Comment on Mel Brooks' 'The Producers' to open the TCM Classic Film Festival

Mortadella, a silken, fat-speckled salume from Italy, has found a place on more menus in the United States in recent years. But in Colorado, mortadella has taken a Western turn. “We ordered local pork, but not enough came in,” recalled chef Ty Leon, co-owner of Michelin-recommended Restaurant Olivia and the upcoming Emilia.

Denver has six of the best Chinese food restaurants in the country, according to Yelp, which released a list of its reviewers’ 100 favorites on Wednesday. The “Top 100 Chinese Restaurants of 2024,” which excludes national chains, used “a number of factors including the total volume and ratings of reviews.” The top 30 restaurants are outside Colorado, with Maxi’s Noodle in Flushing, Queens, in New York City, taking the number one spot.

I live alone, in a tiny house with a kitchen for which the term “galley” is a compliment. I rarely cook; dinner is usually a salad or a bowl of ramen. But if I have a holiday tradition, it’s thoroughly covering my counter (and often my floor) with flour and sugar, cocoa and cracker crumbs, bringing back memories of all my matriarchs. As I mix and bake and chill, in the scent of chocolate and cinnamon and pastry, it’s as if these women are all in my kitchen for a little while. Moravian Stretched Apple Strudel.

The Douglas County school board unanimously approved a new Advanced Placement course on African American studies after hearing parents and educators express support for the new class during a meeting Tuesday evening. The Board of Education’s decision came after President Christy Williams initially delayed the vote during a Nov. 19 meeting, saying at the time that she hadn’t had enough time to review the course — which had drawn concerns from community members — and make sure it aligned with Douglas County School District’s equity policy. Williams said at the time that she had heard from community members who were concerned the course would teach students critical race theory, which is an academic concept that racism runs through American institutions, such as the legal and education systems. “A lot of people have talked about the course that was banned from certain states,” Williams said, referencing the fact that the African American studies course has been barred in Florida, where teachings on race have been restricted. “I can say now after researching and understanding that that has been revised and modified and doesn’t include some of the controversial topics that were in there initially,” she added. The seven-member school board must approve all courses taught in the district.

A company that wants to extract gold from piles of decades-old mining waste outside Leadville no longer plans to use cyanide in its processes after hearing concerns from locals about the toxic chemical. CJK Milling will instead use a different process to separate the gold from 1.2 million tons of tailings left over from historic mining in the area, the company announced Monday.

Dear Eric: My wife and I married two years ago. We were both widowed after long happy marriages and feel blessed that we have found each other. When our first spouses died, they were each interred in different local cemeteries. In each case, the headstones include each surviving spouse’s name, birth year and, of course, no death year (yet!).