PicoBlog

We were delighted be joined for an exclusive chat with former Liverpool midfielder John Welsh. We discussed his memories of being a Red, still supporting the club today and a look ahead to next season under Arne Slot. Here’s our full conversation: First off, what’s your favourite Liverpool memory? Probably Istanbul, I think. I was trying to pick something other than that, but it was an unbelievable game. Unbelievable the way it panned out and a massive part of Liverpool’s history.

You can find all of Back Row’s And Just Like That recaps here. We’re just about halfway through And Just Like That’s second season, and fans I’ve talked to seem divided over whether or not it’s getting better. I would argue that it is. Is it The Bear? No, but that’s not what anyone expects. We expect something of the quality of, what, Gossip Girl? If you’re still with our Samantha-less friends and wondering if the show runners are hearing the anti-Che cacophony, we know now that the answer is YES: this episode served a Che send-up on the sort of silver platter that you would only find in Charlotte’s house.

Asteroid City Dir. Wes Anderson  105 min. Whenever I think about the soul of Wes Anderson’s work, I go back to the moment in Rushmore where the precocious Max Fischer introduces Herman Blume—his friend, benefactor and romantic rival—to his father, who’s a barber. To that point, Max had cultivated an image of himself as the ultimate representative of Rushmore Academy, a school for the elite and presumably wealthy, and now he’s pulling down that veil for Blume.

Sure, I am Always Talkin’ Food, but I teach NT2 (Dutch as a second language) on the side. Mainly to young foreigners who came to Amsterdam for or with love and intend to stay. For privacy reasons the names in these columns are fictitious. For me, a Dutch lesson is a success when there is an interaction between the students and me as a teacher. No one-way traffic, where I pour buckets of information into the open beaks of my students, who meekly swallow everything.

In this weekend’s box office rundown, Zendaya shows off real star power as the R-rated Challengers tops the domestic box office, while the Ryan Gosling/Emily Blunt action comedy The Fall Guy opens “early” in a slew of overseas territories. Unsung Hero underwhelms (in relation to its strong Friday gross), Boy Kills World bombs, and the big March/April successes (Civil War, Kung Fu Panda 4, Dune Part Two and Godzilla x Kong) continue to hold firm.

Chef Natalia “Boa” Rosario, who recently competed on and won Food Network’s “Ciao House,” writes this essay on Latina representation in fine dining. Being a Latina chef in the fine dining industry is not an easy task. Throughout the years, Latinos have always been seen in the restaurant industry as the bus boys, dishwashers, porters, etc.  Even in Latin America, throughout the years, it has been a handful of chefs putting Latin food on the map.

One thing you learn as a reporter visiting hospitals is about the coded language that comes over their loudspeakers.  Although thanks to friendly staff, or just something called “Google,” those codes aren’t hard to decipher. Code Blue — someone’s having an emergency, maybe a heart attack. Code Red? That’s smoke or a fire. There’s one code I only learned a few months ago: “Code Stork.” That’s when a pregnant woman can’t make it to the delivery room and gives birth early — in the parking lot, a hospital hallway, even the elevator — according to a pair of excited nurses, who were swaddling our brand-new baby.

There’s not much to say about The Blair Witch Project that hasn’t already been said. The 1999 film is neither the first found footage film or the first to employ what we now call viral marketing to promote it, it has become the standard-bearer upon which both of those trends now draw influence and credit from. The story of fictionalized versions of Heather Donahue, Joshua Leonard, and Michael Williams getting lost in the woods hunting the legend of the Blair Witch only to have a Really Bad Time has been dissected a million different ways.

Taking a break from prepping for his New Year partying, my eldest son plonked himself on the sofa and scrolled through his phone. ‘Omigod!….’ ‘What?’ ‘This song! Unbelievable!’ ‘What song? Unbelievable why?’ ‘Do you know ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas’?’ ‘Er, yeah, of course.’ ‘And did you know the lyrics were so unbelievably racist?’ ‘Racist? Are you for real?’ ‘Er, yes. Listen: And there won’t be snow in Africa this Christmas time/ The greatest gift they'll get this year is life/ Where nothing ever grows/ No rain nor rivers flow/ Do they know it’s Christmas time at all?