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This video was entirely too much fun to make. Eden Egziabher is the chef and owner at Makina Cafe, an Ethiopian and Eritrean food truck. I love her and her cooking and her energy. The doro wat (chicken stew) is so freaking good— you’ve simply got to go try her food. Eden and I have been talking about cooking together for a while now and sambusas made sense. Most people associate sambusas with samosas, the South Asian street pastry filled with potatoes, onions, and peas, but interestingly, they originated in the Middle East in the 10th century, specifically Iran.

Samurai were expected to always carry a sensu, a folding fan and sheets of paper with them, along with the two swords of their station. There is a long history regarding the usage of fans, with pictures of the earliest Japanese fans recorded on the walls of 6th century burial tombs. Chinese official historical record of the Song Dynasty (960–1279) note that the Japanese monk Chonen presented folding Japanese fans to the Chinese emperor in 988.

When I called Tommy Collison today to go over an edit, he was stepping out for lunch after a half-day Ulpan, an intensive Hebrew lesson. Tommy and I met at the Kitchen in SF, where we were both newbies, though he’s been much better at his studies than I have. Like, let’s say today: I was just outside sunning; Tommy’s deep into Hebrew study. And so today here’s San Francisco’s best and newest Irish-Jewish tribesman on why and how he chose a Jewish life and how converting during the pandemic taught him about “lo ba-shamayim hi” (it’s not in heaven).

Content warning for brief discussion of (fictional and hypothetical) suicide. So I asked some people what to write about this week and out of the four options I offered literally no one chose Samuel Beckett’s play Krapp’s Last Tape. Obviously, therefore, my instinct was to write about Krapp’s Last Tape, but out of the goodness of my heart I decided I’d do the most popular option, the Black Mirror episode ‘San Junipero’, instead.

The words in director Zachary Wigon’s Sanctuary, penned by Micah Bloomberg, contain the kind of teasing erotic friskiness that endlessly rejoices in nudging you toward the edge of satisfaction, and pulling back just as you’re about to explode. It’s a kind of flirtation that, crafted and performed so well between the characters within the film, transgresses its bounds to seduce viewers, too. Sanctuary is a masterfully carried film that knows that the moment before the bloom of pleasure can sometimes be more delicious than the pleasure itself.

This week: Sardonic. It's a word that's been used to describe everyone from Dorothy Parker to Edward Gorey to David Sedaris. But what exactly does it mean? We figure it out. With examples! Then some footnotes and, uh, that's it for this week? Here we go. Sardonic humor, or sardonicism, is an often misunderstood word; it is used almost interchangeably with sarcasm. And yet it is the basis for much of both dry, British wit and more cynical American wit.

I only know of the plant sassafras (Sassafras albidum) because it, at least used to be, an ingredient for root beer, but if you asked me what it looked like, where it’s from or what part of the plant is edible two years ago, I would have nothing to tell you. Then, when I moved to the New York countryside, I started seeing these strange lobed leaves on small saplings growing in a patch of forest to one side of my house.

Happy Friday! Welcome to your recipe for the weekend. A lovely bit of classic cookery for you here… Sausages and lentils, a match made in heaven. This is a recipe of three parts. First, we’re going to braise our lentils beautifully with wine, aromatics and a very simple veggie base. Second, cook some sausages. Last of all, make a zippy little salsa usin… ncG1vNJzZmialaO5qrzPnqutZqOqr7TAwJyiZ5ufonyxe9KarKyZl5rAbrzEqaeeqqNirq%2BwjKWcp6yZocA%3D

Welcome to Original Jurisdiction, the latest legal publication by me, David Lat. You can learn more about Original Jurisdiction by reading its About page, and you can email me at davidlat@substack.com. This is a reader-supported publication; you can subscribe by clicking on the button below. Thanks! Next week, on April 18, U.S. News will publish its 2023-2024 law school rankings—the first set of rankings compiled using a brand-new methodology. After a slew of schools defected from the rankings, declaring that they would no longer provide U.