Hello, and thanks for opening up The Cipher. There’s a new Funbag on the site today, plus all the great blogs below.
-Maitreyi
If Cool The Pan Be, A Lousy Breakfast For Thee
Albert shares his “hack” for frying and scrambling eggs without them sticking.
The Atlanta Hawks’ Magic City Night Was Too Misunderstood To Live
It’s only in times like these that the rest of the country gets a glimpse of how different Atlanta is, Israel writes.
My Coworkers Browbeat Me Into Drinking James Harden’s Wine
We browbeat Ray Ratto into drinking James Harden’s wine.
Three Things We Liked On The Internet Today
Andrew O’Hagan on Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor in the London Review of Books
404 Media’s video of a DOGE staffer trying to explain DEI
Casey Newton reviews Grammarly’s AI “expert review” feature
The Nest Has Chosen Her Spring Suitor
The past couple of weeks have been tumultuous for the nest that occupies my windowsill. The robins who themselves made the nest, or whose kin made it a few years ago, visited for a few days and inspected the nest. Then, a beautiful small red house finch investigated the nest's potentials and took it on a few dates (sat in it while it rained very heavily). Even a pigeon came to pay her respects and try to court the nest. It seemed that for the third spring in a row, the nest might change her partner! Good for her! It's important to try new options, and last year's bad girlfriend (the mourning dove) did not improve her at all, was too big for her space, and her baby's got poop all over my window. I had hope in my heart that the nest might be on a path to a brighter, happier partnership.
But I forgot that there is no riptide as powerful and irresistible as a past fling. After a few weeks of courting new suitors, the mourning dove returned. She immediately brought several sticks to the nest and haphazardly laid them on top. She did not integrate them into the nest. It was as though the sticks were a sad bunch of Kroger flowers, which the nest (because of past good feelings and being stupid) happily accepted with tears in her eyes.
The mourning dove and the nest are reunited. For how long, only time will tell.
-Kelsey McKinney
That’s That WBC Espresso
Italy’s World Baseball Classic team once again brought an espresso machine to their dugout, and Royals first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino has decided that the team’s home runs are to be celebrated with a shot of espresso. I will leave the merits of pod-based brewing for Italians to discuss—after some initial concerns that it was a Nespresso machine, the diehards on the r/espresso subreddit seem to think it’s a more acceptable Lavazza machine—but I must say I’m a little disappointed in their drinkware. They are downing their espresso from these flimsy paper cups! Let’s get some ceramics in that dugout! Maybe they can acquire some before they play Team USA tonight.
-Maitreyi
Photo: Alex Slitz/Getty Images