Rexfeng

Smash Bros. might be known for its random chaos, but that doesn't mean you can't own the stage with sheer skill. But to do that, you're going to have to know what you're doing.

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There is no need for you to get splinters, Eater is here to pull back the plywood and gaze into the future.

Astoria: Pizza cousins Francis Garcia and Sal Basille will bring the seventh outpost of their wildly popular chain Artichoke Basille Pizza to 31 Street in January 2015. They will take over the space formerly that housed 50-year-old institution Frankie’s Pizza, which shuttered back in October. [Plywood]

Midtown East: Teriyaki Boy will make a triumphant return to NYC, with a new location on Second Avenue and 44th Street. The cheap eats spot beloved by Midtown Lunchers had five locations at one time and was famous for their $3.99 lunch special. That deal won't be back, instead they will endeavor to make the "best chicken teriyaki in the country." [DNAInfo]

Lower East Side: The plywood is up at Soho House and the sounds of construction are apparently filling the street as the addition of a conservatory atop the building commences. The controversial project has survived assaults from both NIMBY's and preservationists. [BB]

Crown Heights: Crosby Coffee will open a doughnut shop tentatively called Elsie's at 1031 Bergen Street in January. Also in the 'hood a new coffee shop is coming to the corner of St. Johns Place and Rogers Avenue. [Brownstoner]

Cobble Hill: No one should hold their breath for the brick oven pizza and restaurant that has been threatening to open on 195 Smith street for at least two years. [Brownstoner]

Midtown West: The curiously named Kiabbaca will bring artisanal pizza and beer to 639 10th Avenue. [Plywood]

The latest Keurig 2.0 arrived with more than just a welcoming scent of coffee; it also came loaded with security measures to stop you using cheap coffee pods. While other manufacturers have already cracked the code , you can actually hack the machine yourself—and all you need is scissors and tape.

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The wolves of the original Don't Starve and the massive creatures in the Reign of Giants will now be joined by that most deadly of predators: man. Don't Starve Together, the multiplayer expansion to Klei Entertainment's runaway indie hit, will enter ...

The Bay Area needs another place for techies to hang out like it needs another tweetstorm, but we're in for more of both. Early next year, Menlo Park will be home to the Cuckoo's Nest, an invite-only play pen that already counts billionaire Mark Cuban and billionaire venture capitalist Tim Draper as members.

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Chick-Fil-A's expansion into Pasadena draws huge crowds.

People are out there just losing their goddamn minds over a national food chain again. This time, the culprit is Chick-Fil-A, the conservative-leaning Southern fried chicken sandwich emporium, which already enjoys a couple of outposts across the city, most notably in Hollywood.

As of today, there's a shiny new Chick-Fil-A open in Pasadena, located along Colorado Boulevard in what used to be a Burger King (ouch). And apparently, a whole bunch of insane determined fans of the brand have been lining up for days in anticipation. Of course, there's more at stake than just the quiet pride of knowing that you've left an indelible legacy on a fast food chain by being the first one in a given location to give them your money: the first 100 customers at any new Chick-Fil-A get free food for a year.

It's important to keep in mind that these aren't poor, underserved folks desperate to earn a full meal for 365 days in a row; it's mostly people with a lot of time on their hands. Look at this guy:

All that lining up has certainly helped to solidify Chick-Fil-A's presence in town, tucked right next to Pasadena City College. And for a handful of determined... sitters... it's earned them a bunch of fried chicken sandwiches. And if you're thinking about trying to catch a spot in line before the first hundred people show up to claim their free food, don't bother. Raffled tickets are given away days ago, and the first hundred through the door earned their prize around 6 a.m.

See, aren't you glad you stayed in bed?

Chick-Fil-A Pasadena
1700 E. Colorado Blvd.
Pasadena, CA 91106

Bot Potts, via M.A.D.Gallery

Working out of his one-man workshop inside a mid-19th century barn, artist Bob Potts (previously) builds wonderous kinetic sculptures that replicate the motions of birds, fish, or other natural motions. The 72-year-old artist utilizes hand-crafted gears, levers, cranks, and chains to create these minimalist pieces that are focused solely on motion rather than ornamentation. Each piece can consume nearly a year’s worth of labor in his upstate New York shop where he works without the aid of computer, instead relying on decades of carpentry and skills learned while collaborating with painter and sculptor George Rhoads.

You can learn much more about his work over at M.A.D.Gallery. The videos above were shot and edited by Bryan Root from Motherlode Pictures.

Dude is on a roll.

Harvard-educated Harvard professor Ben Edelman has now apologized for threatening legal action against Sichuan Garden for overcharging him $4, and now Boston.com, where four of the top five stories right now involve the academic, breaks the news to readers that he may have done something similar in 2010.

A now-closed sushi spot called Osushi apparently got an irate email offering "three distinct reasons" why Edelman's Groupon was valid on the prix fixe menu. The restaurant had originally stated the deal did not extend to the set menu, which apparently rankled Edelman, who fired off an email claiming that failure to honor his interpretation of the coupon as well as extend it for six additional weeks would force him to dedicate his valuable time to fighting Osushi's Common Victualler License and Alcoholic Beverage License.

If the latest batch of uncovered email exchanges are to be believed, owner Tim Panagopoulos was less tolerant than the Duan family. He replied that Harvard Business School would be hearing about Edelman's "negotiating tactics" and shut down all subsequent discussions.

"NONE of your requests will be met under any circumstance," Panagopoulos signed off, apparently after several emails and at least one phone call from Edelman. "As a matter of fact, you are NOT welcomed back … ever. We will in fact call the Boston Police department and have you escorted out for trespassing."

Related: A Harvard Professor Completely Lost It After Being Overcharged $4 for Chinese Food
[Boston.com]

Read more posts by Clint Rainey

Filed Under: rants, ben edelman, boston, news, overcharges

Pokémon: Type Wild isn't just any Pokémon fan game. It's a more intense, Street-Fighteresque take on the pocket monster series, and you should totally check it out if you haven't yet.

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If you are the kind of person who is both a color enthusiast and a masochist, this 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle of the full CMYK gamut was made for you. Each piece of the puzzle is made up of a single color, and your task is to place it in relation to all the other pieces.…

Advertisement: Harvest Forecast is a tool designed to plan your team’s time. Visualize schedules in Forecast and easily adjust them as needed. As new projects come in, you’ll know who’s available, and when to hire. Start scheduling with a free 30-day trial.

Perhaps it’s as simple as photos being more appealing to a broader audience than tweets. But I say part of Instagram’s success is that their interface is simpler, and the rules for what you see in your feed are like what Twitter’s used to be: a simple chronological list of posts from the people you choose to follow. Insert your own “Correlation is not causation” disclaimer here, but it seems to me that Twitter’s slowing growth corresponds pretty closely to its complexity increasing over the past few years.

Put another way: Instagram is clearly run by people who get what it is that makes Instagram a cool thing. Twitter seems run by people who just don’t get Twitter.

From a fascinating 1997 interview with Paul Thomas Anderson by Roger Ebert:

Q. Los Angeles is filled with people who want to direct films. They’re always asking, “How do I get started? What do I do?” You have somehow managed to negotiate a path to that point. What do you tell people who want to be directors?

A. That there is nothing else I can do, and nothing else I will do. “No” is not an option. I have to do this or I will die. I only get to direct because I can write - that’s the key. The scary thing is, if you can write, you hold a lot of cards. They’re starving for material. Starving.

Wow, the art of making marbled paper, a short film from 1970.

Charmingly British, just like the film about the Teddy Grays candy factory or the putter togetherer of scissors. Super cool how the inks are placed on a water bath, swirled expertly to make patterns, and then transferred to the paper. Also of note: the segment on the conservation of old books starting at around 9:55...I never knew they took them apart like that to dunk the pages in water! Sadly, the Cockerell Bindery ceased operation in the late 1980s with the death of Sydney Cockerell and its contents were sold at auction. (thx, matt)

Tags: books   how to   video

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When weighing the merits of fighters in the new Super Smash Bros., a crucial factor players consider is their unique "recovery" abilities. These are the special moves each character has to help them make it back to a stage after being knocked off. One player has come up with a clever way to experiment with them.

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Instagram now has a bigger active user base than Twitter, according to a blog post written today by CEO Kevin Systrom. The photo and video sharing platform has over 300 million active users, more than Twitter's 284 million but a far cry behind parent company Facebook's 1.3 billion. Systrom also says that those users are uploading more than 70 million photos and videos per day.

Not only does Instagram now have more users, it's also growing at a faster rate than Twitter. Instagram has doubled the amount of its active monthly users since last fall, when the service passed the 150 million mark. Twitter reached 200 million active monthly users in December of 2012, but it has seen its growth slow since then while also being passed by services...

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The Android dress code, says Google, is to simply wear what you want.

In the spirit of promoting endless customization and personalization, Google is today rolling out a big update to Android Wear that sees dozens of new watch faces added to the original set plus a whole new section to the Play Store dedicated to hosting watch faces. Designs from the likes of Rebecca Minkoff and Hugh Turvey mingle with ones featuring Pac-Man and Plants vs. Zombies. An official Watch Face API is also being...

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Now that Apple finally has a large smartphone, it's venturing into places that were previously off-limits. Case in point: United has announced that all of its 23,000 "mainline" flight attendants will get the iPhone 6 Plus in the second quarter of 201...

Despite seemingly unending turmoil, Uber is trying to stay focused on getting its product in the hands of as many potential users as possible. To that end, Uber and wireless carrier Sprint have just announced a partnership that'll see the Uber app pre-installed on "most" of Sprint's new Android devices. What exactly constitutes a new Android device from Sprint is not clear — the company didn't give any specifics on what exact devices would have Uber pre-installed.

Sprint's a logical partner for Uber — the company already has a similar partnership with AT&T, and Sprint has never shied away from including a startling amount of bloatware apps on its phones. Hopefully for those that don't want to use Uber for one reason or another will be...

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In a series of tweets this morning, surgeon and author Atul Gawande called out the doctors who helped the CIA torture people.

1/The Senate CIA Torture Report reveals savage, immoral, utterly despicable practices by our govt. http://t.co/qZWUNtJSeU

— Atul Gawande (@Atul_Gawande) December 10, 2014

2/But the worst for me is to see the details of how doctors, psychologists, and others sworn to aid human beings made the torture possible.

— Atul Gawande (@Atul_Gawande) December 10, 2014

3/The torture could not proceed w/o medical supervision. The medical profession was deeply embedded in this inhumanity.

— Atul Gawande (@Atul_Gawande) December 10, 2014

4/It was doctors who devised the rectal infusions "as a means of behavior control." (p100)

— Atul Gawande (@Atul_Gawande) December 10, 2014

5/Doctors suggested the water temperature for waterboarding and use of saline instead of free water to avoid water intoxication. (p86, 419)

— Atul Gawande (@Atul_Gawande) December 10, 2014

6/Doctors watched as stress positions inflicted pain, lacerations, and only stopped them when producing, e.g., shoulder dislocation (70)

— Atul Gawande (@Atul_Gawande) December 10, 2014

7/Psychologists, who were supposed to stop damaging interrogation, actually served as interrogators. (72)

— Atul Gawande (@Atul_Gawande) December 10, 2014

8/The Office of Medical Services provided consultation on when fractures and wounds were healed enough to resume torture. (p113)

— Atul Gawande (@Atul_Gawande) December 10, 2014

9/The Office of Medical Services wrote guidelines approving up to 3 waterboard sessions in 24 hours per prisoner. (p87)

— Atul Gawande (@Atul_Gawande) December 10, 2014

10/When torture caused Abu Zubaydah's eyes to deteriorate, MDs only intervened to insure ability to see was saved to aid interrogation.(112)

— Atul Gawande (@Atul_Gawande) December 10, 2014

11/Doctors found prisoners with broken feet and still approved putting them into standing positions for up to 52 hours (p112)

— Atul Gawande (@Atul_Gawande) December 10, 2014

12/Doctors were long the medical conscience of the military. The worst occurred because gov't medical leaders abdicated that role. (p87)

— Atul Gawande (@Atul_Gawande) December 10, 2014

First do no harm.

Tags: Atul Gawande   CIA   medicine   USA

Is there anything more truly beautiful than a perfect prime rib? A deep brown crust crackling with salt and fat, sliced open to reveal a juicy pink center that extends from edge to edge as it gets sliced. It's the ultimate in luxurious holiday roasts, but its high price can make it daunting to cook for even seasoned roasters. Here's the definitive guide to buying, storing, preparing, cooking, carving, and serving absolutely perfect prime rib. Read More

Pierette Huttner works at the new Maille store in Manhattan.

This past weekend, venerated, centuries-old French mustard brand Maille opened its first stand-alone boutique in the U.S., on Manhattan's Upper West Side. Maille currently operates similar showrooms in Paris, London, and of course in Dijon, so make no mistake: This is a permanent affair, not a pop-up, and it's stocked accordingly. Other than classic cornichons, the Maille shop carries a wide-range of flavors in jars and pours mustard on tap, "filled by hand" in stoneware jars, up to 18.6 ounces. There are more than twenty varieties — morel, Cognac, and black truffle among them. And the whole thing is overseen by Pierette Huttner, who holds the title of "Mustard Sommelier" — a job that has us very intrigued. Grub talked to Huttner to see just exactly what the gig entails.

How does someone even train to become a mustard sommelier?
I started with Maille earlier this year, and worked in all the stores around the world. The store in Dijon is a very special experience, because there are three things — black currants, gingerbread, and mustard — that traditionally come from there. I'm very familiar with the process and the recipes. We lead clients through tastings, whether that's mustard on tap or though the expanded range of jarred mustard.

So, if you were blindfolded, would you be able to correctly I.D. all of the mustards?
Yes. I absolutely would.

Your mental inventory involves extensive tasting notes on about a dozen varieties?
We have over 20 right now and will add to the range. In Europe, they have over 40.

And you're carrying something called blue-cheese mustard?
Yes! We make a blue-cheese mustard, and we also make a Parmesan and basil. We have some that are fruit-based, like black currant. We have walnut, which is exceptional, and fig and coriander, which also falls into the fruit category. One of my favorites is sun-dried tomato and Espelette pepper, which is fantastic with eggs and sausage in the morning.

Are any of those ultralimited-edition mustards?
For the holidays, we bring out something very special, which is the Chablis wine and black truffle mustard. It's absolutely fantastic and unbelievable. It's a seasonal and limited-edition mustard, and comes in a stoneware jar which is hand-painted in France. So it's a really particular experience.

How does the pricing work?
The mustards on tap run from $25 for 4.4-ounce jars, to $99 for the 18.6-ounce jar of truffle. The extended range starts at $9 for 100 milliliter mustard.

Have you had any mustard fanatics come in yet with stoneware jars to refill?
Oh, we have! We had a couple from the neighborhood who spend half the year in Provence bring in their stoneware jar that hey purchased in Paris. This was the first day we were open.

So let's talk about pairings. May I name some foods and get your suggestions?
Absolutely, we love pairings.

Say I have a glazed ham.
I might do the very traditional white wine, just to give it a little bit of heat and kick. That's one of the ones we have on tap.

Pretzels.
There you can have a lot of fun. Blue cheese, or you could have a lot of fun with the Parmesan-basil. If the pretzel was soft and a little hot, something a little decadent like the black truffle would be exceptional.

What about hot dogs?
With a more traditional palate, I would do whole-grain Chardonnay, and if someone wanted to do something more expansive, I'd go with the sun-dried tomato and Espelette chili pepper. It's really one of my favorites and it pairs well with meats. That would be quite fantastic. Even trying something like the black currant would be fantastic, believe it or not, because it's a different kind of flavor progression, where it just adds a little bit of tartness without being too fruity.

What kind of mustard do you recommend for people who don't like mustard?
Parmesan cheese and basil. Those flavors are very familiar and well-liked, so it's a great gateway mustard. People who think they don't like mustard taste that and suddenly have an "aha moment" of what mustard can actually be.

How do you feel about ketchup?
Oh, our sister, ketchup? We love all condiments, but Maille is about mustard. That's who we are.

Read more posts by Hugh Merwin

Filed Under: interviews, maille, mustard, mustard sommeliers, pierette huttner

Lonely Planet’s stateside authors and editors were tasked with choosing "the top 10 American destinations primed for a visit in 2015," and they crowned Queens with the #1 spot. [ more › ]

David Letterman will air his final Late Show on May 20, 2015, CBS announced today. The talk show and comedy eminence grise had previously revealed he would be retiring next year. [ more › ]

A lot of very strange news has already come out of the Sony Pictures hack, but this might be the strangest. According to The Wall Street Journal, emails have been found in the leaked cache of documents that reveal the movie studio is planning to make a crossover movie involving the Men in Black and Jump Street franchises for a 2016 or 2017 release.

While the movie won't feature Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones, Jump Street actors Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum are expected to star. One of the emails uncovered comes from Hill himself, who expresses his excitement to Sony's studio head Amy Pascal by saying "jump street merging with mib i think that’s clean and rad and powerful." "jump street merging with mib i think that’s clean and rad and...

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Leading game broadcasting site Twitch has announced that it has a reached an agreement to acquire GoodGame, a company it describes as "the world's first full-service agency dedicated to the esports and live video game broadcasting communities." Twit...

Erin Griffith, reporting for Fortune:

Moving HBO’s new streaming service to an external platform is a blow to Otto Berkes, the chief technology officer of HBO. Since becoming HBO’s CTO in 2012, Berkes has brought in a number of his ex-colleagues from Microsoft and set up a large office in Seattle with 55 engineers, laying off a number of longtime employees in New York. The Seattle office, which is rumored to cost HBO as much as $100 million per year, has been the source of internal squabbling at the company. Insiders accused Berkes of building “a Napoleonic empire” within HBO.

From a recent Glassdoor review:

The once great group, now called Digital Products, has been in decline since about 2012. Change had been desperately needed, but change we got is toxic and lacking unity, direction and clarity. Culture is now unfriendly and full of back stabbing done with a smile.

Earlier this year, HBO Go suffered several embarrassing outages during episodes of Game of Thrones and True Detective. According to sources, Berkes had known about a “memory leak” for nine months but decided it was a “non-issue.” That leak eventually led to the HBO Go outages. Internally, some accused Berkes of using the outages as a way to ask for more money to invest in his Seattle engineering team. He got the investment, but HBO executives have not been pleased with what he’s delivered.

Pitch: an HBO series about an HBO-like premium cable channel going through the rough transition to the post-cable streaming world.

An elaborate plan led to LeBron James wearing an “I Can’t Breathe” T-shirt when the Cavaliers faced the Nets in Brooklyn on Monday night.

The Talkase is a mini GSM standalone phone that snaps into an iPhone case. The $70 phone is described as a "must-have accessory for a mobile lifestyle." Read the rest