As Blow-hardistan fulminates about the Moslems, reality bites. Donald Trump tells us “you’re going to have many more World Trade Centers if you don’t solve it – many, many more and probably beyond the World Trade Center,” and the real world works mightily to handle a problem which affects every plant and animal on our planet: climate change.* Here’s an informative piece from The Atlantic by Robinson Meyer: What Most People Don’t Understand About Climate Change. And How the U.S. Became an Unlikely Hero at the Paris Climate Summit and Why the Paris Climate Summit Is All About the Money, both by Justin Worland for Time. (The “all about the money” article has been reprinted in the widely circulated journal “Duh!”)
Guy Lawson wrote Trudeau’s Canada, Again for the New York Times magazine last Sunday, profiling new Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. For Americans of a certain age, PM Trudeau’s father and mom, Pierre Elliott and Margaret, were Jack and Jackie from up north. Justin Trudeau is about as unlikely a world leader as his counterpart from the States but, like that counterpart, I suspect he’ll distinguish himself. (Big takeaway, both stated and evident from the piece? He’s a nice guy. Frankly, if we all made nice a necessary but not sufficient condition for leadership in any setting we’d all be better off!)
The Curator hasn’t checked in with Malcolm Gladwell for more than six months. In the December 14 issue of the New Yorker you’ll find How to Cure Cancer. He’s reviewing The Death of Cancer, a new book by Dr. Vincent DeVita, Jr. and his daughter, journalist Elizabeth DeVita-Raeburn. I’ll save the review for the arrival of the magazine, and I suspect I’ll be reading the book soon.
Well, gee, it’s hard to imagine the Curator selecting more than one—make that three—articles from legacy magazine Time. Surprise aside, Time got Tiger’s Private Struggles, and it’s a great interview. Confession here. The Curator has paid people with graduate degrees to listen to his troubles. The main one—if you need a great therapist, he’s your man, and call me for a referral—told me once about a person he knew who seemed perfect. Had it all! Everything!!! And then there were the desk drawers, crammed full of trash and much, much more (which was much, much worse than the trash.) Tiger Woods was our hero, he made a fortune off of us, and anyone who believed he was a saint was an effing fool. (Devoted readers: Can I say fucking without offending? Please respond at markdrubin@gmail.com.)
Kevin Hsu from kevineats.com reports on Pok Pok’s newest location in Los Angeles. I have Andy Ricker’s Pok Pok cookbook. I love looking at it, but cooking Thai right involves more effort than I want to put forth. Too much good food in LA to put off a trip any longer.
Burgers. Honestly, I can’t quite imagine dying having been in South Carolina. For sure, if I ever get there it’ll be on account of the food. Roadfood.com has shared one fine burger from Ray’s Tavern in Aiken. No, it’s not Low County cuisine, but it’s one fine looking burger.
*I don’t mean to dis terror, truly. Bad it is, without doubt, and no one needs me to share that insight. That said, I will have some thoughts about terror, along with notions of perspective and consistency over the weekend over the weekend.