Sitdown Sunday: 7 of the year's most fascinating and feelgood longreads

IT’S CHRISTMAS DAY. You might be looking for something nice to read – something a little fascinating, intriguing or positive.

Here are our picks from across Sitdown over the last year.

1. Life as Lisa Simpson

An interview with Yeardley Smith, the voice behind Lisa Simpson – one of the coolest jobs in showbiz.

(The Ringer, approx 16 mins reading time)

“I don’t think that you can play a part this long and not meld with that alter ego,” Smith says from a comfy couch in her living room. “I always say, thank God she’s such a beautiful, brilliant, funny, compassionate, thoughtful, curious person. If I had to meld with Mr. Burns for the last 30-plus years, I think I would be a different person, you know?”

2. Hello Dolly

An interview with the one and only Dolly Parton about her career – and how she helped the world during the pandemic.

(Mic, approx 8 mins reading time)

I’m not one to get in the middle of controversy. When I first donated my money to help with [the Moderna vaccine], and I got my shot, I thought everybody was waiting in line to get their shot. I didn’t realize there were people not wanting to do it whether for religious reasons, health reasons, personal reasons whatever it be. I’m not one to tell people what to do. But I was just happy to be part of that, and I think we all certainly need to do our part in being careful. 

3. How to calm your emotions

A slightly different style of longread, but one that might be useful – how to use dialectical behaviour techniques to calm your emotions. It might come in useful during the festive season.

(Psyche, approx 10 mins reading time)

When dealing with emotion dysregulation, one skill that everyone I work with finds helpful is the ‘states of mind’ exercise, which describes how we all have three different modes of thinking that we use to different degrees. Our reasonable mind consists of logic and facts – in this state, it’s hard to access our emotions, or we avoid or push them away. 

4. Meatloaf in Ireland

Here’s a piece by Ronan Casey about an incredible story involving the rock icon in Ireland.

(Louder Sound, approx 12 mins reading time)

The rural rock­ers of Ire­land, in par­tic­u­lar, are the type of loyal fan every star craves. So long as there’s a fella throw­ing shapes with a loud gui­tar and an act who’ll play the hits, they’ll go for it. And so, in 1989, Meat­ Loaf was booked on a ram­shackle tour of some of Ireland’s worst com­mu­nity cen­tres, ball­rooms, hotel func­tion rooms and other assorted sheds sud­denly deemed good enough to host rock roy­alty. He even turned up in a few fields. 

5. The big win

The inside story of the night of Ukraine’s stunning World Cup qualifier victory.

(ESPN, approx 19 mins reading time)

His name is Volodya and before the war he worked as an IT guy. Just before the game got underway, there were moments when he seemed to disappear, his body here in his hometown but his mind back with his brothers in arms. He scrolled through his phone and looked at photos and videos from the combat. 

6. Lisa McGee

The creator of Derry Girls talks about growing up in the city, finding humour during the Troubles and getting the final episode of the hit Channel 4 series right.

(The New Yorker, approx 18 mins reading time)

When McGee was around five or six, a group of men hijacked her father’s truck, and held him up at gunpoint. They released him unharmed. Another time, Ann’s mother ended up in the hospital after a bomb blast. “Stuff was happening, and I had no idea,” McGee said. 

7. An oral history of the Talkboy

The toy Talkboy in HOme Alone 2 was invented specially for the film – and ended up being a phenomenon. The history of how it got made is fun and fascinating. 

(Vanity Fair, approx 11 mins reading time)

The silver hardshell device fit in the palm of a child’s hand and came equipped with a slot-like handle on the back for an easy grip. It featured a telescoping microphone and a cassette tape for recording sounds and conversations. A tuner allowed those recorded snippets to be slowed down or sped up for playback, creating a groggy, low-pitched tone or a squeaky, chipmunk-like cadence, respectively. “John went crazy for it,” Marc Rosenberg, then senior vice president of marketing for Tiger Electronics, recalls.