Saw a black bear once when I was visiting the Rocky mountains a few summers ago. It was just hanging out eating berries at the edge of the woods beside the parking lot at one of the national parks.

Most of the people just watched or took pictures from a respectful distance. I was delighted to have the opportunity to see a bear in the wild in a (mostly) safe way. I did look around to make sure there was somebody I could outrun, though. You don’t have to outrun the bear…

Big carnivores mostly want nothing to do with people and I think we should leave them alone as much as possible. Sometimes they learn behaviour that makes them dangerous to innocent people (e.g. if somebody feeds them) and being a danger to innocent people is really the only reason I can think of that would justify killing them. There have to be better ways to deal with carnivores attacking livestock and such.

I was in traffic 30 minutes away from home when the 2003 blackout started. That was a long drive home.

Grains of Paradise are my archaic pepper of choice. They have a bit of tartness to them.

I haven’t seen this one mentioned yet: Chef’s Press. They’re interlocking stainless steel weights.

I was a bit nervous buying them as they aren’t cheap and I wasn’t sure how often I would use them but they’ve proved to be one of my most used kitchen gadgets. I use them a few times a week.

They’re great for keeping steaks in contact with the pan when searing or keeping bacon from curling up. I use them to weigh things down in water for thawing or cooking in the sous vide cooker. They’re good for pressing cheese or tofu.

They have built-in handles that make them easy to pick up, stack, and interlock.

They’re dishwasher safe.

Perfectly designed for their job.

Measure by mass. Actually, that’s the solution to many cooking problems.