Friday, August 31, 2012

Best of the Week #74


Guess what I’m doing this weekend? Leaving the city behind and going camping in West Virginia! Yes that’s right, Operation SpeedyKate and Mollie Conquer the Wilderness (shorter version: Operation Wild) will soon be under way. I’m super-psyched to leave the city for a whole three days!


But before I go, here’s a Best of the Week for you.

My most popular post this week was Pizzeria Orso and Thai Crossing. Because both restaurants were A-MAZING.

Mango Sticky Rice me NOW please.
Remember the Ryan Hall commercial from the Olympics? Well this person spent waaaayyy too much time thinking about it. "An Audiobook Marathon: How Far Does Ryan Hall Travel While Listening to the Unabridged Odyssey?"

  • In a recent commercial you've seen 115 times, American marathoner Ryan Hall listens to The Odyssey as he runs, all thanks to AT&T's impressively expansive 4G network.
  • The inevitable question: How many miles did Ryan Hall cover while listening to Homer’s epic poem?
  • If only the answer were that simple. A close reading reveals that Hall, not known in running circles for taking shortcuts, seems to have skipped some of the performance. When the commercial starts, the time on his phone is 8:07 a.m. When he begins listening to Moby Dick (a 21-hour audiobook in its own right), the phone reads 7:12pm. That means that Hall, if he never hit pause along the way, listened to 11:05:00 of The Odyssey. What happened to those missing 2 hours, 13 minutes, and 46 seconds? Given that the gap in the Watergate tapes ran just 18.5 minutes, this AT&T commercial leaves us to ponder whether Ryan Hall is seven times trickier than Nixon.
A little political violence for your Friday: “Democracy and Coups: Taking Civilian Control of the Military for Granted.”
  • Of course, the challenge is how to get from a to b: how to get from a weak democracy with a powerful military to a strong democracy with a military that holds a narrower conception of its own role in the society? Time, and hard work. Legitimacy and norms do not happen overnight, no matter how much international organizations like NATO try to inculcate civilian control of the military. Birthing these norms requires powerful individuals to be strong enough to decline power and to refrain from taking it.
This sauce was on everything in Costa Rica and we were mildly obsessed with it. Now I want to make it! Or just go back to Costa Rica



Thank you McSweeny’s -- this is hilarious and also makes me uncomfortable on multiple levels: “It’s Naked Time.” I’m sorry I’m not sorry.
  • You want to see what thirty-five minutes of elliptical machine a month can do to a man’s body? You’re about to.
I wish I had sweet moves like this kid.


I love coffee in all forms. “15 Healthy and Creative Ways to Get Your Caffeine Fix.”
  • 6. Balsamic Coffee Reduction -- This tasty glaze is an easy and delicious addition to any salad (and especially tomato and mozzarella based ones). Combine 1 cup of coffee, 1/3 cup of balsamic vinegar, a pinch of salt, and the zest of a lemon to a small saucepan and simmer over medium-low heat until the mixture thickens to coat the back of a spoon. Drizzle away!
10 Food Lover Problems.”
  • 2. When 24/7 fast food joints shutdown their ice cream machine because it’s nighttime. Milkshake or ice cream cravings are intense and passionate, so the only real way of halting such powerful desires is the actual consumption of one.
  • 7. Trying to distinguish the difference between sheer boredom and actual hunger. At times they can be indistinguishable, resulting in minor gluttony.

And that my friends is that. HAPPY LABOR DAY!