The Queen of Creole Cooking

An excerpt from The New Yorker -

New Orleans’s Queen of Creole Cooking, at Ninety-Three
BY BRETT ANDERSON

The New Orleans chef Leah Chase will in May become
the first African-American to receive the James Beard Foundation’s lifetime achievement award.

The ninety-three-year-old New Orleans chef Leah Chase arrived at Dooky Chase, her historic Creole restaurant, at 7:30 A.M. on Holy Thursday. Lent was over for the city’s Catholics, but the day is nonetheless a solemn occasion, marked by foot-washing ceremonies and the Mass of the Lord’s Supper. In New Orleans, Holy Thursday is also synonymous with going to Dooky’s for gumbo z’herbes, a rare form of New Orleans’s ubiquitous dish.

An hour before the 11 A.M. service, the first of three sold-out turns on the restaurant’s busiest day of the year, Chase was holding a knife over a steaming pile of smoked ham hocks. In her tenth decade, she requires the aid of a walker or a cane. Her fingers no longer travel in a straight line from knuckle-to-nail, but her hands remain nimble, and she can still be found in Dooky’s kitchen most days. Next month, she’ll become the first African-American to receive the James Beard Foundation’s lifetime-achievement award. (The Times was marvelling at her fortitude back in 1990, when she was just sixty-seven.) She pulled meat from the bones and chopped. “See how tender they are?” she said, extending a morsel of rosy pork. A local television cameraman, who was capturing the kitchen’s progress, asked Chase’s grandson, Edgar “Dooky” Chase IV, to name his favorite dish. His grandmother answered for him: “Gumbo.”

http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/new-orleanss-queen-of-creole-cooking-at-ninety-three?mbid=nl_TNY%20Template%20-%20With%20Photo%20(29)&CNDID=27124505&spMailingID=8790175&spUserID=MTE0MzE0NDEyNDUyS0&spJobID=901616882&spReportId=OTAxNjE2ODgyS0

A Letter From Daughter-in-Law to Mother-in-Law

From Upworthy - 

You always stole my thunder. You gave them everything they wanted. You never said no when they asked for anything.

A second helping of dessert. Candy before dinner. A few more minutes in the bath. Money for the ice cream truck.

I struggled to show you respect and appreciation while trying to make sure you didn’t spoil my children. I thought you would turn them into “selfish brats” by giving them everything they wanted. I thought they might never learn to wait, to take turns, to share, because you granted their wishes as soon as they opened their mouths and pointed.

You held each one of my babies long after they fell asleep. Didn’t you understand that I needed them to learn to fall asleep on their own?

You ran to them as soon as they made the tiniest sound. How would they ever learn to self-soothe?

I resented you for buying the best and most expensive gifts on their birthdays and on Christmas. How could I possibly compete with you?

And how they loved afternoons spent with you. You made their favorite things for dinner — three different meals for three different boys. And you always had a little surprise. A present, candy, or a special treat. I didn’t want them to associate you with gifts and sweets. I thought they should love you for you. I tried to tell you this, but you wouldn’t listen. 

I spent a lot of time wondering why you did all these things and how I could get you to ease up. I know grandmothers are supposed to “spoil the kids” then send them home, but you were ... ridiculous.

Until you were gone.

I had to hold my boys and tell them that their grandma died. It didn’t seem possible — you were supposed to be there for all the other special moments: proms, graduations, weddings. But they lost their grandma too soon and too suddenly. They were not ready to say goodbye.

And how they loved afternoons spent with you. You made their favorite things for dinner — three different meals for three different boys. And you always had a little surprise. A present, candy, or a special treat. I didn’t want them to associate you with gifts and sweets. I thought they should love you for you. I tried to tell you this, but you wouldn’t listen. 

I spent a lot of time wondering why you did all these things and how I could get you to ease up. I know grandmothers are supposed to “spoil the kids” then send them home, but you were ... ridiculous.

My kids, now in their teens, miss you dearly. And they don’t miss your gifts or your money. They miss you.

They miss running to greet you at the door and hugging you before you could step in. They miss looking up at the bleachers and seeing you, one of their biggest fans, smiling and enthralled to catch their eye. They miss talking to you and hearing your words of wisdom, encouragement and love.

If I could speak to you one more time, I would tell you that every time a precious moment steals my heart, every time I watch them arrive at a new milestone, and every time they amaze me with their perseverance, talents, or triumphs, I think of you. And I wish that they could have you back.

Come back and love them one last time, like no one else in the world but a grandmother could. Bring your sweets and surprises. Reward them with gifts for the smallest accomplishments. Painstakingly prepare their favorite meals. Take them anywhere they want to go. All and only because you love them.

Come back and see how much they’ve grown. Watch each boy becoming his own version of a young man. Be in awe with me as we admire how family, friendship, time, and love helped them grow so beautifully over the years.

The more I long for you to come back, though, the more I realize that in a way, you never left.

I understand now. I know you loved them in every way you could. I know that being their grandma gave you joy and purpose. And of course I know that you can’t come back, but I do know that your love for them will always remain. Your love built them and sheltered them in ways that cannot be described. Your love is a big part of who they are and what they will become as they grow. For this, and for every treat and gift, and every time you held them too long or consoled them too much or let them stay up too late, I will always thank you.

And I will wish a million times that you could do it all again.

http://www.upworthy.com/a-letter-to-my-mother-in-law-about-my-3-boys?c=upw1

How a TV Show Gets Made

Thin underwater cables hold the internet. See a map of them all.

Confirmation: Trailer (HBO Films)

No Mess Science Experiments for Kids

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/piiig-labs-science-experiments/id735909511?mt=8

Designed for kids 5-9

Free Today!

As see on https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/apps-gone-free-best-daily/id470693788?mt=8

New York Prison Set To Instill Ivy League Classes

Who Dies?

Excerpts from Variety -

‘Anyone Can Die?’ TV’s Recent Death Toll Says Otherwise

Women of color, men of color, LGBTQ characters and white female characters have been killed off left and right. None of that’s new for TV, but the sheer volume of these deaths — a number of which were shocking for the wrong reasons — has been notable. When considered as a whole, it’s difficult for the suspicion that these characters are expendable not to harden into belief.

A lot of shows pride themselves on the idea that “anyone can die,” but is that actually true?

It doesn’t feel true when a large number of LGBTQ characters die in a matter of weeks.

It doesn’t feel true when a network TV drama, “Sleepy Hollow,” kills off its African-American female lead in order to provide motivation for the show’s white, male lead — whose lifespan, its worth noting, now stretches more than 200 years and counting. (There are reports that actress Nicole Beharie wanted to leave the show, which is understandable, given how poorly the show’s narrative and character development has been handled since early in season two.)

It doesn’t feel true when, in recent months and years, I can think of dozens of gay, female and non-white character deaths that were used to prod growth or vengeance in white, straight or male characters — but I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve seen that dynamic play out in reverse.

~~~~~~~~~~

Who does die? This year, dozens of lesbians and bisexual women have died on various shows, among them “The Vampire Diaries,” “The Walking Dead,” “Empire,” “The Shannara Chronicles,” “The Magicians” and “The 100” (which also recently killed a character played by a black male series regular). In the last two weeks, notable women died on “Hap and Leonard,” “Vikings,” “Arrow” and “Sleepy Hollow.”

~~~~~~~~~~

But the real problem is this: who’s telling the stories. Just as certain kinds of characters appear to be protected, TV’s creative leadership tiers are dominated by certain kinds of people. Who wants to take a bet on whether these two issues are linked?

http://variety.com/2016/tv/opinion/tv-deaths-walking-dead-the-100-arrow-1201751968/

Ice Cube & Common - "Real People" | Barbershop: The Next Cut

750 feet Sand Marble Race (with commentary)

www.IamMBK.org | Proud To Present | 60 Spot

A Brief History of America and Cuba

Vindicated

An excerpt from Rolling Stone -

In 1991, 35-year-old Oklahoma State University law professor Anita Hill was called before Congress to testify about the behavior of Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas, her former boss at the Office for Civil Rights and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Hill was subpoenaed by the Senate Judiciary Committee to share allegations that Thomas sexually harassed her on the job at the EEOC — the federal agency that handles workplace sexual harassment claims, among other things. For coming forward, Hill was demonized by conservatives, who called her a liar and delusional for thinking Thomas could be interested in her. Their attacks on Hill's character worked; by the end of the hearings, nearly three-quarters of the public believed she lied about Thomas. It was only in the ensuing years that a steady stream of books, interviews and articles emerged to bolster Hill's version of events, and discredit Thomas'.

Add to that list Confirmation, a film airing April 16th on HBO, starring Kerry Washington as Hill, Wendell Pierce as Thomas and Greg Kinnear as then Judiciary Committee chair Joe Biden. Hill recently spoke to Rolling Stone about reliving her experience with the hearings via conversations with Washington and screenwriter Susannah Grant; the film's portrayal of Biden, who refused to call witnesses who would've supported Hill's claims; and all the ways America still fails victims of sexual harassment and abuse.

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/anita-hill-on-confirmation-joe-bidens-legacy-and-bill-cosby-20160411#ixzz45a4uDn5b
Follow us: @rollingstone on Twitter | RollingStone on Facebook

Smart Hiring

An excerpt from The Atlantic - 

The Science of Smart Hiring

Finding great new workers is hard. A little bit of empiricism can help.

Hiring is hard. General managers know it. Startup founders know it. School principals and casting directors know it. But for readers who are none of those things, consider America’s most public hiring processes—aside from presidential elections, perhaps—which are sports drafts.

Every year, millions of Americans watch professional talent evaluators try to predict who will be the best future athletes in the NBA and NFL Drafts. Again and again, audiences get valuable lessons in the inability of experts to divine future talent. Scouts aren’t dumb. Overall, the first pick tends to be better than the tenth pick, and he tends to be better than 100th pick. But years after the draft, at least one squad almost always looks foolish. For every top five team that can’t believe it picked a Darko Milicic or Ryan Leaf, there is a top five team that can’t believe it missed a Stephen Curry or Tom Brady.

Hiring is hard for the same reason that dating is hard: Both sides are in the dark. "The fundamental economic problem in hiring is one of matching with costly search and bilateral asymmetric information,” Paul Oyer and Scott Schaefer write in "Personnel Economics.” In English, that means hiring is expensive, time-consuming, and inherently uncertain, because the hirer doesn't know what workers are the right fit, and the worker don’t know what hirers are the right fit.

http://www.theatlantic.com/author/derek-thompson/

He Was Just Hungry

From The Root -

DC Police Looking for Man Who Broke Into Five Guys Restaurant and Cooked Meal

The unidentified suspect was caught on camera making himself food while the restaurant was closed between 3:10 a.m. and 5:05 a.m. March 18.

http://www.theroot.com/articles/news/2016/04/d_c_police_looking_for_man_who_broke_into_five_guys_and_cooks_meal.html?wpisrc=newsletter_jcr:content%26

Forget the Nerd

#YesImARocketScientist: Graduating Aerospace Engineer Tiffany Davis Breaks the Internet

http://www.theroot.com/blogs/the_grapevine/2016/04/_yesimarocketscientist_aerospace_engineer_tiffany_davis_breaks_the_internet.html?wpisrc=newsletter_jcr:content%26

Adele - Hello (Mormon Missionary Parody)

Sugar Divides the Races

An excerpt from The Charlotte Observer -

Why does sugar in cornbread divide races in the South?

If you stop by La’Wan’s Soul Food Restaurant in south Charlotte for collards and macaroni & cheese, there’s something important on your plate.

It’s a small cornbread muffin. Soft and tender, almost cake-like, with a bit of chewiness to the crust and a flavor that’s just a little sweet.

Now drive over to Lupie’s Cafe on Monroe Road and you’ll get a big square of cornbread, 3 inches across, white with a yellow tinge. Firm, almost coarse, with a crisp top.

Sweet? Not a bit. It’s defiantly not sweet.

La’Wan’s corn muffin and Lupie’s cornbread are humble things. But they represent something deeper: The dividing line between black Southerners and white ones. As examples of one of the defining staples of Southern food, they also are a marker of food history that speaks volumes about origins and identity, about family and what we hold dear.

It also raises a question: So many Southern food traditions are shared by both races. Most Southerners, black and white, revere fried chicken, pursue pork barbecue and exalt their grandmothers’ garden vegetables. So why is there such a fundamental difference between two styles of one basic bread?

Culinary historians have debated this one for years: Did the descendants of slave cooks who were exposed to British baking styles come to value cornbread that was lighter and softer? Did the children of farm-based white Southerners get used to unsweetened cornbread that tasted more emphatically like corn? Whatever caused it, the line is drawn.


Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/living/food-drink/article68763427.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/living/food-drink/article68763427.html#storylink=cpy

Apple TV – Father Time

This Dog Can Teach Kids About Going to Bed Without Complaining

How to Write Descriptively

5 Steps to Make Your Own Political Art

This Shirt Cost $460!

An excerpt from The New York Times - 

Luka Sabbat, the 18-Year-Old Fashion Influencer

Advertisers envy his social media skills. Tom Ford provided him with a

prom suit. “He’s the cool kid at the party we all want to be,” an admirer says.

Who is Luka? The question, which also happens to be his Twitter handle (@whoisluka), is unlikely to go unanswered for long. Among his roughly 184,000 Instagram and 64,000 Twitter followers, the 18-year-old New Yorker has already established himself as the coolest teenager on the Internet.

That is what Complex magazine termed him last year soon after he appeared out of nowhere — or, anyway, from that singular cohort of New Yorkers who line up on any given Thursday outside Supreme — to become a social media phenomenon.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/08/fashion/mens-style/luka-sabbat-fashion-influencer.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=second-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0

Maybe He Needs a Kindle

Is it time to retire the police sketch?

It's not you. Claw machines are rigged.

Love Therapy for Priests

An excerpt from Vox -

I’ve spent 30 years counseling priests who fall in love. Here’s what I learned.

by Paul Midden on April 7, 2016

How priests find themselves falling in love

It is true that some priests "fall in love" the way most of us think about that: They meet someone to whom they are drawn; they get to know them; they get physical; they get sexual.

In the normal (i.e., noncelibate) world, this is usually a happy series of events. In the celibate world, it may be happy but constrained — by the watchful eyes of parishioners and superiors, by public expectation, by personal feelings of guilt, by the lack of a clear path toward commitment.

If this experience leads to a decision to leave the priesthood and marry, as it often does, there is no psychological problem. It is simply a life choice: a difficult one, to be sure, but not unlike decisions incumbent upon all of us.

More common is the case of Father D., a successful priest and administrator who finally revealed ongoing involvements with two women that lasted for more than a decade. The push to disclose came when he told Woman No. 1 about Woman No. 2. He was shocked at her (understandably) angry reaction.

That shock enabled him to tell the story of how he got involved, what was going on with him at the time, and how he allowed it to persist even as his career was blossoming and exposure became more threatening. This allowed Father D. to develop a more realistic approach to whatever intimacy needs he had while remaining within the bounds of a celibate priesthood if he so chose.

This is more typical of what is seen in treatment centers: men who yield to their passions but are unable or unwilling to leave the priesthood they love and on which they depend. Up to the moment it becomes known, it is a balancing act between the priesthood and a relationship, or series of relationships, which they come to believe they cannot live without. Is there love involved? Sometimes. But mostly it's a matter of juggling two incompatible things.

http://www.vox.com/2016/4/7/11325336/priests-love-therapy

Confessions of an Airport Thief

http://www.cnn.com/2016/04/07/us/airport-theft-investigation/index.html

Not Just Because I'm One

From Lifehack -

10 Reasons to Respect Our Elders

They have lived longer than us

Well this we know, obviously. But when we truly stop to think about it and walk just a little way in their shoes, it commands respect. Life is hard! Have patience and consideration for the time they have spent on this earth.

They might know more than you think

If you haven’t already found things to talk to your grandparents, or your neighbour about, ask them questions. Respect the worlds they lived through, the parts of history they survived. They have a lifetime of knowledge.

They have experienced different things than us

The world was a different place ‘back in the day’. Evolution is happening fast, and we all know that different kinds of experience means different kinds of wisdom. Compare your differences, consult them, consider them. You might learn something you never could have learned from your own world.

They see the world in a different way

Through the experiences of their own lives and through the time they have spent on this earth, they will see the world from their own perspective. They might assign themselves differently to the way they walk and talk and dress. Take note. It might just broaden your horizons.

They have walked a mile in your shoes

The advantage anybody older than yourself has, is that they have lived at the age that you have before. Although every situation is different, they do know what it is like to be where you are, or at least, at the age you are at. Unfortunately you cannot say the same about them, so have respect and listen to what they have to say.

They are more travel weary

Who knows what countries they have trailed though, what mountains they have climbed to get where they are! They might be tired – offer them a seat!

They have experience we can only dream of

The world is a different place now. The world they lived in will also never exist again as it once did. We will never know what it was like then, before things changed and became now. We can only dream of what it was like to dance in the disco era, or experience war. They lived it. Show respect for the history they have survived.

They will have stories that can benefit us

Everybody has a story to tell. Everyone. These are the stories of our lives, the tales of us. Don’t just roll your eyes when your grandma or grandpa tells you ‘again’ about the good old days … relish in a story that might influence your own.

They are still learning from us too

As we are alive, we are all still learning. They might be older, but they are learning too. Have patience.

They are our family

Your grandparents choices in life resulted in YOU! Be grateful. Look after each other. Love is the answer.

“R.E.S.PE.C.T” – Aretha Franklin, mother and grandmother. 

http://www.lifehack.org/382748/10-reasons-respect-our-elders?mtype=daily_newsletter&mid=20160407_customized&uid=789627&email=fayesharpe%40gmail.com&action=click&ref=mail

This Would Drive Me Batty!

From Atlas Obscura - 

The Asymmetrical Charm of Crooked

 Houses

They're like regular buildings, but with a twist.

http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-asymmetrical-charm-of-crooked-houses?utm_source=

Atlas+Obscura&utm_campaign=506aaf645c-Newsletter_4_7_20164_6_2016&utm_medium

=email&utm_term=0_62ba9246c0-506aaf645c-59905913&ct=

t(Newsletter_4_7_20164_6_2016)&mc_cid=

506aaf645c&mc_eid=866176a63f

This is Living!

The distinguished African-American gentleman featured in these two promos below is a friend and former colleague.  He is, hands down, one of the classiest people I've had the pleasure of knowing.

May I introduce to some and reacquaint to others, Mr. Louis Morton.

Black Girls Rock Indeed

From The New York Times - 

Long Island High School Student Sweeps All Eight Ivies

Augusta Uwamanzu-Nna is the daughter of Nigerian immigrants.

As a Long Island high school student checked her phone for the results of her college admissions applications, she was overcome by disbelief.

One by one, each relayed the same news: Harvard. Yes. Dartmouth. Yes. Princeton. Yes. The University of Pennsylvania. Yes. Cornell, Yale, Columbia, Brown: yes, yes, yes, yes.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/07/nyregion/long-island-high-school-students-sweeps-ivy-league-universities.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=Trending&region=CColumn&_r=0

Watch This!

Although I don't necessarily agree that the Chris Darden character was the highlight of this series, it was nonetheless one of the best shows I've ever seen.

If you haven't seen it, do yourself a favor and watch it.  

I know.  

I know.

You're thinking, you watched it live while it was happening twenty plus years ago.  I was too, but what the writers have done is take you behind the scene to see all of the planning and strategizing that went into every decision, and how those decisions played out on live TV on a national stage.

It is a riveting drama.

~~~~~~~~~~

An excerpt from Slate - 

What Made The People v. O.J. Simpson Trailblazing? Sterling K. Brown’s Chris Darden.

And yet now that the final episode of the Ryan Murphy–helmed saga has aired, The People v. O.J. stands to become one of the most fascinating, powerful, and illuminating depictions of the black American experience TV has ever seen. The series re-examines and dramatizes the now-legendary divide between blacks and whites on the subject of O.J.’s innocence, as well as Johnnie Cochran's indictment of the Los Angeles Police Department as a cabal of racists. But more specifically and most importantly, the show serves as a smart, hard-hitting deconstruction of what it’s like to be “the only one,” the sole person of color in a room of mostly privileged white people and under the most extreme of circumstances.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2016/04/06/sterling_k_brown_as_chris_darden_is_the_best_part_of_the_people_v_o_j_video.html?sid=554654ea10defb39638b510d&wpsrc=newsletter_tis

The Panama Papers, Explained With Piggy Banks

http://www.vox.com/2016/4/4/11361780/the-panama-papers-cartoon

15 Binder Clip Life Hacks

H/T Forrest

A Panther Review

An excerpt from Vox - 

Black Panther by Ta-Nehisi Coates and Brian Stelfreeze is brilliant, political, and human

The new Black Panther comic book series, written by Ta-Nehisi Coates and drawn by Brian Stelfreeze, is the most anticipated comic debut of the past decade. And let's get one thing squared away up front: It's excellent.

Coates and Stelfreeze have created a pocket in the ever-expanding Marvel comic universe that's daring and wondrous, but also organic and natural — a place and a comic that feels crucial and important to the company's legacy.

~~~~~~~~~~

Ultimately, Stelfreeze and Coates have woven a story that Black Panther deserves, and one that pushes his and Wakanda's preestablished narrative into brave new territory. This is a story about a man of his people, and unlike many Black Panther stories of the past, it does justice to and makes us care about those he's pledged to serve and protect. It's a brilliant start to one of Marvel's most promising new series, and like the hero whose story it tells, it's poised to defy its already grand expectations.

http://www.vox.com/2016/4/5/11362636/black-panther-tanehisi-coates-review

This Judge Lays Down the Law

It's a Small World

From Atlas Obscura - 

Look at the Tiny Tourists and Bite Size Burglars of Japan's Mini World

Tobu World Square has 102 little landmarks and 140,000 mini people.

By Thomas Beecher 

http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/look-at-the-tiny-tourists-and-bite-size-burglars-of-japans-mini-world?utm_source=Atlas+Obscura&utm_campaign=35e309cbdc-Newsletter_4_5_20164_4_2016&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_62ba9246c0-35e309cbdc-59905913&ct=t(Newsletter_4_5_20164_4_2016)&mc_cid=35e309cbdc&mc_eid=866176a63f

Puppy Love

She Speaks

From Vulture -

If You Think Beyoncé’s ‘Formation’ Is Anti-Police, She Has a Few Truth Bombs for You

By Dee Lockett

In the wake of Beyoncé's conversation-causing "Formation" drop and Black Panther–evoking Super Bowl halftime performance, many a misguided police union threatened to boycott her upcoming Formation World Tour, calling the song, video, and her entire being anti-police. Some even attempted to stage an anti-Beyoncé protest, but we all know how that went. In Beyoncé's new interview with Elle — her first time speaking actual words to the media in years — she's sounding off on the message behind the video that some so clearly seemed to have missed. In an excerpt from the digital issue, she clarifies that she's not anti-police and anyone who thought otherwise after watching the overwhelmingly pro-black "Formation" is letting their racism show:

"I mean, I'm an artist and I think the most powerful art is usually misunderstood. But anyone who perceives my message as anti-police is completely mistaken. I have so much admiration and respect for officers and the families of the officers who sacrifice themselves to keeps us safe. But let's be clear: I am against police brutality and injustice. Those are two separate things. If celebrating my roots and culture during Black History Month made anyone uncomfortable, those feelings were there long before a video and long before me. I'm proud of what we created and I'm proud to be part of a conversation that is pushing things forward in a positive way."

Carry on.

http://www.vulture.com/2016/04/beyonce-formation-isnt-anti-police-duh.html

One of My Favorites

Without a doubt, one of my favorite books is Bridges Are to Cross by Philemon Sturges, Illustrated by Giles Laroche.

It features bridges all over the world.

I used to read to my students during their lunch break, and this is one of the books that was in heavy rotation.

Each time I read it, I challenged them to explore the world and cross each bridge.

Whatcha Reading?

An excerpt from The New York Times Book Review - 

Lin-Manuel Miranda: By the Book

The star and creator of the musical “Hamilton” says “Things Fall Apart” was his favorite book to teach at Hunter College High School: “The kids walk out of the classroom as different people.”

What books are currently on your nightstand?

“The Wayfinders,” by Wade Davis; “Between Riverside and Crazy,” by Stephen Adly Guirgis; and “Unabrow,” by Una LaMarche.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/10/books/review/lin-manuel-miranda-by-the-book.html?hpw&rref=books&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well

7 Egg Life Hacks

Shopping for a Mattress?

Check out these sites.

https://casper.com/mattresses

https://lull.com/#slide-5

~~~~~~~~~~

To make sure it fits, check out this floor plan app, that creates a floor plan of your home.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/magicplan/id427424432?mt=8

~~~~~~~~~~

As seen in USA Today

http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2016/04/03/these-apps-can-help-you-survive-moving-mayhem/82222352/

An Epic Mural

LOOKING OUT FROM Mokattam Mountain towards the Cairo, Egypt neighborhood of Manshiyat Naser, you’ll notice something beautiful. There, in the center of the neighborhood often referred to as Garbage City (named so for its trash-lined streets) is a painted mural that spans more than 50 buildings. From any other perspective, the swirl of orange, blue and white is beautiful but illegible. But from this mountainside, a quote from a 3rd century Coptic Bishop clearly reads in arabic calligraphy: “Anyone who wants to see the sunlight clearly needs to wipe his eye first.”

~~~~~~~~~~

To see how this mural came to be, check out the other photos in the slideshow at the link below.


http://www.wired.com/2016/04/epic-mural-spanning-50-buildings-fully-visible-one-spot/?mbid=nl_4416#slide-1

Ta-Nehisi Coates on Writing Marvel's Black Panther

Heartbreaking Sacrifices

An excerpt from The New Yorker -

The Cost of Caring

The lives of the immigrant women who tend to the needs of others.

BY RACHEL AVIV

Emma moved from the Philippines to new york to make a living as a nanny for other people's children - and hasn't seen her own in sixteen years.

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/04/11/the-sacrifices-of-an-immigrant-caregiver?mbid=nl_160404_Daily&CNDID=27124505&spMailingID=8745510&spUserID=MTE0MzE0NDEyNDUyS0&spJobID=900396394&spReportId=OTAwMzk2Mzk0S0

Cloud Seeding

Rain in the UAE takes on an almost mystical status.  It is seen as a gift from God.

As I've mentioned before, the typical annual rainfall is four days.  To combat this lack of rain, cloud seeding has become popular and is used often to generate rain systems.

This video is long at 30 minutes, but it reveals some interesting information about the landscape and the cloud seeding phenomenon.

The UAE is one of the first countries of the Arabian Gulf region that have use the cloud seeding technology, which adopted the latest technologies available on a global level, using sophisticated weather radar, to monitor the atmosphere of the country around the clock, In addition to the use of a private airplane supplied by special salt flares, has been manufactured to fit with the nature of the physical and chemical properties of the  clouds that form in the UAE, these clouds have been studied previously in the past years before starting to carry out cloud seeding in the country and have classified these clouds and identify the appropriate, this study found that the best seeding for clouds form in the summer over the eastern and southwestern regions.

Cloud Seeding Applications section is specialized in the following: 

• Planning cloud seeding operations and set its time schedule in accordance to weather and climate studies of different regions in the country in different seasons.
• Take the necessary measures to carry out cloud seeding operations such as the preparation of airplanes with its necessary flares in addition to obtaining clearance for airplanes operations mission.
• Study the outputs of cloud seeding operations and in view of that prepare the necessary reports.
• Follow-up results of cloud seeding projects in other countries through climate change to benefit in enhancing the efficiency of cloud seeding operations in the country.
• Offer meteorological services.
• Secure aeronautical and maritime navigation.
• Study environmental pollution.
• Participate in the field of agriculture.
• Projects planning for urban and city.
• Play a major role in warning of anticipated natural disasters.

http://www.ncms.ae/en/details.html?id=825&lid=1500

Mom Helping Out

I'll bet Ben & Frankie never consider this.

~~~~~~~~~~

From GQ - 

This Is What Happened When My Mom Ran My Tinder for a Month  

BY CLAY SKIPPER

I’m 26, single, and four years removed from anything resembling a serious relationship. So I did what any solo twenty-something guy would do: I installed Tinder on my mom’s phone and asked her to find me a date. As me.

https://www.gq.com/story/my-mom-ran-my-tinder?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Vox%20Sentences%204/1/16&utm_term=Vox%20Newsletter%20All

The Concrete Cowboys of Philadelphia

The Truth About Your Chinese Takeout Box

A Lesson Worth Learning

From The New Yorker -

The History of Aretha, in Ten Videos

BY DAVID REMNICK

http://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/the-history-of-aretha-in-ten-videos?mbid=nl_160331_Daily&CNDID=27124505&spMailingID=8733455&spUserID=MTE0MzE0NDEyNDUyS0&spJobID=883536733&spReportId=ODgzNTM2NzMzS0