THE ELEMENTS OF COOKING: TRANSLATING THE CHEF’S CRAFT FOR EVERY KITCHEN
By Michael Ruhlman
Scribner, 244 pages, $24
There’s a style of food writing that has proliferated in recent years, a sort of precious, overdone prose that makes me want to scratch my eyeballs out. I love eating food and I love making Read More
Last month, Kristin Sloan, a comely member of the New York City Ballet, began appearing in a television ad for the iPhone, one in a series of Real People telling slightly implausible stories against a black backdrop. Ms. Sloan’s tale—that she runs a dancers’ blog called The Winger, and sometimes mobile-blogs backstage on her iPhone Read More
If you’re reading this, you’ve probably received my recent personal invitation to join Shelfari.com. In fact, even if you’re not reading this, you’ve probably received my recent personal invitation to join Shelfari.com.
So: Welcome!
Shelfari is one of those new social-networking sites that have sprouted like mushrooms at the base of the Read More
UM … : SLIPS, STUMBLES, AND VERBAL BLUNDERS, AND WHAT THEY MEAN
By Michael Erard
Pantheon, 287 pages, $24.95
At a weekly briefing early in his first term, President Calvin Coolidge noticed a reporter taking notes as he spoke.
“Are you writing down in shorthand what I say?” Coolidge inquired, according Read More
The sign said “burpless cucumbers.” I had not noticed that my previous encounters with cucumbers were particularly burp-inducing, so I asked how this variety was different. “They don’t repeat,” the woman at the farm stand said. “The other cucumbers, they repeat in your stomach.” “Repeat?” I asked. “Oh, yes,” she said. “They repeat.” The woman Read More
After my recent failure in attempting to introduce raw root vegetables to my grill, I decided to head back toward slightly more well-trod terrain. Squash is reliably grill-friendly and in abundance all summer long. Avocado squash were new to me, though, so I thought I’d see how they work on an open flame.
The Read More
A few years ago, I spent an airless week in August interviewing for jobs at New York’s large corporate law firms. The interviews were all the same: precisely 20 minutes long, conducted by a mid-level associate who wanted to know what my strengths were and why I was interested in this firm. Few law students Read More
It seemed like a good idea at the time. I was planning a grill-based dinner for some friends last weekend, and there were a lot of cool-looking root vegetables at the farmers’ market on Friday. French breakfast radishes, Thumbelina carrots—the names alone were worth paying for. It occurred to me that I’d never seen a Read More
Each May, thousands of second-year law students from around the country descend on New York’s largest and most prestigious corporate firms for two-plus months of eating, drinking, Web-surfing and perhaps a little casework—a sacrifice they solemnly accept for the sum of more than $3,000 a week. This is the life of the summer associate.
It Read More
Sand shark? I’d never heard of it, either. But once you see those words scrawled on the daily-catch board, it’s hard to look away. How often do you get to confront your deepest fears and buy dinner at the same time?
My fillet still had some skin attached, and when I Read More
