The Confidence of an Idiot

[H]ello friends!  I hope this finds you properly reclined and sipping on something Sunday.  I’m been back in New Orleans for a week of waaaay too much Halloween fun.  I dressed up as Cleopatra.  Fierce with a side of crazy-eyes.  I’m sorry I’m not more forthcoming with photographic evidence.  I also bought a bag of Halloween candy and find that I’m mostly just eating it myself because… just let it happen.  I’m packing my bags to head to the west coast for a week.  I hope to see you in San Francisco and Seattle to show you how to make pie and write in your copies of Homemade Decadence.  It’ll be fun!

I hope your Sunday is relaxed and mellow.  I hope you over-indulge in Halloween candy even if you have to sneak it from your kid’s  stash.  Just hide the empty wrappers in the trash can… not like I’ve ever done that… who steals candy from children!?

Here is this week’s internet, condensed.  Carry on (and on and on).

•  My very favorite chef Jacques Pepin, on ketchup and other important things.

•  A woman walked around New York City for 10 hours and filmed every catcall she received.

•  A long read for a short weekend:  The Secret Life of an ISIS Warlord.

•  “How could gluten, present in a staple food that has sustained humanity for thousands of years, have suddenly become so threatening?”  What the what happened?  Against The Grain.

•  My Life On Olive Garden.  I’m getting each one of you a Pasta Pass for the holidays so GET EXCITED!

•  Similarly… My Week With A Flip Phone.  Committed but not insane… I mean, really.

•  We Are All Confident Idiots, I’m sure of it.

•  Theo Padnos on being kidnapped, tortured, and released in Syria.  This piece is 100%.  

•  Categorize under: truth is stranger/worse/more madness than fiction.  Mexico’s First Lady Of Murder Is On The Lam.

•  This is really interesting:  The Ten Greatest Changes In The Last 1,000 Years.

•  I’m headed to San Francisco and Seattle next week!  I’m giving away 4 tickets to the San Francisco pie demonstration and book signing.  Comment on this post, I’ll pick four of you tonight and see you at the signing tomorrow night!! Easy, right?

•  I need a kitchen blow torch because I want to make Creme Brûlée French Toast a reality for us.

• Tweet Game Strong.  The very best of the very worst of the very funniest tweets.