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A Discovery

Last spring, I planted fennel plants, thinking they would produce bulbs. Not so. I’d planted “herb fennel,” a related, but different, plant. It produces anise-flavored seeds, which I’m adding to sandwiches, salads, tostadas, and just chewing on. Utterly delightful. I can’t get enough.

Happy Birthday, Connie Smith

Dolly Parton once noted that there were just three real female singers around—Barbra Streisand, Linda Ronstadt, and Connie Smith. “The rest of us,” she said, “are only pretending.”

Strange (or Maybe Not So Much)

Whatever you may think of Kevin Williamson (and I know many some of those I follow on MB loathe sometimes have issues with him), this is sizzling:

It is strange how excessive admiration for the will to power brings out the servility in so many men.

A Spurs Legend Forever

Son Heung-Min of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club smiling and making his signature goal-scoring gesture: making a view finder with his fingers in front of his face.

Cartilage-Free Captain:

He’s my all-time favorite Tottenham player, and it’s not an especially close thing. I will miss his infectious smile, his play, his delightful demeanor. And if anyone deserves to have a statue in front of the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, it’s Son Heung-Min.

Flaco Jiménez, RIP

The great Flaco Jiménez performs with an accordion while singing into a microphone on stage.

I’ve always loved songs with accordions, concertinas, Hammond B3s, etc. Long ago, I even made mix-tapes with names like: “Songs with Organs, Including Accordions.” Flaco Jiménez was a major presence on those mixes.