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Posted by TW Lim

https://letthemeatcake.substack.com/p/we-interrupt

Your normal programming for a brief announcement:

Little Perfections: Eating in Singapore enters the world tomorrow, Friday, Nov 14!

The only way I could be more excited about this is if you were to come to one of these events. Each time, I’ll be sharing the stage with someone far more articulate and famous:

Friday Nov 14, 6pm: What it means to eat in Singapore – a conversation with Christopher Tan at the Aliwal Arts Centre in Kampong Gelam.

Sat 15 Nov 4:30pm: Writing for flavour, writing for taste – a dialogue with Daryl Lim (more about writing - invite only, I can get you an invite), at a private venue in Boat Quay.

Sunday Nov 16, 3:30pm: It’s not just the rent: the business of food in Singapore – a conversation with my publisher, Goh Eck Kheng of Landmark Books, at Bookbar.

All free like beer, and also like speech. RSVPs unnecessary but appreciated, just hit reply.

As part of launch, I’m cooking a charity dinner for 40 tonight. It’s such a pleasure to have real chili padi and screaming fresh daun limau perut in the sambal belacan (more on real vs. ersatz chili padi, and sambal belacan).

And I’ve made a lot of loh kai yik over the last couple days (more on loh kai yik). The end is in sight, but we’re not there yet.

It’s either fermented beancurd, or blood with some stuff in it.

While hauling 5kg of pork and a whole lotta vegetables in Tiong Bahru market, I found a cheung fun place in Singapore that does it on trays (this is why I have cheung fun on the mind – but maybe thinking about cheung fun should just be part of my daily routine?).

https://letthemeatcake.substack.com/p/we-interrupt

forgotten_aria

( The dental cleaning that did not go smoothly. )

siderea

YES YES YES.

SciShow did a collab with Tom Lum and ESOTERICA and delivered a deep dive into the history of the relationship of chemistry and alchemy and the politicization of the distinction between the two: "In Defense of Alchemy" (2025 Oct 17).

I cannot tell you how much I loved this and what a happy surprise this was. It ties into a whole bunch of other things I passionately want to tell you about that have to do with epistemology, science, and politics (and early music) but I didn't expect to be able to tie chemistry/alchemy in to it because I had neither the chops nor the time to do so. But now, some one else has done this valuable work and tied it all up with a bow for me. I'm thrilled.

Please enjoy: 45 transfiguring minutes about the history of alchemy and chemistry and what you were probably told about it and how it is wrong.

Watch on YouTube

siderea

I have been dealing with some health stuff. I recently got a somewhat heavy medical diagnosis. It's nothing life-threatening, and of yet I have only had the mildest of symptoms, and seem to be responding well to treatment, but it's a bummer. My new specialist seems to be fantastic, so that's good.

Meanwhile, I have also finally started having a medical problem I've been anticipating ever since my back went wonky three years ago: my wrists have finally started crapping out. Because I cannot tolerate sitting for long, I have been using my laptop on a rig that holds it over me on my bed. But this means I haven't been using my ergonomic keyboard because it's not compatible with this rig. I'm honestly surprised it's taken this long for my wrists to burst into flames again, but HTML and other coding has always been harder on my arms than simple text, and the research and writing I've been doing on Latin American geopolitics has been a lot of that. And while I can use dictation for text*, it's useless for HTML or anything that involves a lot of cut-and-paste. Consequently, I've gotten really behind on all my writing, both here and my clinical notes.

So I ordered a NocFree split wireless keyboard in hopes that it will be gentler on my arms. It arrived last night, and I have been relearning how to touch type, only with my arms at my side and absolutely not being able to see the keyboard.

You would not believe how long it took me to type this, but it's all slowly coming back. Also, I feel the need to share: I'm doing this in emacs. Which feels like a bit of a high wire act, because errors involving meta keys could, I dunno, reformat my hard drive or crash the electrical grid.

Here's hoping I get the hang of this before I break the backspace key from overuse or accidentally launch a preemptive nuclear strike on Russia.

* If, you know, I don't too dearly value my sanity.

siderea

Americans, as I hope you know, on Nov 1st, the Federal government, being shut down, did not transmit the money to the states to pay for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, aka SNAP, aka "Food Stamps". In many states, SNAP money is supposed to hit recipients' EBT cards on the first of the month. It didn't. There is in the SNAP budget funds to cover emergencies, but Trump said he would not release it; lawsuits ensued, and as of right now, partial payments are going to be or have been made.

I commend the following video to you. It's longish - 26 minutes – but worth your time.

2025 Nov 1: Hank Green [

hankschannel on YT]: "This Shutdown is Different"

Hank Green, of vlogbrothers fame, invites Jeannie Hunter, Tennessee regional director of the Society of St. Andrew (aka EndHunger.org), on to his personal chanenel explain how the US's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, aka SNAP, aka "Food Stamps", actually works.

Hunter turns out to be a great interview subject and the resultant conversation was fascinating. I highly recommend it - not just to understand what's at stake in the goverment shutdown, but for your own simple enjoyment of learning how things actually work, and also so you can more eloquently advocate for this system.

Watch on YouTube