Pie Talk #9: Kugel

I recorded this on Good Friday, a day before a Lyft driver celebrating Ramadan drove me to a Passover dinner. And I finish these notes on Easter morning. “Christos Anesti,” as my (half) Greek mother would say. Tis the season of renewal and I hope for you and yours.

As you will hear, I’d originally recorded a Pie Talk segment before dawn, while sitting on a dock on Albemarle Sound in the Outer Banks, NC. Would I link a video here, of moonlight sparkling on the water, as I said I would in the audio? I would, but alas, I posted it on Twitter (and also here!), and you are likely aware of the Civil War-in-a-teacup Elon Musk (and/or whomever is making exec decisions) last week decided to wage on Substack, over their roll-out of Notes. One of the upshots? No linking.

I have a lot of thoughts on this, some of which Matt Welch and I recorded for a regular Smoke ‘Em episode that will drop in a day or so. Until then, I will say I agree with Ben Dreyfuss, and also, that Twitter has become an un-fun party

Fine, I admit it. Elon Musk is ruining Twitter.

Is it possible Musk et al will make another flash decision and loosen things up? Sure. (Season of renewal!) Until then, the embargo offers opportunity, I can right quick think of four: post clips to my YouTube and/or Vimeo channel; jump onto whatever new video embedding feature Substack will offer (which I imagine will be dropping in 4… 5…) or, a suggestion of Matt’s, revivify some sort of differently-oriented presence on Facebook, a platform I pretty much abandoned in the mid-aughts because it had become for me… an un-fun party. While this all rolls on, check out Notes. A bunch of us were beta testers and I found it to be like Twitter without the shoutiness. I believe the only barrier to Notes is being a Substack creator or a follower of any Substack feed, like this one. Have fun!

Onto my first-ever kugel, a car bought with Bitcoin, a bagel hideaway on the Lower East Side, and a podcaster holding a baby captive. Happy Passover/Easter/Ramadan everyone!