Okay, not it’s really so raunchy–it’s tame, in fact–but here’s “For Adults Only” by Bill Cosby.

Sure, this is out-of-season but hell, you can still find a decent eggplant around. And damn, if this just wouldn’t hit the spot right about now. Alexandra Cooks does Chez Panisse’s Eggplant, caramelized onion and tomato pasta.

Diggum Smack.

Here’s David Coggins’ interview with Michael Hainey over at A Continuous Lean:

DC: Did you see the Joseph Mitchell piece last week in the New Yorker?

MH: The lost story—yes.

DC: Last week they had a panel with David Remnick talking to Ian Frazier and Mark Singer and Mitchell’s biographer, who’s quite interesting. And they talked about Mitchell as a writer who’s on the street, who’s connected to the city, who understands the details of the people who live in the city. He would go to the Fulton Fish Market and walk up to the Bronx. The idea of a reporter was about going into the world and observing. It feels like such a different generation. There are a lot of those qualities in your book.

MH: Yes, it’s about reporting. I say this to the young generation at GQ. I learned this from one of my mentors, an editor in Chicago, and he said you’re never going to be a writer if you can’t be a reporter. I worked at this small magazine in Chicago right after college. It had a staff of four. I did everything: I answered phones, I fact-checked, I wrote captions. One day I was sitting there and he walked in and said, “What are you doing here? For the next four weeks I want you out there. I don’t care if you go to the zoo or ride a bus or sit in a diner but I want you to come back at 3 o’clock and I want you to write 800 words about what you did that day. What you saw.” I had from three to four to write it. We were still writing on typewriters and he would edit it for me. It was fantastic training.

It’s so true what you say about Mitchell, you have young people at the office. I ask them about a detail and they “Well, I Googled it.” And I say “Did you at least call and ask David Coggins if it has two G’s?” I think my book is vibrant in many places because I went out and reported it. I went to McCook, Nebraska and went to a small town in Kentucky to meet Natty Bumppo.

Hainey’s new book, After Visiting Friends looks like a good one.

Here’s another interview with Hainey over at GQ.

MSNBC has an excerpt from the book; Vanity Fair has another.

And now, for something completely different…

Weren’t expecting that…were you?

[Painting by Ger Eikendal]

Photograph By Dorothea Lange (via Je Suis Perdu)

This could be good.

The latest Mega Mix from my pal Ill Chemist.

This 15-minute jam features: The Supremes, Devo, Jimmie Lunceford and his Orchestra, Yul Brynner, Ennio Morricone, Brian Eno, Led Zep, The Meters, Boz Scaggs, The Beatles, Harry Belafonte, ELO, James Brown, and more…Remarkable.

Food 52 gives Roberto Santibanez’ classic guacamole.

[Photo Credit: Young and Whatever]

Thanks to Matt B for pointing this out:

Picture by Bags.

Remember?

Here is a classic short by Helen Whitney about a day in the life of the Baltimore Sun circa 1976. Newsroom was loud back when…and smokey.

[Featured Image Via: The New York Times]

Food 52 Says: Eat Your Beans.

Flavorwire has links to 10 Oscar-Winning Short Films.

Painting by Mark Rothko.

I was alone, I took a ride…

[Picture by Bags]

When I worked as an intern on Ken Burns’ Baseball documentary I had the occasion to drive to New Hampshire one day with him. Just the two of us. I played him a few songs I wanted him to hear–from the Pharcyde, I think it was–and then he said, “I want to play you something special.”

He put a cassette in the tape deck and turned me on to Marvin Gaye’s version of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” performed thirty years ago at the NBA All-Star game.

Over at Grantland, Pete Croatto explains why it stands alone.

Go here to read some of the Good Doctor’s writing.

Food 52 shows us how to make Harissa at home.

Richard Diebenkorn. Early Fifties.