Welcome to the first installment of Musings where I plan to post brief thoughts about pretty much whatever. The limit does not exist, anything is possible, etc.

• East of Eden

Years ago, I finally read John Steinbeck‘s The Grapes of Wrath for the first time which became one of my favorite books and since then have been flirting with reading East of Eden. It was one of those books that was often packed optimistically for a vacation and shamefully returned untouched. But at last, after much starting and stopping and happening upon some unexpected downtime I’m happy to report the deed is done.

Here’s an unoriginal statement: what a novel! A family saga that went to some much darker places than I was expecting. Apparently they’re adapting this into a Netflix series. The cast is pretty impressive but I’ll still keep my expectations low and hopefully it’ll surprise me like Ripley (very good!).

• Pips

Pips is a new puzzle game from The New York Times. The gameplay, which involves logically placing dominos on a grid, is a good balance of effortful-but-not-quite-THAT-challenging yet satisfying. I imagine at some point I’ll abandon playing it every day but until then it’s been a welcome five minute daily brain warm-up/distraction.

• ABV

My brother recently sent me a video of some chefs in San Francisco touring a few of their go-to spots when they’re not working. At one point they stop by ABV, which was one of my favorite cocktail bars when I lived in SF. The Gin & Celery in particular (which I hope they still serve) is exceptional and a cocktail I think about frequently. But my main takeaway from the video is that they finally serve the cheeseburger with a side of fries (a burger which was first dubbed the “new fuckin burger” then “the fuckin burger” and now the more SFW “abv burger”, pictured above). BACK IN MY DAY^™ they served the burger with chips — “spicy ass chips” to be exact. Now there are plenty of great restaurants and bars that regrettably serve their burgers with chips (to name one from the city where I live now: Gramercy Tavern) and I’m sure they have good reasons but I’m afraid nothing beats fries as a burger side. I’ll save my treatise on fries for another time but for now I’ll just say I’m looking forward to my next trip back.