John Gottman, one of the foremost experts on human relationships, would agree with Arthur Brooks in this video:

Eye-rolling, using sarcasm, scoffing, belittling: all bad unless you want to be alone… or in a weird liminal space.

Michael Tsai’s article on the iPad Mini has really been hanging with me since I read it–I like the “lean into” it angle he’s pushing, after so much trying to bend the OS (or me) into being something it isn’t.

It’s better to lean into what it’s good at. For years, Apple tried to resist the idea of an iPad as an iPhone with a larger screen. But the apps have trended in that direction, and I think that’s actually not a bad way to think of it. It’s actually what a lot of people want.
There’s a lot to like about using the iPad as it is, especially if you like to write notes. I’m much more casual about tossing the pen on the end table or nightstand when I don’t need it, or tucking it behind my ear. Even the largest models beg to be used naked in one hand.

For those of us in the US, tomorrow is Memorial Day, which commemorates persons in military service who perished in the line of duty. Aaron leaves for Disney tomorrow, so we’re not doing anything out of the ordinary, save for not going to work. Lots of BBQs going on.
Anyway, here are some things for your consideration:

Hidden Sands Brewing

Rhonda and I gave up the usual winery visit for a quick pint during an emergent errand. Drinking at the facility is not an expansive Tonewood-like experience; it’s a more industrial, out-of-the-way spot. We both enjoyed the beer, and the Porter is not to be fucked with. Like really good homebrew in a basement bar vibes.

The location itself reminded me of Slack Tide Brewing Company. They’re both little industrial spots off of historic Route 9. We stopped there on a lark with the kids years ago while on vacation in Ocean City, NJ.

The Martinez

I whipped up an intermezzo between our pints and dinner last night. The Martinez is gin and sweet vermouth, which in our case is Bombay and Antica. You could riff endlessly on this combo. I didn’t have maraschino liqueur, but I did use a little cherry juice.

AC Sub Rolls

I don’t prefer these to the more classic semolina roll or chewy Italian that you would get at a lot of sandwich shops around here. I do, however, appreciate the variety. My first try some years ago wasn’t favorable; I found it kinda gluey in my mouth. But successive tries have been more favorable. Again, I wouldn’t choose an AC roll over a reliably good hoagie roll, but it’s a fun switch. They do offer good structure to a sandwich. They tend to be more narrow, making for a smaller (or just thinner but longer) sandwich.

We have four iPhones in the house, and a family Apple One account. This means we can all listen to most any song, at a whim.

Yet: Aaron is a vinyl kid. He’s been collecting records. He has a record player. He goes to record shops. Tonight, on the way home from dinner, we went to Wall to Wall Sound and Videoat his behest. This expansive museum to a bygone era is named, most purposefully, after a now-defunct audio chain I frequented. I had a blast browsing the stacks, and would have absolutely purchased the debut Danzig album, were it in stock.

I really need to listen to Madonna’s True Blue record again. It has nothing to do with my taste in music now or even in the last 40 years, but I had a cassette as a kid and I listened to it constantly on my Walkman. It was the soundtrack to my walk to the bus stop each morning in second or third grade. I suspect I’d enjoy it today. And one time, I remember the section of “White Heat” where there’s a gunshot in the audio, played immediately when my grandfather started his car, and it scared the crap out of him. We had a good laugh over it.

I’d be lying if the suds were exclusive to today. Rhonda and I found ourselves near Hidden Sands Brewery on an unrelated mission and completely by happenstance, and so we stopped for a few pints. Rhonda tried an IPA; I fancied a pilsner and porter. Both of mine were excellent but boy did we both love the porter: roasty and quaffable. Really good.

Friday I stopped to grab a crowler (or two) at 13th Child Brewery in Williamstown. I’ve driven by it many times but it doesn’t open until 5 until late in the week, so I haven’t been able to stop in. I got two crowlers, and took the barkeep’s suggestion that I have something while I waited. So I had a pilsner.

Matthew Weber:

I really think everyone should give RSS a revisit. It’s better than using a news app since you get to curate it yourself, and it’s better than visiting sites one at a time. It makes consuming content so much more enjoyable, that it’s hard to live without.

RSS May Be the Best Invention Ever

Early this month, Joe Kissel delighted Mac nerds with specific email requirements about the upcoming launch of MailMaven, a power-user-focused email application for the Mac that reaffirms SmallCubed’s dedication to managing email on the Mac.

I’m hoping to write something more complete once I’ve had time with MailMaven, but I thought it would be fun to share things as I discover them. I’ve been using MailMaven regularly for about five days after first installing it; it’s still undeniably in beta, but the latest builds (I’m using build 5958 for this post) have been usable.

Smart Folders

The first feature I look for in an email client is Smart Folders: they are how I set up my email clients in my own particular preference, which I’ve written about before. A quick summary of how I manage email:
– A folder showing today’s inbox contents;
– A folder showing yesterday’s inbox;
– A folder showing this week’s inbox ;
– A folder showing last week’s inbox.

Some great examples of Smart Folder support are MailMate and Apple’s own Mail. Spark, especially on the Mac, used to be good at Smart Folders, too, but things have changed since version two. (If you’re interested, they still kinda work on iPad and iOS, but they break all the time and you have to delete the old one and craft anew.)

Once a message is archived or moved from a Smart Folder to another folder, it’s not something I see unless I search for it. I try to keep these folders pruned so older messages don’t pile up. It’s aspirational.

Happily, MailMaven supports Smart Folders. For my use case, I can create account-specific smart folders that fit the bill, so this checks off the Smart Folders box for me. It too supports compound rules, so I am able to combine my iCloud and personal Gmail accounts into “home” smart folders, and then a separate set for work. I like it.

It’s so handy having both accounts available so readily, in an app I’m likely running all day (for work email), that I’ve managed to prune down the last week’s home email attentively. I realized how much unsolicited email I’m getting (and subscriptions to newsletters and headlines and t-shirts and health suggestions) that I unsubscribed to a lot of it. I was not in this habit at all, as the home email solutions I’ve been using (Spark on iOS and Mimestream on the Mac) don’t work as well–or as simply.

Finally downloaded Rocket for Mac. It’s a free utility that allows you to invoke an emoji picker just buy typing a colon (:) and the name of the emoji you’re looking for.

It’s very cool and works nicely. I don’t know that I need it; Launchbar effectively does this, and there is a keyboard shortcut for pulling up the emoji picker in macOS. I do both of those a lot. I’m going to leave Rocket running and see if it sticks.

A coworker surprised me when I got to work today with some sea bass her husband caught. Moments later, Rhonda texted me about what we were planning for dinner (I keep all that in AnyList). I mentioned the piscine windfall and we got to talking tacos.

Rhonda make a crema with mayo, lime juice, Greek yogurt, and avocado, as well as a mango salsa and a roasted corn and red pepper salsa. We had rice and beans too. Came out great.

I only recently discovered Bartender’s Menu Bar Item Groups, a feature that’s a mouthful but improves my experience using the utility. I used to have just enough menu bar items that just running Bartender vanilla was useful. But there are so many apps vying for menu bar real estate that Bartender started to lose its utility.

But Menu Bar Item Groups really clean things up.

Bartender Menu Bar Item Groups

Michael Tsai, echoing Steve Jobs’ infamous jab, “If you see a stylus, they blew it”:

To me, if you’re trying to use a keyboard with an iPad, you’ve failed. It’s better to lean into what it’s good at. For years, Apple tried to resist the idea of an iPad as an iPhone with a larger screen. But the apps have trended in that direction, and I think that’s actually not a bad way to think of it. It’s actually what a lot of people want.

For all the handwringing about the underpowered os running state-of-the-art Apple kit, it’s refreshing to consider using the device for what it is rather than wishing it would be something else. For all my own handwringing, I do delight from tapping a post into Ulysses on the naked glass from the sofa, as I am now, or completing my weekly review and populating my Unschedule for the week. I type with a weird mix of touch typing with my left hand, and hunt and peck using my right index finger. It’s slow and inaccurate but it feels different. I don’t want to use a keyboard all the time with an iPad.

But sometimes I do. I’m still excited about iPadOS 19.

In Praise of the iPad mini 7

Weather-wise, a wild week: Torrential rain on Friday, and quite possibly the most exquisite spring Saturday weather I can remember. Some unseasonably hot days prior.

Rhonda and I sat outside and had Sweet Amalia oysters with Aaron last night around six pm; I can’t remember feeling quite so blissed out, with the warm waning sun lighting up the small lot on historic US 40, the wine, the food, and the company. I reflected on how lucky we were to spend a glorious afternoon at Bellview Winery soaking in the day’s after-the-flood warm, dry weather. And things only improved from there. It was one of those moments where I waxed ecstatic about living in the weird interstitial region that we do: rural, poor, blessed with amazing produce and wine and some niche spots worth exploring. Wide-open skies and a short hike to the beach or one of the nation’s best restaurant towns.

I can’t complain.

Rhonda’s Green Thumb

We had some fried eggs this morning for breakfast, a plan we’d hatched the night before because there were enough asparagus stalks coming up in the garden to make it worth our while. We didn’t have bacon, which is usually the breakfast situation: we’ll get three pounds of bacon at the butcher, and keep it around for about as many weeks. We don’t always eat it all, but it usually works out.

Rhonda mentioned the asparagus and suggested that it would be good with fried eggs in lieu of bacon, which was a sound idea. The asparagus from our back yard is tender, mild, and lacks the flavor profile so many find objectionable in the venerable stalk. I have grown into an adult who loves asparagus from a child who hated it. My remembrances of it were mushy with an off-flavor, a kind of cabbage-y heat that made me similarly dislike Brussels sprouts. Perhaps the culinary revolution that occurred in the mid- to late-90s helped improve the preparation of heretofore loathsome side dishes. ‘Cause I love Brussels sprouts now, too.

So I stabbed the gooey yolks of my eggs with asparagus instead of bacon. The kale in the pic is from the garden as well; it does not grow in abundance, but I’m always able to add a handful to my salad each day.

NYT App and NYT Audio

I was check the New York Times app Wednesday morning and saw a link to a story, “Why Boys and Men Are Floundering, According to Relationship Therapist Terry Real.” It offered a “listen” feature, which I clicked and listened to. It was a feature of the Times app I had seen before, as with Apple News, but never tried. It was a great listening experience, as it uses AVAudioSession (I think) to play the audio even after the phone locks and the display dims.

The Times on Safari links to their own NYT Audio podcast app; writing about the app proper’s audio support above led me to it. I had already installed it some time ago on my iPhone 🤦‍♂️ but never used it. I logged in and I’m ready to go. Very nice. I spit the audio out to my HomePod mini in my office while I prepped lunches for the week and wrestled the frozen turkey breast into the sous vide machine. One criticism: the app was playing its version of Facebook’s Reels or YouTube’s Shorts upon launching the app and the audio of the podcast I was listening to.

iPadOS 19

These are leaks/rumors, but the word is that iPadOS will take some much-desired steps towards more Mac-like functionality. I’m excited about a persistent menu bar when the iPad is connected to a keyboard. I’d really like to see a clipboard manager, too.

Vermont Lonza

This prosciutto-like meat was a welcome pairing with our other Appyhour cheeses and Sunday spritzes. Very lean, not terribly salty, with a nice chew. I paired a slice with black pepper asiago from Bagliani’s and it was great.

I’ve featured Sweet Amalia’s excellent oysters here on Uncorrected before. They sell them in restaurants in the region, but they have a market in nearby Newfield, too, which is unassuming but adorable and also serves great chew.

On our most recent visit, they had their signature oysters on the menu and available (it sounds strange, but the Market & Kitchen doesn’t always serve their own oysters–the homebrew mollusk is so popular that the supply is exhausted provisioning restaurants). So when they are in fact on the menu, I’m compelled to order them.

Of course, Sweet Amalia oysters are the stars of the show. This best-selling menu item is personally plucked from the ocean and harvested by hand by Calvo and her team. These medium-sized, round, lusciously plump oysters, reminiscent of glistening pearls, are bursting with flavor—a delicate balance of cream and brine. Their uniformity in shape and size speaks to Calvo’s dedication to their quality and freshness.

How a Tiny, Unassuming NJ Oyster Stand Became a National Seafood Sensation

Rhonda and I had the mussels too and some fries (they come with an aioli or mayo), too, and brought a bottle of Hawk Haven’s excellent dry rosé. Big watermelon flavor, to my mixed delight and horror.

I ducked into the kitchen last night to grab some fruit, and realized that the watermelon stash was getting low. There was still a half watermelon upstairs, so I grabbed it from the fridge and started cutting it up.

My particular approach to cutting watermelon is: quarter the melon, run the knife between the flesh and the rind to separate a big wedge of red deliciousness, and then slide downward from the apex to the base. I then throw these big chunks into a container for later munching.

This sometimes leads to ribbons of what I endearingly refer to as “water melon sashimi”: there is red flesh attached to the rind, which I slice off and often eat while I’m standing there hacking up the rest of the melon.

Well.

Last night, I took a big roll of the sashimi and chucked it in my mouth. I didn’t really chew it. It just kinda slid down. And it got stuck.

The watermelon didn’t cover my trachea, so I was able to breathe normally and talk and everything else. But my body was in fight or flight mode, and it wasn’t a minor annoyance: it was uncomfortable and unsettling. I tried drinking some water and even a hot beverage, at Rhonda’s suggestion. But we decided to go to the ER.

You don’t ever want to go to the ER, but you really don’t want to decide it’s necessary at 9 pm on a weeknight, either. It was pretty crowded. The PA who saw me had me take three meds: Lidocaine, something with magnesium in it, and a third medication that I can’t remember. They were going to do an x-ray as well.

I took the meds and sipped on a ginger ale I got out of the vending machine (while loathe to consume ultra-processed soft drinks normally, in the calculus of choking vs ginger ale, ginger ale will win every time), and in short order I felt the melon slide down. The discomfort receded, and I was back in action. Much to Rhonda’s chagrin, my impish sense of humor returned almost immediately, and I resumed my normal practice of skylarking.

So yeah, the moral of the story is to chew your food. Even watermelon. It too can get stuck on the way down, despite its manifest slipperiness. Live and learn.