The Mind of Donald Trump by Dan McAdams for The Atlantic is a must read. Truly! But if you’re busy and only have time for the Curator, here’s the money quote about Mr. Trump in the piece, borrowed from New Yorker writer Mark Singer: “An existence unmolested by the rumbling of a soul.”
New Yorker columnist and Nobel laureate Paul Krugman wrote It Takes a Policy for the New York Times this week. Mr. Krugman focuses on our very poor national record of providing for young children. What the Curator got from the piece was the very small amount of money it takes to go from spending comparable to Estonia to being on a par with France. It’s a crying shame that our embedded culture—the individual rules, and only those who make it on their own are worthy—leaves so many behind. (By the way, the Curator spend lots of time with successful people and he’s still waiting to meet the one who is truly self-made!)
Linda Greenhouse reviews Because of Sex: One Law, Ten Cases, and Fifty Years That Changed American Women’s Lives at Work by Gillian Thomas in The Bittersweet Victories of Women, written for The New York Review of Books. Ms. Greenhouse is a great writer, and great book reviews often provide a substitute for reading the book itself. (So many books; so little time.) Really outstanding book reviews go one step further … and in this case Ms. Thomas’ book resides on the Curator’s Kindle.
Rona Barrett. Remember her? Anne Helen Petersen for Buzz Feed wrote Gossip Girl. The piece is long—and not every word was read, but the hopping around approach resulted in one interesting paragraph after another.
The Curator’s alter ego got confirmation of an 18 lb. weight loss over the past 13 months. No special tricks, but for mostly giving up bread products. Very painful, but we do what we must. Still, a fine bagel, loaf or slice deserves attention, and Jane and Michael Stern’s Roadfood.com review of Myer’s Bagels in Burlington, VT caught my eye. I’m a Montreal-style bagel junkie—smaller, flatter, and chewier—and these sound great. Sadly, they ship, which has me testing my resistance.
Rosemary Sea Salt Bagel
Keith Pandolfi’s essay for SeriousEats.com, The Benefits of Eating Without a Map, caught my eye for its title. I don’t agree with Mr. Pandolfi completely, for a bad meal on vacation feels like a wasted opportunity. That said, sticking with what is purportedly tried and true will, too often, result in a restaurant which is resting on its laurels, and it certainly eliminates opportunities to test boundaries.