169 Comments

HAG can I get your Seattle sushi recommendations? (And if anyone else has food recommendations for Seattle, please let me know!)

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I love Japonessa Sushi Cocina, near Pike's Market, and one in Bellevue. It's very much a whitecollar after-work type of place, but it's exceptional quality fish and cocktails. Plus the guilty pleasure of tempura brie cheese.

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Thanks!

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Ahh...yes. Here they are. Along with some other good places we ate at.

Sushi Kashiba and Shiro's Sushi. I think they're both owned by the same guy. Kashiba is over near Pikes Place and Shiro's is about a mile away. Both are phenomenal. I did the Omakase at Kashiba but just ordered a la carte at Shiro's.

If you want to try Afghani food this place is good. Afghan Cuisine. It's out in Bellevue so E of downtown.

Two other places I have not eaten at yet but was suggested by the same person that suggested the sushi place are: Watson's Counter (Korean), Marination, and Joule. They are Asian Fusion I guess. Marination's menu looks really good. I'll probably try at least one or two of these places when I'm in Seatlle first week in Apr.

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Thank you!!! Flag Guy also likes Marination, so I may end up there with him, and I'll be in Bellevue on some of the days, so that's helpful too. Awesome!

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There was an Indian place. Let me check Google Timeline for the name of that one.

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Instanbul Kabab Halal Turkish Cuisine was one place. Also Moghl Palace Indian Cuisine. Both are over by Bellevue.

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But of the 3 in Bellevue if you're only going to go to one place I would recommend Afghan Cuisine.

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Gotcha, thanks!

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Feb 16, 2022·edited Feb 16, 2022

Diversity in hiring (and imposter syndrome)

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this was at the end of a job posting i saw recently .. i took at as a way to increase diversity in the candidate pool, but others commented that it helps people suffering from "Imposter syndrome" as well ...

Research shows that while men apply for jobs when they meet an average of 60% of the criteria, women and other marginalised groups tend to only apply when they check every box. So if you think you have what it takes, but don't meet every single point in our job ad, please still get in touch! We would love to have a chat and see if you could be a great addition to our team.

https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/2900758384/

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I've had the same job since graduation (coming up on 33 years), so have no idea what it's like applying for a job...

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I'm the kind of person who only applies if I can check every box. I've been doing it all wrong my entire life.

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We're short staffed enough to accept actual imposters at this point. Please don't make us beg.

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I think that's a great thing to add to a posting. I definitely only apply when I tick every box.

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I encourage people to apply if they have half the qualifications... those job descriptions are Utopian in nature and no one matches it perfectly

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Rap

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So I was working out on Sunday, listening to tunes, on random, as I am wont to do, and Public Enemy's "Harder than You Think" came up, and I was reminded how much I like the horns in that song. So I asked my son if he knew what song was sampled for that, he said I should just google it. I did (and this is the funny part) and as I was about to press play he said "I wonder if we'll be able to recognize it"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yY4_dRJMoGE

Yeah, it was pretty easy to hear it.

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p, Taylor (Asian-American & starting Free Safety for the LA Rams)

Earns a ring, gives a ring

https://twitter.com/RamsNFL/status/1493064289883590662

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What would he have done if they had lost?

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Most likely a private proposal at another time. Or maybe he'd propose to his second place lady instead?

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He'd propose to the girlfriend of one of the Bengals' players.

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Ohio women, the ultimate consolation prize.

*Looks around, prepares to duck and run*

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pqtm

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Olympics

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Kamila Valieva - the Russian figure skating phenom who had the positive test for Trimetazidine - also tested positive for hypoxen and L-carnatine in the same test. The latter two are not banned. Hypoxen is another heart medication and L-Carnatine is a common over-the-counter supplement. Kamila's mom said that Hypoxen is Kamila's for her heart because he has heart issues (a 15 year old, with a bad ticker... riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh). But all three have to do with oxygen efficiency.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/winter-olympics/russian-skater-had-other-heart-drugs-in-her-system-report/ar-AATTAKN

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I really like Swedens uniforms.

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They've always had a good look.

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This is quite surprising as well. I thought this might be the best of the quarterfinals, and wanted to see it. Sounds like the Canadians and the USA teams had some similar issues.

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Seems like hockey results can be kinda random.

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Except the women's game tonight is against the 2 best teams in the world. Though I guess having a team of younger non-NHL guys is different than a women's team that has experience playing together.

I hope losing their best player in the first few min of the first game doesn't hurt the US women. Going to try to remember to watch this game tonight.

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I would guess there are probably bigger talent gaps among the top women's teams than among the men's.

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I agree with this and the fact that single elimination games tend to give the edge to lesser talented teams.

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USA men's hockey entered the quarterfinals as the top seed, and got eliminated by 8 seed Slovakia in a shootout. Credit Slovakia for more aggressive play, however the USA team is going to receive considerable scrutiny for questionable strategy and tactics, on top of some surprisingly poor fundamentals fairly often. It looked like they assumed skating speed would solve all, and that was a serious miscalculation.

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I watched this game. They had lots of chances. Had a 5 on 3 PP for at least 90 seconds and didn't get many shots on net. Missed the net quite a few times. I think some of it has to do with the lack of playing time as a team.

Also their shootout attempts didn't look very good. But maybe I'm just comparing that to NHL players that are the best in the world.

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Their power plays were atrocious and the reason the team lost. Remember they also gave up a shortie to Canada. Mann was pretty good in goal.

Shootouts are often kinda ugly, which is why the team just sent specialist TJ Oshie at goal over and over again in 2014.

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Feb 16, 2022·edited Feb 16, 2022

poor fundamentals you say? Sounds like a typical US team hoping to skate by (pun intended) on talent alone

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More on speed than talent, as I consider stick/puck handling and shot placement at least partially talent, and what we saw last night was not on the level of at least top Junior or college hockey. LOTS of loss of puck control at inopportune times.

But your take generally is correct.

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Rim shot

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Swedish speedskater hates two things in this world - people who are intolerant of other people's culture...

https://slate.com/culture/2022/02/nils-van-der-poel-olympics-speedskating-sweden-jerk-watch.html

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Who is UC Berkeley's most famous FICTIONAL alumnus/alumna?

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I just learned this; imdb has a "locations" listing where it lists all filming locations. You have to expand on the "filming and production" to see the info.

For Made in America: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107478/locations?ref_=tt_ql_sm

For The Graduate (18 locations, including Telegraph Ave and Theta Delta Chi):

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061722/locations?ref_=tt_ql_sm

And here's everything where Berkeley is listed as a location;

https://www.imdb.com/search/title/?locations=Berkeley,%20California,%20USA&ref_=ttloc_loc_2

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I remember getting all giddy seeing places I recognized in Hulk (2003) where Nick Nolte goes ape shit.

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Feb 16, 2022·edited Feb 16, 2022

of the ones in this article, I'd go with Dr. Ian Malcolm of Jurassic Park, or, even better, Dr. Emmett Brown of Back to the Future.

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yup, I was thinking of Malcolm also. And CJ Cregg

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Hmm, I want to believe Doc Brown went to UC Berkeley but I find no evidence and the article doesnt have sources. A separate dailycal article that makes the same claim simply says "Robert Zemeckis said" but no reference to when he said that. I always assumed Cal Tech since Hill Valley is Southern California and the Doc was pretty rooted in his community, I'd see him staying close to home for school.

Maybe if someone updates the Dr. Emmet Brown wikipedia page to say so, then I'll believe it!

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speaking of wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_University_of_California,_Berkeley_alumni

In the Back to the Future trilogy, inventor of the Delorean time machine, Dr. Emmett Brown, attended Berkeley, stated by trilogy director Robert Zemeckis. In the original story line for Back to the Future 2, Biff would have gone to 1967 and George McFly would be teaching at Berkeley.[357]

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Wait a sec, is this also saying that Biff went to UC Berkeley?? Did he even graduate high school, after getting KO'ed by George for sexually assaulting Lorraine outside of the prom?

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The only major flaw in the original BTTF movie is why the hell George is still hiring the guy who tried to rape his wife to come over and wash his car.

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That's good enough for me!

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at this fan site: https://backtothefuture.fandom.com/wiki/Back_to_the_Future:_The_Game

someone apparently noticed "Berkeley Physics Department (Name on printout)" But this site is for the computer game, so it might not be canon.

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Feb 16, 2022·edited Feb 16, 2022

Dr. Cristina Yang is also a good one, but I never watched Grey's Anatomy.

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Sandy Cohen from the OC.

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Or CJ Cregg.

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The parents in the show 'Family Ties' with Justine Bateman and Michael J. Fox as the kids. The parents were 60's radicals.

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so we can blame them for Cal's failure to invest in athletics

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Yup

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Tangent (if only because a search for "fiction set in Berkeley" netted this): https://www.berkeleypubliclibrary.org/sites/default/files/files/inline/fiction_set_in_berkeleypdf2012.pdf

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Oski?

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Real

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Do fictional characters drink real water through their eyeholes? I REST MY CASE, YOUR HONOR.

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Ray Kinsella from Field of Dreams.

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Yes!

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Joe Takagi - world beating businessman who didn't negotiate with terrorists

https://www.linkedin.com/in/joseph-takagi-22499341/

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That's awesome they made a linked in page for him. Didn't know that.

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And father of 5

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Elaine Robinson, The Graduate. Mrs. Robinson’s daughter Elaine attends UC Berkeley. Fun fact, the exterior shots of the school are actually University of Southern California.

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My wife's high school (in La Verne) was right across from the church.

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Bonita HS?

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That's the one!

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@you mean the church that was in Wayne's World 2?@

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BOTH OF THEM

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Most exterior shots are USC. But I recall one of Ben walking through Sproul Plaza.

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It's clear he catches a bus and rides up Telegraph at one point. Either an actual bus shot or very good background footage of Telegraph.

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He also went to a frat right across from Unit 1 so that Unit 1 showed up in the background briefly. That was also where I watched the movie for the first time with other floormates my freshman year.

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If I recall correctly, he also takes the Bay Bridge in the direction of SF, when he is supposed to be driving from Berkeley directly to Southern California.. which might add a little to the drive time..

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Yeah I do remember he did this.

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Feb 16, 2022·edited Feb 16, 2022

I thought it showed him going in the wrong direction on the bridge.

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Feb 16, 2022Liked by BentPawn

I remember Made In America, Will Smith and Whoopi, was filmed at a shop on College and Ashby in Elmwood. And she rode her bike through campus.

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Oooh good memory. That was filmed over summer of 1992 I think. My (now) wife and I were walking through the alumni glade one evening after dark, cutting through one of the treeheavy side entries. We get to the main glade, and it's lit up by lights, cameras, etc.....Someone yells "STOP" really loudly and a couple big guys start coming towards us. We had somehow walked into them filming something. We quickly turned around and left. We heard later that Danson and Goldberg were filming on/around campus.

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I think a couple scenes with Lake Merritt as a backdrop if I remember.

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And the fraternity at the corner of Durant and College I think.

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Ah-hah. Haven't watched the movie in awhile....plastics

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Cooking tips

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Made that mistake once in Santa Cruz, we had "butcher block" counters which led 19yo me to think they could be used without a cutting board. I was... wrong

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Oh that reminds me, when my family was in England, my parents bought a ton of antiques - one of them was large dinner table, where the top of it was not fasten to the frame. There was the good side that you ate from, but the other side (back in the day) was used as the cutting board.

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Duh

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Use veggie scraps to make your own broth. Onion peels, the ends of zucchini/carrots/other veggies, greens that you'd otherwise discard--you can stick them in the freezer and boil them when you have amassed about a freezer bag's worth.

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we put the scraps in the compost, but that is a good idea

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Yeah, it depends on what kind of scraps you have and how much room you have in your freezer! Oh, parmesan rinds can be tossed in there too: https://www.tasteofhome.com/article/what-to-do-with-parmesan-rind/

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Yes! Save those chicken livers!

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Ruth Reichl has a great recipe for Faux Gras using chicken livers

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Warm eggs up to room temperature.

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I have finally figured out how to make pasta dough consistently and I credit that to using room temperature eggs (although figuring out where I can mixed my dough to minimize flour spillage has also streamlined the process).

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i like how in other parts of the world people just leave their eggs out on the counter. apparently that is not a thing in the US

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They're processed differently. In the US, the eggs are washed, which is why they can't be out of the fridge for too long (though, as SGBear says, it's fine to have them out for a bit to let them come to room temperature for recipes that benefit from that).

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We raise our own chickens and their eggs are safe to leave out, unrefrigerated for about a week or so.

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Be careful if its the heat of summer though. There's no downside to normal refrigeration either (just don't freeze them).

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Out of habit, we ended up refrigerating them after we collect them. Although we inadvertently froze some a couple weeks ago when we went a couple days without collecting them--temps were in the low teens and the eggs ended up freezing and cracking the shells.

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Time for some scrambled eggs!

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In Egypt street vendors leave a pile of eggs on the counter and fry them with fuul to make a breakfast wrap. Don't refrigerate them.

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You can safely leave a US grocery store egg out for a couple hours. But if you forget, - water is a great heat conductor. Just put them in a big bowl of tap-hot water for a few minutes. The small volume of eggs will quickly exchange heat with the large volume of hot water.

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presumably the ice bath to put eggs in after cooking obeys the same principle. but somehow i only ever have done the cool down, not warm up

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Same principle, but different chemistry. One is just a gentle energy exchange. The other is a rapid thermodynamic transfer that stops the cooking process, which has two major impacts. An overcooked hardboiled egg will have a greenish/grey outer hue to the yolk. Iron in your cooking water will combine with the sulfur in the yolk to create ferrous sulfide, which doesn't taste great. By shocking the egg, you can stop the chemical reaction in the egg from creating ferrous sulfide. The membrane on the outer shell of the boiled egg also shrinks and makes the egg easier to peel. If you want the egg to peel even easier, add a touch of vinegar and pinch of salt.

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Older eggs are also easier to peel than fresher eggs.

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dont combine garlic and onion in Italian food.

i am not ever sure this is true .. but i heard it somewhere so that is what i do

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I don't think that's true at all. Even one bit.

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Yeah, I feel like at least a couple times per week we start a recipe with garlic and onion cooking in a pan lined with olive oil. I think that's a staple for many italian foods.

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but onion and garlic together in food is one of life's greatest joys so... the Italians can suck it

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Similarly there is an Italian saying "salato come il mare" -- that when cooking pasta your water should be "as salty as the sea", which is completely untrue. The amount they use is orders of magnitude less than the salinity of typical ocean or sea water, let alone the Mediterranean. I get mad when I hear celebrity chefs reiterate this myth.

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the number of shibboleths in Italian cooking is incredible

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Feb 16, 2022Liked by Berkelium97

and yet they mostly boil down to "that's not how Nonna did it."

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqkaBEWPH18

Note: beginning of this clip includes CJ Craig (UC Berkeley, MS Political Science)

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Don't undercook chicken

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I once overhead someone next to me at a bar order a "turkey burger, and can I get that medium rare?". After he finished his meal and left, we asked the bar tender if that guy really got a medium rare turkey burger. Bartender just kind of shrugged and said he put in the order that way, and didnt seem to find it weird.

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i guess i won't be inviting you to dinner at Ippuku for their chicken tartar

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hot take there

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Undercooked take

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Our crumbling democracy

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Crazy Drunk Uncle Rudy claims to have thousands of pieces of evidence about the 2020 election. In his bedroom that he's had there for years.

https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1493784141875220484

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The front runner for Missouri senate seat is the ex-governor who had to resign as part of a deal to avoid prosecution. He is also barely ahead of the DEM front-runner. In Missouri, which is a deep red state.

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/02/16/missouri-senate-poll-alarms-gop-00009317

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Sounds like another Doug Jones opportunity to me

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I have trouble reconciling Missouri as a deep red state. For some reason I believe it should be more purple than red but it is truly a deep red state.

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I recommend the radical history of St. Louis by Walter Johnson, “The Broken Heart of America.”

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nope, they're hillbillies

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SF school board members voted out in a landslide

https://www.sfgate.com/elections/article/live-results-for-SF-special-election-school-board-16920236.php

In principle, I don't really care for recall elections that happen so close to a regular election (there was going to be one in November), but since it made the ballot anyway I'm not shocked at the result. This board was wildly incompetent and dysfunctional.

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I'm wary about politically driven recalls. But embarrassment driven recalls are completely defensible.

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I have never ever voted yes in a recall before but I certainly did in this one (but for only 2 of the three members).

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If I still lived in SF I probably would have voted the same (yes on Collins/Lopez, no on Moliga).

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That's what I did.

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Jan. 6 panel seeks phone records of security official employed by Alex Jones

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/02/15/alex-jones-security-official-phone-00009330

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Today in COVID

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cf-98 brought home some kind of cold and it is wearing me out. No cough, no aches, just congestion. I can't remember the last time I was this congested. I had a couple meeting this morning and I could tell I was sounding goofy from all the congestion. Fortunately it's not covid.

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Glad its not Covid!

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DBD AV

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Over the weekend, I found myself binging all 8 episodes of In from the Cold on Netflix. It billed itself as a classic story of an ex-Soviet spy who now is a single mother but got pulled back into the spy game while taking her daughter to a figure skating competition in Madrid....just when you think the show is unrealistic for having no Asians on the US Figure Skating team, the entire plot just goes bananas (in mostly a good way).

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DBD Kitchen

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Gratin of cauliflower, tomatoes, red onions & yellow bell peppers served over rice pilaf - half bottle of surprisingly good C-n-P.

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I've posted this easy-to-make (and not heart-healthy) recipe before:

Homemade pasta alfredo

1 lb pasta (preferably fettuccine, but spaghetti will do in a pinch)

1 stick unsalted butter

1 cup heavy cream

1 cup parmesan cheese (preferably shredded, not grated)

Salt & pepper to taste

Cook pasta according to package directions. The sauce does not take long to make, so I recommend waiting to start the sauce until the pasta is in the boiling water. Melt butter over medium-low heat. Once melted, add cream and cheese. Stir constantly until cheese is melted and sauce is smooth. Season with salt and pepper. Pour sauce over cooked pasta and stir to coat.

For garlic alfredo: chop as much garlic as you like and lightly cook it in the melted butter before adding the cream and cheese.

For Cajun alfredo: substitute your favorite Cajun seasoning for salt and pepper.

For shrimp alfredo: cook the shrimp in the butter (or ahead of time) before adding the cream and cheese.

For chicken alfredo: add cooked chicken breast with the cream and cheese.

Enjoy!

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weeknight staple - cold soba noodles, Japanese soft boiled eggs, and some broiled fish collar.

paired w/ a chilled can of Sapporo. no dessert.

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Other College

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Oh. Different Cam

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Yeah, this one had 2 starts.

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What?!?!?! He still has eligibility?

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Cugel'd

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Well, I didn't even click on the link.

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apparently this one did!

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High School

Bay Area High School Sports are officially back. Proud to have been in attendance for this. Two hated rivals brought together by....Miley Cyrus. Good times.

https://twitter.com/KasselMedia/status/1493812122446286850

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Cal

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Anyone want tix for either of the hoops games this weekend?

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Go Bears!!!

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Pro

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Q.Ron Rodgers and his fiancée have split, per People Magazine and some other scabby rag that is found next to the Enquirer in grocery store checkout aisles.

https://twitter.com/BuzzFeed/status/1494036226764124160

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Q.Ron hasn't washed his hair since 2021.

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Sean McVay's early-retirement talk could become a common theme in NFL's new age of thinking

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/sean-mcvays-early-retirement-talk-could-become-a-common-theme-in-nfls-new-age-of-thinking/

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I think the Rams are still a contender next year, but how they mortgage their future for this Super Bowl probably will mean some tough years ahead. I can see McVay not wanting to stay for that.

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LAZY MILLENNIALS

Seriously, though, he knows first-hand what it does to one's family. And owners often mistake quantity of time for quality of time.

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FIRE

Financial Independence, Retire Early (FIRE) is a financial movement defined by frugality and extreme savings and investment. By saving up to 70% of their annual income, FIRE retirement proponents aim to retire early and live off small withdrawals from their accumulated funds.

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I am most definitely on the FIRE track. Should be able to escape the hell that is practicing in American healthcare by age 50.

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Contrary to the way some people act, money isn't everything.

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Well it is but he certainly has enough money to retire early, not work another day in his life and still be wealthy.

I doubt he retires but even if he did, he could easily get a TV job or announcing job.

Maybe he wants to be the next John Madden.

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