Favorite Things 2022

If this is your first time checking out The Magical Buffet’s Favorite Things list, welcome! I started doing the list as a response to the overwhelming popularity of Oprah’s Favorite Things that she does each year. I started with the argument that I’m far more relatable than Oprah, with the whole me being broke as opposed to a multi-millionaire. That evolved into The List as you see it today, which is 10 things that have been featured on The Magical Buffet website since the previous year’s list was published. So, although many of these items were published this year, you’ll find slightly older ones too.

Every year the list gets harder to make because each year I seem to gain access to more publishers, authors, and publicists, and all of them keep getting better at curating wonderful works. As I typed up last year’s list, I was already dreading the 2022 list, and this time is no different. I already have books in my “to read” pile that I feel certain are Favorite Things worthy.

With no further explainers or excuses, I present to you (in no particular order) The Magical Buffet’s Favorite Things 2022.

1. Lights, Camera, Witchcraft: A Critical History of Witches in American Film and Television by Heather Greene.
I started the year with a fun interview with Heather Greene about this book. The intersection of popular culture with witchcraft has always been a subject of interest to me and her work definitely did the work. It’s one part academic study, one part witchy media guide. Almost anyone would enjoy this book. You can read the interview here.

2. Qabalah for Wiccans: Ceremonial Magic on the Pagan Path by Jack Chanek. I cannot stress how envious I am of Chanek. His intelligence, his insights, and his ability to just explain things in a way that I can understand are all what makes him one of my new favorite authors. Not only does Qabalah for Wiccans show pagans ways to incorporate ceremonial magic traditions into their spirituality, but it also finally explained Qabalah in a way that I fully understood. I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that I also reviewed and loved his next book, Tarot for Real Life: Use the Cards to Find Answers to Everyday Questions, that was also featured on my site this year. You can see my review of Qabalah for Wiccans here and Tarot for Real Life here.

3. King Solomon the Magus: Master of the Djinns and Occult Traditions of East & West by Claude Lecouteux. Anyone who has read The Magical Buffet for any length of time knows that I love Lecouteux, and when I found out he wrote about Solomon, I may have actually yelped out loud. You can read my review here.

4. The Weiser Tarot. Weiser took on the challenge of updating the Rider-Waite-Smith tarot, keeping it as true to its original form while attempting to update the representation. It could have been a lazy cash grab, but instead Weiser created the new traditional tarot deck. Read my review here.

5. Secrets of Santa Muerte: A Guide to the Prayers, Spells, Rituals, and Hexes” by Cressida Stone. Stone discusses a frequently misrepresented deity that is experiencing rapid growth. Her book does an excellent job highlighting the diversity and versatility of the goddess and the ways She is worshipped. You can read my review here.

6. The Other Side of Nothing: The Zen Ethics of Time, Space, and Being by Brad Warner. Magical Buffet readers know that Warner is one of my favorite authors on the subject of Zen Buddhism. The Other Side of Nothing is the book I had been waiting for, where Warner takes his informal voice to explain the formal intricacies of Zen Buddhist ethics. It just might overtake Sit Down and Shut Up as the most essential Zen Buddhist text. You can read my review here.

7. The Bavarian Illuminati: The Rise and Fall of the World’s Most Secret Society by Rene Le Forestier and translated by Jon E. Graham. From my review, “This is 912 pages of pulse pounding intrigue and yawn inducing bureaucracy that was originally published in 1915 and hasn’t been available in English until now.” Yes, it is a pricey spend, but if you’re interested in occult societies, this is an interesting look at the OG of societies. You can read my full review here.

8. Paganism for Prisoners: Connecting to the Magic Within by Awyn Dawn. This is an important work that is well past due. Frequently, Pagan authors tell me that inmates reach out to them for resources and they don’t know what to say or do. Awyn Dawn’s book is an excellent resource. If I had the funds, I’d try to get a copy into every prison in the United States. Until then, get a copy and examine Pagan practice from a new perspective. You can read the review here.

9. Goddess Magic: A Handbook of Spells, Charms, and Rituals Divine in Origin by Aurora Kane. I like goddesses. This book has goddesses. Honestly, sometimes it doesn’t take more than that for me to get excited about a book, however, Kane’s curation of goddesses and the litany of ideas offered to work with them makes this a stand out in the collection of goddesses genre. You can read my review here.

10. The Watkins Tarot Handbook: A Practical System of Self-Discovery” by Naomi Ozaniec. I’m no stranger to books about tarot, but I’ll be damned if this one did not exceed all expectations. As I said in my review, “I was expecting a vaguely new age, self-help book that utilized tarot. What I got was a jaw dropping, initiatory experience.” This book is not to be missed. You can read my review here.

Shop my Favorite Things 2022 Here! (This is an affiliate link to my Bookshop, which supports independent bookstores throughout the United States. If you use this link to purchase the book, I will make a small commission at no additional cost to you.)

Do you enjoy The Magical Buffet? Considering supporting The Magical Buffet on Patreon! For only $5 a month you’ll receive monthly tarot/oracle forecasts, classes, and behind the scenes updates! Https://www.patreon.com/magicalbuffet

Small Business Saturday

It’s happening, the holiday shopping season. Don’t worry, I’ll soon be publishing my Favorite Things list to help you select the best of the best for yourself or others, but today I want to highlight Small Business Saturday. I feel like it’s a tradition that was started by American Express Small Business, but for whatever reason, the Saturday after Thanksgiving is highlighted as a good time to hopefully support smaller businesses in your community. However, what if the small businesses in your area don’t carry that much in the way of witchy magical products? Don’t despair because I happen to spend some time on Etsy, and I have a handful of great Etsy shops for you to consider.

Obviously, it would be silly to not mention MY Etsy shop, TheMagicalBuffet. I am the smallest of the small businesses I’ll be highlighting in this article. I mainly craft talismans, but there’s other fun stuff to be found there.

Next up is probably the largest of the small businesses I’ll be writing about today, and that is SpookyDoodleClub. I love this shop! The artist has a spooky cute aesthetic that ends up as jewelry, hats, lighters, and more! I own multiple pairs of earrings from here!

If you want a little Jewish mysticism this holiday season, I’d direct you to Devotaj. The owner crafts adorable golems and cute stickers. One of her Nazar (Evil Eye) stickers is on my cell phone right now!

Here comes a one, two, three punch of talented professional artists who have set up Etsy stores to sell their art in a wide array of gift ideas.

First is albaillustration, home of Elisabeth Alba. Are you familiar with the “Everyday Witch Oracle” or “Everyday Witch Tarot”? Alba did all the artwork for those decks, along with a myriad of other witchy publications. You can purchase original artworks and even the paintings that became cards in those well-known decks!

JaneStarrWeils is a fantasy artist that I’ve had the pleasure of meeting at a few events. Her beautiful artwork is on mugs, totes, stickers, and more.

The last artist is MickieMuellerStudio, the Etsy shop for Mickie Mueller. I feel like I don’t need to say anything more, but I will. Mueller has done the artwork for multiple tarot decks and illustrations for Llewellyn. She’s kind of a big deal. Buckle up because her Etsy shop has a nearly overwhelming variety of inventory.

And if you know anything about me, you know I’m going to make sure you know that my friend and author Deborah Blake has an Etsy shop! Go to deborahblake for signed copies of books and decks, adorable gift sets, and handmade jewelry. That’s right, she also makes jewelry.

I’m going to close this out with one shop that doesn’t do anything “witchy”, but I love his work. MichaelJoJewelry handmakes amazing jewelry by using parts from broken and/or unwanted jewelry. Some of his work is straightforward, however, you’ll also find some jaw dropping works of funky, chunky, awesomeness.

I try to shop more intentionally than I used to. To that end, I try to support my local independent businesses, after that, I’ll try to find independent crafters, and you know what? Sometimes you just buy someone a gift card to Dunkin’ Donuts. Do your best. Stay hydrated. Exhale.

Do you enjoy The Magical Buffet? Considering supporting The Magical Buffet on Patreon! For only $5 a month you’ll receive monthly tarot/oracle forecasts, classes, and behind the scenes updates! Https://www.patreon.com/magicalbuffet

Celebrate Samhain 2022

If you follow The Magical Buffet on social media, you might have saw that I attended the event, Celebrate Samhain in Nashua, NH at the end of October. Not only did I attend, I got to moderate a panel discussion about Witchcraft in the Age of Social Media. If you’re a Patron, you got to read about my experience moderating the panel. Due to the event’s change of day of the weekend and covid, it has been far too long since I’ve been able to attend, so I figure I should bring you all up to speed on what the event is like in 2022.

Celebrate Samhain’s new home is at the DoubleTree by Hilton in Nashua, NH. It is a great venue that provides a large vendor room, with a main stage that featured musical acts, dance acts, and my panel discussion. There is an extra wide hallway that featured booths for all the presenters and authors at the event. I had a tiny table to sell my crafts that I normally sell exclusively on Etsy. The psychic readers had their own room off of the hallway, and at the very end of the hall was a room for workshops.

The vendor room and its overflow booths were amazing! I nearly wept from the warm nostalgia of seeing Jeena Greene. Her beautiful harp and voice have been at every Celebrate Samhain that I’ve attended and it did my heart good to see her, and hear her again. I got to meet the owner of The Robin’s Nest who kindly posed next to their display of Cucina Aurora products. Kyri’s Magickal Creations had these adorable poppets! I bought a Marie Laveau one that I’m still trying to decide where it’s going to live. Mystic Arcana’s booth was right across from mine. The owner Gee-Gee sells crystals so yes, your girl bought another crystal. I also got to purchase a signed copy of “New Hampshire Book of the Dead” by Roxie Zwicker (who was on my panel and so much fun) and a signed copy of “Reading the Leaves” by Sandra Mariah Wright and Leanne Marrama. Author Deborah Blake was my booth buddy and road trip companion. It was fun to see so many of her fans. It was also fun to have many attendees ask if I was Deborah Blake (tempting to say yes). When I said no, they would immediately ask if I was Elisabeth Alba (again, tempting to say yes).

Please admire my phat loot!
The Robin’s Nest showing off their Cucina Aurora!

There was a full slate of workshop/talks, as usual. There was Sancista Brujo Luis teaching a class on Candle Magick (he also took part in my panel). Danielle Dionne gave a talk on Ancestral Living. Ellen Evert Hopman discussed Working with Baneful Plants for Magick and Healing. Sandra Mariah Wright and Leanne Marrama taught a class on Awakening the Crystals. And finally, booth buddy and panel participant Deborah Blake discussed Everyday Witchcraft.

As always, Celebrate Samhain fosters a friendly, supportive, family friendly environment. Every time I attend, and this year was no exception, I leave feeling like I’ve made a lot of new friends. It’s a great event! Follow Celebrate Samhain on Facebook to be kept up to date about next year’s event!

Do you enjoy The Magical Buffet? Considering supporting The Magical Buffet on Patreon! For only $5 a month you’ll receive monthly tarot/oracle forecasts, classes, and behind the scenes updates! Https://www.patreon.com/magicalbuffet

Think Before You Pink 2022

This October marks 20 years of Breast Cancer Action’s Think Before You Pink campaign. In the past BCA has called out “pinkwashers” from all over the map. To mark 20 years BCA takes on the biggest monster of all, capitalism. The machine fueling much of what Breast Cancer Action works against.

From the BCA, “Rampant, unregulated capitalism both causes breast cancer and encourages profiteering from the disease.

The practices and tactics of bloated pink ribbon capitalism are designed to encourage unlimited profiteering, not the structural change solutions that will end the breast cancer crisis. Think Before You Pink’s 20-year legacy of calling out pinkwashing provides an invaluable inlet into identifying and disrupting deceptive marketing tactics and profit-driven campaigns that are implemented performatively only, in the name of social justice causes, but have one true motive: profit.

The prioritization of profit above all else – including public health – exacerbates health inequities and worsens health outcomes, including increasing our risk for breast cancer.

How Capitalism Encourages Profiteering from Breast Cancer

The industry tactics we’re exposing are the Manipulation of Media, Marketing, and Advertising, Disinformation and the Suppression of Scientific Evidence, and Political Influence and Interference.

The Manipulation of Media, Marketing, and Advertising

Cause marketers exploit the constituencies they claim to serve (such as people living with breast cancer), turning harsh human realities into a saleable commodity. Direct-to-consumer advertising by Big Pharma plays to the hopes and fears of ailing individuals by presenting biased, over-simplified information focused on possible outcomes while ignoring or downplaying the seriousness of side effects.

Disinformation and the Suppression of Scientific Evidence

For-profit corporations have been found to suppress scientific information that links their products to increased breast cancer risk, so that they can continue to grow their profits. Worse yet, the regulatory agencies that are tasked with monitoring these corporations often turn a blind eye to these practices as capitalism has metastasized to normalize profit as the ultimate goal, ignoring community safety, public health, and the right to live free of toxic environmental exposures.

Political Influence and Interference

Under capitalism in this country, corporate stakeholders can be appointed to regulatory agencies, and people from regulatory agencies often leave to become lobbyists for the corporate sector they once regulated. This “revolving door” practice is illegal in many countries but it thrives under capitalism. This often leads to “regulatory capture” which occurs when an agency that exists to serve public interest instead advances the commercial or political concerns of special interest groups within an industry.

Pink Ribbon Marketing Has Evolved

Now it’s bigger than pink post-its, pink ribbon perfume, and pink personal care products. Industry tactics have evolved. Pink ribbon marketing campaigns have become less blatant and their deceptive marketing strategies can be harder to spot.

But our Think Before You Pink® campaign has evolved as well. Think Before You Pink: A (R)Evolution doesn’t just call out one specific pink product. We’re calling out gross, profit-above-all-else capitalism as the common denominator throughout two decades of our Think Before You Pink® campaigns.

Twenty years ago we launched our first-ever Think Before You Pink® campaign “Who’s Really Cleaning Up?” directed at Eureka Vacuum’s pink ribbon cause-marketing campaign. Now, in our 20th anniversary campaign, we’ve evolved and we’re asking, “Who’s Really Capitalizing?” on the tactics employed across pink ribbon marketing culture, and how?

Pink ribbon marketing culture and pinkwashing have paved the way for the commodification of other social justice issues, as cause-marketing is running amok under capitalism. Whether it’s pinkwashing, greenwashing, or rainbow-washing, capitalist campaigns worship consumerism as the solution to the social justice causes with which we are grappling, and distract from true, structural change solutions.

The Revolution We’re Calling For

We’re exposing how uncontrolled capitalism causes breast cancer and encourages profiteering from the disease. The prioritization of profit above all else is responsible for exacerbating the climate crisis, the continued expansion of the fossil fuel industry creating toxic exposures across the fossil fuel continuum, the environmental racism causing that results in breast cancer disparities, and the ability of corporations to continue to poison our products with cancer-causing chemicals. The increase in breast cancer risk caused by each of these injustices is downplayed so that mega-nonprofits, corporations, executives, and shareholders can continue to line their pockets.

While corporations make billions off the disease, we have not seen nearly enough progress in breast cancer treatment, prevention, survival, and inequities.

Dismantling the systems that enable profit-driven pinkwashing calls for radical structural change, and it means working toward our organizational vision: a world in which people and communities thrive because they are healthy, liberated, and free from breast cancer.

Throughout Think Before You Pink: A (R)Evolution, join us to:

Educate.
We’ll be releasing educational materials and resources throughout October so you can learn more about how rampant, late-stage capitalism encourages profiteering off of breast cancer.

Organize.
Help spread the word on the consequences of pinkwashing and share our resources with your community, including our newly-revised Think Before You Pink® toolkit.

Take Action.
Attend our October member connector event, Radical Disruption Compassionate Resistance, and stay tuned to take action on our campaign!”

Download the campaign brief.

You can learn more about Breast Cancer Action here.

Do you enjoy The Magical Buffet? Considering supporting The Magical Buffet on Patreon! For only $5 a month you’ll receive monthly tarot/oracle forecasts, classes, and behind the scenes updates! Https://www.patreon.com/magicalbuffet

International Talk Like a Pirate Day 2022

Arrrr Mateys! It’s that magical holiday that once again celebrates silly pirate talk and provides me with an excuse to drink rum! Well, more rum. The holiday was “created in 1995 by John Baur (Ol’ Chumbucket) and Mark Summers (Cap’n Slappy), of Albany, Oregon, who proclaimed September 19 each year as the day when everyone in the world should talk like a pirate.” For some reason, it took off. I suspect one reason, is that it’s silly fun, and the other reason would be the Pastafarians embracing pirates in their theology.

And so, what kind of booty does Rebecca have for all you scallywags? A yet to be formally named cocktail created by yours truly. For those who do not know, I decided that 2022 was going to be the year of classy drunk Rebecca. No basic beers, no well drink rum and Cokes, etc. To start my classy journey, I decided to have a bottle of Prosecco pretty much always in the refrigerator, because bubbles are classy, and Champagne flutes are also classy. The two main spirits to be found in our house are rum and gin. This led me to try the classic cocktail, French 75.

This is a simple, but classy cocktail. Because I want to be classy drunk, but I’m still a lazy bitch. The French 75 is 1 ½ ounces of gin, ¾ ounce of lemon juice, ¾ ounce of simple syrup all in a shaker with ice. You shake it until it gets very cold, then strain it into a flute glass and top with a sparkling wine, such as Prosecco. Simple, delicious, classy af.

However, although I love gin, it is more my husband’s spirit of choice, and as most of you know, I’m more of a rum lover. Where is my simple yet classy rum cocktail? Then it struck me, why not just flip the script on the French 75? And it works perfectly.

Rebecca’s Simple and Classy Rum Cocktail
1 ½ ounces golden or dark rum (white/silver rum is a bit too rough for this one)
¾ ounce lime juice (in most rum drinks it’s lime instead of lemon, so I made the switch here)
¾ ounce simple syrup
Then, just like the French 75, you put those ingredients in a shaker with ice and shake vigorously. Then strain into a flute glass and top with Prosecco.

(Rebecca’s tips for the lazy and poor like herself. Lime juice used, from a bottle. Simple syrup, purchased instead of homemade. Prosecco of choice? Prosecco 90+ Cellars, which is around $10. Be sure to purchase a cap designed for bubbly beverages if you don’t plan on using the whole bottle at once. Don’t waste booze!)

And with that, I’ll be off to celebrate International Talk Like a Pirate Day like the classy wench that I am!

Do you enjoy The Magical Buffet? Considering supporting The Magical Buffet on Patreon! For only $5 a month you’ll receive monthly tarot/oracle forecasts, classes, and behind the scenes updates! Https://www.patreon.com/magicalbuffet

Banned Books Week 2022

It’s that magical time of year again, when all of us book nerds join together to celebrate Banned Books Week, an annual event to draw attention to the constant threat of censorship that schools, libraries, universities, comics publishers, and more face. It’s a large coalition, featuring the efforts of American Booksellers for Free Expression, American Library Association, Amnesty International, Association of University Presses, Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, National Book Foundation, National Council of Teachers of English, and more that help put together the event.

The American Library Association works to ensure free access to information. To that end, every year their Office of Intellectual Freedom compiles a list of the top ten most challenged books to inform the public about censorship in libraries and schools. The lists are based on information from media stories and voluntary reports sent to the Office from around the United States. In 2021 the Office tracked 729 challenges to library, school, and university materials. Of the 1,597 books that were targeted, here are the most challenged books, along with the reasons cited for censoring the books.

Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe
Reasons: Banned, challenged, and restricted for LGBTQIA+ content, and because it was considered to have sexually explicit images
Lawn Boy by Jonathan Evison
Reasons: Banned and challenged for LGBTQIA+ content and because it was considered to be sexually explicit
All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson
Reasons: Banned and challenged for LGBTQIA+ content, profanity, and because it was considered to be sexually explicit
Out of Darkness by Ashley Hope Perez
Reasons: Banned, challenged, and restricted for depictions of abuse and because it was considered to be sexually explicit
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
Reasons: Banned and challenged for profanity, violence, and because it was thought to promote an anti-police message and indoctrination of a social agenda
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
Reasons: Banned and challenged for profanity, sexual references and use of a derogatory term
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews
Reasons: Banned and challenged because it was considered sexually explicit and degrading to women
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
Reasons: Banned and challenged because it depicts child sexual abuse and was considered sexually explicit
This Book is Gay by Juno Dawson
Reasons: Banned, challenged, relocated, and restricted for providing sexual education and LGBTQIA+ content.
Beyond Magenta by Susan Kuklin
Reasons: Banned and challenged for LGBTQIA+ content and because it was considered to be sexually explicit.

What now? Well, for starters, you might want to read one, or all, of this year’s most challenged books. I maintain a list in my Bookshop that contains the most recent top ten most challenged books for your convenience. The American Library Association has a great list of other ideas that I encourage you to check out! There are even more ideas at the Banned Books Week website!

You can find the top ten most challenged books of 2021 here. (This is an affiliate link to my Bookshop, which supports independent bookstores throughout the United States. If you use this link to purchase the book, I will make a small commission at no additional cost to you.)

Do you enjoy The Magical Buffet? Considering supporting The Magical Buffet on Patreon! For only $5 a month you’ll receive monthly tarot/oracle forecasts, classes, and behind the scenes updates! Https://www.patreon.com/magicalbuffet

Think Before You Pink 2021

As most of you know, one of my favorite activist/charity groups is Breast Cancer Action. So, each year I promote their Think Before You Pink campaign. This is an annual event to bring attention to the Pinkwashing centered around October, aka breast cancer awareness month. Pinkwasher is a term coined by Breast Cancer Action in 2002. It is a company or organization that claims to care about breast cancer by promoting a pink ribbon product, but at the same time produces, manufactures and/or sells products containing chemicals that are linked to the disease. (Text from the BCA website.)

Susan G. Komen®, one of the largest breast cancer organizations in the world, has a history of minimizing the environmental harms linked to breast cancer — and their pinkwashing partners like Bank of America are fueling the problem.

Breast Cancer Action’s 2021 Think Before You Pink® campaign is calling out Komen’s partnership with Bank of America and the Susan G. Komen® Pink Ribbon Banking Program, which is comprised of both a credit and debit card. These cards use the goodwill of the breast cancer community to increase Bank of America’s profits, which fund the cancer-causing fossil fuel industry.

A Line of Credit or Pipeline to Cancer?

Every purchase made through the Pink Ribbon Banking Program goes toward the $1.5 million that Bank of America has pledged to Susan G. Komen® between 2021 and 2023.

Here’s the problem: These banking cards emblazoned with the notorious pink ribbon are a blatant example of pinkwashing.

Bank of America is a top financial contributor to the fossil fuel industry, an industry that increases our risk for breast cancer through environmental exposures produced all along the fossil fuel continuum. We are exposed to chemicals such as benzene, polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), dioxins, and PFAS along the continuum, from extraction to processing, to exposure to fossil fuel products and byproducts.

Susan G. Komen® is pinkwashing by accepting money from a Pink Ribbon Banking Program that also grows the profits of Bank of America, an institution that funds the cancer-causing fossil fuel industry. Susan G. Komen® cannot claim to care about ending breast cancer while pocketing MILLIONS from an industry that causes the disease.

Fossil fuel infrastructure disproportionately harms BIPOC and low-income communities. This is due to decades of racist urban planning practices, industrial zoning, and lending practices that lead to communities of color being disproportionately exposed to high levels of air, water, and soil pollution.

Bank of America currently finances a tar sands pipeline, commonly known as Line 3, which runs through Anishinaabe land in Minnesota and violates the treaty rights of many Indigenous folx. The pipeline, and the spills it has already caused in production, expose Indigenous communities, and all of us, to high levels of hazardous air and water pollution. Additionally, we cannot ignore the human rights violations that occur in erecting pipeline infrastructure.

Water protectors are over-policed, criminalized, and subject to state-sanctioned violence for protesting pipeline construction. Furthermore, under the oil boom, Indigenous communities have reported increased rates of human trafficking and missing and murdered Indigenous women in their communities.

Bank of America claims to care about the environment yet they continue to invest in this outdated, profit-driven energy source that is rapidly destroying our planet and our health. A recent report from Rainforest Action Network found Bank of America was one of the top three financial institutions to fund worldwide fossil fuel expansion between 2016 and 2020. In 2020 alone, Bank of America invested over $42.1 billion in fossil fuel projects.

The financial industry’s continued support of fossil fuel projects proliferates a legacy of climate destruction, environmental racism, and public health negligence. The Pink Ribbon Banking Program’s pink ribbon cards not only distract from the catastrophic devastation that is being caused; the program also exploits breast cancer for good publicity. But as always, we see right through it!

Card Declined: Stop Pink Ribbon Banking

Komen has partnered with the Bank of America for over a decade and has received more than $10.8 million since 2009. The bank is a National Presenting Partner of Komen’s 3-Day Walk®, Race for the Cure®, and More Than Pink Walk®. Komen’s continued partnership with a top fossil fuel investor exposes us to toxic chemicals, props up fossil fuel industries, violates human rights, and validates pinkwashing.

It’s safe to say that making money from an industry that puts profit before people and funds fossil fuels is fundamental to how Komen meets their budget goals, and it’s time for that to come to an end.

Komen has a new bold goal to reduce the number of breast cancer deaths by 50% in the United States by the year 2026. This is a meaningless goal if they continue to allow industries to CAUSE the very disease they claim to care about ending.

Susan G. Komen® claims to be “where the end of breast cancer begins.” If this is true, they must stop banking on breast cancer and divest from pinkwashing! Phase-out the Pink Ribbon Banking Program with Bank of America, a primary funder of the fossil fuel industry—an industry that’s fueling the climate and breast cancer crises!

Learn more about Think Before You Pink here.

Banned Books Week 2021

As you may or not know, yesterday was the start of Banned Books Week! We always celebrate here at The Magical Buffet. The American Library Association, along with assorted schools, stores, authors, and more, come together for one week to bring attention to continued attempts to limit what people can read.

This year’s theme is, “Books Unite Us. Censorship Divides Us.” Sharing stories important to us means sharing a part of ourselves. Books reach across boundaries and build connections between readers. Censorship, on the other hand, creates barriers. – from the ALA website.

The books featured during Banned Books Week have all been targeted for removal or restriction in libraries and schools. And just like in year’s past, I’m here today to make you aware of the top 10 challenged books of 2020. The ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom tracked 156 challenges to library, school, and university materials and services in 2020. Of the 273 books that were targeted, here are the most challenged, along with the reasons cited for censoring the books:

George by Alex Gino

Reasons: Challenged, banned, and restricted for LGBTQIA+ content, conflicting with a religious viewpoint, and not reflecting “the values of our community”

Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Ibram X. Kendi and Jason Reynolds

Reasons: Banned and challenged because of author’s public statements, and because of claims that the book contains “selective storytelling incidents” and does not encompass racism against all people

All American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely

Reasons: Banned and challenged for profanity, drug use, and alcoholism, and because it was thought to promote anti-police views, contain divisive topics, and be “too much of a sensitive matter right now”

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

Reasons: Banned, challenged, and restricted because it was thought to contain a political viewpoint and it was claimed to be biased against male students, and for the novel’s inclusion of rape and profanity

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

Reasons: Banned and challenged for profanity, sexual references, and allegations of sexual misconduct by the author

Something Happened in Our Town: A Child’s Story About Racial Injustice by Marianne Celano, Marietta Collins, and Ann Hazzard, illustrated by Jennifer Zivoin

Reasons: Challenged for “divisive language” and because it was thought to promote anti-police views

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Reasons: Banned and challenged for racial slurs and their negative effect on students, featuring a “white savior” character, and its perception of the Black experience

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

Reasons: Banned and challenged for racial slurs and racist stereotypes, and their negative effect on students

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

Reasons: Banned and challenged because it was considered sexually explicit and depicts child sexual abuse

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

Reasons: Challenged for profanity, and it was thought to promote an anti-police message

If you want to support these authors, independent bookstores, and myself, consider visiting my online bookshop where for your convenience you can shop all these titles. (You’ll also find the beginnings of other book lists. I add to the shop as time allows.)

Do you enjoy The Magical Buffet? Considering supporting The Magical Buffet on Patreon! For only $5 a month you’ll receive monthly tarot/oracle forecasts, classes, and behind the scenes updates! https://www.patreon.com/magicalbuffet

International Talk Like a Pirate Day 2021

Start your preparations and consider yourself warned, this Sunday is INTERNATIONAL TALK LIKE A PIRATE DAY! A day sacred to rum drinkers, Pastafarians, and lovers of annoying accents!

If you keep up to date on ITLAPD, as I do, you probably saw the resharing of the video “Talk Like a Pirate Day: The Five A’s” created by the holiday’s founders.

What are the 5 As? They’re the basic building blocks of your pirate lingo! Be sure you’re ready to go with these bad boys on Sunday:

Ahoy
Avast
Aye
Aye Aye
Aaaarrrrrrr

You can experience them all first hand with this handy two minute video.

However you choose to celebrate, drink responsibly and respect all covid guidelines.

National Unicorn Day

Did you know that tomorrow is National Unicorn Day? Well, it is. One year it was brought to my attention that April 9th is National Unicorn Day and since I like unicorns, I made note of it on my calendar. However, a cursory internet search could not tell me WHY April 9th became National Unicorn Day, just that it is. And that concludes the historical portion of this article.

Honestly, there has just been a bumper crop of unicorn related books lately and I thought this would be a could occasion to give you a giant list o’ links to check stuff out. How better to celebrate unicorns than by buying books about unicorns, right?

You might remember that in January 2020 I profiled a “Stampede of Unicorns!” That review features “Unicorn Magic” by Tess Whitehurst, “Llewellyn’s Little Book of Unicorns” by Angela Wix, and “The Wonder of Unicorns” by Diane Cooper. It turns out that Diane Cooper also has “The Wonder of Unicorns Game” and “The Wonder of Unicorn Cards!” She even has a compact disc of guided meditations, “The Unicorn Meditation.”

I personally own a very worn-out copy of “The Unicorn Tarot” by Suzanne Star with art by Liz Hilton. The outer box art has changed, but the deck is the same.

It is out of print, but if you want to read the book that turned me into a unicorn fan, try and get a hold of “The Unicorn” by Nancy Hathaway. If you can get one in good condition, it would make a beautiful coffee table book. Of course, mine is so worn out it can barely stay together, let alone let visitors casually flip through it!

Lastly, you cannot discuss unicorns without mentioning “The Last Unicorn.” After all this time the animated film is still magical and the book by Peter S. Beagle is even better! I own the DVD, and two different print runs of the novel! Perhaps Friday is the perfect day to dig out the DVD, or reread the book?

Regardless of how you choose to celebrate, I hope you have a magical National Unicorn Day!

*Some of the links in this article are affiliate links to IndieBound or Bookshop.org. These sites support independent books stores in the United States. If you use these links to purchase a book, I will make a small commission at no additional cost to you.

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