Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell rating: 3 of 5 stars I think of Malcolm Gladwell books as a sophisticated guilty pleasure. He Who Must Name Patterns is the darling of airport bookstores (which I think amuses him; there is a part on airplane crashes in Outliers that is difficult to read on a flight, similar to [...]

Great afternoons so often begin with local beer, wherever you are. Sweetwater Brewery in Atlanta lets fans help affix labels to its beer one night a week, so you sometimes find it easier to read the particular brew name (in this case, Georgia Brown) when you’re tilting the neck back on November afternoons… The Sweetwater [...]

Soon after checking in on Sunday, I convinced my colleague Paula to go from the Hudson Hotel to Hudson Street for brunch at the Fatty Crab, where the menu builds on pork belly. I would return for the “belly & egg”—pork belly and a fried egg on a brioche triangle (and for another cocktail that [...]

In Mexico: One Plate at a Time, Rick Bayless tells us that hard squashes are prized for their seeds, which are used to thicken soups and sauces as well as provide protein. I’m thinking of my sister Kat, who is a vegetarian, with this recipe; I like to make dishes especially for her during this [...]

Do you ever find it difficult to describe the work you do to your family? In anticipation of the upcoming Tryptophantastic week, I offer this video (from Zachary Seward of the Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard) to explain my job, which on this particular October night included a Boston gathering to talk about the Knight [...]