Oh glorious day: 23andme updated their ancestry algorithm! My percentages changed! I thought I was fulfilled. Was my previous assignment of 99.7% Ashkenazi Jewish not enough proof? But no, my Jewish heart can still grow three sizes larger when supplied with a more accurate (well, that is debatable; 23andme in general seems more sciencey—digestible for […]
Yes, this is how I ALWAYS eat Smarties, because I am a Civilized Being. I arrange them by rainbow, eat one of the most until it ties with second most, eat one of each of those, and continue methodically until all are equal—and poor yellows, that won’t be for a long long while, will it? […]
I mentioned the Black Death to a small handful of people during this contemporary plague we’re experiencing—which isn’t much variation from the 15 years before the COVID-19 pandemic. Those who know me best understand I’ve lived my adult life *desperately* waiting for opportunities to discuss the Black Death (and the Wars of the Roses and […]
That’s it: I’m ruined. I can only eat pasta in Italy from here on out and possibly only in Bologna will I find my ultimate pasta nirvana. Today, my last day in Italy before going home to Israel (yay!), I walked to the Bologna market and into a conglomerate of street food shops that share […]
I love Turkish rugs and high-quality rugs in general. I have two Uzbekistani rugs I bought years ago and they are two of my favorite possessions. On this trip, I knew I’d be stopping by Turkey and the one major thing I reserved a budget for, of the whole trip, was a hand-woven Turkish rug. […]
A random tourist turned to me today, asking, “Where are we?” Thus started the most satisfying encounter of my entire trip. I blinked. “We’re at the Largo di Torre Argentina.” I love how this ancient, sacred place is randomly in the middle of a busy Roman piazza filled with modern life (and lots of cats, […]
I was watching a documentary on the princes in the tower where Tony Robinson claimed that Richard III might have been right to dispute Edward IV’s legitimacy because of this reason and that reason. He said that if it was true that Edward was illegitimate, Richard III was the last legitimate monarch of England as […]
I am too negligent a piano player to ever acquire advanced skills, so I am forever and always at a solidly intermediate stage. Anyone listening would rate it roughly at the level of “tolerable, I suppose, but not handsome enough to tempt me”. That said, I have an immense passion for piano and take a considerable […]
An unholy battle commenced today with a fruit fly, perniciously smuggled in with the bananas last night in my grocery delivery. All day I yelled and cursed at it and attempted, over and over, to smash its life into oblivion. It skittered away, this way and that, weaving itself through the air, taunting me with […]
I labored over this silly meme for two days in search of the right answers. Fictional people are important! The first I thought of in an instant and never wavered. The second entry stayed strongly in contention during the two-day debate of fictional Suz-like titans. The third was the last to enter the fight, immediately […]