Meatless March

Earth's two hottest days in recorded history happened recently. Phew. Wipe the sweat from your brow and plan meals that won't make your kitchen hotter.  But better yet, plan meals that won't especially make the whole planet hotter. Compared to growing plants for food, animal agriculture contributes disproportionately to global warming , so why not try out a vegan dish that requires no heat to prepare? At my local farmer's market last week, I loaded up on basil and field tomatoes, and I made NYT Cooking's " Cold Tofu Salad With Tomatoes and Peaches ." I used nectarines rather than peaches, because putting a furry peach skin in my mouth has always seemed weird to me.  I thought this dish was fantastic. It's an elevated, vegan version of a caprese salad. I love mozzarella, but tofu is a planet-friendly alternative, and it soaks up the juices, which are both acidic and sweet. I had two servings of the salad for dinner, and then pounced on the leftovers fo

Over the course of my career, I have supervised plenty of interns, who were mostly smart and hardworking.  Way back in my own intern days, Jessica (left) was a good mentor to my fellow intern Dean and me With my earliest interns, I assumed that smart, hardworking people didn't need to be told things that I thought were obvious, like "please arrive on time," and "when you finish a task, please come to me and I'll assign you another one." But I came to understand that if someone never hears these "obvious" guidelines, then sometimes the guidelines never become obvious, even to a smart, hardworking person. I started being more explicit, and the results were good. Maybe the same principle applies to everyone, not just interns. Maybe nothing "goes without saying." Maybe everyone needs to hear from me and from you that it's not acceptable to use derogatory names for people to their faces or behind their backs. That saying "please"