Carl Pettit
Carl Pettit is a columnist, editor and writer working for an array of colorful publications. He specializes in cultural and social issues, as well as East Asia, politics and satire.
Dogs, as the saying goes, are man’s best friend, so it's only right and logical that we might want to spend some quality time with our buds. Walks in the park and tossing the Frisbee on the beach are great, but if you really want to engage the human-canine relationship—and have a really good time while you’re at it—you might want to think about setting up a dog agility course in your backyard or garden.
Sure, you could take the easy route and head on over to Ikea or your local lawn-and-garden shop and pick up a few pieces of outdoor furniture for your backyard. But if you really want to impress your friends and indulge your creative flair, you might want to consider some of these more unusual options:
This winter, when the snow is piled high outside your doorway, or in the mountains nearby, you could head out into the cold and build a snowman or have an epic snowball fight. Those are some time-honored winter traditions, yet when the temperature drops, there’s so much more you can do.
Christmas is almost upon us, but that doesn’t mean you still can’t have some fun with your holiday decorations. Maybe you’re the kind of person who waits until the last minute to set up your tree, or perhaps you’ve noticed some bare spots on the limbs just crying out for a few more ornaments. Or maybe you need a last minute activity to keep the kids busy while they wait for the impending arrival of Santa Claus. Nothing is more maddening for a child than the last few days leading up to Christmas, before all of their holiday loot arrives.
Christmastime should be about family, generosity and good cheer, but sometimes there are a few baddies lurking about to spoil everyone’s fun. We’re talking about nasty Christmas villains here. Thankfully most of them are merely figments of some storyteller’s imagination. But not all of them. There are always a few real life Yuletide rogues out there just waiting to make a mess of the winter holidays.
These days, most of the turkeys people gobble down are fattened up on farms. They’re only pale (under their feathers) imitations of the lean, mean turkeys roaming through the woods of North America