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Bean bardo

August 26, 2022

I own an Instant Pot for one reason: beans. It is too large for the amount of beans any rational being makes at once, but that doesn’t stop me. You throw...

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A quiet soba abomination

August 24, 2022

You don’t really know soba, and neither does the rest of America, but we’ll make it work anyway. Soba is a buckwheat noodle that is usually made fresh in...

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You will now experience Starbucks text

August 22, 2022

There are few sacred spaces in the city, few areas that draw everybody, few spots that have literal oral histories written about them, but the corner of...

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Instrument

August 19, 2022

The rule is this: if I use it once a day, I need to optimize for pleasure, and there is effectively no maximum budget. This becomes complicated when...

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Notes on the practice

August 17, 2022

Upon request, someone asked me how I write. I write a lot, and like most writers I have a really specific and picky routine. Writers tend to work themselves...

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The banal wonder of Hasami

August 15, 2022

Hasami Porcelain is a Japanese brand that makes stackable mugs, plates, bowls, planters, and pourover drippers. You have absolutely seen it before. It speaks...

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🍅

August 12, 2022

I got six tomato plants at the beginning of the season, and did what I normally do, which is plant three of them in the raised bed and three of them in...

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A root vegetable for every season

August 10, 2022

I live in Chicago, land of too many root vegetables. A turnip the size of a softball landed on my doorstep the other day, thanks to my farm. It joined,...

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Baseball day

August 8, 2022

The most off-brand thing about me is that I am extremely into baseball. I promise to not talk about baseball a whole lot here, unless the Cubs win the World...

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Light form

August 5, 2022

We’ve talked about flashlight people, and now we will talk about the flashlight. There is truly a flashlight for every season, but in another, more accurate...

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The trial & grim error of our zero waste rumspringa

August 3, 2022

There is a genre of objects that falls under the genre of zero waste. It is made without plastic, reusable, reused, compostable. There are bamboo...

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Pete

August 1, 2022

“I really have no idea what it is I sell,” a Chartreuse Diffusion president told The New Yorker in 1984. “I am very scared always. Only three of the brothers...

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Want to not want

July 29, 2022

One of the nicer lessons of the Bad Times® is that I don’t really need anything. I lived in Portugal for a month with two bags; I lived in Mexico & Costa...

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Notes on the third worst date that I have ever had in my life

July 27, 2022

In 2012, I threw my 30th birthday party, and over 250 people showed up. I say over, of course, because I lost count sometime around when the police first...

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Show right

July 25, 2022

I went to a fancy college where, between bits of studying, integenerational wealth likes to show off its materialism and reify structures of power. If you...

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Second city chance

July 22, 2022

I like second cities. I grew up in one. I live in one. Second cities try to punch above their weight. Second cities have something to prove. There is a...

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Fewer, better hoodies

July 20, 2022

Here are the fashion rules:

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The zine as trial balloon

July 18, 2022

The slow roll is important. There is risk. Printers don’t have undo buttons. You can’t take years of your life back. This is why zines exist. The premise At...

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Earth's only remaining holiday

July 15, 2022

There is your perception of Basil Day, there is my perception of Basil Day, and then there is Basil’s perception of Basil Day, which is the only holiday...

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How to museum

July 13, 2022

The first thing you have to do is go to a lot of museums. If you go to a lot of museums, you learn how to skip stuff, and skipping stuff is how to museum....

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