Alex Rodriguez concedes. 

[Photo Credit: Mike Stobe/Getty Images

The 1965 Playboy Interview with the Beatles. 

Dig in.

Picture via Aberrant Beauty. 

Oh, man. Kottke delivers with this post on how to buy olive oil. It stars Tom Mueller who wrote an absorbing book about olive oil (birthday gift from mom).

I use a basic Fairway brand for cooking and then have a couple of nicer ones for more delicate things like salads. Frantoia does me right though I’m far from an expert.

Nope, you’re eyes do not deceive you, we are back with yet another Where & When.  It’s been a rather tight few weeks for me, but here I am popping in for a minute with another challenge for you to tackle.  I’ve been sifting through a number of sources for interesting photos that are also large enough to post; that’s been an issue for me because there are quite a few pictures I would like to use, but they are just too darn small.  I’ll finagle with Adobe Illustrator when I have time so that I can resize the small ones without pixelation, but in the meantime let your eyes fly over this fancy:

The city seems to have a a long love affair with fire escapes, and this was certainly no exception.  I feel this one’s distinctive enough to come up with the answer fairly quick, so your job is to find out the address of this building and the date the year the pic was taken (that will be surprisingly easy as well), and also tell us if you can how long the building has or had existed (year built, how old it is now or when it was shut down/demolished) .  Bonus points if you know anything about the photographer(!)

As usual, show us how you came to your answers. Your favorite brand of hot cocoa in a giant mug if you are the first with the answers, a nice cup of tea for us stragglers and a cookie for the bonus.  I will be in and out through the day, but I’ll be studying so please forgive me for not getting back right away.  No peeking at the photo credit and feel free to answer and discuss in the comments.  Have fun folks, see you later in the day!

[Photo credit: Read Media]

I just read on Twitter that Ralph Kiner has died. Salute.

Afflictor is a site worth book-marking. Here’s a recent post on a 1958 BBC conversation between Ian Fleming and and Raymond Chandler.

Hefty…

[Photo Via: Ann Street Studio]

“Chair with Bowl and Towel” by Roger Fry (1917-18)

Over at ESPN, Wallace Matthews and Andrew Marchand take a look at the Yankees’ weakness for drafting and developing talent. 

[Photo Credit: Edward Linsmier for The New York Times]

The Tramp.

What if the winter Olympics were in New York?

From the excellent Fairfield Writer’s blog check out these two long appreciations of Elmore Leonard. They are packed with goodies.

Part One.

Part Two.

Coolin’.

You know it’s bad when cars in midtown are sliding all over the place, or just getting stuck. But that’s how it is today in Manhattan. It ain’t pretty.

More snow due this weekend.

Which all just sets us up for a beautiful spring!

[Photo Credit: Robert Sabo/N.Y. Daily News]

“Still Life” by Maurice de Vlaminck (1905)

April Bloomfield’s English Porridge is damn good.  I’ve made it often this winter.

David Waldstein has the story for the Times:

Other major league teams have had as many as three Japanese players on the roster at the same time, and one — the Boston Red Sox — even briefly had four. But none have had the prestigious group the Yankees now has. As a result, the entourage of Japanese news media trailing the Yankees in 2014 could be a record-setter.

When Darvish joined the Texas Rangers in 2012, he was met at their spring training facility by about 150 reporters, the overwhelming majority of them from Japan, according to John Blake, the Rangers’ executive vice president for communications. And when Darvish arrived, the Rangers already had Koji Uehara and Yoshinori Tateyama on their roster. But only Darvish was a star.

The Yankees, in contrast, were already attracting a great deal of attention from the Japanese news media because Suzuki and Kuroda are such prominent players, with Suzuki almost surely headed to the Hall of Fame. Adding to the Japanese interest in the Yankees is the simple fact they are the most famous baseball team in the world and that Hideki Matsui played in the Bronx from 2003 to 2009.

[Photo Credit: Emily Veach for The Wall Street Journal]

I haven’t read much by George Saunders but I have read many interviews with him and think he’s really wonderful, the kind of guy I’d like to know.

Here is a “personal history” essay he wrote back in 2003 for the New Yorker:

There comes that phase in life when, tired of losing, you decide to stop losing, then continue losing. Then you decide to really stop losing, and continue losing. The losing goes on and on so long you begin to watch with curiosity, wondering how low you can go.

[Photo Credit: Satoki Nagata]

We need a laugh.