Happy New Year from Scotland, a location that’s entirely normal for me, but rather more unusual for Elizabeth! We’re joining you this week with articles about hockey fandom, Stranger Things, and processing grief through LOTR. Plus, our first list of new Yuletide fic recs! — Gav

new stuff

“‘Heated Rivalry’ Is Bringing Me Back To Hockey” by Eva Holland at Defector
“At some point in the last decade or so, my relationship with hockey had been broken—by the game’s frequent ugliness and my own growing inability to ignore its costs and its harms. Heated Rivalry and its brethren made me feel like something better was possible.”

“Stranger Things Started as a Triumph of Trauma Bonding. It Ended as a Casualty of the Franchise Machine” by Judy Berman at Time Magazine
“Once a story achieves the breakthrough velocity to become a franchise, it’s no longer rewarded for taking risks or striving for excellence. It just has to serve up more of the things fans have come to expect from it on a regular-enough schedule to keep them from losing interest.”

“Why I Keep Returning to Middle-Earth” by Michael D.C. Drout at The New York Times
“A ruin preserves the memory of what has been, at the cost of making it impossible not to recognize the permanence of the loss.” A beautiful essay about Tolkien and grief (content warning: death from a drug overdose).

Celebrating the cultural impact of 16 years of saying Avatar has no cultural impact.

— Pablo Hidalgo (@infinata.bsky.social) December 19, 2025 at 9:49 PM

older stuff

“How the Grateful Dead built the internet” by Allegra Rosenberg at the BBC
The history of the Well (Whole Earth ’Lectronic Link), a pre-World Wide Web hub for Deadheads that played a vital role in shaping the internet as we know it.

tumblr & beyond

Adventure Time fanart by sez-sez

have you ever seen Palpatine’s lightsaber up close

“things in fic I’m used to people kind of faking their way through writing about”

ok we really do need the backstory on how all these flags wound up in Twilight

“Do spy books count as copaganda?”

learning a lot about Whoville lore today...

fanfiction

It’s Yuletide time! We actually wound up getting a ton of submissions—possibly too many to fit in two lists—so if we don’t run yours this week or next, we’ll just include it in a future list later this year. Thanks so much to everyone who sent in a rec! — Elizabeth

“Why one small American town won’t stop stoning its residents to death” by Charlotte_Stant. 1.1K words, rated Gen.
FandomsThe Lottery (Shirley Jackson), New Yorker RPF: ; Ship: Gen
Recced by: ppyajunebug
Backstory: The Lottery, Shirley Jackson’s classic short story about weird small town customs, gets scrutinized in an interview with Isaac Chotiner.
Rec: I, like so many on the Internet, absolutely RELISH a new Isaac Chotiner interview in which the subject confidently assumes they will make it out of the interview looking great. They never do. And applying that to The Lottery, a classic of English classes everywhere, is genius.
Content warnings: Spoilers for The Lottery; non-graphic murder

“Now let me know my native place” by april_rainer (tom_bedlam). 3.3K words, rated Gen.
Fandom: Last Binding Series - Freya Marske; Ships: Robin Blyth/Edwin Courcey, Robin Blyth & Adelaide Morrissey
Recced by: marcicat
Backstory: Adelaide’s POV on several key moments of the series, including her thoughts on marriage in general and her marriage to Robin in particular.
Rec: Adelaide is SUCH an amazing side character in the series, and this fic was a fantastic dive into her perspective. As someone who eagerly awaited the picnic scene ever since it was teased in the first book, this fic expanded on it beautifully.
Content warnings: N/A

“Tokyo” by IetjeSiobhan. 3K words, rated Teen.
Fandom: Kiseki: Dear to Me; Ship: Ai Di/Chen Yi
Recced by: surefireshore
Backstory: Post-canon, codependent gang leaders are separated when boss Chen Yi has to go on a 3-day work trip. He finds the separation harder than expected.
Rec: They are so unhinged for each other and this story manages to be sweet while still capturing that dynamic & characterization.
Content warnings: ChenAi are their own warning. But nothing canon-atypical.

“The Last of the Gentleman Sleuths” by Nope. 3.4K words, rated Gen.
Fandom: Knives Out (Movies); Ship: Gen
Recced by: Grace
Backstory: A conversation on a winter’s evening between Benoit Blanc and the man who would become his husband.
Rec: It’s a clever story packed into few words, like a cross between O. Henry and Sherlock Holmes!
Content warnings: Mentions of off-screen death, dementia

“do human hearts hammer?” by planet_B612. 3.8K words, rated Gen.
Fandom: Fandom for Robots; Ship: Gen, bjornruffian & Computron
Recced by: surefireshore
Backstory: Fandom for Robots is a short story about the first sentient robot’s experience in fandom, making connections and creating fanworks with other fans. It can be read here. This fic focuses on his human friend several years in the future.
Rec: This fic captured perfectly the way fandom interests & engagement can shift over time, and the joy of reconnecting later with fandom friends and discovering that those bonds are still strong. It warmed my heart.
Content warnings: N/A

“Hit the Bricks! Four Things Not to Miss in Lego City Old Town” by ellen_fremedon. 2.9K words, rated Gen.
Fandom: Lego; Ship: Gen
Recced by: shipyrds
Backstory: This fic creates a whole rich history for Lego City, something I would not have thought to imagine before reading this.
Rec: There are so many little details to love in this—but the best parts are the (working) build instructions for each scene in the fic.
Content warnings: N/A

And we got two recs for this fic, so we combined them!

“Perennial (Ryegrass)” by syllic. 34K words, rated Explicit.
Fandom: Wimbledon (Movie 2004); Ships: Peter Colt/Dieter Prohl, Peter Colt & Lizzie Bradbury
Recced by: alasse and sophiawrites
Backstory: alasse writes In Wimbledon (2004 movie) Peter Colt is a nearly has-been British tennis player who makes it to Wimbledon on a wild card, while Lizzie Bradbury is an American tennis phenom poised to take over the world AND Wimbledon. They meet and sparks fly, etc. Peter ALSO has a best friend and training partner, Dieter Prohl, who is magnificent.
sophiawrites adds I haven’t watched this movie in years and years and years but you don’t need to, because it feels like the author doesn’t expect you to have prior knowledge.
Rec: alasse writes This story is MAGNIFICENT. It takes place about 10 years after the movie, where Peter and Lizzie are amicably divorced and great co-parents. Peter is invited to be a commentator at Wimbledon, and through this process realizes how incredibly important Dieter is to him—and, y’know, that they’re in love. The writing and characterizations are sheer perfection, the different epic moments will have you clutching at your chest in joy and you will - NO QUESTION—want to do a standing ovation at more than one point in this story. Just, a Yuletide DREAM of a fic, truly.
sophiawrites writes I started reading this because it has one of my favourite tropes of all time (they were in love ALL ALONG AND JUST DIDN’T REALISE IT EVEN THOUGH EVERYONE KNOWS), and stayed because it was incredibly funny AND incredibly touching. It is full of scenes and details that made me laugh and clutch my chest, and I was totally won over by the way in which these two (AND THEY WERE ROOMMATES) open up with love for each other. If you’re into tennis, that’s really well done as well.
Content warnings: N/A

Jodie Foster: They should have sent a poet Poet: Aliens ahoy! A galactic sight. When you’re in space all day is night

— Alex Blechman (@alexblechman.bsky.social) December 24, 2025 at 2:47 AM

FINAL THOUGHT

That’s right, I am, in fact, in Scotland! I’m currently sitting in Gav’s kitchen typing this while she cooks me what will surely be an expert-level dinner from her new object of fandom, the 1,000-page New Best Recipe Cookbook.

Here is further proof that we are both in Scotland, from this afternoon:

(Please note that Gav is modeling my Christmas present, which I purchased at the official NHL store—yes, I bravely went to New York’s most cursed “neighborhood,” Hudson Yards, to secure this illustrious gift. Tomorrow she’s going to wear it to a real-live hockey game!)

By total coincidence, we are also physically together for THE REC CENTER’S TENTH ANNIVERSARY!!!!

OK, technically it took us one week (January 8th) for us to heed kfan’s call and publish the first newsletter, but still! It’s early January! Happy anniversary to us. 🥳 — Elizabeth