The pizza dough tastes better when allowed to rest and rise slowly in the fridge. Using a ton of store bought yeast for a quick rise is fine, but planning out the dough the night before is better.

When I learned how to drive, manual transmissions were higher performance and better fuel efficiency: side by side comparisons of the exact same model of car would show better 0-60 and quarter mile times, while having slightly better EPA fuel efficiency ratings, for the manual transmission.

At some point, though, the sheer number of gears in an automatic transmission surpassed those in the typical manual gearbox, and the average automatic today has 6 gears, up to 9 in some Mercedes and 10 in certain Ford and GM models. So they could start selecting gear ratios for better fuel efficiency, without “wasting” a valuable gear slot. There was a generation of Corvettes that was notorious for having a 6th gear that was worthless for actual performance but helped the car sneak by with a better highway fuel mileage rating.

And the automatics became much faster at shifting gears, with even the ultra high performance supercars shifting to paddle shifters where the driver could still control the gear, but with the shifting mechanism automated. Ferrari’s paddle shifter models started outperforming the traditional stick shift models in the early 2000’s, if I remember correctly. As those gear shifting technologies migrated over to regular automatics, the performance gap shrunk and then ended up going the other way.

At this point there’s not enough reason for a true manual stickshift transmission. It’s no longer faster or more economic, so it’s just a pure fun. Which is fine, but does make it hard to actually design one for any given model of car.

There are some steep stop sign intersections in San Francisco that I’ve had to use the e brake for.

I love Chinese food so much. I’ve visited twice, and always make room for food.

My favorite street food is probably sheng jian bao, the pan fried buns with soupy pork filling sealed in.

In terms of a single standalone dish, it’s hard to say. I like noodle dishes, like Taipei style beef noodle soup. Or Wuhan style re gan mian.

And for the type of meal where there’s a lot of dishes on the table to be shared, my favorite dish in that setting is probably Mapo tofu. I did a food tour of Chengdu once and just everything Sichuan is so good, but Mapo tofu is just all my favorite Sichuan things in a single dish.

I’ve lived all over the U.S., so here are some of my favorites:

Texas:

• Beef barbecue. The classic is beef brisket, but a lot of places have great beef rib, too.
• Tex Mex: fajitas hit the spot every time.
• Breakfast tacos, especially with leftover smoked brisket from the day before, or some other smoked meat like smoked sausage. Undeniably Texas, undeniably delicious.

Louisiana:

• Boiled crawfish, with red potatoes and corn and andouille sausage. Some people overcook their potatoes and corn, but even then there’s still a charm to it. But the whole experience of a crawfish boil is everything great about food culture: socializing around a big table, making a big mess, teaching kids and newbies how do engage in that task of peeling crawfish. The Vietnamese riffs on these traditions are also great, and Viet-Cajun is a great genre of food in general, too.

The American South in general:

• American Southern style fried chicken. It’s just great.
• Pecan pie. Easily my favorite American dessert.

Southern California:

• Burritos. Something about the fresh made flour tortillas in Southern California are just better than everywhere else in the U.S. So a good burrito provides flavor from the fillings, and also flavor from the wrap itself, in a way that all the parts just complement each other.
• Ensenada style fish tacos (yes, I know this originates south of the border but it is “local” to the general region). There’s just something refreshing about fish tacos with a crunchy cabbage slaw, fresh lime juice, a crema-based sauce, eaten outdoors. Can’t beat it.

New York:

• Bodega style breakfast sandwich. The basic concept is universal across the U.S. (egg, a breakfast meat like sausage or bacon, and cheese on some kind of roll, bun, or even bagel, griddled with generous amounts of butter), but something about the New York bodegas just make these taste better when you’re on the go.

Chicago:

• Deep dish pizza. Looks kinda dumb, but it’s delicious.
• Chicago style, “dragged through the garden” hot dogs. Every component makes this ensemble great.
• Italian beef sandwiches. I don’t know why these aren’t more popular outside of Chicago. Get it dipped, get a little messy with it.

In terms of popular and well known local dishes, the deep dish pizza and Chicago dog are great. I agree with you there.

The one that people outside of Chicago don’t know a lot about, that is still a delicious representation of the city, is Italian Beef.

And the one that is uniquely Chicago but isn’t going to be winning over people in a blind tasting, is shots of Malort.

All else being equal, in terms of structure and property itself, I’d rather live in a detached house.

But all else isn’t equal. I’ll sacrifice my ideal building type in order to live in the specific neighborhood I want to live in, within easy walking distance of amenities like parks, groceries, world class restaurants, bars, and things like that, all while being able to get around by bike, mass transit, or even easy/cheap hailed vehicles like taxis or Ubers. And that means I’m living in a dense urban area, where detached houses are rare and prohibitively expensive.

So I look for neighborhoods where I’d actually like to live, then look for places there with the right number of bedrooms and floor space, and then look to see what is within a feasible budget for myself. The first time I bought a home, I would’ve preferred to rent, but the building we liked in the neighborhood we liked happened to be condos rather than rentals.

But housing is a package deal. And house versus townhouse/rowhouse/brownstone versus low rise condo versus high rise condo versus apartment versus someone’s accessory dwelling unit is only part of that package. And the other parts are more important to me.

The average added sugar consumption for American adults is about 70g per day, which works out to be 25.6 kg (56.2 lbs) per year. People can shift their source of sweetener and consume a dramatically higher amount of honey without necessarily having a diet that is all that different from the national average.

Y’all are focusing too much on the single brand here. Yes, Brown Forman owns Jack Daniels, and yes, JD is not very good (and far worse than other American whiskeys in the same price range, whether we’re talking the black label or their fancier offerings).

But Brown Forman also owns Woodford Reserve and Old Forester, which have good bourbons in their respective lineups. And, it should be noted, they also own the Scotch Whisky brands Glendronach, Benriach, and Glenglassaugh.

And what non-Canadians might not realize is that the Liquor Control Board of Ontario pretty much has a monopoly on spirits sold in Ontario, whose 15 million people account for about 40% of the Canadian population. If LCBO chooses not to purchase American spirits, that means it will basically be impossible to legally buy American spirits in Ontario, whether in a retail store, a bar, or a restaurant.

And as additional context, the American bourbon industry is facing down a bit of a contraction/recession/downturn in the coming years. Demand is softening up for most whiskeys, especially high end bourbons, compared to where they were a few years ago. Expect to see layoffs, fire sales, and bankruptcies.

You talking about coca cola or the other coke?

Among Gen Z and Millennial Americans (especially the educated straight white middle class) there’s been a divergence in political affiliations between men and women. But people still couple up, so hetero couples are seeing a lot more combinations of politically engaged progressive women who are in relationships with politically apathetic men (who also tend to be somewhat sexist and racist).

This comic points out that juxtaposition.

Yes, exactly.

Roasted peanuts are cheap, high calorie, high protein, and shelf stable. It’s a decent mix of all the macronutrients (including carbs and fiber). Personally, I can also eat them all day.

Around me, a $3 jar has 2500 calories, over 200g fat, over 100g protein, and about 30g fiber. On a per dollar basis, it’s hard to beat for shelf stable food.

if you’re a gooner

if you’re not a creep

Good luck with that Venn diagram.