I’ve owned a few different stovetop espresso makers, and my favorite is the Milano 6-cup from Grosche. I especially like the handle that extends far enough from the pot to keep from getting too hot to touch. It’s $27, but they currently have a $3 discount code on the product page. — MF

Below are some bits of wisdom I’ve found on blogs and newsletters over the last few months. — CD

On being true to yourself: “Don’t bend; don’t water it down; don’t try to make it logical; don’t edit your own soul according to the fashion. Rather, follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly.” — Anne Rice [via The Magnet]

On finding inspiration everywhere: “I heard once about a Yiddish poet who lived in utter poverty and misery, a teenager, who never had seen anything beautiful in his life, and he made splendid poems about vegetables jumping into the soup pot. My idea being that for the sublime and the beautiful and the interesting, you don’t have to look far away. You have to know how to see.” — Hedda Sterne [via Austin Kleon]

On identity: “Some people have a lot farther to go from where they begin to get where they want to be—a long way up the mountain, and that is how it has been for me. I don’t feel I am getting older; I feel I am getting closer.” — D.H. Lawrence [via Wellness Wisdom]

On transforming your life: "I’ve never seen any life transformation that didn’t begin with the person in question finally getting tired of their own bullshit.” — Elizabeth Gilbert [via Sloww Sunday]

Last week I recommended parchment paper for no-stick baking. Two readers emailed me with comments worth sharing. Michael Ham said he avoids rolled parchment paper because “it wants to roll up again.” He likes pre-cut half-sheet parchment paper: “King Arthur Flour sells it in rounds, in squares, and in the half-sheet size that fits a half-sheet baking pan.” But now mostly uses a silicone baking mat, because it lies flat, is easy to clean, and is reusable. Brendan Farley offered this advice: “You’ve probably noticed that parchment paper does not lay down well — it keeps its form. If you want to mold it to a pan, just rinse it in water, ring it out like a towel, and it will mold to any pan and keep that form.” Thanks for the tips, Michael and Brendan! — MF

I’m still bingeing on The Great Courses videos. These are the best university courses, without university tuitions. Even better, if you have a public library card in the US, you can get free access to The Great Courses through the Kanopy streaming service. I stream the Great Courses, via Kanopy, on my Roku smart tv. In addition to most of the catalog of Great Courses, Kanopy is a real treasure that also offers a very long tail of documentaries, old movies, and tutorials that are too niche even for Netflix. It’s like a public library of video. You are limited to 10 “plays” per month, except unlimited Great Courses. And it’s all free if you have a library card. — KK

I bought memory foam tips to replace the standard ones that come with AirPod Pros. They were an improvement because my AirPods stopped falling out of my ears. Then someone told me to get a pair of SednaEarfit Xelastic tips. I did, and they are incredible. The soft rubbery tips completely seal my ear canal, and make the noise cancelation so much better that I couldn’t even hear the toilet flushing. They are comfortable, too. — MF

I just discovered that Gmail has a confidential mode feature that lets you set an expiration date to an email. In the composition window, you’ll find a lock icon with a clock and when you click on it you’ll see a list of different expiration times, ranging from 1 day to 5 years. Once it expires, recipients will be locked out from the message. Here are more detailed instructions. — CD

In the US southwest you can legally vehicle camp on certain areas of public land, rent free, for up to 7 months. You need a self-sufficient RV type vehicle (no hookups available), and a permit for camping in a Long-Term Visitor Area (LTVA) from the BLM. There are currently 7 LTVAS. — KK

I am getting a kick out of Unsuck-it.com where you can find “unsucked” definitions for corporate speak, or as its called on the website “douchey jargon.” What a great explanation of brain dump: Everything an individual knows about a topic, shared via cerebral defecation. — CD

Notion is a simple-to-use wiki for making instant web pages. I didn’t need to learn how to use it. I just started typing on a blank page. It’s so much better than dealing with HTML and CSS! I use the free version, which has everything I need for now. I used it to create this recipe page for almond flour bread. — MF

I use parchment paper on a cookie sheet to bake cookies and bread. There’s no need to grease the cookie sheet, and the cookies and bread come right off the parchment paper with zero residue. I can reuse the parchment paper. Even at 450 F, it doesn’t burn. — MF

I am the daughter of two Mexican immigrants and when I was younger I had a lot of shame around my last name, the way that I looked, how poor we were, etc. When I found Brown Girl Therapy on Instagram I finally felt understood. Brown Girl Therapy is an online mental health community for children of immigrants founded by Sahaj Kohli, a mental health therapist in training. Her posts are like mini-therapy sessions for me. Here is a reminder from Sahaj that really hits home: “You can love and be grateful for your immigrant parents’ journey & make different choices than they’d want. You can love and be grateful for your immigrant parents & need time away from them. You can love and be grateful for your immigrant parents & protect your mental health.” Here are a few others: Growth work and White girl ponytail. — CD

The coolest thing I’ve seen in many years is Same Energy. This is a beta-version of a visual search machine. You give it an image and it returns more images that feel exactly like the one you started with. Some images may be the same subject, some may be the same lighting and coloring, or some have the same visual style. It works uncannily well. I can start with a piece of furniture, or a fabric design, or an album cover, or an Instagram travel photo, and I’ll get an endless mosaic of images with the same energy. Like Pinterest, I can select one of the offerings and then get more images similar to that one, and so on. Unlike Pinterest, I can also create a collection of images and use that to train an AI to find images that share qualities of the whole set. I find I could spend hours watching the endless results recreationally, like staring into ocean waves or a campfire. It’s also a brilliant design research tool, a stunning creative prompt, and a total inspiration. — KK

Every week for the past 4 years we’ve recommended 6 things. We went through all those, selected the best 1,000, grouped them by subject, and created a book. That book, Recomendo: The Expanded Edition came out in paper, but is now available as a full color PDF. Each recommendation has active hyperlinks and a QR code. The PDF book is easily searchable and very browseable. Recomendo: The Expanded Edition PDF costs $2.99. It’s a no brainer if you like this stuff. — KK

I bought a small desk (made by Saiji) so I can work in bed and on the couch. I can adjust the height and angle, and it has rubber stops along the bottom edge to keep my computer from sliding off. My wife and I also use it to watch movies in bed. Interestingly, my typing accuracy is better with this desk than it is when I’m at my regular desk. — MF

A counterfactual is a useful “what if” history. What if America lost WWII? That counterfactual was explored by the Philip K. Dick novel The Man in the High Castle, which also became a 4 season sci-fi drama streaming on Amazon Prime. I really enjoyed all 4 seasons. Another great counterfactual, now streaming on Apple +, is For All Mankind. What if the Russians had beat the Americans to be first on the moon? For All Mankind explores an even more innovative and intense alternative NASA/Apollo program because there was ongoing competition; the space race never ended. In the first 10 episodes I got a big dose of NASA engineering geek vibe, plus a very interesting alternative path with women astronauts. Highly recommended. (Season 2 begins February 19.) — KK

Unsolved Case Files is my new favorite game to play with my husband and 14-year-old stepson. Each case file comes with evidence photos, suspect interviews, coroners report, witness statements, newspaper clippings and more. The objective is to work collaboratively and solve three mysteries before you can “crack the case.” So far I’ve solved the Harmony Ashcroft and Max Cahill case and each one took a couple hours. They can be challenging, but it is so satisfying when you’ve completed one. The quality of the documents and materials are so good, that these made-up characters actually come to life and it’s hard not to let it all get to my head when I’ve solved one of the mysteries. It makes me feel like a real detective! I just ordered my third case on Amazon because they are often out of stock, so now I’m just gonna grab one when I can. I also signed up on their website to be notified about new cases that will be released later this Spring, and I discovered if you sign up for their email list, they will email you a free mini-case that you can download and print out. — CD

I don’t have an Apple Pencil because I don’t have an iPad that will work with one. But I enjoy watching videos of people who use the Procreate app on their iPads to draw pictures. I especially like Art with Flo’s tutorial videos. She’s got a gentle, optimistic Bob Ross vibe. Her “how to draw a donut” video is a good introduction. — MF

Inevitably our garden hoses start to leak at their ends, where their couplings are dinged, or bent from overtightening. Worse, it’s a hassle to have to unscrew overtightened nozzles or hoses when they need to be moved. The solution are quick connectors, which are common on high pressure pneumatic lines. Quick connectors for garden hoses come in plastic or brass. I put them on all our spigots, hoses, and nozzles and now changing things is a literal snap, and there is zero leakage. There are plenty of generic brass fittings, all interchangeable. The ones I use are Shownew solid brass connectors which cost about $4 per pair. — KK

Here is a cutely animated video that shows you the difference between empathy and sympathy and is narrated by Brené Brown. The four qualities of empathy are: 1) Perspective taking. 2) Staying out of judgement. 3). Recognizing emotion in another person. 4) And then communicating that you recognize their emotion. She says, rarely does an empathic response begin with the word “At least.” — CD

We had a $900 robot vacuum cleaner, but our elderly cat mistook it for a litterbox and peed on it, rendering it inoperable. After she died, I bought this cheap Lefant Robot Vacuum Cleaner, and it works as well as the costly one did. It comes with a smartphone app, but I don’t use it. I just push the button and it shoots out of the charging port and starts rolling around sucking up dirt. When the batteries are low it finds its way back to the charger. — MF