French toast
is a breakfast staple for the ages. It has a long history and is eaten in many forms all over the world (Spanish torrijas
is just one example). When planning your next brunch, you could go in a variety of directions. Should your toast be sweet or savory, cooked on the stovetop or in the oven, served up in slices
, baked into a casserole
, or even stuffed with ricotta
? The choices don’t stop at the recipe. If you’re going to make a great French toast, you’ve also got to choose the right bread for the job.
What is the best bread for French toast?
For a solid French toast, aim for sturdy bread with a uniform texture and a soft crust. Hearty sandwich bread, brioche, challah, and shokupan (Japanese milk bread) are all great choices. Avoid rustic loaves with thick crusts or large holes in the interior.
The myth of stale bread
French toast originated as a way to use up old, stale bread. Today, many French toast recipes advise that it’s best to use stale bread, which can soak up as much custard as possible. However, according to Cook’s Illustrated
, moststalebread is not actuallydrybread.
Stale bread can feel dry, without actually being dry. Its water has actually been trapped inside of starch crystals in the bread, and can be released by heating it up past 140 degrees. This matters because if you’re trying to make French toast with dry bread, a better method is to dry bread out in a low oven — 15 to 20 minutes in a 300-degree oven should do the trick — instead of, say, leaving it out overnight. In a pinch, you can even use your toaster at a low setting to dry out bread for French toast.
Tips for selecting the best bread for French toast
Choose sturdy bread. French toast is bread soaked in a custard usually made of eggs and milk. The bread you use should be sturdy enough to soak up the liquid without disintegrating.
It should have a tight crumb. Bread with a uniform texture will work best for French toast. Avoid loaves with an irregular, open crumb or lots of holes in the interior.
Look for a loaf with a thin, soft crust. Rustic breads with thick, hard crusts tend to need more soaking time than softer ones to fully absorb custard mixtures. If the crust is very hard or thick, it might not hydrate completely during soaking, leading to dry spots in your finished French toast.
Sandwich bread
Sandwich bread
is a French toast classic. It’s a nostalgic favorite for our culinary producer Kelli Foster
(of Dinner Therapist
fame.) “For me, nothing beats thick slices of white bread for French toast. It needs to be thicker than sandwich bread, for sure. This kind of French toast both reminds me of my childhood and diner-style French toast.”
The light, pillowy texture of sandwich bread can yield super-soft, airy results if you choose the right one. Look for bread that is labeled “hearty,” “thick-cut,” or “Texas toast.” Thin slices are more likely to collapse when soaked. You can also opt for a pullman loaf and slice the bread yourself to your desired thickness. Sliced wheat bread also makes good French toast, but might require a little extra soaking time.
Challah
Denser than sandwich bread, but still soft and pliable, challah is one of the most popular choices for French toast. Challah is a traditional Jewish egg bread
. Its flavor lends itself perfectly to a dressed-up custard (we also love it in bread pudding
!), and its braided shape makes for especially nice-looking slices.
Brioche
Another gold-standard option, rich brioche
is the perfect balance of sturdy texture and soft, uniform crumb. It’s a remarkably versatile bread used for everything from hamburger buns
to ice cream sandwiches
, and French toast is a great showcase for it. Brioche’s buttery, lightly sweet flavor is a great backbone for sweet or savory French toasts.
Shokupan
Fluffy shokupan
is a lightly sweetened white bread that has a soft texture. Much like brioche, its subtle sweetness works very well with the flavors of French toast. Milk bread slices are often on the thicker side, which makes it great for soaking up custard.
(Andrea Rivera is associate food editor atTheKitchn.com
, a nationally known blog for people who love food and home cooking. Submit any comments or questions to editorial@thekitchn.com.)
The House passed
a four-bill $95 billion foreign aid package over the weekend that includes $60 billion in additional aid for Ukraine. The bill could cost House Speaker Mike Johnson his job.
The aid package passed in a 311-112 vote with the unanimous support of Democrats and 101 Republicans voting in favor of the bill.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., threatened to introduce a motion to remove Johnson, R-La., from his position as speaker if he brought the funding for Ukraine
to the House floor for a vote.
“I think she’s looking at the totality of what’s come across the floor over the past few months, and she is expressing extreme disappointment with that,” Ryan Walker
, executive vice president of Heritage Action for America, says of Greene. (The Daily Signal is the news outlet of The Heritage Foundation, of which Heritage Action is the grassroots arm.)
Greene left Washington at the end of last week without introducing the motion to vacate the speaker but said during an interview Sunday on Fox News that she still planned to try to oust Johnson.
“Mike Johnson’s speakership
is over,” Greene said on “Sunday Morning Futures,” adding, “He needs to do the right thing—to resign and allow us to move forward in a controlled process. If he doesn’t do so, he will be vacated.”
Less than one year after House Speaker Kevin McCarthy
was ousted from the role, Capitol Hill is bracing for the potential of another speakership battle when Congress returns to Washington next week.
Walker joins “The Daily Signal Podcast
” to explain the reason for the sharp divide in Congress over the foreign aid package and the likelihood Johnson will face removal as speaker. Walker also explains where Congress is getting the money to send to Ukraine.
WSJ
‘s Daniel Michaels and James Marson (“U.S. Aid Is a Lifeline for Ukraine’s Struggle to Hold Off Defeat“):
The House vote to approve $60 billion in funding for Ukraine comes at a desperate moment for the country’s beleaguered defenders and holds the prospect of helping them stave off a Russian onslaught at the last possible moment.
If approved by the Senate, as is widely expected, and then signed into law by President Biden as soon as Tuesday, the bill will unleash a flood of American military equipment that U.S. forces have positioned for quick deployment.
But given Ukraine’s dire battlefield position and advances Moscow’s forces have made over recent months—during which they reinforced the roughly 20% of Ukrainian territory they held—the new help is unlikely to dramatically reverse Kyiv’s fortunes.
Ukraine faces severe manpower shortages on the front, and President Volodymyr Zelensky said this month that Russian troops are firing 10 artillery shells for every one that his soldiers fire.
At most it has the potential to help Ukraine blunt Russia’s relentless attacks and retain territory, potentially letting Kyiv pin down Russian forces until European allies can deliver more assistance next year.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said after the House vote that the move “will further enrich the United States of America and further ruin Ukraine, causing more Ukrainians to die due to the fault of the Kyiv regime,” according to Russian state news agency TASS.
CIA Director William Burns said on Thursday that without the new U.S. aid, “There is a very real risk that the Ukrainians could lose on the battlefield by the end of 2024,” or at least put Russian President Vladimir Putin in a position to dictate terms of a political settlement.
With the aid, he said, “the Ukrainians are entirely capable of holding their own” on the ground this year while continuing to hit Russian air and naval forces.
Fresh U.S. arms deliveries “should have a noticeable impact on the battlefield,” said Assistant Secretary of Defense Celeste Wallander in an interview. “We can act quickly,” she said.
[…]
Zelensky on Friday told a videoconference of defense ministers from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which had convened at his request, that his country urgently needs at least seven Patriot air-defense systems and interceptors or comparable equipment, as well as artillery shells, small-arms ammunition and other battlefield basics. “This year we can’t wait for decisions to be made,” he implored them.
After the meeting, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said members had pledged to supply new air-defense systems and that the Czech Republic has delivered roughly 500,000 artillery shells as part of a program it has organized to buy up to one million shells for Kyiv. Ukraine’s Western allies supplying arms, known as the Ramstein group, plan later this month to hold a virtual meeting with the aim of expanding commitments.
Resupplying Kyiv’s forces is “already urgent,” Wallander said, citing recent congressional testimony by Army Gen. Christopher Cavoli, the top U.S. military officer in Europe, on the dire state of Ukrainian defenses.
BBC
‘s James Waterhouse (“Ukraine aid package could help Kyiv slow Russia’s advance“):
President Volodymyr Zelensky has expressed his gratitude to the US House of Representatives for approving a new $61bn (£49bn) package of military assistance for Ukraine after months of delays. He said the aid could save thousands of lives.
While it’s not uncommon for a country’s future to be decided by politicians, a nation’s very existence hinging on a vote 5,000 miles away is as extraordinary as it sounds.
For Ukraine, the six-month wait for this military package has been as costly as it has been frustrating.
Dwindling ammunition has cost it lives and territory.
In this period of rare boosts for Kyiv, this was a biggie – the arrival of American weaponry will allow its beleaguered troops to do more than hang on. But it’s no silver bullet.
So, what is the package going to do?
It is likely to include air defence systems, mid to long-range missiles and artillery shells.
Ukraine’s recent lack of them has led to Russian forces capturing hundreds more square kilometres of territory.
When the aid arrives, Ukraine can potentially challenge Russia’s air superiority, frustrate their supply lines and slow advancing troops.
Whether this is too little, too late remains to be seen. The war certainly seems to have reached a standoff, with a lot of killing achieving very little in terms of territorial gain for either side. So long as Ukrainians are willing to fight to oust Russian troops from their land, though, it’s in our interest to keep enabling them to do so.
That Speaker Johnson came around to letting this come up for a vote, passing with a whole lot of help from Democrats, is an unalloyed good. WaPo
(“The evolution of Mike Johnson on Ukraine“) explains it this way:
The move marks a major victory and dramatic turnabout for the speaker who is trying to gain control of a bitterly divided Republican conference. The far-right is fiercely against Ukraine aid — 112 Republicans, just over half of the conference, opposed it on the House floor Saturday and he had to rely on unanimous Democratic backing — and Johnson’s decision to greenlight a floor vote could come at great political cost. He could very well lose his job as speaker over it.
It is also a major rebuke to former president Donald Trump, who publicly backed Johnson at a recent Mar-a-Lago event but has long criticized Ukraine while repeatedly sympathizing with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Johnson appears fully aware of the consequences of his decision to send money to Ukraine in its grinding war against Russia. He made the difficult decision despite threats from an angry and vocal minority of hard-right Republicans — ironically, the ones who helped catapult him into power — who are using their conservative bully pulpit to challenge Johnson and threaten his job.
He seems to have accepted his fate.
“Look, history judges us for what we do,” said an emotional Johnson, holding back tears and with a quivering lip at a news conference this week in response to a question from The Washington Post. “This is a critical time right now, critical time in the world stage. I could make a selfish decision and do something that’s different, but I’m doing here what I believe to be the right thing.”
Johnson’s son will be headed to the U.S. Naval Academy in the fall. “To put it bluntly, I would rather send bullets to Ukraine, than American boys,” he said. “This is a live-fire exercise for me and for so many American families.”
The speaker’s torturous path to embracing Ukraine aid is the result of many factors: high-level intelligence briefings as a House leader; his faith; the counsel of three committee chairs named Mike; and a realization the GOP would never unite on Ukraine.
Assuming he survives this—and it looks like he will—it may start to break the stranglehold Trump and the MAGA faction have over the party. David Frum
(“Trump Deflates“) is a bit more optimistic on that front than I am.
For nine years, Trump has dominated the Republican Party. Senators might have loathed him, governors might have despised him, donors might have ridiculed him, college-educated Republican voters might have turned against him—but LOL, nothing mattered. Enough of the Republican base supported him. Everybody else either fell in line, retired from politics, or quit the party.
[…]
On aid to Ukraine, Trump got his way for 16 months. When Democrats held the majority in the House of Representatives in 2022, they approved four separate aid requests for Ukraine, totaling $74 billion. As soon as Trump’s party took control of the House, in January 2023, the aid stopped. Every Republican officeholder understood: Those who wished to show loyalty to Trump must side against Ukraine.
[…]
Trump’s party in Congress has rebelled against him—and not on a personal payoff to some oddball Trump loyalist, but on one of Trump’s most cherished issues, his siding with Russia against Ukraine.
[…]
The Ukraine vote gives the most significant clue. Here is the issue on which traditional Republican belief in U.S. global leadership clashes most directly with Trump’s peculiar and sinister enthusiasm for Vladimir Putin’s Russia. And on this issue, the traditional Republicans have now won and Trump’s peculiar enthusiasm got beat.
To make an avalanche takes more than one tumbling rock. Still, the pro-Ukraine, anti-Trump vote in the House is a very, very big rock. On something that mattered intensely to him—that had become a badge of pro-Trump identity—Trump’s own party worked with Democrats in the House and Senate to hand him a stinging defeat. This example could become contagious.
The fact that 112 Republicans voted against the bill—and, of course, the fact that he is again the GOP nominee for President—means that Trump is still the dominant force in the party. But 101 dared vote against him on a matter of principle. That’s a hopeful sign.
Recently I wrote about a quick and dirty but very effective way of analyzing moral claims: Know them by the company they keep. It applies the birds of a feather theory: like attracts like. Bad guys and good guys associate with similar types. You’ve seen that in your daily life for sure.
But geo-politically there’s another metric, another useful tool.
That heuristic, that method focuses on backward versus forward thinking. We can judge the morality and indeed the prospects of individuals and groups by their time orientation.
I’ll get to it on an international scale in a moment, but locally we see it in American politics where both the mentally retarded right and the mentally ill left adore and promote their versions of a perfect yesteryear.
Both arguments appeal to the left hand side of the IQ bell curve of their supporters known as the “low information voters”: idiots.
How? Republicans long for the 1950s, an unrepeatable era of social hierarchy and consumer plenty: they erroneously find “the answer” to be the social hierarchies of the times. But nobody is going back to their “good ol’ days”.
Lefties, differing in which golden era they fetishize go back in time even further and hold up “indigenous ways of knowing/being”: the noble savage. For both brands of midwit the grass was always greener yesterday – just pick which yesterday best fits your aesthetic preferences.
For example consider the leftist bleat:“Indigenous science is science.”
It is not “science” at all, by any definition. Their indigenous creationism, spiritualism and “vitalism” is entertainingly eviscerated by a real scientist, Professor Richard Dawkins who counters with: “Indigenous bollocks is still bollocks”.
The faith community, that bubbling fountain of bad ideas are Olympians of yearning for yesterday. Catholics harken to some past “pure” era. Ever more deranged as always in the derangement stakes, fundamentalist Islamists are proud – no, really proud – that an earnest desire to reproduce in every respect the era of the Prophet Muhammed of the Seventh Century is the ultimate route to paradise. They wish to govern today along the lines of those days down to not just the ancient texts but they even evince a will to dictate the length of pant legs for men, veils for women, FGM, and remarkably strict toilet practices. Because “the Time of the Prophet… was better,” apparently.
On a smaller scale, still in the “faith community” – when the devout don’t have the numbers to impose their views on society the Amish valorize 1830-1840, and not a moment before or after and Hassidic Jews adore 19th century Hungary for some reason.
Where can we even start chipping away at this international, inter-generational stupidity, this historical fraudulence and ignorance?
What goes for backwards religion also goes for backwards international politics and the secular stories nations tell themselves.
We see this metric of forwards verses backward thinking again and again and it is helpful in our analysis and hopefully our rejection of various ideologies.
In our current age we can ask who is backwards looking? We have Islamists (see above) in the Islamic Republic of Iran representing the apotheosis of this. We also see Russia’s harkening back to deep history as explained by amateur professor of history Vladimir Putin who, with incredible ignorance of what foreigners are actually interested in, held forth for the first half hour of his recent global airtime (with Tucker Carlson) with complicated (and wrong) historical arguments. All backwards looking, note.
Who cares if he’s right even on the merits? Who cares if 700 years ago Volodomir of the Kievan Rus’ did whatever to the Golden Horde, or that the Lithuanian or Swedish empires double-buggered their neighbors?
Forward looking people, people with a future don’t care: because they know that emotionally satisfying nostalgia is a retarded worldview.
There is a positive dynamic that winners adopt and it is the forward looking view: it is the ideas of the Enlightenment as put into practice by the greater American project and, not coincidentally, the original Zionist ideals. Of Thomas Payne, Hume, Hertzl. A future orientation is deeply burnt into modern secular American capitalism, our foreign policy, and secular Jewish philosophy.
The main orientation is forward for all”Next Year in Jerusalem” Israelis and “Morning in America” Americans. It is this future orientation that makes Israel the most successful country in the Middle East by every metric you care to measure, for Jews and Arabs. And it has made America the main superpower.
In Israel (and the US, Australia, Netherlands, etc.) future orientation involves embracing the rationally mediated future: betting on low taxes, an entrepreneur class encouraged, enlightenment values, open societies, freedom for people to build their own lives and families: even if those structures aren’t necessarily “traditional”.
Plainly we see which orientation works: backwards looking or forwards looking. The USA and Israel are forward looking: ISIS, Iran and Russia’s orientations always harken back to the “good ol’ days.”
The dream of the 1965, USSR-produced “Palestine” as a state and people is entirely backward looking, built on a non-existent, fictional history. For like Putin’s aggrieved Russia and ISIS’s embattled caliphate, “Palestine” is based on a phony, manufactured past.
The losers of this and last century are obvious: the Russias, the Irans, the Communist type of Chinese, the G.o.P. and the cray-cray wing of the Democrats and socialists: they’re ALL about yesterday’s battles. They’re obsessed with yesterday’s injuries and hurts via the supposed but imaginary purity of the good ol’ days and the wisdom of the ancients.
Wisdom of the ancients is hilarious because “the ancients” – your ancestors and mine, were toothless, illiterate, dung encrusted scoundrels who didn’t know where the sun went at night or to not poo in their own drinking water. There’s your “ancient wisdom”.
Coherence isn’t necessary for yesterday’s heroes: just a deep well of victimhood, aggrievement, revenge, revanchism and jihad.
These, and the murder of millions of Israeli Jews and their Arab “collaborators” (Arab Israeli citizens) are the “Palestinian Dream”. A more negative, anti-human, factually flawed meta-story would require powerful computers to make up.
Contrast this with individual Palestinian immigrants to the West who have better motivations, who routinely flourish in their various countries of emigration because like immigrants everywhere they’re… you guessed it…. future oriented.
Here’s the difference in temporal orientation writ big:
Those who worship and reconstruct the fictional past as grievance say:“Look what they did to us! See this injustice we’ve exhumed, examine this ancient injury, pick this long healed scab, sniff this stinky wound! Where is our revenge for these past wrongs?”
)
) versus
)
…the future oriented who say: Whatever is in the past, good and bad, these are the cards we are dealt for whatever reason: how can we build a future with these cards we hold?
Race baiting entrepreneurs, frauds all, the Kendis, Di Algelos and their entire DEI complex even try to invent and import new grievances of the distant past, slavery say, or Hindu “caste prejudice” via biologically impossible and preposterous concepts like “intergenerational trauma” to today’s world.
When the hurt doesn’t exist, like the fact-free notion of the Palestinian“Nakhba” which was invented after Oslo in 1993!, just make up your grievances to fit. Make them up from whole cloth or just backdate ‘em.
The winners of tomorrow, of peace, prosperity and freedom are those who understand the past and teach it as history. And learn its lessons as history.
Winners …. are future facing.
David Anderson is an Australian-American lawyer in NYC with an education in (Middle East) politics and psychology and a career background in finance and law. He studied Arabic to an insufficient but passable level and has travelled extensively in the Islamosphere.
Stewart started off his Monday monologue by calling out the many media outlets who are tracking Trump’s every move surrounding the trial, including his daily drive from Midtown to Lower Manhattan to simply arrive at the courthouse (with helicopters tracking his vehicle’s every last turn).
“Seriously, are we gonna follow this guy to court every fucking day,” Stewart wanted to know. “Are you trying to make this O.J.? It’s not a chase. He’s commuting.”
Breakthroughs and rebalances are coming. The sensitive Moon moves into deep Scorpio, inviting us to become more introspective and private when it comes to our inner life. Later, the Moon squares chaotic Pluto, ushering in emotional upheaval and stress. Finally, the Full Moon rises as it opposes the egocentric Sun at 7:49 pm EDT, reminding us of everything we manifested during the New Moon as practicality battles with emotionality. We ought to see what the Full Moon brings before enacting any changes.
Aries
March 21 – April 19
You’re learning to value your time and energy. Before now, you may have made promises to pals left and right, insisting that you could do everything and be everywhere all at once. Unfortunately, this likely led to you inadvertently overstretching yourself and snapping in a way that created more problems for yourself and others due to any unfulfilled promises. You don’t have to perpetuate this exhausting cycle for one moment longer! Take today to rest, recuperate, and refill your own cup.
Taurus
April 20 – May 20
You might be pulling away from someone. This doesn’t mean that they’ve done anything wrong — you possibly have been spending too much time with them and simply need to recharge in a private space by yourself. A good friend should understand your need for a little downtime once you explain your needs. No matter how distracting they are, do your best to carve out time for yourself. Consider doing some meditation or focused journaling to get in touch with your inner wavelength once more.
Gemini
May 21 – June 20
Practicality may presently be tough. Your emotions could be acting like the worst kind of frenemy, shaking your balance so you unintentionally confuse people that you’re trying to impress or connect with. While you should be able to express yourself freely, it’s also important that you communicate clearly with the people who have ears to hear you. Look for others who understand that you aren’t taking the same route to success as everyone else. You deserve pals who appreciate your unique self, emotions and all!
Cancer
June 21 – July 22
You might be creating in private today. Any creative works of yours will probably go better if you keep things subtle, whether they involve private emotions or vital secrets — or if you simply feel that what you’re creating isn’t quite up to your standards yet. Otherwise, you might be secretly taking risks, and that could speedily create stressful situations where you would be required to admit any dangerous gambles you’ve taken. It’s okay to accept help when you need it.
Leo
July 23 – August 22
You may need a break from your home environment. This could manifest due to frustrations with your family members, a roommate, or even your physical living space. You’re potentially feeling antsy, and a change of scenery and some quiet time to yourself could loosen things up and take the edge off your nerves. Don’t let your anger get the best of you and cause you to act out of character! Look for ways to stay grounded while releasing pressure in healthy ways to avoid exploding.
Virgo
August 23 – September 22
Study can only take you so far — right now, you need experience. The details should be up to you. Even if a wealth of knowledge or a wise mentor is pushing you toward a certain life path, you might feel drawn to something less familiar. You’re ready to break away from that script for your life! Even if an upcoming choice feels too weighty to make alone, at least contemplate your options before letting someone else tell you what to do.
Libra
September 23 – October 22
Good fences make good neighbors today, Libra. It’s not always easy to enforce boundaries when you want to make a good impression on others, but doing so is vital. It isn’t bossy or cagey! You deserve to be comfortable in a connection with someone else from the get-go instead of letting them act a certain way for a long time and then telling them that you don’t like that thing they do. Don’t say more than you need to, but be honest and upfront.
Scorpio
October 23 – November 21
The answers you seek may already be within your mind. It’s possible that you’ve been letting certain patterns or the opinions of others define you without even realizing what was happening, especially if you’ve been entrenched in them for years. Today, though, brace yourself for an epiphany! Don’t hesitate to ask yourself what you genuinely think or want, instead of seeking the answers from outside authority figures. Tradition and advice have their places, but autonomy deserves a seat at the table as well.
Sagittarius
November 22 – December 21
It might be hard to keep up with you! Whether you realize it or not, you’re probably more withdrawn than usual. Perhaps you’re resting or healing — whatever it is, try asking yourself why you feel the need to be alone at the moment. Is fear keeping you down, or are you simply turning up the volume on your inner voice by turning down the chaos of the outside world? Solitude is occasionally necessary, but avoid letting fear hide your light.
Capricorn
December 22 – January 19
Dreams may currently be obscured by a veil of secrecy. While some projects are best kept to yourself until they’re fully completed, this could instead be a case of waiting to be discovered instead of putting yourself out there. You’re allowed to fear criticism or rejection, but they’re ultimately a natural part of entering the public eye. Even when you’re afraid, you can and should keep going! These worries are simply part of the territory and shouldn’t keep you in obscurity.
Aquarius
January 20 – February 18
You might be reevaluating your image. Look out for potential narratives that you’ve allowed to continue, but that you don’t really like about yourself. Instead of resigning yourself to perpetuate this reputation in a self-fulfilling prophecy, make the changes necessary in order to start making headway on your true goals. In the end, it’s vital that you see yourself in the way that you want to — ideally the world will follow suit, but it’s okay if you don’t please everyone.
Pisces
February 19 – March 20
What you believe could be changing. This might be a long-held belief or something that you’ve only recently begun to trust — specifics aside, at any moment, you may gain clarity about this subject that changes your mind. It can be difficult to make this change even if the truth is apparent, because you were likely quite invested in what you were believing before. There’s no way around it: change just isn’t always easy. You’re meant to follow the truth, not a comfortable lie.
Jon Stewart delivered a reality check to the media who are overcovering every little detail of the Trump hush money trial.
Stewart said after playing numerous examples of the media talking
MINNEAPOLIS — Robbie Grossman singled sharply to center with one out in the fourth inning, the first hit for the Chicago White Sox on Monday against the Minnesota Twins.
Eloy Jiménez and Gavin Sheets followed with infield hits to load the bases against starter Chris Paddack.
For an offense desperate for any type of spark, this represented a big opportunity.
Andrew Vaughn hit a liner with an exit velocity of 104.7 mph. But Twins first baseman Alex Kirilloff made a diving catch and nearly turned a double play.
“We hit a ball hard right in that hole there, probably eight out of 10 times that ball is in right field and we score a couple of runs there and get back in the game,” manager Pedro Grifol said.
Not on this night. And not the way the season is going for the Sox.
Paul DeJong then struck out, as the Sox came away without a run.
It was another long night at the plate for the Sox in a 7-0 loss in front of 12,443 at Target Field. The Sox were shut out for the eighth time, the most in American League/National League history (1901-present) through the first 22 games of a season.
Chicago White Sox manager Pedro Grifol argues with umpire Mike Estabrook in the eighth inning of the game against the Minnesota Twins on April 22, 2024 in Minneapolis. (David Berding/Getty Images)
“Today we got our ass kicked,” Grifol said when asked about trying to stay positive. “You go home and you reflect and tomorrow is a new day. You can only learn from today and then tomorrow you start the day and that’s it. This day is over.
“If you start mentally crushing yourself on what’s going on or what’s happened or our record or what I’m hitting, it’s going to get even worse. You have to start fresh every single day. That’s how you’ve got to do it.”
The Sox continued the worst start in franchise history, falling to 3-19.
“You reflect to learn,” Grifol said. “You don’t reflect to live in that negativity space where it will just continue to crush you if you can’t flush that.
“We can’t deny what’s happening. Our record sucks. But what are you going to do about it? We have to come out tomorrow and get ready to play. You have to forget about today. You have to. Learn and move on.”
Paddack allowed six hits, struck out 10 and didn’t surrender a walk in seven innings.
“He was throwing everything for strikes,” Sox second baseman Nicky Lopez said. “He had four pitches working. It seemed like he had that high fastball that was working and then he worked off of that as well. He’s done it for a while and sometimes you run into him on a good day and he was sharp.”
Sox pitcher Jonathan Cannon — making his second major-league start
— allowed six runs on nine hits with five strikeouts and one walk in 3 2/3 innings.
“These hitters are pretty good, and if you don’t execute pitches, they’ll make you pay for it,” Cannon said. “That will be the focus moving forward, working on that execution, keeping balls out of the middle of the plate and just trusting my stuff.”
The Sox concluded the game without Grifol and right fielder Gavin Sheets, who were both ejected after arguing with home plate umpire Mike Estabrook when Sheets struck out looking in the eighth.
“I’m going to trust (Sheets’) instincts on that and I’m going to go out there and from my angle it didn’t look like a good pitch either,” Grifol said.
The Sox lost their fourth straight. They are 1-10 on the road this season, also the worst start in franchise history.
“This game has a way to beat you down and slap you in the face, but it’s a game of adjustments too,” Lopez said. “You’ve got to just keep coming every single day with a positive attitude and hopefully at the end you’re where you want to be.”
Nothing quite makes a home distinctively your own like built-in storage and features.
Whether you’re installing bookshelves, a wall-mounted Murphy bed or full-on built-in furniture, you set your mark on your home with high-quality built-ins. The tradeoff here is that they’re pretty hard to get rid of, so make sure you know what you want getting into it!
Here’s a rundown of some of the most common built-in options in the home.
Murphy Beds
Average cost: $1,000–$7,500
Here’s a space-saving classic that’s been around since the early 20th century. If you’ve seen enough old films or TV, you’re probably familiar with the bed that simply folds up into the wall to save space. Generally speaking, a Murphy bed won’t be your main bed, but it’s a very effective way to save space and add function to a guest bedroom, or turn an office or craft room into a multifunctional space. And if you live in a tiny home or studio apartment, they can add valuable square footage to your usable space.
The downsides of Murphy beds include cost, safety and convenience. They tend to cost more than the average bed and often need to be installed by a professional, and a bed runs a risk of opening by accident and possibly causing damage. Likewise, they can pose a challenge to putting away smoothly. However, in recent years, Murphy beds made with advanced methods and lighter materials minimize this problem.
Built-in Kitchen Cabinets
Average cost: $450 per linear foot
Custom-built kitchen cabinets can help you maximize your space while providing storage to your exact specifications. This is particularly handy in oddly shaped kitchens, but built-in cabinets can make a great addition to any kitchen. The biggest downside of built-in cabinets is their cost; you pay much more for them than semi-custom or stock cabinets. However, they’re a popular feature in many homes, and the additional storage can make them attractive to a buyer in the event you sell. Talk to local kitchen pros for insight.
Built-in bookshelves
Average cost: $100–$1,200 per linear foot
Bookshelves remain among the most common built-in options, for a number of reasons. Shelves tend to go up against the wall anyway, and building them in makes them more stable and saves space. (It increases safety, too, by minimizing the risk of tip-over if a child tries to climb them.)
In addition, built-in bookshelves create the chance for a truly unique project. You can install shelves in the sides of stairs, under or around reading nooks, right next to your bed or wherever is most convenient for you.
Built-in Custom Furniture
Cost: Varies by project
To really place your own stamp on your home, you can install built-in furniture that saves space and adds a permanent feature to the home. Reading nooks in windows are common, as are fixed breakfast nooks. Such furniture allows you to save room and customize your space. However, keep in mind that this is a literal commitment of some note; you can’t easily undo this furniture once it’s installed, so be sure you’ve built what you want.
The biggest downside: You can’t take it with you when you go! Like it or not, that furniture stays with the house.
____
Tweet your home care questions with #AskingAngi and we’ll try to answer them in a future column.
Chicago police on Monday released video footage of a person wanted in connection with the fatal shooting of CPD Officer Luis Huesca in Gage Park last weekend.
The footage, apparently from convenience store security cameras, depicts a Black male wearing glasses and carrying a backpack. Police said the suspect “should be considered armed and dangerous.”
Chicago police on Monday released video footage of a person wanted in connection with the fatal shooting of Officer Luis Huesca in Gage Park.
Just before 3 a.m. Sunday, Chicago police responded to a “gunshot detection alert” in the 5500 block of South Kedzie Avenue and discovered Huesca, a 30-year-old with the CPD for six years, with multiple gunshot wounds in the 3100 block of West 56th Street. He was pronounced dead at University of Chicago Medical Center. His vehicle was stolen at the scene, police said.
Huesca was a member of the Calumet District (5th) priority response team. He was off-duty but in uniform when he was shot.
Huesca is the third Chicago police officer to be shot — and the first fatally — this year. On Jan. 8, a veteran police officer was shot in the leg during an exchange of gunfire with a burglary suspect in the Gold Coast neighborhood. On March 21, an officer was shot by Dexter Reed, who was killed during a traffic stop” in Humboldt Park.
