There are some mysteries people just won’t stop talking about: Has President Trump seen Sophie’s Choice, and how did he choose which child would take the fall for him? What is “vaporware,” and do I need it for Burning Man? Is there a price too high to charge for avocado toast?

Others get significantly less airtime, so The Bold Italic has set out to find the answers…

1) Where Does All the Shattered Glass Come from, and Where Does It All Go?

“As much as I’d like to believe that street diamonds are a marvelous precious mineral bursting forth from the earth like a bedazzled drag queen leaving her apartment for Sunday Funday brunch, they’re just glass. Broken glass. From auto burglaries, most often, but sometimes also from a broken bottle on the sidewalk or debris trailing from a recycling truck.” Read more…

2) Where My Ladies At? Finding a Voice in the Restaurant Industry

“It’s not abnormal to be called a ‘bitch’ in the kitchen, Gayle Pirie, co-owner of Foreign Cinema, admitted in her Hot Take piece for Eater — nor did she feel that it was ever an issue. ‘As a woman, you have to develop thick skin, work extra hard and develop this cool,’ Barzotto’s Michelle Minori told the San Francisco Chronicle in her 2017 Rising Star Chefs profile. Becky Broeske, the former pastry sous chef at Absinthe Restaurant Group, was once quoted as saying that she handles working in the male industry with ‘fart jokes and showing lots of leg.’” Read more…

3) Confronting My Mugger

“In the courtroom, on the witness stand, I felt out of place. The man’s gun had never been pointed directly at me — I wasn’t left with a circular indentation from the gun’s barrel pressed on my forehead. Even four years later, I felt embarrassed that I had not been more involved. I was traumatized, but not victimized. For a moment, I found myself actually wishing that the gunman had fired his weapon at me. Then, maybe, I would have earned my place in the courtroom.” Read more…