PicoBlog

Chiffon Cake. The name itself suggests something light and delicious. But what exactly is this cake? Without getting too technical, chiffon cake is a member of the so-called foam cake family, meaning that it’s made with whipped eggs in some form. Angel food cake has beaten egg whites; sponge cakes incorporate whipped egg whites and egg yolks; Génoise features whipped whole eggs; and chiffon? Ah! It’s a sponge cake with an added ingredient that had remained a well-kept secret until the cake’s creator, Harry Baker—yes, that’s his name—sold his recipe to Betty Crocker for an undisclosed sum in 1947.

The 2010s began with the world watching the Arab Spring unfold across social platforms, which researchers found “to play a central role in shaping political debates.” Facebook and Twitter were heralded as important communications tools of toppling dictatorships. The power of the social graph, connecting people and ideas (and brands; can’t forget the brands). We were optimistic that technology could be a force for good. That optimism died, slowly, over the ensuing ten years, as the ‘change-the-world’ vibes that the platforms heralded (connecting the world, etc) were no match for the cynical men who created the algorithms that brainwashed and addicted countless people.

Throw in a generous dose of dishonesty, the selective application of memory and the accumulation of years of suspicion and frustration and you’ve got a perfect storm. The narrative that’s got everyone going is that the top six Premier League clubs have decided to cut FA cup replays without asking anyone else apart from the FA, who have been bought off. That would be outrageous were it true. But it’s not.

If you value the work here, if you send it to your friends or revisit it, consider subscribing. You’ll get access to the weekly Things I Read and Loved at the end of the Sunday newsletter, the massive links/recs posts, the ability to comment, and the knowledge that you’re paying for the stuff that adds value to your life. Plus, there’s the threads: like Tuesday’s How Do You Find Good Stuff to Read on the Internet?

Esteemed hand-wringers: Have you ever found yourself knee deep in a situation, a decision, say, wherein, about halfway through, you reflect, ‘Perhaps I am overthinking this?’ I have been in just this position for, even I am embarrassed to say, something like four months now. In November, at the beginning of this winter’s burning season, I began panicking about—as many former, current, and future California residents can, I hope, relate to—indoor air quality.

Photo credit: Tuan Bui Have you ever wondered what cornbread made with kitty litter tastes like? No? Well, my next newsletter guest, Dennis Lee knows. He’s also turned Red Lobster’s Cheddar Bay Biscuit mix into bread, researched the edible nature of toilet paper (pandemic PSA), and vaped blue cheese, which is to say, Lee is my kind of food writer. While his writing for the Substack newsletter Food is Stupid, and prior to that his blog, The Pizzle, is rich in “butt-stuff” and outsized declarations of his prowess, Lee’s writing is smart, nuanced, and most of all, entertaining.

I don’t necessarily love the big attention-grabbing headlines, but the other night as I was looking through the endless glut of films I’d marked as wanting to watch, something told me I should finally get around to pressing play on Dinner Rush, the 2001 indie film by Bob Giraldi that stars Danny Aiello in what I came away thinking might be his best role besides Sal in Do The Right Thing.

"Call and response" is a musical or vocal pattern where one person or group, referred to as the "caller," initiates a phrase or musical idea, and another person or group, known as the "responder" provides a direct or improvised response to that phrase. It is a form of interaction and dialogue within music, often associated with African and African-American musical traditions but also found in various cultures worldwide. In call and response, the caller typically presents a short musical or vocal motif, known as the "

How is it nearly the end of 2023? What a busy few months it’s been—mainly because I’ve been doing things like interviewing Brenda Lee(!!!) about “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” and scripting and narrating podcasts about the mystery of “Jingle Bell Rock” as well as promoting my latest book, This is Christmas: Song by Song, which Book Riot named one of the 25 Best Christmas Books of All Time. I’ll put some more links below!