Month: July 2024

Secular Rescue: Still Fighting to Save Lives in Afghanistan

Secular Rescue: Still Fighting to Save Lives in Afghanistan

Published by Sam Flores

[ Adobe Stock | Karl Allen Lugmayer ] Matthew Cravatta The Center for Inquiry (CFI) was one of the first secular organizations to come to the aid of vulnerable Afghans, both ex-Muslims and progressive Muslims, on humanitarian grounds. On September 10, 2021, CFI announced its intention to save as many lives as possible by establishing the Afghan Rescue Fund. Since then, most nations have quietly backed away from earlier commitments. A phenomenon I have previously labeled “empathy fatigue” has set in; borders started to close to Afghan refugees, and the political will began to evaporate as other international crises took center stage. However, Secular Rescue never stopped working to save endangered Afghans, even when the Afghan Rescue Fund officially ceased operations on December 31, 2022. Even now, threatened Afghans constitute most of all Secular Rescue cases. Legal immigration processes are enormously time-consuming and rife with bureaucratic sloth. While they wait for slow-to-process visas to safer nations—mostly in cramped safehouses in Pakistan or moving from house to house in Afghanistan—nearly all our cases need some financial …

Best restaurants and bars to visit in San Diego right now

Best restaurants and bars to visit in San Diego right now

Published by Sam Flores

Dining in San Diego is more compelling and wide-ranging than ever before. I say that trusting I didn’t miss a culinary heyday in the city’s way-back history. But over the last decade, during my five years at The Times and before that as Eater’s national critic, I’ve been visiting San Diego regularly, forgoing beaches and Balboa Park for taquerias and omakase counters. Excellent cooking has always been at hand: mariscos trucks and alta cocina Mexicana restaurants in close dialogue with the cooking of Baja just across the border; ambitious chefs mapping their own definitions of “California cuisine”; Japanese, Chinese and Filipino communities bringing their vital influences. Now, buoyed by a palpable confidence in the city’s civic identity as a food destination, the options are greater in number and quality. Like any major city, particularly in California, the more you delve into a dining scene, the more you understand the cultural layers — and the more you see it will never be possible to know it all. Two recent trips gave me plenty of delicious insight, …

“The Boys” gives us a grim warning of Trumpism’s endgame

“The Boys” gives us a grim warning of Trumpism’s endgame

Published by Sam Flores

In 2018, I had a short conversation with a well-known TV journalist that I’ll never forget about “The Handmaid’s Tale.” This person had asked me about a commentary I wrote about its harrowing second season and weighed in with a contrary view that went along the lines of, “Actually, it makes me feel optimistic.” Baffled by that interpretation, I asked why. “Because that will never happen here,” they said. There is no way this person could have known Roe v. Wade would be overturned four years later. Scratch that — maybe they could have, if they noticed the steady erosion of reproductive freedoms already in motion. I share this anecdote to illustrate the pitfalls of cloaking real-world crises in elaborate settings, costumes and dystopian oddity. Don’t take that the wrong way; these descriptors apply to some of my favorite stories. But the proliferation of such unrealities allows many to accept “The Handmaid’s Tale” at face value, drawing relief from its alternate reality designation. Who would ever think that the right to work, read or exist …

10 truly magnificent hikes in California’s state parks

10 truly magnificent hikes in California’s state parks

Published by Sam Flores

Other states may have high mountains, vast deserts and scenic shorelines. California? It has a park system that contains all of it. Ancient redwoods grow along the mist-covered edge of the continent. The alpine beauty of the Sierra Nevada towers above Emerald Bay and Sugar Pine Point state parks on the shores of world-famous Lake Tahoe. Thirty warm, sandy state beaches from San Diego to Santa Barbara beckon visitors from across the Southland and around the world. The California state parks system — widely regarded as the nation’s finest — showcases a fabulous array of nature’s handiwork: giant sequoias in Calaveras Big Trees State Park; the rare Torrey Pines making a last stand in a natural reserve near San Diego; palm oases in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park; some of the tallest trees on Earth in Jedediah Smith Redwood State Park. This multitude of intriguing environments, and the many fine paths that explore them, add up to some world-class hiking adventures. I confess to being more than a little obsessed by California state parks and am …

Best beaches in Southern California for every kind of beachgoer

Best beaches in Southern California for every kind of beachgoer

Published by Sam Flores

Jalama Beach is in the middle of nowhere. More specifically, it’s at the end of a gorgeous 14-mile country road that veers west from Highway 1, which splits from U.S. 101 at the Gaviota Pass near Lompoc in Santa Barbara County. At the end of Jalama Road, you find a long, windswept beach, a 107-site campground with seven cabins and — this is important — the Jalama Beach Store. The store’s Jalama Burgers are a selling point for all of Santa Barbara County. The beach is big with skilled surfers (three breaks, intermediate and beyond), windsurfers and RVers. The varied shoreline, with bluffs and dunes, makes for great long walks. Now back to the burgers. Their secret sauce was created in the 1970s by the late Kathy Eittreim, whose widower, Don Eittreim, 89, still runs the store with help from daughter Linda Eittreim. When they started, “It was tough for a couple of years. No volume. We dipped into savings,” Don Eittreim recalled recently. “We didn’t have the campers in the winter months. Now we …

Watching ‘The Bear’? Here’s where to find Chicago’s foods in L.A.

Watching ‘The Bear’? Here’s where to find Chicago’s foods in L.A.

Published by Sam Flores

It took “The Bear” to jump-start the popularity of the Italian beef, one of Chicago’s most iconic dishes, here in Los Angeles and beyond. But now that it has, the floodgates have opened. The world is finding out just how comforting, flavorful and craveable the city’s cuisine can be. There’s the razor-thin-sliced beef nestled against hot giardiniera in an Italian beef — the sandwich that Carmy, Sydney, Richie, Tina, Marcus and others serve on the hit FX dramedy, which just released its third season. Then there are the acidic pops of sport peppers and pickle spears in a celery-salt-dusted Chicago dog, neon with green relish and brightened by onions and tomatoes. Rich, gooey deep-dish pizzas are so hefty that the takeout boxes could be used as free weights, while the thinner tavern-style pies — cut into squares for easy sharing — make for an ideal communal meal. While some of these items are more difficult to find in L.A., they can be found flourishing if you know where to look. “I think the show kind …

Best hotels near the Hollywood Bowl and Universal Studios

Best hotels near the Hollywood Bowl and Universal Studios

Published by Sam Flores

From Universal Studios: 1.4 miles From Hollywood Bowl: 3.8 miles Now let us travel to the San Fernando Valley, circa 1972. That’s when veteran TV and movie actress Beverly Garland (who played Fred MacMurray’s wife on “My Three Sons” in the early ‘70s) teamed with her husband, Fillmore Crank, to open this hotel on a spacious seven-acre plot near Universal Studios. (And because this is L.A., the former owner was Gene Autry.) Garland and her husband are gone now, but the hotel has remained in the family, shedding a former affiliation with Holiday Inn. Nowadays it’s a more upscale space, leaning hard into its ‘70s roots (you’ll see a lot of orange) and very much family-focused. Roaming the property, you’ll find a swimming pool (about 20 by 40 feet) neighbored by the hotel’s emblematic outdoor fireplace. The property has about 270 guest rooms, which begin at about 250 square feet. Near the pool, there’s a courtyard full of games like Foosball, Jenga and cornhole, a lobby bar, a well-curated shop full of souvenirs and housewares …

6 Best Pregnancy-Safe Shampoos to Use While Expecting

6 Best Pregnancy-Safe Shampoos to Use While Expecting

Published by Sam Flores

Pregnancy may bring about a streak of good hair days for some— courtesy of hormones making hair stronger, longer and less likely to shed — that doesn’t mean you have to stick with the status quo ahead of your due date. Dr. Camila K. Janniger, a board-certified dermatologist in Wallington, NJ, says hair and scalp concerns are common during this time. It’s possible to develop seborrheic dermatitis, for instance — a condition where the scalp is flaky and dry — as well as dandruff, or for an existing case to worsen. Since not all medicated options can be used during pregnancy, it can be difficult to find a pregnancy-safe shampoo. Moreover, some people might want to avoid certain controversial ingredients, like phthalates (found in fragrances) and parabens (common preservatives) during this time. That said, it’s critical to remember that there’s no firm evidence of any harm to your baby coming from these ingredients. “I’ve never counseled a pregnant woman to change any over-the-counter shampoo based on pregnancy — so I feel comfortable saying if you …

Leaving the Oppression | Secular Rescue

Leaving the Oppression | Secular Rescue

Published by Sam Flores

[ Adobe Stock | Petr ] Matt Cravatta Jana (an alias) is a twenty-eight-year-old Iraqi ex-Muslim. Like nearly every girl in Iraq, Jana was raised as a Muslim, specifically a Shia. She was forced to adhere to its strictures, teachings, and basic rules—as well as its unwritten ones. Jana followed these beliefs and rules but eventually found her faith waning. She sought to understand what she was taught to believe without question. Muslim children and teens who question their religion receive swift punishment. Islam and the Qur’an are not to be questioned. Jana suffered unprintable horrors as a child, including sexual abuse and regular vicious assaults. As Jana grew up and became a young woman, she continued to be on the receiving end of various beatings from family members. She was even stabbed by her brother. She boldly pushed forward and began to express her doubts. She began to question the Qur’an. “Some things were just not reasonable,” she told Secular Rescue. “I kept telling myself that I can’t have doubts.”  Gender-based inequalities associated with …

“The Bear” confronts Carmy’s nightmare: A boss who believes in creating excellence through pain

“The Bear” confronts Carmy’s nightmare: A boss who believes in creating excellence through pain

Published by Sam Flores

Joel McHale’s living nightmare of a New York chef turns up for the first time in the second episode of “The Bear,” malevolently hovering inches from the hero’s right shoulder. Horrific doesn’t begin to sum up the man’s management skills properly – he is concentrated nuclear fallout in human form. A plague of acid vomit. Moments after he strides into the scene, firing a line cook for messing up a sauce, the celebrated culinary master sets to barking random numbers into Carmen Berzatto’s (Jeremy Allen White) ear to throw off his system. Then come the toxic whispers. “I get it – you have a short man’s complex. . . . Is why you have the tattoos and your cool little scars and you go out and take your smoke breaks? It’s fun, isn’t it? But here’s the thing: you’re terrible at this. You’re no good at it.” Charring his star employee with curses, he berates him for his supposed slowness and orders him to repeat, “Chef, I’m so tough.” “You are not tough,” the man …