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food

In Praise of MSG, the Unfairly Maligned Kitchen MVP

Mari Uyehara Food and Wine Magazine
 A spoonful of MSG in the kitchen Japanese scientist Kikunae Ikeda isolated glutamic acid, naturally present in seaweed, tomatoes, Parmesan cheese etc; he dubbed it the 5th taste: umami. His discovery, called MSG, was popular before concern arose about food additives in the 60's.

books

When Being Gay Meant Going Underground

John Self The Guardian
These beautifully written letters, diary entries and extracts from novels, skillfully edited by Peter Parker, add up to an essential study of postwar gay life.

film

RIP Donald Sutherland, a Hollywood Legend

Eileen Jones Jacobin
Donald Sutherland (1935–2024) projected equal parts warmth, intelligence, and menace on the big screen. But he wasn’t just a brilliant actor — he was a man of the Left who never abandoned those values.

poetry

Independence Day

W. D. Ehrhart
Poet Ehrhart questions how our Declaration of Independence can be true, even as the nation moved toward democracy, perhaps a warning that Constitutional originalism is equally absurd.

poetry

What the Garden Bodes

Carol Kanter
What the Garden Bodes, poet Carol Kanter implies, is not about flowers alone but about the political seasons in the run-up to the coming elections.

books

How To Be a Nonviolent Second-Wave Feminist

Eleanor J. Bader The Indypendent
In 47 essays written from the early 1970s to the late 1990s, prominent Second Wave feminists question how nonviolence might be applied to effectively transform violent systems of aggression, from rape to war.
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