Latest news with #columnist
Bloomberg
5 hours ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
How to Keep Your CEO Off the Jumbotron
Opinion Why do executives, like the Astronomer CEO, keep taking needless risks? Bloomberg Opinion columnist Beth Kowitt knows a lot — maybe too much — about their bad behavior. (Source: Bloomberg)
Times
8 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Times
I'm an opinion writer — but I'm not even sure of my own opinions
Recently my dad's friend saw me on the BBC's Debate Night. 'Your daughter was on TV,' he told him. 'What now?' my dad asked, probably wincing. 'She was complaining about something again,' came the reply. It goes with the territory. The role of a columnist is to grasp an idea, shake it and see what comes loose, then catch the pieces and arrange them in a new order. You could call them complaints, but I prefer opinions — little thought babies escaped from their mother. Sometimes I'm asked if it's tiring coming up with so many new opinions. It would be if I was a different kind of commentator. My more combative colleagues will argue the opposite line just to be contrarian, a skill I admire and fear equally. It sounds terribly earnest, but I can only write it if I believe it. The truth is I haven't made up my mind about most things. Instead of charging head on into a topic I prefer to dance around the edges. It often leads to having to get creative. This is a ploy, you understand. If the truth were known I'd be out of a job. Help! I'm an opinion writer who isn't sure of their opinions. It isn't the natural order of things. Surety is the hero of the critic. I know this when I read my favourites, whose recommendations I co-opt for the sake of time and ease. Gloriosa is our best Glasgow restaurant. We agree The Driver's Seat is the most readable novel of Muriel Spark's. For a decade my go-to coffee order was a cappuccino because it was what my mum ordered from Costa when I was growing up. I don't even like cappuccinos and yet there I was at the front of the queue, size medium and hold the chocolate sprinkles please. • 'Am I a woman or an intellectual monster?' Muriel Spark's peculiar genius Commentating isn't criticism but it lurks in its margins, demanding the same clarity of thought and elegant argument. I had bags of those in my twenties, or at least I thought I did. Your twenties are a decade of being convinced you're always right. The past is black and white not only in photos. Now every passing year is a reminder of everything I do not know. The alternative is to be a sure person. I have worked under a few over the years. They make decisions before you've even finished talking, kneejerking into action as if it's the most obvious choice in the world. Every one of them turned out to be a fool. Look, I'm a fool too. It's how I stumbled into this problem in the first place. We're just different kinds of fools, living in opposite houses on the same foolish street. The opinion-adjacent opinion writer feels around gaps in the conversation, trying to place her hands on what's been left unsaid. The sure person is out there making confident pronouncements, watching as the sea opens up to them like Moses. In being a sure person — a Moses type of doing person — you preclude all the fun stuff, the fray of don't know fixed into a tight knot. The brain-firing part lies in meandering towards a conclusion, my resolve dressed and undressed a thousand times until I've gathered all the evidence. It's a neat parable for life, although I'm wary — and this won't surprise you — of neatness. • Lists: a distracting, futile, universal, comforting joy Too many times I've wandered down a neat highway only to realise it's a dead end. On the neat highways I feel backed into a corner, out of options, with my back against the wall. I don't recognise them in real life. My driving is too messy, full of ten-point turns along the scenic route. Maybe you prefer them over these roaming efforts. I suspect it comes down to your definition of a column. There are several, but I've found mine as a subject, a reader of other people's. There is something magical in finding my thoughts buried in someone else's. The moment of this is what it feels like for me too. A shared experience turns into an intimate act. Sometimes it is as small as a fragment. Sometimes it is sprawling as a moral code. I have no easy answers on thorny subjects. I can offer you no wisdom if you want it packaged tidily. But I'm certain someone else might feel uncertain. That — maybe only that — is my one absolute. @palebackwriter One of my favourite journalist/authors has a new novel out. John Niven's The Fathers (Canongate £18.99) promises intrigue and plot twists through the lives of two young dads. Buy from Discount for Times+ members.
Times
20 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Times
I'm an opinion writer who isn't sure of their opinions
R ecently my dad's friend saw me on the BBC's Debate Night. 'Your daughter was on TV,' he told him. 'What now?' my dad asked, probably wincing. 'She was complaining about something again,' came the reply. It goes with the territory. The role of a columnist is to grasp an idea, shake it and see what comes loose, then catch the pieces and arrange them in a new order. You could call them complaints, but I prefer opinions — little thought babies escaped from their mother. Sometimes I'm asked if it's tiring coming up with so many new opinions. It would be if I was a different kind of commentator. My more combative colleagues will argue the opposite line just to be contrarian, a skill I admire and fear equally. It sounds terribly earnest, but I can only write it if I believe it. The truth is I haven't made up my mind about most things.
Washington Post
5 days ago
- Lifestyle
- Washington Post
Wife puts all family business on social media. Give advice to this Hax question.
Carolyn Hax can't get to every question she receives, so every week we ask readers to think like an advice columnist and submit their advice. Out of the many great responses we receive, we select a few standouts to publish on Wednesdays. Previous reader questions have been about worries for a daughter dating someone much older, finding hope after being cheated on and whether a boyfriend's disdain for dogs is a dealbreaker. No matter the question, Carolyn's readers always show up with thoughtful and useful advice. You can read last week's question and responses here. This week's question is below. Check back on Wednesday to read our favorite answers. Responses may be edited for length or clarity.
The Guardian
6 days ago
- General
- The Guardian
How to turn fruit and veg scraps into a delicious cake – recipe
To celebrate 10 years of writing for the Guardian and seven years of this column, I thought it would be fitting to bake a cake inspired by where Waste Not began: my food compost bin. I looked through the fridge and raw compost bin, and found some squash, carrots, apples, cucumber ends, a knob of ginger and a woody stick of lemongrass; I even considered a red cabbage leaf, but decided that brassicas are best kept out of the baking tin. The compost bin is more than a place for leftovers, it's a source of inspiration, as well as a way to reflect on what we waste; it can even guide us towards cooking more resourcefully and creatively. This is a fun riff on the classic carrot or courgette cake, designed to use up scraps of sweet fruit and veg. Be inventive but discerning with what you include, so think beetroot, squash, apple or citrus zest, and leave the garlic and red onion for another day. If you keep a raw-ingredient compost bin (we use a council-issued one), you can even pick through it for potential ingredients; if not, next time you cook, identify the scraps you could incorporate into this cake, so turning them into something delicious. I normally make this cake with extra-virgin olive oil or sunflower oil, but on this occasion I used leftover plant-based spreads from testing supermarket 'butters' for the food filter column. This recipe makes a large, moist cake that needs a good-sized pan and takes longer to cook than you might think. For the cake300g fruit and vegetable scraps (eg, beetroot peelings, apple cores, squash ends)300g oil, or plant-based spread3 eggs 300g wholemeal plain flour, fine milled ideally200g unrefined sugar 3 tsp baking powder For the coconut icing (optional)1 can full-fat coconut milk, chilled for at least 10 hours1 tsp vanilla extract 65g icing sugar, sifted Finely grated zest of ½ orange, lemon or lime, plus a little extra to finish (optional)1–2 tbsp cornflour, or arrowroot powder (optional; this will make a firmer icing)Mixed seeds and chopped nuts, to top (optional)Rose petals, to top (optional) Start by making the icing. Open the can of chilled coconut milk and scoop just the solidified thick cream into a bowl, leaving the coconut water behind. Add the vanilla extract, icing sugar and, if using, the citrus zest and cornflour, whip until light and fluffy, then cover and put in the fridge. Heat the oven to 200C (180C fan)/390F/gas 6. Put your chosen fruit and veg scraps in a food processor and pulse until finely chopped. Add the oil, eggs, flour, sugar and baking powder, and blend again until just combined. Scrape the batter into a greased and lined cake tin, then bake for 55–65 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin for five minutes, then turn out on to a rack. Once the cake is completely cool, spread the icing over the top, then scatter with seeds, chopped nuts, rose petals or/and extra grated citrus zest, if you like.
