Throwing a barbecue this holiday weekend? Heatin’ up the grill, throwin’ on some steaks, charrin’ up a couple burgers and ’dogs? Sounds awesome, but are you really barbecuing? Or are you grilling? Turns out that like many things with a rich history, the difference is… complex. At the root of the issue is the very definition of barbecue, a practice that—within certain definitions—is as old as humankind (if you subscribe to the belief that cooking made us human). Barbecue expert read more
Throwing a barbecue this holiday weekend? Heatin’ up the grill, throwin’ on some steaks, charrin’ up a c read more
Ah, sports: the grand amphitheater of human emotion, greatness, and achievement. But also: completely arbitrary, melodramatic constructs that humans have created for the sole purpose of entertaining ourselves, of making our time on this planet feel a little less dull. (And this is coming from a sports fan.) Imagine an alien arriving on our planet and observing, without any context, the Masters. Or the Superbowl. Or a sport in which grown people brandish stringed paddles, run around a small, en read more
Ah, sports: the grand amphitheater of human emotion, greatness, and achievement. But also: completely arbitrar read more
It’s been almost a year and a half of What’s the Difference-ing, and we have yet to delve into the vast, varied world of pasta shapes. So why, you may ask, would we start with ones that are so… basic? Why not deal in the reginettis and the pizzocheris and the strozzaprettis, the show-offy, fun-to-say varietals that will make you sound sofisticato at your next dinner party? I ask you this: Do you know the difference between penne and ziti? I didn’t. Let’s start with what mak read more
It’s been almost a year and a half of What’s the Difference-ing, and we have yet to delve into the vast, read more
I think I can speak for us all when I say: we’re trying our best. We try to be good people: to say “please” and “thank you,” to be kind unto others, to pick up after ourselves when we make a mess, to recycle the things that we can. But our best becomes even better when we’re more informed—which is what brings us to the difference between “biodegradable” and “compostable.” Because without context and information, the labels slapped onto stuff don’t actually mean anythi read more
I think I can speak for us all when I say: we’re trying our best. We try to be good people: to say “please read more
Memorial Day Weekend has come and gone, which means it’s essentially summer: the season of hot dogs and milkshakes and curly fries and all the crumbles and cobblers and pandowdies you can get your grubby hands on. It’s also the season of the uncooked—like your skin was this weekend before your first day at the beach, perhaps, or like the things you feel like eating when the temperature starts to rise. Here are the differences between the crudos, carpaccios, sashimis, and all the other ra read more
Memorial Day Weekend has come and gone, which means it’s essentially summer: the season of hot dogs and milk read more
If you grew up in the United States, you probably have the 50-states song burned into some indelible part of your memory. (If you’re like me, it’s the same place where a song made up of 62 prepositions sung to the tune of “Yankee Doodle Dandy” and the entirety of Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire,” which for some inane reason I was forced to memorize for seventh grade Social Studies class, also live.) What was not taught to me in school, however, was the simple difference be read more
If you grew up in the United States, you probably have the 50-states song burned into some indelible part of y read more
Suppose you fancy yourself a culinary genius. You slice and dice and sauté and roast your way to sensual bliss each evening, concocting unforgettable feasts out of the sheer force of your creative prowess. Does that make you a cook or a chef? Well, it depends. A chef is technically a professional cook, someone who runs the kitchen of a restaurant or hotel. He/she has some sort of codified training, whether it’s through culinary school or just working his/her way up through a restaurant read more
Suppose you fancy yourself a culinary genius. You slice and dice and sauté and roast your way to sensual blis read more
Some topics we cover in this newsletter have clear, definite differences: Bugs and insects. Concrete and cement. Hash browns and home fries. We define them and we draw lines in the sand because putting things in boxes and imposing order on them feels pleasing and correct. But when it comes to human emotions, things tend to get a little bit slippery. And few emotions are as human—and as nebulous—as stress and anxiety. Chances are, you’ve experienced one or both in your life, probably read more
Some topics we cover in this newsletter have clear, definite differences: Bugs and insects. Concrete and cem read more