HBO’s new series Boardwalk Empire promises to spin a juicy yarn about Prohibition and the rise of Atlantic City. While I found the premiere underwhelming, I find the ’20s and Prohibition an endlessly intriguing chapter in American history, so I’m going to give it a chance to rope me in…Also it was filmed in my former stomping grounds (Greenpoint, Brooklyn), so I feel a certain sense of kinship to the show. I also intend to pick up Daniel Okrent’s book about Prohibition, Last Call, since truth is stranger (and to me, usually more interesting) than fiction. On that note, this Common Review article, “Empire and Alcohol: A Brief Survey,” on the intersection of booze and power (in the U.S. but also Russia and Cuba) as well as the history of “intolerant temperance” in America, is illuminating. It includes a succinct overview of how we became a country where “sixteen-year-olds are trusted to handle firearms and drive, and eighteen-year-olds are trusted to vote and to die in the service of their country,” but college students must sneak beer. (Poor quality beer at that, if it’s domestic and mass-produced—also a result of Prohibition’s 13-year set-back.) Read on… »

Seki is a small city in the center of Japan, famous since the 13th century for their blades–first swords, now knives. (They also have a memorable city slogan: “Twinkling, Sparkling and Trembling with Joy.”) Japanese knives are considered by many cooks the very best, due to their sharpness and quality. Go directly to the source, and you are sure to find the knife of your dreams. And hey, swing by the Sweet Potatoes Fair or the Pickles Fair while you’re at it…

What: Seki Cutlery Festival

Where: Seki, Japan

When: October 9-10, 2010

Contact the Seki Sightseeing Association for info: +81-575-22-3131

Emily Farris has been hosting this annual casserole cook-off and party in Brooklyn for six years and Kansas City, MO (her homestate) for two; her cookbook, Casserole Crazy, came out in 2008 and is a must-have for the hot-dish-lovers out there. I was lucky enough to attend the Casserole Party in 2008, and it was a melted-cheese extravaganza!

When: Monday, October 25, 2010

Where: The Brooklyn Kitchen

100 Frost St., Brooklyn, NY

For entry rules and up to date info, go to casserolecrazy.com.

There’s a scene at the beginning of the 1989 movie Sex, Lies, & Videotape where the Andie MacDowell character is in therapy; when asked to talk about what’s been on her mind, she says “garbage.” Where it all goes, how much there is, how it just keeps coming … Now, there’s little to nothing from Sex, Lies & Videotape that I would say I “relate to,” but getting worked up over garbage, that’s been a lifelong issue. Especially plastic. It’s in the ocean and turtles eat it. It never fully disintegrates. It’s made out of petroleum. Now we learn it’s full of biosphenol-A and probably gives us diseases.

Andie’s therapist (wisely) concludes that she obsesses about “negative things she has no control over” as some sort of avoidance mechanism, but when it comes to plastic, you do actually have some control. You can use less of it, impossible though that may seem in the age of extreme-packaging. At the website Life Without Plastic, you can stock up on everything from stainless steel ice cube trays to glass straws and plastic-free bottle brushes. At Reuseit.com, you will find oodles of  shopping bags in every shape and color, along with a bamboo spork (!), cotton produce bags, and these adorable velcro-sealed cotton snack bags.

Incidentally, Dianne Feinstein (D, CA) has argued for an amendment to the pending Food Safety and Modernization Act that would ban biosphenol-A from children’s food and beverage containers. Of course, BPA is everywhere, not just in sippy cups—and we grownups should probably start paying attention.