PicoBlog

Hello people of The Chef’s List, I’m sorry you didn’t hear from me last week. Maybe you saw the news: last Monday, my World Central Kitchen team was attacked while making a food delivery in the north of Gaza. Seven members of the team were killed. It was an incredibly tough week, you might imagine. If you want to read more about what I’ve written and said about the incident and the aftermath, please take a look at my New York Times oped, and the statements that World Central Kitchen has released on their website.

Welcome to the second Unsound Dispatch, which has replaced the Unsound newsletter, with regular features as well as Unsound news. The main feature for this month is by journalist and academic GG Albuquerque, who began the influential website Volume Morto in 2015 as a place to document the most exciting musical developments in Brazil and the Global South. He’s also the co-founder of Embrazado, a journalistic portal that scours the peripheries of the Brazilian scene.

“Would you ask Ruth if she has a recipe for brisket?” our friend Marci requested when she met my husband for breakfast the other day. With Hanukkah arriving early this year—on Thursday evening, Dec. 7—it isn’t an unexpected question. Beef brisket has become a ubiquitous dish on the Jewish holiday table, at least in America, and Hanukkah is no exception. With the growing number of vegetarians and vegans, along with those who have decided that eating meat, especially beef, is unethical, you’d think there would be few takers for brisket, but no—when it comes to holiday meals, all bets are off.

Welcome to Second Rough Draft, a newsletter about journalism in our time, how it (often its business) is evolving, and the challenges it faces. Evan Smith, founding CEO of the Texas Tribune from 2009-22, is a nonprofit pioneer, a brilliant editor and publisher and a friend and fellow Yankees fan. These days, he is a senior adviser at Laurene Powell Jobs’s Emerson Collective and a professor of practice at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas, Austin.

Many of the cartoons I submit to The New Yorker aren’t actually all that funny. Not on purpose, of course. Not every spaghetti strand you throw at the wall sticks. But I keep throwing. In fact, sometimes I feel that improving as cartoonist just means getting better at throwing spaghetti. Besides for making me hungry, this brings me to my next point. Even if a cartoon of mine isn’t funny, there’s still a chance for something amazing to happen, because, on a rare occasion, The New Yorker thinks that although the whole thing doesn’t work as a cartoon, they think the illustration could work for the caption contest.

I mean, his week’s article is about BAPE. That brand is what it is today in large part because of the Clipse, so who better to talk about this week than Pusha T & No Malice? Produced by The Neptunes, of course… BAPE is one the greatest streetwear brands in history. In the early 2000s it was highly coveted and worn by the fashionistas (and regular fans who could afford it, of course).

From blocks away, you couldn't miss the crowd in downtown Corpus Christi, Texas. Birders with binoculars and photographers with long lenses were all looking the same direction. When you got to the spot, you could easily see the yellow bird on the curb. It was the first and only Cattle Tyrant ever seen in the United States. It’s a rich lemon custard on the front. A species of flycatcher, it normally lives in South America.

In the spirit of the holiday season, I’m lifting the paywall on exclusive posts. All new content on LAST CALL through the end of December will be accessible to all subscribers and readers. If you’re looking for a great gift for a colleague, friend, or family member who is into food and drinks, consider a Gift Subscription to LAST CALL (you can even set the date and time you’d like it to arrive).

Our guest today is a powerbroker. No, really. As a casting director, Bernard (Bernie to most people) Telsey wields considerable power — and he tries to use it for good, not evil. Telsey’s breakthrough came when he helped put together the original cast of “Rent,” back in the mid-1990s. Since then he’s worked on a gazillion shows on Broadway, Off and around the country, as well as on movies and TV — Telsey is probably the main reason every nook and cranny of HBO’s “The Gilded Age” is filled with Broadway people.