PicoBlog

I am a simple woman. I enjoy long walks, sunrises, putting my pants on one leg at a time, and reading missed connections ads to reignite my faith in humanity. I open craigslist’s endearingly outdated hellscape of a landing page on a daily basis and navigate my way to my city’s missed connections. The links I have already clicked on are purple, new posts are blue:  “Black Leather Skirt Hobby Store”, “beautiful blonde at dollar store 8/20”, “Thank you for the ride on Monday”.

A note to Fight Freaks Unite readers: I created Fight Freaks Unite in January 2021 and eight months later it also became available for paid subscriptions for additional content — and as a way to help keep this newsletter going and for readers to support independent journalism. If you haven’t upgraded to a paid subscription please consider it. If you have already, I truly appreciate it! Also, consider a gift subscription for the Fight Freak in your life.

I’ve previously written about the science of cat coat color from the angle of the color point gene mutation. Today I want to talk about it from the behavior side. Anyone who has owned or known an orange cat knows they’re a bit… different than other cats. Many people consider them friendlier and more affectionate, and more than a few report they tend to be wilder and more playful. Here are just a few quotes from a Reddit thread on the subject:

We’re rapidly approaching mid-January. The time when a lot of our sparkling new year resolve from a mere two weeks ago may have dissolved into the thin arctic winter air by now. I’ve been down for the count, recovering from surgery that will ultimately be a good thing, but I gotta get through the recovery part first. When shit gets serious, I stay the course. But I do not have the time to make extensive low carb dinner creations.

Brand design elements like fonts and logos send a message to readers about what to expect from your publication. Plus, it’s fun to express yourself by customizing your Substack’s color palette and uploading design touches like logos. This post walks you through the basics of managing the visual identity for your Substack. To change the font and background color of your Substack, go to your Settings page, scroll to Site Design, and click Customize.

Having spent two weeks in North and South Carolina earlier this month, I can attest that there does indeed exist a temperature/heat index at which point it simply becomes too hot to spend absolutely any time outdoors, let alone standing over hot flames cooking your food. But it’s summertime, Caro! We have to grill all of our food! No. We do not. Last week (tiny tomato pasta!) and the week before (esquites chicken salad!

Etymology: Cruci, crux (cross) + verb (word) + alist Our world has bestowed a particular name on crossword puzzle enthusiasts, just as it rewards any phenomenon with a unique word. Cruciverbalist. I learned how to read with the help of crossword puzzles.  My mother used to solve the crossword puzzle in the bottom corner of the daily newspaper. She didn’t miss it even a day. I perceive it was one of the few intellectual activities available in her life while she was struggling to settle in a new city with lower standards as the consequence of a sharp change.

I recently listened to an episode of the Gastropod podcast that was all about the texture of food. I found it fascinating primarily because texture is so rarely the center of attention when it comes to food. It was refreshing to consider all of the various ways we can sense food texture and just how critical it is to our experience of flavor. I’ve been thinking about this podcast episode as I’ve been working on this recipe I’m sharing with you today.

Hello, clowns! Today’s subscriber edition is decidedly less X-rated than the previous one, which I admit got a little bit rowdy. Hey, it’s not my fault that someone decided it was a good idea to add a really awful grape flavor to water-based lubricant! If something is technically edible, you know I’m going to try doing something vulgar with it on my newsletter. Having considered the concept of Uncrustables much longer than most average humans can expect to during their own lifetimes, I continued to ask myself, “Why do people hate the crust on bread so much?