PicoBlog

The way I see it, most people just don’t understand Cincinnati chili, a polarizing dish so popular in its hometown—which is also mine—that it supports some 250 parlors and two mid-sized regional chains, Skyline and Gold Star. Those of us who grew up in the Queen City are used to rolling our eyes at over-the-top opinions from out-of-towners like Mets announcer Gary Cohen, who called our chili “disgusting” in a rant that went viral last summer, and Deadspin writer Albert Burneko, who named it “the worst regional foodstuff in America or anywhere else,” describing it as “a horrifying diarrhea sludge,” back in 2013.

This monthly interview series is a collaboration between Oldster Magazine and The Small Bow, A.J. Daulerio’s excellent newsletter about recovery and mental health, and will appear in both newsletters. Learn more about this collaboration in this Oldster podcast/videocast episode.Check out The Small Bow Novelist, screenwriter, journalist, occasional actor & all-around guy who should be dead, Jerry Stahl is the author of ten books, including the bestsellers Permanent Midnight (made into a movie with Ben Stiller) and I, Fatty.

Having missed most of the Golden Age of Top 40 (I was born in 1965), I'm fond of listening to Dave Hoeffel's weekly countdowns from the 1960s on SiriusXM to get a sense of what pop radio was like then. I know it wasn't always golden. The most recent countdown he did was from Dec. 7, 1963. "Dominique" at No. 1. "Sugar Shack" (which you single out in your Beatles essay) at No.

Hello and TGIF! First of all, thank you so much to those of you who weighed in about my lovely cat who has all these skin problems. Many of you suggested acupuncture, which isn’t something I considered, although I’ve had success it with myself. I’m actively looking for an animal behaviorist specialist and an acupuncturist who works with cats—these feel like two good paths forward for Chester’s skin issues. I’m very grateful for the advice that many of you shared—your care and generosity means a lot to me.

Hi! How was your week? Mine was slam-packed, but with a lot of fun, happy things. I got my paws on the book for the first time!!!! I’m re-watching Bridgerton in anticipation of Season 3 and man, a romantic period piece with Taylor Swift string quartet covers is really a balm to the soul at the end of a busy work + mom day. I also started ’s newest book,Funny Story, this week, so all around just a great week of media consumption on my end.

I couldn’t easily pinpoint precisely why my brain was immediately thinking of two of my favorite writers while watching Asteroid City. At a certain point, I kept thinking that maybe Wes Anderson is heading more towards Charlie Kaufman and Eugène Ionesco territory now which makes me giddy. In a sense, they’re all about deconstruction in hopes of making sense of why they’re drawn to the act of creation. Kaufman’s script for Adaptation is pretty much this idea to the point where a character outwardly defines the act of writing as “solipsistic” especially when choosing to include yourself directly in the script.

I've been a fan of Astrance for a very long time. It was one of my first visits to a three-star restaurant (before Michelin demoted them to two stars in 2019), and it was one of my favorites when I tested all of Paris' three-star restaurants back 2014. I loved Pascal Barbot's cooking (see additional photos here), but it was the darling s… ncG1vNJzZmiokae2tK7YpqaurJhjwLau0q2YnKNemLyue89omKysopa7pLE%3D

I write here mostly about British detective mysteries but good ones come from elsewhere. I previously mentioned one, the excellent French detective mystery Astrid. Astrid – an autistic woman with complete recall of the police crime archives (where she works) and the attention to detail that “normals” overlook – comes to partner with Raphaëlle, a rather flamboyant Parisian commander in the judicial police. While such a setup could be mere cliché, this French series shines with the greatest degree of sensitivity.

Because I spent the majority of the last monthly traveling, I decided it was time to do a newsletter on astrocartography and relocation charts. Astrocartography is something I get asked about A TON, and there are shockingly no books written on it (if you're a fellow astrologer, you should get on that ASAP), so I thought why not do a little explainer! But first, I’ve got some life updates to share.