I’m ready for pizzagate
Chandy Dancey
When people discuss the nuances of pizza, it’s often over the toppings, and for good reason — what you put on the pizza defines it. But I’m not interested in such petty drama. The conversation that really needs to be had is what temperature pizza tastes best at, and I have come to preach the gospel: it only tastes good hot or cold. Maybe it’s just my taste buds, but lukewarm pizza is almost tasteless. Where is the complex array of flavours? The pizza palate is muddied by the sudden lack of distinct tastes. There’s even science behind how the temperature of a food can change its flavour profile. Ham, for instance, is saltier when cold — which is yummy — and more savoury while hot — which is also yummy. (Notice that there’s very little discussion of any flavour being improved by eating it lukewarm.) So, while you won’t catch me eating a slice of pizza at a mild temperature, it’s food for thought that temperature can noticeably affect your eating experience.
No more train ride home
Steve Hartwig
The Paper Kites’ song, “On the Train Ride Home,” instantly brought me into a state of realization. The rush-hour train ride or commute is gone — hopefully, with some permanence. I know COVID-19 has severely impacted many lives, but to be free from the drudgery of commuting is an unspoken benefit. Walking up onto station platforms and following lines of drowsy, dreary people day after day sucks the life right out of you. With COVID-19, we have new lines to wait in, but I don’t see the drudgery that I’ve experienced in the past.
I get to enjoy the warmth of my home office and all the distractions that come with it. I’ll admit it takes more discipline to work from home, and trying to stay focused with child-related interruptions and the World Junior Hockey Championships on TV is a big challenge. But not the kinds of challenges a cold, wet, two-hour commute brings.
For sale: drawings of fruit, never put on the fridge
Mikaela Collins
I am bad at eating food. Specifically, I’m bad at eating produce because produce generally has to be stored in cool, dark places, which means that it can’t be spread across every surface in the kitchen for me to survey at all times. And, since I have the memory God gave a goldfish, this means that I forget it’s there until it’s liquefying at the back of the crisper drawer. Cucumbers, apples, celery, spinach, carrots, and even my most coveted strawberries have long languished behind the impenetrable mental barrier that is my refrigerator door.
Then, by chance, I saw a video on Facebook about how to fix this exact problem: put pictures of what you have on the outside of the fridge! It seemed like a perfect solution, and I immediately sat down to make two dozen lovingly illustrated cards showing different fruits, vegetables, and other perishables. When they were finished and the paint was dry, I cleaned out my fridge, tucked my cards safely in the cutlery drawer, and went to the grocery store, the victor of my ongoing battle against poor object permanence.
That was six months ago.
You’ll never guess what I just found in my cutlery drawer.
News need-to-knows
Carissa Wiens
Recently, I’ve retired my Instagram and Facebook accounts because I was getting exhausted from being angry at humanity. One thing I was expecting was to feel light as a feather without having to continuously view the troubles of the world (along with overly edited photos from influencers popping up in my explore feed). But I was not expecting to be totally out of the loop like I’ve now been for over a month.
It turns out that I receive a large amount of my news and current events knowledge through social media. I’m not saying that’s a good thing, but it’s just the way it is.
In order to learn more about the world around me I opened up a few news sites yesterday. Did you know that American Republicans are still fighting to overturn the election? And that a bunch of MLAs in Canada travelled outside of the country during the holidays? How about the new strain of COVID-19?
The world is so terrifying and insane that I’m thinking about never opening up the New York Times or CBC websites ever again — or at least take another month-long break from it.
(Rain Neeposh/The Cascade)
Chandy is a biology major/chemistry minor who's been a staff writer, Arts editor, and Managing Editor at The Cascade. She began writing in elementary school when she produced Tamagotchi fanfiction to show her peers at school -- she now lives in fear that this may have been her creative peak.
Steve is a third-year BFA creative writing/visual arts student who’s been a contributing writer, staff writer and now an editor at The Cascade. He's always found stories and adventures but now has the joy of capturing and reporting them.
