PicoBlog

I recently came back from a stint in Europe where I found myself thinking about tinned fish more than I’d like to admit. Every restaurant served sardines and every store had isles of beautifully packaged tinned fish. If toned-down luxuries were the staple, then tinned fish was the crown jewel. Shortly after this, I saw a TikTok about a dinner party that only served canned seafood with 70k+ likes. Just like that, I was deep in a rabbit hole trying to understand why despite the appeal for tinned fish internationally, the US market still thinks of soggy tuna sandwiches.

When you think about replacing Jenga on your shelf, there are plenty of recommendations online, all pointing at dexterity games. And that’s the right thing, of course, because that’s exactly what Jenga is: a game where the fun comes from the potential that the game collapses. It balances risk with action, but there are inherent limitations to how ability impacts play, and that’s why we’re looking at some other games today.

As somebody who, especially as of late, has done a lot of my gaming with family, I’m here to tell you that not only are simple card games a great way to introduce people to the world of modern gaming, but they’re also great fun in and of themselves. Too often, we see simple games and think that a simple ruleset negates the presence of fun. I’ve been there, and I understand the temptation, but there’s something impressive about a simple game that works well; there’s joy in a game with a parsimonious rule set that manages to draw you in deeply.

(Above: Best friends, Sir Ian McKellan and Frances Barber. She moved in with him for a time so he could care for her. Read the interview below to find out why. Photo from The Times. ) I first saw Frances Barber on a West End stage when I was spending a Thanksgiving holiday in London with some family members in 2004. She was starring as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest with Christian Slater.

A few years ago, a friend suggested I check out Maureen Johnson’s Truly Devious series. I devoured the first three books in three frantic days, squeezing in reading about teen sleuth Stevie Bell investigating a cold case at her elite boarding school whenever I could. The series’ fifth book, Nine Liars (which takes Stevie and her friends to London), comes out December 27th. It combines Maureen’s love of traditional English mysteries with the Truly Devious world.

Before becoming a criminal defense lawyer in private practice, our guest tonight for “Five Questions With,” Karen Friedman Agnifilo, served in multiple roles in the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, including as the Executive, Chief of the Trial Division and Chief Assistant District Attorney. Since leaving the DA’s office, she has been a criminal defense lawyer in private practice. Karen is one of the most authoritative voices we could turn to tonight to understand what will happen at the end of Donald Trump’s trial, which is rapidly approaching.

Monday, April 25, 2022 Good morning! We just got back from a week in Delray, Florida for the kids’ spring break. Sun! Beach! Breeze! Diners! This was a much-needed summer preview and I returned missing cooking very much, and eager to dive back in. I absolutely love it when this happens, especially when it overlaps with much-awaited spring produce showing up at the market. Here are a few pastas that use what’s fresh and new right now, plus my favorite way to eat asparagus, two years and counting, a beloved family coffee cake that makes all weeks better, and so much more.

“Dress is a form of communication,” declared Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Instagram last week, the first slide in a series of Stories that made my So Many Thoughts heart swell. As part of a Q&A about her recent trip to Latin America, the U.S. Congresswoman outlined the thought she put into what she wore — AOC with the SMT! Here’s the thing about the language of fashion: It is almost always unspoken.

As the calendar turns to August and I gear up to declare my annual Premier League season predictions — coming next week in this here newsletter — the quest for optimal preseason predictions must begin in a new place for the 2023-24 season. Alas, our beloved soccer projection model king and what my phone tells me is my single most visited website is dead. Long live public projection models, or at least tools that allow the general public to have informed probabilistic perspectives on potential soccer outcomes.