-
Discontinued food
There’s an entire BlueSky account dedicated to discontinued food.
-
Critic asked to leave French Laundry
It sounds like the setup for an SNL skit, big time chef (Thomas Keller) confronts a food critic (MacKenzie Chung Fegan) off the clock who just wanted a night out with friends. The critic is asked to leave, but instead partakes in an hour plus conversation about food criticism and the fine dining.
Keller does not know what I want from him, he says, or what I am doing at his restaurant. I’m not here to write a review, I tell him honestly. My predecessor, Soleil Ho, weighed in 2½ years ago, and it’s not customary to reassess so soon after. But I eat at restaurants I’m not planning on reviewing all the time, and my credibility demands that I visit one of the most celebrated and enduringly popular restaurants in the country — helmed by one of the most powerful chefs in the world.
-
Knitting Chickens
Crochet folks are a tight knit group, and over the last couple years, a chicken pattern exploded in popularity. So popular to the point that the knit results have turned into emotional support stuffed animals.
-
Zines, the anti-AI
Zines. Freaking zines. You put a zine in an undergraduate’s hands and say “Someone like you made this. You could make this. All you need is some found images, paper, scissors/glue, and your own imagination. No chatgpt necessary.”
They light up, every single time, without fail. They start to recognize how little Generative AI serves them in the long run. They’ve called zines “Anti-AI” to my face and gleefully showed me their first zines with thought, intention, and inventiveness.
-
Librarians resist
Leave it to the pedantic superpowers of librarians to force laws to be followed.
-
Maycember
May has always been a busy month, at least in American culture. It’s gotten to the point the hubbub of Spring, Mothers Day, graduation, sports, festival, et al now commands its own term–Maycember.
Much like the month of December, my packed calendar at the end of the school year has left me feeling like there’s not so much joy, as obligation and overwhelm. Instead of cruising into summer with a sense of relief, I’m sweating my way to the finish line—and possibly crying and stress snacking at certain points, too.
It’s hard to relish in the moments and milestones when your to-do list is longer than your kids’ Christmas lists. I’m always thinking about the next function I have to attend, or person to remember to call, or thing to book, or buy.
-
A letter to RFK Jr
Anais Godard wrote “An Open Letter to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Who Thinks My Daughter Is a Tragedy“. The whole thing is quotable, and its strength lies in its astute lyricism.
-
Jasmin Paris, first woman to complete The Barkley
The Finisher is a 45 minute documentary of Jasmin Paris, first woman to complete The Barkley Marathon. It makes for a good sequel to the Barkley Marathon documentary.
