My visit to Brooklyn went smoothly considering the round-trip involved traffic for JFK and LaGuardia Airports on a travel Sunday, Rockaway Beach on a blazing summer day, and Manhattan on any day, since it remains the heart of the most populated city in America by over 100%. But it was great visiting my aunt, so braving the traffic was worthwhile, and it gave me a chance to practice my cursing at other drivers.

For lunch we ended up getting pizza, which is notoriously impossible to properly recreate outside of New York City. In the same vein, Kxmode commented about my mention of pastrami, saying that "any pastrami sandwich from a New York deli will be 5x better than anything here in California." Sort of a reverse of the taco rule, I guess. That 5x estimate is probably both too low and too high. At the bottom end, you can get a pastrami sandwich in an ordinary deli in New York and get a thin layer of cold pastrami straight from the Boar's Head package. I assume that's what most of the country is used to, so that's just as disappointing here. But yeah, at the pinnacle, a giant hot pastrami on rye from a proper Kosher deli is an amazing experience, and probably even more than five times as wonderful as a pale imitation.

So here's a tip for visiting Manhattan. There's probably a Hard Rock Cafe somewhere close to your hometown. Instead of eating in the Times Square version of that, take a trip down to the lower east side and get a pastrami sandwich at Katz's. It's possible the orgasm sounds you make will be caused by the food, rather than your one-of-a-kind recreation of When Harry Met Sally. For the at-home version, although my beloved Carnegie Deli closed its doors in 2016, you can still order from them online. This works surprisingly well. The protip for that is to double the portions for a more authentic experience. The four sandwich kit is more properly for two sandwiches with the grand tradition of a leftover half for each.

Obituary: Larry Finger, Longtime Linux Wireless Developer Passes Away. Thanks Burrito of Peace.

Sandwiched Round-up
Thanks Ant, Neutronbeam, and Max.

Breakfast Link

• Wild Thang wins 2024 World's Ugliest Dog contest. Thanks Devicer.
• Microplastic Map Reveals Countries Consuming the Most.

Stories

• Sweltering heat wave puts 44 million under warnings; flood risk remains in Midwest.
• Opinion - Ban left turns on busy streets and save time. You've got my vote. Thanks RedEye9.

Science

• What drinking coffee every morning does to your stomach.
• Why Mount Rainier is the US volcano keeping scientists up at night. Thanks Slashdot.
• Earliest Biological Signals of Autism Found in Mini-Brains Experiment.

Media

• I Made $114,127,975,963 by Exploiting the Public and Collapsing the Film Industry - Blockbuster Inc. Josh is a delight.

Follow-up

• The Risk Factors For Long COVID Have Finally Been Revealed.
• US ‘on schedule’ in race with China to land people on moon, NASA chief says.