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November 9, 2024 
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Good morning. The foods and music and culture that move us most might not be very good, but that doesn't diminish their power to comfort and delight.
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| María Jesús Contreras |
Playing favorites
Last month, The Times published a list of New York's 25 best pizza places. Like any good New Yorker, I made sure my favorite pie was on the list, then vowed to find a new favorite. There's pleasure in having one's tastes affirmed by the tastemakers. Then there's the even sweeter satisfaction of liking something no one else has discovered yet — a vanishingly rare experience in the TikTok era, when influencers trumpet their "secret" spots to eager followers and the next thing you know, there's a line around the block at your neighborhood bakery.
What makes a food "the best" of its kind, anyway? I loved reading through The Times's list, but it's only of use insofar as it aligns with my own preferences — I'll never love a pizza topped with honey, or chicken, or (controversially, I know) peppers and onions. Sam Sifton's theory of pizza cognition resonates: It posits that a person's primary pizza source, the pizza they grew up eating and loving, is "the pizza that will become that person's inner optimum, the pizza against which all others are judged."
Sam allows that tastes can change — he grew up on slices but developed an appreciation for pan pizza — but I'd argue that even if you refine your definition of the "best" pizza, your earliest taste imprint is still the one that provides the most comfort, the most familiar kind of pleasure. I may feel confident asserting that the best pizza has a thin crust, a slightly spicy sauce and a delicately balanced ratio of sauce to cheese, but the most comforting pizza I know is from a long-closed pizzeria in my hometown where the crust was pillowy and chewy, the sauce Chef Boyardee-sweet, the cheese oily and slipping off.
Comfort foods are nostalgia bombs. They're taste biases that were inscribed early when there wasn't a lot of other data to complicate things. They can be awakened with a smell or a bite or even the sight of a neon sign that reads "Angelina's," the feel of a cardboard box hot on your legs as you carry dinner — half pepperoni, half meatball — home in the passenger seat.
I have always maintained that the most comforting music is whatever you listened to in high school. It's not necessarily the best music by any objective metric, but it's what you listened to when you were formulating key parts of your personality, and that music will always make you feel most essentially yourself. I'd like to figure out other theories of familiarity, ways to reliably induce a sense of deep, cozy satisfaction. Maybe it's all stuff that got to you when you were young and impressionable, the inputs around and on top of which you formulated your more sophisticated opinions. You have your grown-up tastes, built on years of living and experiencing and honing an aesthetic. And then you have the stuff — the chaotic foods you crave, the synth-heavy pop no one else can stand — that, independent of any rational appraisal, feels like home.
For more
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| Beyoncé earned 11 nominations for "Cowboy Carter." Kevin Winter/Getty Images |
Donald Trump
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| Donald Trump on election night. Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times |
Democrats
- Senator Jacky Rosen, a first-term Democrat, narrowly defeated a Republican challenger in Nevada, even as Trump beat Kamala Harris there.
- Nancy Pelosi said President Biden should have ended his campaign sooner and allowed the party to hold a primary to find a new nominee.
- Senate Democrats hope to confirm as many Biden judicial nominees as possible before Republicans take control in January.
- A federal judge this week struck down a Biden administration program that aimed to provide a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants married to U.S. citizens.
- The Biden administration passed billions of dollars in investments for clean energy and semiconductor factories. Trump could reap the benefits.
- Bruce Springsteen, Oprah, Beyoncé: Celebrity surrogates for Harris may have backfired by driving perceptions of elitism.
- California moved to the right: Voters approved harsher penalties for shoplifting and drug possession and rejected a higher minimum wage, expanded rent control and two progressive district attorneys.
- San Francisco's new mayor, a Democrat, said he would declare a state of emergency to tackle the city's fentanyl crisis.
- Democrats kept their one-seat majority in Pennsylvania's House, The A.P. projected, despite Harris's and other Democrats' losses there.
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Other Big Stories
🤠 "Yellowstone" (Sunday): The popular Montana-set drama returns for the remaining part of its fifth season this weekend. Join the debate over whether it's prestige TV for red states, a soap opera disguised as a western, a Kelly Reilly showcase or all of the above. One thing to know: Until now, it has starred Kevin Costner, but he won't be back for these episodes.
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| Andrew Scrivani for The New York Times |
Chocolate Babka
Sometimes the best way to spend the day is deep in an immersive, daylong baking project, especially one involving chocolate. My recipe for chocolate babka may involve 14 steps, but it's calming, meditative work, and well worth every sugarcoated moment.
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| From left, Jay Krishnamoorthy and Vidya Jayaraman with their daughter, Rithika Jayaraman, in Manhattan. Jeenah Moon for The New York Times |
The Hunt: An Atlanta couple looked for a modest second home in Manhattan to be closer to their daughter. Which did they choose? Play our game.
What you get for $490,000: A 1928 brick house in Oshkosh, Wis.; a Craftsman-style bungalow in Salt Lake City; or a duplex apartment in an 1854 mill building in Wake Forest, N.C.
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| Desiree Rios for The New York Times |
Paddle pros: The Professional Pickleball Association hopes a world championship this weekend will draw attention to the highest level of the sport.
The warming generation: These teenagers are coming of age amid a climate crisis.
Travel: Spend 36 hours in San Francisco.
Home: Read tips from designers on how to declutter your kitchen and maximize space.
A hack to keep towels mildew-free
Despite your best efforts, bathroom towels can develop that unmistakable mildew smell. Luckily there's a straightforward solution that's more cost-effective than tossing out your towels whenever that odor lingers: borax and a hot laundry cycle. Adding just a scoop can boost the power of your detergent and help to break down stubborn stains and odors. — Caroline Mullen
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| South Carolina forward Chloe Kitts in a game against Michigan this week. Ian Maule/Associated Press |
No. 1 South Carolina vs. No. 9 N.C. State, women's college basketball: South Carolina was perfect last season, compiling a 38-0 record and winning a national title. The team is once again ranked No. 1 to start this year, but it faces an early test: N.C. State, which reached the Final Four last season before falling to — you guessed it — South Carolina. Tomorrow at 3 p.m. Eastern on ESPN
Here is today's Spelling Bee. Yesterday's pangrams were rotunda and turnaround.
Take the news quiz to see how well you followed this week's headlines.
And here are today's Mini Crossword, Wordle, Sudoku, Connections and Strands.
Thanks for spending part of your weekend with The Times. — Melissa
P.S. The most-clicked story in The Morning this week had nothing to do with the election: Readers really wanted to know what pants are most stylish right now.
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Editor: David Leonhardt Deputy Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Desiree Ibekwe, Sean Kawasaki-Culligan, Brent Lewis, German Lopez, Ian Prasad Philbrick, Ashley Wu News Assistant: Lyna Bentahar Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch |
