Pizza by Sarah Jampel

What are you up to this weekend? We are going to a dinner party at a food writer’s apartment tonight, and I’m always curious to see what people serve. (I’ll report back!) Hope you have a good one, and here are a few links from around the web…

Made me laugh.

What life was like before the Internet. “Before the Internet, you could laze around on a park bench in Chicago reading some Dean Koontz, and that would be a legit thing to do.” (The New Yorker)

10 cozy vegetarian dinners you can have on the table in less than 30 minutes.

Aidy Bryant being awesome.

Pretty top for spring days.

What would be in your hospital bag for labor? “Arguably there is no better metaphor for a woman’s last grasp at self-perception before an infant than the hospital bag. Misguided, optimistic, generous, cautious — it all gets packed.”

Eating the same meal every day.

A love story: “Would we ever be together again?” (NYT)

Fun math shortcut: If calculating 4% of 75 is giving you trouble, just do 75% of 4 and it’ll give you the same answer.

How I would cover the college admissions scandal as a foreign correspondent.” (NYorker)

Plus, two reader comments:

Says Robyn on email sign-offs: “My dad signs all his texts. Once my brother and I got a message from our dad that WASN’T SIGNED. We immediately noticed and couldn’t resist replying, ‘Sorry, who is this?’ To which he obviously replied, ‘Dad. Dad.’ It still makes me smile when I think about it. He has reliably signed every text since.”

Says Claire on email sign-offs: “I have this quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson as part of my email signature. I forget it’s on there, but recipients often tell me it was just the thing they needed to read: ‘Finish every day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities crept in. Forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; you should begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.'”

Finally, most important, here are a few ways to help victims of the New Zealand shooting. Thank you so much for reading.

(Photo by Sarah Jampel. Hospital bag and same meal via Hither & Thither. Math shortcut via Kottke.)