This week, we look at two ways to counter the November blues:

The upside of illness.  Bill Pollett turns his man-cold into an excuse to cocoon, indulge, and avoid life.  “It’s one of those perfect sicknesses” writes Pollett, “the kind where you have enough drippiness and achiness, and just the right amount of fever, to keep your loved ones at the stove whipping up batches of hot toddies…”  November Bliss, November 10, 2004.

The other kind of blues.  Busby LeClair counters the miseries of the modern world with soul-soothing soul music.  “There’s nothing worse when you’ve got a bad case of the down-and-outs than being forced to endure the company of some upbeat Anthony Robbins-type asshole who doesn’t even have the decency to admit that he’s as scared as the rest of us”, writes LeClair.  Turn That Smile Upside Down, December 1, 2004.