The Wednesday Curator – 12/16/2015

December 15, 2015

There are some great periodicals in our world, and it should surprise no one that so many good ones have New York in their name. This week, from the New York Review of Books, here’s Charles Simic with Sticking to Our Guns. It’s depressing, truly, but it’s short and worth your time. So, as it happens, is Looking at Violence in America with A Financial Lens. This NPR piece, from Morning Edition on December 15, has host David Greene talking with Ted Miller from the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, about the real cost of gun violence. $235 billion is Mr. Miller’s estimate, and if you listen to the story you must come away believing Mr. Miller believes his estimate is low. Stupid, stupid, stupid!

The Paris summit reached an accord. Here’s Nobel laureate Paul Krugman on the subject, with Hope from Paris in the New York Times on December 14. And, so no one thinks everyone agrees on the issue, the New York Times Editorial Board wrote Silence on the Climate Pact from the Republican Candidates for the December 14 issue of the paper. For anyone looking for nuance or deep-think, skip it!

There’s a label—first world problem—which has not yet found its way into Mark Rubin Writes. Until today. For the Couch blog at the New York Times Joseph Burgo wrote Got First-World Problems? Don’t Feel Guilty.  Alevia, it’s nice to know we can be rich, compared with 98% of the humans on this rock, and still be OK. That’s what makes therapy great, am I right?

Here from the New York Times are The 10 Best Books of 2015. From The Atlantic, there are The Best Books We Missed in 2015. And from the New Yorker, The Books We Loved in 2015.  Alas, so many pages, so little time!

Hungry? Eh, I’m OK. But, from the New York Times here are Top New York Restaurants of 2015 and The Top 10 Restaurant Dishes of 2015. My favorite dish?

Porchetta sandwich at Mekelburg’s Is it the way the hard snap of the pig skin echoes the loud crunch of the roll paved with sesame seeds? The benign bitterness of the broccoli rabe under the pork? The garlic and herbs that blend into everything else and at the same time don’t? Not sure, but I’ll keep going back until I know.

Porchetta sandwich at Mekelburg’s
Is it the way the hard snap of the pig skin echoes the loud crunch of the roll paved with sesame seeds? The benign bitterness of the broccoli rabe under the pork? The garlic and herbs that blend into everything else and at the same time don’t? Not sure, but I’ll keep going back until I know.

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