The Weekender, August 16, 2019

1) “Secrets and Lies in the School Cafeteria” (The Atlantic, 19 minutes, September 2019). The subhead: “A tale of missing money, heated lunchroom arguments, and flaxseed pizza crusts.” The quote below isn’t really the focus of the article, but it’s fun:

Free to roam, [New Canann head chef Bruce]  Gluck explored far-ranging culinary fields. Souvlaki, hummus, and quinoa tabbouleh appeared on menus. Pizza took the form of flaxseed crusts topped with freshly made sauce and mozzarella. “I roast the ducks the Chinese way, hanging in the oven,” he told ;food writer\. “We develop our own recipes here. I use buffalo and ostrich, too.” Vegetables were the real deal: leafy greens, roasted squash. Old standbys slipped in if they could be converted usefully, like chicken fingers made with rice flour to become a gluten-free option. Desserts were low-sugar confections, yogurt parfaits and puddings made with block chocolate and fresh whipped cream.

2) “Why I, as a black man, attend KKK rallies.” (TED, 18 minutes, December 2017). This is a TED talk about kindness in the face of discrimination and evil.

3) The Now I Know Week in Review:

Monday: Why Capital Letters are Called “Upper Case” — And why “lower case” is similarly “lower case.”

Tuesday: What Are All Those Dots On My Car’s Windshield? — Te ones on the edges.

Wednesday: The Easter Egg Hunt That Caught a Bad Egg — Eight kids become minor heroes.

Thursday: The Best ICU in the Universe — Space, the final medical frontier? 

4) “I Shared My Phone Number. I Learned I Shouldn’t Have.” (New York Times, 6 minutes, August 2019). The subhead: “Our personal tech columnist asked security researchers what they could find out about him from just his cellphone number. Quite a lot, it turns out.”

5) “American Green” (Longreads, 43 minutes, March 2006). It’s about backyards: “How did the plain green lawn become the central landscaping feature in America, and what is the ecological cost?”

Have a great weekend!