Monthly Archives: July 2012

Go to Laughing Squid. Watch video. Drool.

This is nice. Nathan Englander on Nora Ephron:

Nora once had me and my wife over for a birthday dinner where she served an almond cake. The best I’ve ever had. I asked for the recipe (not because I’m much of a baker, but because seeing Nora bake made me think baking was the greatest thing around). The point is, Nora gave me the recipe. And she also gave me some advice. You’ve got to sift the flour. (She’d sift three times.) And if the almond cake sinks in the middle, as it sometimes does (hers hadn’t, but she surely knew that mine would—and it did) she told me to cover it with powdered sugar, and then put some fresh strawberries on top. Then it would be perfect. And that to me is a good way to sum up what being a working artist is all about. It’s about being a person who makes real things in a real world. You set out to do something, and to do it right. And if it doesn’t come out exactly as planned—you don’t just live with it, you find a way to make it even better than it would have been before. And who isn’t going to be happier with a strawberry on her plate?

[Photo Credit: t/here]

Nice long profile by Ariel Levy in the New Yorker this week about a teenage boxer named Claressa Shields. Worth a read.

[Photo Credit: Sue Jaye Johnson]

A Goldbricker’s Delight today, afternoon game in Seattle and the Yanks trailed the Mariners 2-1 in the eighth inning. The sound you heard was not the grinding of gears but the grinding of teeth back  in New York. The hapless fuggin’ M’s. Enough already. So anyway, the Bombers loaded the bases and with one man out, Jason Nix planted a 2-2 pitch into the gap in left center field. That cleared the bases, gave the Yanks the lead and that lead would be good enough for a 5-2 victory thanks to an excellent performance from the bullpen.

Exhale y’all. Tomorrow gives a day off. Then: BoSox in the Boggie Down this weekend.

[Photo Credit: Hasisi Park; Procaine]

Yanks look to avoid a disastrous West Coast swing with a win today.

Never mind crying over spilt milk:

Let’s Go Yank-ees!

David and Isabella

[Via New Yorker 1995]

Serious Eats ‘splains Sun Tea (forget the sun).

[Photo Credit: Kutlu]

There used to be a cop that stood on the corner of 103rd Street and West End Avenue when I was a kid. Early 1970s. His name was Wallace. He had a nightstick. We stopped and said hello to him every time we saw him. He always had a smile and it never dawned on me that cops were just cops, men without names, because of Wallace.

[Photo Credit: Dick Leonhardt]

King Felix Hernandez worked out of trouble repeatedly last night as great pitchers often do. Fourth inning, Curtis Granderson and Alex Rodriguez singled and Robinson Cano got ahead 2-0 then fouled off fastball, slider, curve, change-up before popping up for the first out. Mark Teixeira walked but Raul Ibanez whiffed and Eric Chavez flied out. And that’s how it went.

But I’ve buried the lead. The story of the night is not that the Yankees lost it’s that Hernandez hit Rodriguez in the hand on a 3-2 change up–a 90 mph change-up at that–in the eighth inning and the news is not good: a non-displaced fracture. While the Yankees believe that Hernandez hit Rodriguez–or Derek Jeter or Ichiro, intentionally–Rodriguez will not play for the next 6-8 weeks.

“We lost Mo. We lost Andy and now we have lost Al,’’ Jeter told the New York Post. “We will see how good we are. It will be a challenge.’’

“It’s very unfortunate, a big loss. Alex was swinging the bat well,’’ Mark Teixeira added.

The hope is that he’ll recover with enough time to get his swing back before the playoffs. He couldn’t do it last year with a different injury. Either way, it’s a major drag. He goes out 128 hits away from 3,000; 63 RBI from 2,000.

He’s in decline but he’s never stopped playing hard and this year he stole bases and played smart. Another substantial injury for the Yanks to overcome. They can make it, of course, but even as an old man, Rodriguez makes the team better.

[Photo Credit: Kevin P. Casey/AP]

The Yanks face one of the best tonight in “King” Felix Hernandez. They’ll counter with the former Mariner, Fab Five Freddy Garcia.

The intrepid Chad Jennings has the notes of the day.

Derek Jeter SS
Curtis Granderson CF
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Robinson Cano 2B
Mark Teixeira 1B
Raul Ibanez LF
Eric Chavez DH
Ichiro Suzuki RF
Chris Stewart C

Never mind the mismatch: Let’s Go Yank-ees!

Rest in Peace, Frank Pierson.

“At each level you reach, you have to tear up what you have done before, which cost an enormous amount of psychological and emotional energy. That makes the process of screenwriting very, very difficult. And I don’t know any screenplay that I have ever worked on where I did not go through ten to twelve or sometimes sixteen drafts before I showed it to anybody.”

[Quote via The Poor Dancing Girl She Won’t Dance Again]

I went to pick up a package at Todd-AO studios on 54th Street once many years ago and the clerk told me it wasn’t ready, said “there must be some kind of misconfusion.”

Which is something like Brian Cashman said today about Mariano Rivera on Jim Duquette’s show. Via Hardball Talk.

[Photo Credit: N.J. com]

Here’s a piece by Connor Orr in the Star-Ledger on Sparky Lyle.

Of course there’s another side to this and it is understandable that not everyone is pleased with Ichiro in pinstripes.

Check this out from Oyl in Tokyo.

Baseball and the city via Ephemeral New York.

[Photo Credit: New York Times]

Smitten Kitchen gives us peach pie. And I, for one, am not only thankful but hungry.

[Photo Via Shaolinchild]

Some summer lovin’ from Hilo Chen.

Some players fill their uniforms better than others and few guys look as neat and purposeful as Ichiro has in his garb. He’s a superhero–though we’ll leave it to Jon and other experts to tell us which one–trim and sharp: a cool motherfucker. Kind of guy makes me want to pick up a pen and draw. Yet the first thing I noticed when I saw him wearing a Yankee costume last night was how much he’s aged. Lot of grays on the hair, the face with deep lines and I could imagine what he’d look as a old man.

He bowed to the crowd at Safeco field in his first at bat–the pitcher, Kevin Millwood, graciously stepped off the mound to allow for the moment–and then singled to center field. Stole second too.

He was stranded at third and that was the only time he’d reach base but still, the game was one to remember–seeing Ichiro play his first game for the Yankees against the Mariners in Seattle.

Mark Teixeira had three hits and Alex Rodriguez had a couple of extra base hits–double and a solo home run–but the star was  Hiroki Kuroda who allowed a run on three hits and a walk over seven innings of work (he struck out nine). Sure, the Mariners can’t score, but the Yanks needed a win. Robertson and Soriano pitched took care of the eighth and ninth as the Yanks won, 4-1.

Last night, we wondered here in the comments section which veteran pick-up Ichiro will most resemble: Lance Berkman, Pudge Rodriguez, Straw, Rock Raines, Chili Davis? Does he have anything left? Is he an upgrade over Dwayne Wise? As our pal Matt Blankmon noted, Ichiro is certainly good for TV. He may be well past his prime but we’ll be eager to watch him, especially in the field. Thoughts of him nodding–even bowing?–to the bleacher creatures fill my head. Then watching him gun down a runner trying to take an extra base.

Yeah, the optimist in me is looking forward to this, a proud old DC character plopped into a winning Marvel Universe.

[Photo Credit:  Lindsey Wasson/seattlepi.com; Elaine Thompson /AP]