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The Friday Fives

1. Those who were in a gang, what’s the most f-ed up thing you’ve seen?

While a member of the “He-Man Woman Hater Gang, Buckwheat showed up at the clubhouse wearing full drag. None of us were ready for that.

2. What was it that put you in solitary while in lock up?

I started saying a lot of really mean things about Stephen Miller.

3. Why did you deserve that beat down?

I kept insisting on removing the canned green peas from my bowl of Grandma’s beef stew.

4. What happened that forced you to flee the country?

I was caught cheating while playing the all-in game of Risk.

5. You can tell me, I won’t share – how did you embezzle that vast fortune, and where is the money now?

I amassed my vast fortune by taking out tiny ads in the back of newspapers and magazines and flipping all that dough in a collection of rare coffee mugs.

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The Friday Fives

1. Which jobs are 100% safe from AI?

Auto mechanic and hairdresser/barber.

2. What will someday be illegal after we finally understand how bad for us it is?

Unlimited onlinegambbling. Itis scray how fast this has become so terribly popular. I have folks at work who are betting via apps on their phones every day, all day long.

3. In 2026, how do we feel about the Oxford comma and two spaces after a period?

I am fine with removing the two spaces after a period, having been broken of that habit as a newspaper reporter, as the two-space thing was a big no-no. But the Oxford comma, I understand the logic behind it, but again, going back to journalism, it is a habit I was broken off. Printed journalism developed a style to reduce as much empty space as possible in lines of text to make physical typesetting easier, and, despite online typesetting and desktop publishing, those rules remain in place decades later. My grammar and spelling checker app usually takes care of these for me, but when I am freestyle typing, I don’t use the Oxford comma.

4. What is one thing you habitually do every day?

Rinse out the French presses every day after work to make the morning coffee routine so much easier. When I don’t do it for whatever reason, I get angry at myself while rinsing them out before making the morning brew.

5. What random fact do you want to share?

The mathematics behind his theory of solar wind as just four lines of algebra to predict the solar weather patterns. Thank you Wikipedia.

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The Friday Fives

1. What jobs are disappearing because of AI, but no one seems to notice?

I work in call center management, and the most significant AI push right now is for the Quality Assurance team, which listens to calls and scores them to ensure consistent service. Most of that work is now being handled by AI bots to monitor and score. We will have to re-purpose about 12 employees as they are no longer needed.

2. How do you deal with a chronically negative person?

Bluetooth headphones.

3. What was your first long-distance drive?

We drove from Stuttgart to London on aquick run over a three-day weekend while in the army.

4. What’s a small thing that instantly makes your day better?

A freshly roasted and brewed cup of coffee from the French press.

5. What small thing can just ruin your day?

Breakfast eggs when the yolk got broken in the skillet.

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The Friday Fives

1. What’s your biggest “secret” tech you use all the time?

I run Linux Mint on my laptop – I don’t have to pay for access or upgrades, and it is incredibly easy to customize it. It runs all the modern web browsers and has lots of office software and music/video player options. Using Windows 11 at work is just so painful.

2. What is your best “analog” hack you still employ

Handwriting in my journal with just an ink pen. I find it easier to get my thoughts down on paper when entering into the “analog” journal instead of typing it into some app or document. More formal writing I prefer the keyboard/laptop but for those basic seeds and random thoughts my brain needs the time it takes to get it down in my notebook first.

3. What tradition from your family or culture do you still keep alive?

The parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles have all passed, but some kitchen traditions still exist. Cooking some dishes just exactly the way my mother would. Keeping the kitchen knives sharp, the way my father would.

4. What’s the coolest toy you ever received as a kid?

I was probably nine or ten and got this really cool action figure, “rescue airplane”Big Jim Sky Commander airplane, to play with my Big Jim action toys. A few years later, we got an Atari console under the Christmas tree. Childhood was fun.

5. What’s something you let go of that made your life noticeably better?

When my car was stolen, I decided to switch to a bicycle. I took some of the insurance money and bought a nice e-bike, and in the spring through the fall, I try to ride into the office three days a week. When I need a vehicle for something big, I borrow my sister’s truck or use a ride-sharing service.

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Sourdough No-Knead Bread


Recipe from Jim Lahey
Adapted by Sam Sifton
Updated April 28, 2020

Melina Hammer for The New York Times
Total Time
12 to 24 hours
Rating
4(2,700)

So you’ve brought a sourdough starter to life, or received one as a gift, or purchased one somewhere. You’ve fed it and watched it become bubbly and fragrant, with a light yeasty-boozy scent. Now it’s time to bake bread.

An easy way to start is with this adaptation of baker Jim Lahey’s storied recipe for no-knead bread, replacing commercial yeast with a little less than three-quarters of a cup of healthy, well-fed sourdough starter.

Give the resulting dough a long, long rise and then plop it into a hot, enameled cast-iron pot with a lid. You’ll have an incredible loaf within the hour, and may well find yourself addicted to the smell, the taste, and the process alike.

Ingredients
Yield:1 loaf
3½cups/475 grams bread flour, plus more for dusting
1 1.2 300 grams (about 1¼ cups) filtered water
1 teaspoon/6 grams kosher salt

¾cup/180 grams sourdough starter, “fed.”
(optional)

2 tablespoons/20 grams sesame seeds

1 teaspoon Vital Wheat Gluten

1 teaspoon diastatic malt powder

Optional toppings :
2 tablespoons/20 grams sesame seeds
or 2 tablespoons wheat bran to top.

Preparation
Step 1
In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour and salt.

Step 2
In a small mixing bowl, stir together 300 grams (about 1¼ cups) lukewarm tap water with the sourdough starter, then pour the mixture into the bowl with the flour mixture. Mix until just combined. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and a tea towel and leave it to rise overnight, about 10 to 24 hours. (I usually pop this in an empty microwave for about 18 hours, where it is kept draft-free and out of the way.)

Step 3
The next day, generously dust a clean kitchen surface with flour. The dough should have risen considerably, and you should see visible bubbling along the sides. The dough will be spongy and wet. Scoop the dough directly onto the surface, then dust with more flour (I use white rice flour) . With lightly floured hands, gently fold the edges of the dough from the outside in, to form a round loaf. Dust a clean towel with yet more flour, sprinkle sesame seeds in a small area about the size of your loaf, and place the dough on top of the seeds or wheat bran, seam side down.

Lightly dust with additional flour, cover, and let rise until doubled in size, about 2 hours. (I put this in a flour-lined proofing basket that I have powdered with white rice flour to prevent sticking. )

Step 4
Meanwhile, heat the oven to 450. Place a covered enamel Dutch oven or heavy pot with a lid in the oven and let it heat for 30 minutes or so. Remove the pot from the oven, take off its top, and carefully invert the risen dough into it, so that the seam side is now facing up. (Alternately, you can invert the risen dough onto a flour-dusted sheet of parchment paper and lower your loaf into your pot that way.) Put the top back on the pot and return it to the oven.

Step 5
Bake for about 25 to 30 minutes, then take the top off the pot and allow it to continue to cook until it is brown and crusty all over, an additional 20 minutes or so. Put the loaf on a rack to cool for at least 30 minutes before serving.