And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie. We recently finished reading this book aloud as a family (nothing relaxes kids before bed like a tale of serial murder). Having sold over 100 million copies, And Then They Were None is not only Christie’s most popular novel but one of the bestselling books of all time, and it lived up to its renown. Christie manages to make a plot that might seem ridiculous — ten people are invited to an island and killed off one by one — not seem ridiculous, and keeps you guessing whodunit til the very end.
Huckberry Icons of Style. Fall is just around the corner, so it’s a good time to start thinking about picking up some new items for your wardrobe. Huckberry has published “30 Icons of Timeless Men’s Style,” which offers short profiles of figures from Steve McQueen to Johnny Cash describing what made their signature styles distinct. They’ve also put together a shop of modern smart casual clothes that draws inspiration from these icons to help today’s men put together some classic-looking outfits of their own.
“Ladyfingers” by Herb Albert and the Tijuana Brass. My dad was a big Herb Albert and the Tijuana Brass fan back in the day. He owned all the albums, including the iconic Whip Cream and Other Delights, which featured a pretty gal seemingly dressed only in whip cream. Lots of great songs on that album, but my favorite is “Ladyfingers.” This song features Herb Albert’s signature trumpet playing that blends cool jazz with Latin flair. Surprisingly, my 13-year-old son Gus is a big fan of this song. He loves to cue it up during sunset drives.
An Ode to Old Bay, the Great American Condiment. In a previous edition of Odds & Ends, we highlighted one of the McKay’s favorite seasonings: Old Bay. We put it on eggs, meat, and sandwiches. I like to use it when I make this healthier, at-home version of the classic crispy chicken sandwich. Well, Old Bay recently got the hagiographical treatment in The New Yorker. Casey Cep takes us on a historical tour of this Maryland staple and why you, too, should make Old Bay a standby in your spice rack. Long live Old Bay!
Quote of the Week
To find one’s work in the world and do it honorably, to keep one’s record clean so that nothing clandestine, furtive, surreptitious can ever leap out upon one from ambush and spoil one’s life, to be able, therefore, unafraid to look the world in the face, to live honorably also with one’s own soul, to walk life’s journey unhaunted by the ghosts of people from whose ruin one has stolen pleasure, and so at last to be a gentleman, one, that is, who puts a little more into life than one takes out—gather up the significance of such character, forty years old, sixty years old, eighty years old—one may well celebrate the solid satisfactions of such a life.
—Henry Emerson Fosdick
