Hi!

You’re probably being inundated with Black Friday emails today. This isn’t one of them.

Yesterday was Thanksgiving here in the United States, and it’s probably my favorite holiday of the year. People gather with family and friends across the nation to pause, appreciating the best parts of their lives and, hopefully, putting some of the problems on hold. I wish we could do that (and eat stuffing!) every day, but alas, the world doesn’t quite allow for that.

So the best we can do, I suppose, is to carry that gratitude forward. Today, being the day after Thanksgiving, feels like a great time to start. Allow me.

Thank you all for reading Now I Know. It’s a labor of love for me, but one that really isn’t about the writing — it’s about sharing. I love sharing the new things I discover and learn about with whoever will listen, and it’s really great to have all of you on board for that. If I stopped writing today (that’s not happening, don’t worry), Now I Know would obviously end, but if you stopped reading, the same thing would happen. So again, thank you.

I’ll be back on Monday with something new to share!

Dan

The Now I Know Week In Review

Monday: The Chinese Ban on “Fried Rice”: I made egg fried rice on the 26th, although not because of this. (Okay, maybe because of this.)

Tuesday: The Country of Cookie Dough: On the top of this one, I left the placeholder “TK” in my little blurb. (I left the error on the archived version in case you didn’t notice.) Here’s what TK means.

Wednesday: When Elephants and Donkeys Fought Over Turkey: Politics plus Thanksgiving don’t mix, especially when the politics are about Thanksgiving.

Thursday: Thanksgiving! I didn’t write anything.

Long Reads and Other Things

Here are a few things you may want to check out over the weekend:

1) “The 100 Best Comedy Movies of All Time” (Variety, 68 minutes if you read the whole thing, but you really don’t have to, November 2025). Variety is a leading Hollywood industry publication… so it’s kind of amazing how bad this list is. Before you scroll to see what their “best” comedy movie “of all time” is, write down ten movies that you think could possibly earn that honor. I’ll be shocked if their selection makes your list. (And for what it’s worth, I really do like the movie they selected — it’s good! — but it’s not the best. No way.)

2) “Why do so many people think the Fruit of the Loom logo had a cornucopia?” (MIT Technology Review, 28 minutes, October 2025). Sorry if this has a paywall — it only appears intermittently for me. Anyway, here’s the subhead: “It’s a popular example of the ‘Mandela effect,’ or a collective false memory. And while some people may laugh and move on, others spend years searching for an explanation.”

3) “Yes, There’s a Parallel Parking Championship, and I Was a Contender” (Car and Driver, 7 minutes, October 2025). I can’t parallel park. I’d lose this competition.

Have a great weekend!

Dan