Eggs ’n’ acid

A brilliant way to improve scrambled eggs: whisk a small amount of Dijon mustard with the eggs. More flavor!

But also: better texture. It’s science. From Samin Nosrat, Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking (2017):

Acid encourages the proteins in an egg white to assemble, or coagulate, more quickly but less densely than they otherwise would. Under normal conditions, strands of egg proteins unravel and tighten when heated. As they do, the strands squeeze out water, causing eggs to toughen and dry out. Acid draws egg proteins together before they can unravel, which inhibits them from joining too closely. A few secret drops of lemon juice will produce creamier, more tender scrambled eggs. For perfect poached eggs, add a capful of vinegar into boiling water to help speed up coagulation of the white and strengthen the outer texture, while preserving the runny yolk.

Acid aids in stabilizing whipped egg whites by encouraging more, finer air pockets, helping to increase the volume of the egg white foam. Though cream of tartar — a by-product of wine-making — is the form of acid traditionally added to egg whites as they’re whipped for meringues, cakes, and soufflés, a few drops of vinegar or lemon juice per egg white will yield a similar result.

Nosrat doesn’t mention mustard. But yes, mustard is acidic.

Thanks, Ben, for better scrambled eggs.

[I’ve followed the title on the book’s cover, which differs from the Library of Congress version inside.]

Append reddit

“One of the most-used tools on the internet is not what it used to be”: Charlie Warzel, “The Open Secret of Google Search” (The Atlantic ).

A suggestion therein: append reddit to any Google search to generate better results.

[No mention of other search engines in this piece.]

Unshaky

If you have a MacBook, MacBook Air, or MacBook Pro with a so-called butterfly keyboard, you may noticee one or more keeys repeating, always or intermitteently. For months I have had the problem with my MacBook Air’s e key, as I just demonstrated. Elaine has had thee proobleem, always, with thee e and oo keys. Such problems make typing a ridiculously frustrating effort. Hey, Apple: a functioning keyboard should have always been a given. (Not a giveen.)

There’s an app that solves repeating key problems: Xinhong (Sam) Liu’s Unshaky. Unlike compressed air (often recommended for keyboard woes), Unshaky is free. And unlike compressed air, it solves the repeating-key problem. I set a delay of 80 milliseconds for my e key and and can once again make just my own misteaks.

Anyone using a MacBook, MacBook Air, or MacBook Pro with a butterfly keyboard — here’s a list of models — should know about Unshaky. I only wish I had known about it sooner. My gratitude to Sam Liu is immense.

Related reading
All OCA Mac posts (Pinboard)

[In just two days, Unshaky has corrected 116 double-letter presses.]

A pocket notebook sighting

[From A Foreign Affair (dir. Billy Wilder, 1948). Click for a larger view.]

Jean Arthur as Phoebe Frost is a serious member of Congress abroad in post-war Berlin. Arthur was last seen in these pages holding a pencil.

A Foreign Affair is now streaming at the Criterion Channel.

More notebook sightings
All the King’s Men : Angels with Dirty Faces : The Bad and the Beautiful : Ball of Fire : The Big Clock : Bombshell : The Brasher Doubloon : The Case of the Howling Dog : Cat People : Caught : City Girl : Crossing Delancey : Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne : Dead End : Deep Valley : The Devil and Miss Jones : Dragnet : Extras : Eyes in the Night : The Face Behind the Mask : Foreign Correspondent : Fury : Homicide : The Honeymooners : The House on 92nd Street : I See a Dark Stranger : Journal d’un curé de campagne : Kid Glove Killer : The Last Laugh : Le Million : The Lodger : M : Ministry of Fear : Mr. Holmes : Murder at the Vanities : Murder by Contract : Murder, Inc. : The Mystery of the Wax Museum : Naked City : The Naked Edge : Now, Voyager : The Palm Beach Story : Perry Mason : Pickpocket : Pickup on South Street : Pushover : Quai des Orfèvres : The Racket : Railroaded! : Red-Headed Woman : Rififi : La roue : Route 66 : The Scarlet Claw : Sleeping Car to Trieste : The Small Back Room : The Sopranos : Spellbound : Stage Fright : State Fair : A Stranger in Town : Stranger Things : Sweet Smell of Success : Time Table : T-Men : To the Ends of the Earth : 20th Century Women : Union Station : Vice Squad : Walk East on Beacon! : Where the Sidewalk Ends : The Woman in the Window : You Only Live Once : Young and Innocent

Juneteenth

There’s still no stamp. But there is a flag, designed by Ben Haith. And an explanation.

[Click for a larger image.]

The nineteenth is Juneteenth.

Related reading
All OCA Juneteenth posts (Pinboard)

Father’s Day

[My dad, James Leddy, not yet a dad, in Florida, 1954. Photo by my mom, Louise Leddy, not yet a mom. Click for a larger view.]

Happy Father’s Day to all.

J. Michael Luttig, speaking

Retired federal judge J. Michael Luttig has explained why he spoke so slowly at Thursday’s hearing of the January 6 committee.

Watching the hearing, I immediately got my snark on and made a ill-considered post associating Luttig with the Bob and Ray character Harlow P. Whitcomb. When it occurred to me — not long after — that someone might be speaking exceedingly slowly for any number of reasons, I reconsidered my snark and deleted.

It turns out that there’s no health-related or neurological reason for Luttig’s slow speaking. Read his account: it might surprise you.

No, years

[The New York Times, June 18, 2022.]

Someone near and dear to me would like to call attention to the plain truth: many parents have been waiting not months but years for these vaccines.

WTF, NYT ?

Mark Shields (1937–2022)

From the New York Times obituary:

Of President Donald J. Trump, Mr. Shields said dismissively that “the toughest thing he’s ever done was to ask Republicans to vote for a tax cut.” The House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy was “an invertebrate”; Senator Lindsey Graham made Tonto, the Lone Ranger’s loyal sidekick, “look like an independent spirit.” In both major parties, he said, too many are afflicted with “the Rolex gene” — making them money-hungry caterers to the wealthy.

I listened to and learned from Mark Shields for years on the PBS NewsHour. I always liked the way he prefaced so many of his responses to Judy Woodruff’s questions with her first name: one person talking to another.

Today’s Saturday Stumper

Today’s Newsday  Saturday Stumper, another 2012 rerun while Stan Newman, the puzzle’s editor, is on vacation, is a “Lester Ruff” creation — an easier Stumper by Stan. This one is indeed less rough. If two-letter answers were permitted, I’d say it was E-Z. I suspect that next Saturday’s puzzle, when Stan has returned, will be gloriously difficult.

Some clue-and-answer pairs of note:

16-A, six letters, “Swindle.” I did not know this meaning.

17-A, eight letters, “Twitter message.” Very nice, and the final four letters are something of a tossup.

28-D, five letters, “Common sense.” Ha.

40-A, eight letters, “That’s Not All, Folks! autobiographer.” A friendly giveaway.

41-D, seven letters, “Cornmeal product.” Pairs amusingly with 55-A.

43-A, five letters, “Rule material.” I thought Oh, it has to be _____, and it is, but I’m still not sure I understood the clue correctly.

47-D, six letters, “Zealot.” Well-suited to our times.

49-D, six letters, “Foul.” It’s a good thing I’m reading A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. I knew the answer right away.

55-A, seven letters, “British toast.” Pairs amusingly with 41-D.

No spoilers; the answers are in the comments.