I wrote two Insider pieces this week, on the Marlon Byrd trade and on both the Banuelos/Carpenter-Shreve and Maurer/Smith trades.
My review of the boardgame Istanbul is up over at Paste.
I’m going to be offline most of this weekend for my grandmother’s funeral, which includes social media. I’ll be back to regular business, whatever that is, on Monday.
This week’s links:
- From GOOD, a guide to cooking with blood. Hey, if you’re talking whole-animal eating, that means the whole animal. Besides, black pudding is delicious.
- Slate brought this 2010 piece back around the other day – a semi-vegan writer claiming vegans should eat oysters without reservations. Then he kind of ignores one of the central tenets of veganism, so he fails on that point, but the arguments about eating oysters for their sustainability and because they don’t feel pain the way mammals or birds do are more interesting. My comment when this surfaced on my Facebook feed was that you should eat whatever you feel comfortable eating, without worrying about what to call yourself.
- Researchers find the ancient genetic link between fish fins and animal hands. I feel like someone was asking for this recently.
- More great news for readers of dead-tree editions: It’s better for your brain. OK, maybe it’s better for your brain, although there’s some selection bias at work here. Also, I have no idea what the photo of a woman reading while wearing a mini-dress is supposed to add to this article.
- A wonderful comic on how vaccines work and why they matter. No new material here, just a great presentation. I’d be curious whether this changes any vaccination denier’s thinking, though. You really can’t fix stupid.
- Some delusional old man in Omaha thinks he’s building a warp drive in his garage. Of course, you wouldn’t immediately know that this guy was a crank, because the article treats this as a serious proposition, even though such a contraption would require both 1) negative mass and 2) greater quantities of energy than humanity has ever been able to produce, all of which I would view as kind of a dealbreaker.
That comic was great. They should hand it out at schools that allow “personal beliefs” clauses. Also, I think the purpose of the woman in the minidress was that it was better for my brain :-p
Keith,
It appears this has been in development for quite a while, so you may already be aware of it. http://www.bbcamerica.com/jonathan-strange-and-mr-norrell/
Thanks, Joe. I actually tweeted about that the other day when mentioning all the great shows on BBC America this spring.
Clearly I should be following you on Twitter.
Keith,
You have my condolences on the loss of your grandmother. You and your family are in my thoughts and prayers. I hope you had a safe trip.
“Researchers find the ancient genetic link between fish fins and animal hands.
I feel like someone was asking for this recently.”
LOL. Well played, Klaw.
The riff on dinuguan (Filipino blood stew) with maitake mushrooms at Qui is among the 5-6 best things I’ve ever eaten. It is probably 10 times richer and deeper in flavor than the best beef burgundy you’ve ever had.
Sick burn on your ESPN colleague Curt Schilling, bro!!!
I’m going to continue to be the skunk at the picnic regarding the structure and the (lack of) creativity in the show. The challenges are too open ended. They are designed for Tom C et al to determine who, among this group of contestants, is the best cook.
I like to watch interesting challenges and see how the chefs overcome those challenges. I don’t really care who the best cook out of this bunch is, unless some real prodigy reveals himself (it has happened on occasion, like with Blais).
I want to see interesting cooking.
It’s just me – probably should just find a different show.
@Overbrook: I agree that it’s probably not to your tastes – I think Chopped and Alton Brown’s new show are more what you want from a cooking show. I don’t think one style is superior to the other, though.