PicoBlog

Welcome to Flashlight & A Biscuit, my Southern culture/sports/music/food offshoot of my work at Yahoo Sports. Thanks for reading, and if you’re new around here, why not subscribe? It’s free and all. A few years back, I was at Dulles Airport trying to get a few minutes’ peace before dealing with two wriggling children on a flight. I volunteered to go purchase snacks, but used the opportunity — as every momentarily off-duty parent does — to steal a few minutes for myself looking at the rows of airport books.

In the effort to determine if Hans Niemann is guilty of cheating, the chess world has moved on to the only thing less reputable than anal beads: statistics. According to analysis by an anonymous Chessbase user called gambit-man, it appeared that Niemann has an unusually high number of games with 100% engine correlation. The analysis was initially popularized in a YouTube video by FM Yosha Iglesias. It was then picked up by Hikaru Nakamura.

Hello and welcome to Gossip Time, a weekly guide to the stars by Allie Jones. This week: an actress denies a rumor, an actor makes a lifelong commitment, and Blake Lively embraces a new income stream.  What’s Selena Gomez done now? That’s a difficult question I tried to answer this week in a post just for paid subscribers. Catch up on her apparent feud with Zayn Malik, the Hadids, and Zendaya (?

One of the joys of book tour is that it takes you not only to cool cities, but (sometimes) really cool hotels. And sometimes, those hotels lead you to murder mystery. Back in March, I was brought to Charlotte, North Carolina by the Friends of the Library there, who put on a couple of lovely events and treated me very well and put me up at the Duke Mansion, a bed and breakfast (omg, GREAT breakfast) in what was once the sometime childhood home of Doris Duke, “the richest girl in the world.

I was surprised to read this stat in 2018 article: 70 percent of U.S. adults reported they believe a married woman should change her name, and half said it should be required by law. I’m going to repeat that last part: Half of Americans think women should be required by law to take their husband’s name. What? Like… what? I’ve been going through life under the impression that more and more women were keeping their maiden names when they married.

This building outside a strip plaza in Landover, Maryland, has been driving me crazy for almost a month: Notice anything unusual about it? I did. For one, it lacks Pizza Hut’s trademark trapezoidal windows. Secondly, it’s a square, not a rectangle, and the roof is not quite the trademark Pizza Hut roof. Third, that orange pillar at the corner looks out of place, suggesting exterior alterations. In other words, when I drove past this, I immediately suspected that it was not built to be a Pizza Hut—making it the only freestanding Pizza Hut I’ve ever seen that occupies a pre-existing building.

By Mike Glenn As a person who makes a living with words, I become frustrated when people misuse words. For instance, people constantly confuse the words “anxious” and “eager.” Anxious means we foresee a bad outcome. Eager means we are looking forward to a happy outcome. People use “anxious” when they really mean eager. We might hear a young bride-to-be say, “My wedding is next week and I’m so anxious. I can’t wait!

Welcome to ingredient, where once a month I take a deep dive into some of my favourite seasonal and store cupboard ingredients. This month I’m focusing on Dijon Mustard, that smooth, fiery yellow condiment I’m never without, and whose presence in my kitchen roots my cooking firmly in the French tradition. For paid subscribers click here for my recipes for Leeks Vinaigrette, Pan Fried Pork Chops in Dijon Cream Sauce, and Mussels Dijonnaise.

I was researching shows for an upcoming essay about murder rom-coms, which of course led me down a MyDramaList rabbit hole, and thus reminded me of Dinner Mate. When I saw the promos in 2020, I thought it had a cute concept and pairing—and promptly forgot about it.  I’m here to report that it’s just as satisfying as you’d hope of a rom-com with a heartwarming premise, starring two gorgeous people.