PicoBlog

If you don’t end up liking Danny Espinoza, aka @dannythecook on Instagram, when you meet him, you probably don’t have a heart. Few people I’ve ever spoken to are as curious, gregarious, and full of candor like Espinoza. Because of this, and also because of his rise and grind mentality (literally - he gets up at 4 am in the morning to grind meat and make his sausages before doing his day job as a corporate chef), the founder of Santo Chorizo, along with his business partner Yamandu Perez, has been blazing ever since he started the brand.

A quick note of thanks to everyone for your support and beautiful comments in response to Sunday’s post. They did not go unnoticed. I’m headed down to the city today for my dinner in Brooklyn tomorrow night. I’ll also be recording an episode of the TASTE podcast while I’m in town, I can’t wait to chat with my friend Matt Rodbard. I’ll let you know when it goes live. In the meantime, have you heard it’s allium season?

I first tasted this classic Thai salad on Hawaii Island many years ago and the memory of it has been with me for as long as I can remember. Shredded green papaya—crunchy and bland of flavor—when dressed with lime juice, palm sugar, fish sauce, garlic, peanuts and chopped dried shrimp—jostles my taste buds into Wow! Mode. Some chili, cherry tomatoes, and blanched long beans add welcome color and a contrast of textures.

Many people from Western countries notice something intangibly alluring when they excurse to the ‘third world’. Something they can’t quite put their finger on, a quality of life that isn’t “better” on the surface—in the classical sense—but increasingly tugs at the hem, like an unruly child who may seem annoying at first, but quickly turns quaintly adorable. The average person isn’t equipped to describe, precisely, this difference. But they feel it in their bones, drink of it in the air and atmosphere, and it leaves them gripped by an unexpected passion after the embers of the trip have cooled; an urgency of nostalgia soon forms to experience it again.

Late on Saturday, I was saddened to hear that Greg Bear had passed away. He was one of those figures whose influence on science fiction was so significant, it’s actually difficult to encompass. He was mostly referred to as a hard SF guy, but his range was considerably wider. I recently mentioned him in this newsletter when I talked a bit about the nanotech/nanopunk boom in 1980s/90s – he kicked it off with Blood Music, and added to it later with a series beginning with Queen of Angels.

What To Expect: Today’s newsletter breaks down the economics behind sports broadcasting contracts, including why networks hand out $100 million-plus contracts and Greg Olsen’s upcoming contract dilemma with Fox. Enjoy! Greg Olsen is good at his job. Like, really good. The former All-Pro NFL tight end is one of the few NFL analysts on television today that everyone either loves or at least doesn’t hate. He isn’t polarizing. He’s always prepared, and he has an innate ability to educate viewers by breaking down complex situations into digestible soundbites.

Growing up in a fiercely passionate Italian family, that’s a phrase I heard more than a few times. It’s admittedly a bit harsh sounding but in a way it’s actually a simple and fairly eloquent expression of complicated relational grieving. Most of us have experienced a physical loss due to the death of a loved one and we are processing the subtractions that come from our collective mortality, from the fact that our time here is finite.

Do you have a special food that is all yours, no one in your family can touch? Maybe something that you splurge on, or squirrel away, to draw out its presence and make it last longer. That maybe you would eat at any time of the day, but usually, standing by the stove, with your fingers, dripping things onto the counter. This is grilled kirimochi for me. It is what I eat when I don't feel like cooking, when I'm hungry but I don't know what I want, when I'm tired, or when I want to treat myself to a moment of comfort.

The most influential figure in my BJJ lately has been Greg Souders. Like many of you, I’ve been trying to implement ecological dynamics into my training. Unfortunately, I don’t own a gym, so I haven’t been able to eliminate conventional teaching and go full in into ecology as my only way of training to test and contrast and get to conclusions on my own. Apart from implementing the actual “games” and ED approach, Greg Souders has made a huge impact (whether it was his intention or not) in something that has been a game changer in the past months.