The Weekly Wrap: November 23, 2025

One surprising thing about parenting is how many interesting people we've met. I expected to make new “parent friends” after our daughter was born, but I didn’t realize just how much the kiddo would expand our social circle.

She’s the kind of kid who befriends anyone willing to play with her. She bounces from friend to friend, which means we end up talking with all kinds of adults we’d never have met otherwise. Plus, in a very “only in DC” twist, she somehow keeps befriending the kids of diplomats. We've now met folks from Scandinavia, Germany, Spain, Catalonia, Brazil, and Afghanistan.

We just spent a Friendsgiving with a remarkable group of people from all different backgrounds. This is a fringe benefit of parenting I didn't expect but will continue to love.

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• The problem and persistence of pennies. [The Atlantic - gift link]
• A fungus that eats radiation? [Forbes - may be paywalled]
• Be the twinkle. [enJOY]
• I've been saying it for years, Notre Dame was on to something with this marketing campaign. [WaPo - gift link]
• What an incredible part of nature to witness. [PetaPixel]

• I love a conversation that's all about just letting people read whatever they damn well want. [Culture Study]
• Making more kinds of apples. [Short Wave]
• The drama of tariffs. [Planet Money]
• Moving people. [99% Invisible]
• How a grocery store helped end the Soviet Union. [Very Special Episodes]
• The hidden story of camo. [Articles of Interest]

• The individual recipes here are not my style, but I love the idea. [dtdinners]

• Cheesy gnocchi skillet might have been the closest I've come to recreating the marvelous gnocchi dish I had in Sorrento. This one adds spinach, but the vibe of the dish was the same. I opted to bake the gnocchi instead of boil which kept the texture a bit firmer. [Budget Bytes]
• This was a clean out the fridge week since we're travelling. For lunch, I made myself cucumber sandwiches. I just spread cream cheese on each slice of bread, sprinkled one side with Everything But the Bagel seasoning, and layered in some sliced cucumbers. Very high tea. Very tasty. [Trader Joe's]