams and sweet potatoes are totally different vegetables — here's how to tell the difference by Laurel Randolph.

Unless you shop at a grocery store with an impressive international produce department or are visiting an African or Caribbean market, you likely won't come across true yams in the US.

From respair to cacklefart – the joy of reclaiming long-lost positive words by Susie Dent.

Yet previous generations had the potential to be kempt, ruly, wieldy, ept and – most recently thanks to PG Wodehouse – gruntled. Some were even full of ruth (compassion), feck (initiative) and gorm (due care and attention). Now is surely the time to reunite these long-lost couples. It may not work for everything – there is no entry (yet) for “shevelled” or “combobulated”, but Mitchell airport in Milwaukee has gloriously provided its passengers with a “recombobulation area” in which to release some of the tension of air travel.

Anyone else reminded of James Thurber's delightful "Thirteen Clocks"?

Also I updated my Yuletide 2021 recs posts Sweet relationships and From far lands to add author names. None of them are familiar to me, which means I get to click author links and see what else lots of new-to-me people have written! I like the variety and warmth of the stories this year. If you saw both rec posts right when I posted them, I ended up adding a story to each of them later that fit the theme.