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Weekend Butler: Chilly? What to watch, what to cook. Does Wordle make you smarter? A great sports book. And…Edith Wharton’s X-rated story. (Yes. Really)
By
Published: Jan 27, 2022
Category:
Weekend
IMAGE: Joni Mitchell and David Hockney
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“DO YOU NEED ANYTHING? HOW CAN I HELP? WHAT CAN I DO?”
Chilly? I couldn’t get the bedroom heat to top 60 degrees. And the forecast adds snow to the days ahead. Warmth will have to be interior — we’ll have to create it.
Start with meals. Soup and salad will only take you part of the way. May I commend the braised short ribs from The Balthazar Cookbook (the recipe is in my review) or the easiest (4 ingredients, 5 minutes prep time, also in my review) Italian pasta, penne arrabbiata, from Trattoria: Simple and Robust Fare Inspired by the Small Family Restaurants of Italy.
Move on to an inspiring book about a sports hero.
My TV hasn’t been on in 6 years, but that’s a bit of a cheat — at K’s, on weekends, I don’t walk out of the room when her big screen is engaged. And there was so much hype about the Kansas City-Buffalo game that I watched, and was fortunate to witness what’s been described as “the most exciting two minutes in NFL history.” Agreed: Mahomes and Allen were magnificent. But let’s not forget Johnny Unitas. From Johnny U: The Life and Times of John Unitas (a great gift book, and not just for sporty men):
He threw 122 touchdown passes in 47 consecutive games. (The previous record: 22 consecutive games.) Any modern quarterback would have needed a new helmet — to accommodate his swelled head — early in that streak. Not Unitas. When a teammate bought a house, he helped him lay the kitchen linoleum. In the huddle, before calling a play, he would ask, “Do you need anything? How can I help? What can I do?”
Team first. That was Unitas. In the huddle, a black player said that an opponent had called him “nigger.” Unitas said: “Let him through.” And he threw a bullet pass into that guy’s head so hard it felled him. To sportswriters, after a game, he described everyone’s goofs as his mistakes. He played hurt; he had a Terminator’s tolerance for pain. Of course his teammates loved him. “Playing with Johnny Unitas,” one said, “was like being in the huddle with God.”
On December 28, 1958, when the Colts played the New York Giants, a national television audience discovered what Baltimore fans already knew. The game was a nailbiter that went into overtime. “John told us, ‘We’re going to go right down the field and score,’” Alan Ameche recalled. “No doubt about it. You could feel the confidence.” And they did. When it was over, an unemotional Unitas turned and walked off the field.
NEIL YOUNG
And here’s a cheer for Neil Young, who has just removed his music from Spotify, which represented 60 percent of the streams of his music around the world. His reason: Joe Rogan, the most popular mouth on Spotify, who has a $100 million contract. Public health experts asked Spotify to take down an episode of Rogan’s show that featured Dr. Robert Malone, an infectious-disease expert, who promoted “several falsehoods about Covid-19 vaccines.” Spotify voted with the money. Neil voted with his boots. Be of good cheer. Neil Youngs’s 40 greatest hits are on one YouTube link, just a click away.
WHAT TO WATCH ON AMAZON PRIME
My favorites: three films by Asghar Farhadi and The Tender Bar.
A RARE TREAT
When I praised her book, Fashion Lives: Fashion Icons with Fern Mallis, I explained why she was able to interview every designer — they trusted her because they knew her. She was the Executive Director of the Council of Fashion Designers of America from 1991 to 2001. And then she created Fashion Week, which generated a fortune for the city. She has arranged with the 92Y to stream her Fashion Icons conversation with André Leon Talley for a limited time — until the end of February. Click for an intimate conversation like no other.
WORDLE: DOES IT MAKE YOU SMARTER?
The Harvard Gazette asked Steven Pinker, a psycholinguist and Harvard’s Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology, what parts of the brain are being activated when players try to guess a five-letter word in six tries?
GAZETTE: Can playing Wordle improve memory?
PINKER: Sadly, I doubt it. There have long been hopes that the brain is like a muscle, so that one kind of exercise strengthens it for many different tasks. Hence the old idea that Latin would instill formal, logical reasoning in pupils, and the more recent idea that computer programming would do it. Or the infamous advice to seniors to stave off dementia by playing a lot of Sudoku. In reality, cognitive psychologists find that if you train students in Latin grammar, they get really good in Latin grammar, but not much else, and so on for Sudoku, Wordle, and other games. To improve memory, it helps to think deeply and actively about a subject, and to master some mnemonic tricks like associating items in a list with locations in your home.
GAZETTE: Why do you think so many people find something this simple so addictive?
PINKER: I imagine it has the optimal level of reward: It’s hard enough to require concentrated thought, but not so intractable as to leave people frustrated most of the time.
IT’S A BOMB? NO, IT’S A STEINWAY
During World War II, Steinway & Sons air-dropped pianos with large parachutes and complete tuning instructions into the battle for the American troops. Called the Victory Vertical or G.I. Steinway, the pianos were to provide a bit of relaxation/morale booster. The pianos came in olive, blue, and gray drab.
By the end of the war, Steinway & Sons had provided about 5,000 pianos to the US military around the world. They had 4 sons and a few cousins who served.
THIS FATHER’S FAVORITE HEADLINE
Your teen’s being sarcastic? It’s a sign of intelligence.
EDITH WHARTON WROTE PORN
Yes, you read that right. Click here.
