I am that guy. You know the one. When the waiter comes to the table to give the specials, I’m the one who needs to know where the snapper’s from, how the swordfish was caught, and whether the salmon is farm-raised. My brother generally starts apologizing for me as soon as I open my mouth to see […]
Food/Drink
When I think back on the formative moments of my youth, it’s hard to top the Canada-Wide Science Fair of 1980. It was there, in Thompson, Manitoba, that I first truly experienced the transformative power of science to make daily life richer, better, more rewarding. No, it wasn’t my own engagement with the scientific method […]
The poets tell us that spring is for love. Tomorrow, Ann will tell you it’s for running, jumping, and giving in to hormonal chaos. Where I live, spring is for gambling. I live in the fruit basket of Colorado, in a valley famous for peaches and cherries, and every spring the local orchardists keep a […]
An important decision faces Oregon’s lawmakers this week. It concerns a $2.4 billion industry, an organism that’s important in genetics and other research, and a ritual that boosts the happiness of the multitudes, starting around 5 o’clock in the afternoon. I know, I know. I could have just said that Oregon is considering making brewer’s […]
It started two Christmases ago. That’s when I learned that beer is the new wine. My nephew, a film student, came home from McGill expounding on the finer points of Belgian Gueuze and German Dunkelweizen. And since then, foodie-friends have all but abandoned the pleasures of the grape for the more arcane delight of hops. […]
Two weeks ago, Erika posted about a new addition to our household — no, not our adorable children, but rather some viscous blobs lurking in menacing fashion at the bottom of a long-ignored bottle of apple juice. Said juice jug was purchased in early April, 2012. It was offered to guests, who declined. The bottle […]
In which we ask our enlightened readers to solve a household mystery. Scene: The Check-Hayden kitchen. Erika (opens the refrigerator): Hm, this apple juice has been in here for a while. I should probably just finish it off.
I’m not a big fan of Valentine’s day, but I love the ads. They are so utterly, transparently awful that they cross the line from crassly offensive into entertaining. Business Insider just did a brilliant roundup of the worst offenders of all time. They have a certain evolutionary-psychology simplicity to them — if you present […]
