Charles Day
@csrday.bsky.social
Anglo-American astrophysicist turned writer and editor who likes reading, cooking and listening to music.
According to a study by the New York Fed, physics majors had the second highest unemployment rate, 7.8%, among college graduates in 2023. What's going on? www.newyorkfed.org/research/col...
August 15, 2025 at 3:12 PM
According to a study by the New York Fed, physics majors had the second highest unemployment rate, 7.8%, among college graduates in 2023. What's going on? www.newyorkfed.org/research/col...
I think of JWST whenever I play this card in Terraforming Mars.
June 27, 2025 at 8:56 PM
I think of JWST whenever I play this card in Terraforming Mars.
Homemade garganelli pasta with chicken gizzard sauce.
May 5, 2025 at 11:48 AM
Homemade garganelli pasta with chicken gizzard sauce.
I was sorry to hear of the death of Mario Vargas Llosa. Two weeks before, I bought a copy of his 2001 novel The Feast of the Goat at my local second-hand bookshop. The book was misfiled in the cookery section. I like to think Mario would be amused.
April 17, 2025 at 12:47 AM
I was sorry to hear of the death of Mario Vargas Llosa. Two weeks before, I bought a copy of his 2001 novel The Feast of the Goat at my local second-hand bookshop. The book was misfiled in the cookery section. I like to think Mario would be amused.
My go-to brand for one of my favorite foods. Unlike anchovies canned in olive oil, the ones packed in salt need to be filleted. But the effort is worth it for the fishier flavor.
April 8, 2025 at 9:37 PM
My go-to brand for one of my favorite foods. Unlike anchovies canned in olive oil, the ones packed in salt need to be filleted. But the effort is worth it for the fishier flavor.
“If we are lucky, some new ideas will emerge that are really valid. Ponder why the successful flavors do work; use that understanding to choose new possibilities” — Giuliano Bugialli.
March 14, 2025 at 12:16 AM
“If we are lucky, some new ideas will emerge that are really valid. Ponder why the successful flavors do work; use that understanding to choose new possibilities” — Giuliano Bugialli.
So happy to be reading again one of my favorite novelists of my teens and twenties: Honoré de Balzac. The pic is from the cover of Lost Illusions (1837-43).
February 16, 2025 at 1:16 AM
So happy to be reading again one of my favorite novelists of my teens and twenties: Honoré de Balzac. The pic is from the cover of Lost Illusions (1837-43).
Christopher Priest's 1998 novel The Extremes is like one long creepy and riveting episode of Black Mirror.
January 16, 2025 at 1:45 PM
Christopher Priest's 1998 novel The Extremes is like one long creepy and riveting episode of Black Mirror.
For yesterday's dinner I made offelle alla triestine. They're like ravioli but with potato gnocchi dough as the pasta covering. These are stuffed with mushroom, tomato and cheese.
January 12, 2025 at 4:15 PM
For yesterday's dinner I made offelle alla triestine. They're like ravioli but with potato gnocchi dough as the pasta covering. These are stuffed with mushroom, tomato and cheese.
When British PM Ramsay MacDonald visited Berlin in July 1931, he visited (at least) two spirits: Max Planck and Albert Einstein.
December 24, 2024 at 3:14 AM
When British PM Ramsay MacDonald visited Berlin in July 1931, he visited (at least) two spirits: Max Planck and Albert Einstein.
This wine from Whole Foods is classified as Vin de France, so I checked out the label to get a sense of where it's from and what's in it. The bottler (see under the QR code) is LCDM -- evidently, someone who favors the prevailing cosmological model.
December 16, 2024 at 11:38 PM
This wine from Whole Foods is classified as Vin de France, so I checked out the label to get a sense of where it's from and what's in it. The bottler (see under the QR code) is LCDM -- evidently, someone who favors the prevailing cosmological model.
I'm relieved to be resupplied with one of my favorite ingredients.
December 14, 2024 at 10:17 PM
I'm relieved to be resupplied with one of my favorite ingredients.
My Airedale terrier Allie in a limb configuration I haven't seen before.
December 13, 2024 at 1:59 PM
My Airedale terrier Allie in a limb configuration I haven't seen before.
Your post inspired me to use Google Scholar to find a highly cited paper in ApJ from 1924. It was totally comprehensible to me, a former astronomer.
December 11, 2024 at 3:46 PM
Your post inspired me to use Google Scholar to find a highly cited paper in ApJ from 1924. It was totally comprehensible to me, a former astronomer.
When I was out walking my dog this morning, I spotted this flag flying outside a house in DC's Capitol Hill neighborhood. It's the flag of the Canton of Geneva.
December 7, 2024 at 5:34 PM
When I was out walking my dog this morning, I spotted this flag flying outside a house in DC's Capitol Hill neighborhood. It's the flag of the Canton of Geneva.
Today I picked up the most surprising book I've ever found in a little free library in my Capitol Hill neighborhood: Saunders Lewis's 1930 novel Monica in the original Welsh.
December 7, 2024 at 1:01 AM
Today I picked up the most surprising book I've ever found in a little free library in my Capitol Hill neighborhood: Saunders Lewis's 1930 novel Monica in the original Welsh.
From one of my favorite cookery books I made spaghetti al finocchio. Bugialli observes that "recipes for fennel bulbs with pasta are very rare" -- and then he describes one from Sicily in which braised fennel is pureed. Delish!
November 24, 2024 at 1:16 AM
From one of my favorite cookery books I made spaghetti al finocchio. Bugialli observes that "recipes for fennel bulbs with pasta are very rare" -- and then he describes one from Sicily in which braised fennel is pureed. Delish!
A misdirected cake won in a raffle in wartime London triggers a chain of events that leads to . . . I don't know yet but I'm engrossed by this 1943 novel.
November 23, 2024 at 9:05 PM
A misdirected cake won in a raffle in wartime London triggers a chain of events that leads to . . . I don't know yet but I'm engrossed by this 1943 novel.
My latest kitchen tool: an aluminium salta pasta pan from Italy.
November 14, 2024 at 11:15 PM
My latest kitchen tool: an aluminium salta pasta pan from Italy.
Allie is relaxing after spending today at doggie daycare.
October 22, 2024 at 10:44 PM
Allie is relaxing after spending today at doggie daycare.
I've just discovered that Thomas Mann's principal English translator, Helen Tracy Lowe-Porter (shown here) was the great grandmother of disgraced British PM Boris Johnson.
September 26, 2024 at 12:15 AM
I've just discovered that Thomas Mann's principal English translator, Helen Tracy Lowe-Porter (shown here) was the great grandmother of disgraced British PM Boris Johnson.
This morning I dropped off my Airedale at the groomer and picked up this book from a little free library.
September 13, 2024 at 1:51 PM
This morning I dropped off my Airedale at the groomer and picked up this book from a little free library.
I've just started reading Per Petterson's Out Stealing Horses. Keen to discover where the novel takes places, I went to Norwegian Wikipedia. Here's how Chrome/Google Translate renders some of the names of towns in Akershus County.
September 2, 2024 at 12:03 AM
I've just started reading Per Petterson's Out Stealing Horses. Keen to discover where the novel takes places, I went to Norwegian Wikipedia. Here's how Chrome/Google Translate renders some of the names of towns in Akershus County.
I continue to enjoy and be edified by Alasdair Gray's quirky, principled novels. Lanark and Poor Things are his best, I think. But this novella, which I've just finished, perhaps best encapsulates his diagnosis of what it means to be a Scot in late 20th century Britain.
August 24, 2024 at 12:45 AM
I continue to enjoy and be edified by Alasdair Gray's quirky, principled novels. Lanark and Poor Things are his best, I think. But this novella, which I've just finished, perhaps best encapsulates his diagnosis of what it means to be a Scot in late 20th century Britain.