#3: The one that has eggs in it

I’m sorry, it’s horrifying, but it’s egg-related

Actual updates

The new dishwasher really did take a month! Installing a new one, at least in Boston, requires a plumber and pulling permits, so that takes time; it also takes a lot of money, and we wound up paying slightly more for the installation than for the dishwasher itself. But the thing works, and it has a cool little bottle-jet thing which is handy for those tall, skinny sippy cups as well, and it’s fine. Everything’s fine! I’m looking with trepidation at the stove, which has not shown any signs of trouble, but is (I assume) about the same age as the other two appliances that just bit the dust. I really hope it lasts; it’s a lot nicer than what we’d be able to replace it with.

In other news, I’m learning Italian on Duolingo and boy, is my French doing the heavy lifting there. Most of the time, if I don’t know a word, I can reasonably assume it’s the one that closely resembles its French counterpart, and so far that’s been extremely successful for me. Does it really count as “learning” a language when you’re just filtering it through a third language? That said, I can say “do as I say, not as I do” in Italian now, which is fun, and it has also taught me various useful phrases like “my snakes eat your cakes” so I’m all set in the event of unruly snakes with poor pastry manners. It also went on a little run of extremely morbid questions (“When do they die” followed by “How do animals die” and “Why do we die”), so in case I need to talk to any Italian teens who go in for black clothes and heavy eyeliner, I’m ready.

Finally, I promised you egg content, because I’ll never pass up the opportunity to run a joke into the ground. All I have for you is that eggs are, and I shall brook no argument about this, not a to-go food. Don’t be eating eggs on public transit. Even your eggs in “McMuffin” state are not great to inflict, aromatically, on other people. I’m not anti-egg! I might have a breakfast sandwich tomorrow! But I don’t want to make other people experience my eggs. Eggs: Keep ‘Em to Yourself. There’s your new slogan (unless you’re going back to “Incredible, Edible Egg!” which was, let’s be fair, a winner).

Time for some articles:

Well this is charming. For Decades, Cartographers Have Been Hiding Covert Illustrations Inside of Switzerland’s Official Maps

Cool space stuff: When Pluto’s Frozen Heart Beats, It Creates Wind

The key takeaway here isn’t that Canada has a pizza chain called Boston Pizza (because if any city is famous for its pizza, it’s… Boston?), but I did think that needed to be addressed. A Pizza Company Has Finally Gone The Distance And Put Tiny Chairs To Match The Little Table That Comes With Pizzas

This is long and very in-depth, but it’s so fascinating, especially to someone who (like me) works in the world of video, and who (like me) has previously taken a side in this debate: The cinematographer of Knives Out wants to end the film-vs.-digital debate

Here’s a recipe I made this month

Honestly one of the best potato recipes I’ve made. And I know that looking at it, it looks like someone just picked out half a dozen flavor agents, threw them at the potatoes, and hoped for the best, but the weird thing is that it works. This shouldn’t be good, but it is.

Garlicky Cumin Potatoes

Ingredients

1 tbsp cumin6 cloves garlic, hell yeahlike a thumb’s worth of ginger1 lb baby Yukon Gold potatoes, empirically the best potato2 tbsp tomato pastejuice of 1/2 a lime1/4 cup water2 tbsp olive oil1 tsp salt1 tsp fresh rosemary, minced

Method

Cook the potatoes by putting them in a pot of cold water, bringing them to a boil, and letting them cook for 12 minutes or until fork-tender.Drain them and set them aside until you need themWhile they’re cooking, mash up the ginger, garlic, and cumin in a mortar and pestle until they form a paste or until your arm gets tired. It’s fine if it isn’t a smooth paste. No one cares.Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat and add the paste you just mashed up.Let that cook for a couple minutes, then stir in the tomato paste.Give it another let’s say 5 minutes? Less if it seems like it’s cooking too aggressively? Look, it’s an art, not a science.Add the water and lime juice and stir until smooth, then give it another 4 or 5 minutes.Add the potatoes and stir to coat. Heat through for a couple of minutes.Stir in the salt and rosemary and remove from the heat.Voila! Spuds.

Tunes on my mind lately

Man, it’s a bummer Manitoba’s closed down.

The chorus just gets stuck in my head every time I hear it, especially just the oh, I say / rock ‘n’ roll is dead and in its grave bit.

And you can catch me singing this at karaoke on the work ski trip later this week:

Okay! Well, until next time, which will hopefully be on time, everyone be sure to wash your hands frequently and donate to the Unist’ot’en Camp. Pretty sure talks are not over and the pipeline people and RCMP are still right there on Wet’suwet’en land, so the people doing the work need our help. This is absolutely the kind of newsletter that’s going to tell you to donate to causes I personally happen to support, so you can expect to see a lot more of the same.

Oh shit! It’s 1am and I forgot to go to bed! Hopefully this isn’t full of terribly-written sentences and typos PUBLISH NEWSLETTER