Doing rather than having

Long-time readers will no doubt recall, and wisely continue to use, the UaKS guide to better holiday gift giving through science, in which we discussed a few principles for giving better gifts so as to avoid the "deadweight loss of Christmas." Although it was not one of the three numbered principles in the UaKS guide, we did mention that "recipients actually tend to derive more happiness from experiential gifts (like UVA basketball tickets or a dinner out), which have the added benefit of anticipating the event as well as experiencing it."

 

I recently read a terrific review paper from 2022 by Amit Kumar which goes into more detail as to why experiential purchases (for yourself and others) provide a "brighter path."[1] Essentially, experiential purchases give greater satisfaction than buying material goods before, during, and after the event/purchase.

Take care of the golf balls first

This isn’t the Index Card of Fatherly Wisdom™, but it’s worth the three minute reminder on keeping your priorities straight.

 

Smell-o-Vision

 

 

You know how much I love to quote Emeril Lagasse whenever I find a dish that's so flavorful "you could put it on a bumper and it would taste good," or that some dishes are a "food of love thing." One Emerilism I haven't gotten to yet is how he would complain about the limitations of a TV cooking show: “Oooh! I can’t wait till we get Smell-o-Vision so you can smell this at home!”

Outsourcing my blog, episode VII: Dump and bake

[Here is Cassie's first guest post. Thanks all for helping to keep UaKS new and interesting.]

 

JC and I recently watched “Easy-Bake Battle” on Netflix, and I learned about the glorious “dump and bake.” The beauty of the dump and bake is that you put all of your ingredients into one pan, stir, and then put it in the oven for a while. We’re always on the lookout for easy, low-effort meals that we can throw together after a long work day using our last functioning brain cell.

 

Not only is this dish seriously delicious, but it couldn’t possibly be any easier. I mean really, who wouldn’t want to enjoy all the benefits of pasta without having to even boil pasta? Plus, Dad’s favorite benefit—there’s enough time to clean your dishes while it cooks. By “dishes,” I mean your knife, cutting board, and cheese grater, because that’s all this recipe produces!

 

You can be right or you can be married

In Episode 485, I relayed a favorite bit of relationship wisdom I had then recently heard: "When you disagree with a smart person, you are wrong 50% of the time." But now I've run across a corollary (superseding principle?) that is even better. Best of all, it comes from Terry Real,[1] a therapist [2] and author who Mom is a huge fan of, so there's no arguing with this one. Here it is:

You can be right or you can be married. 

Episode 500: Back where it all began

There is a well-named handmade pasta shop in the Wedgewood neighborhood of Seattle called, simply, La Pasta: “The Pasta.” 

Inside the shop there is another, equally beautiful, sign next to which is hand lettered in chalk “CHI MANGIA BENE VIVE BENE.” This is the Italian philosophy of life summarized in five words: “Who eats well lives well.”

UaKS goes global

 

Once in a blue moon I check the stats for UaKS to see just how irrelevant I am as a blogger. I've been doing this for over ten years now. As of today, the sum total of my "All Time" pageviews is 114,494, or about 915 per month since October of 2015. But every once in a while there's a huge spike in the numbers, for reasons that cannot be explained, as UaKS has certainly never had an episode go viral to my knowledge. As you can see below, this March has been one of those spiky months, with 5.5K pageviews in the last 30 days, with 1,580 views just on March 13 and 14.