Hardtack (or hard tack) is a type of dense cracker made from flour, water, and sometimes salt.  Hardtack is very inexpensive and long-lasting, allowing it to be used for sustenance in the absence of perishable foods. It is commonly used during long sea voyages, land migrations, and military campaigns.  Along with salt pork and corned beef, hardtack was a standard ration for many militaries and navies from the 17th to the early 20th centuries.  The name is derived from "tack", the British sailor slang for food.  The earliest use of the term recorded by the Oxford English Dictionary is from 1830.   It is known by other names including brewis (possibly a cognate with "brose"), cabin bread, pilot bread, sea biscuit, soda crackers, sea bread (as rations for sailors), ship's biscuit, and pejoratively as dog biscuits, molar breakers, sheet iron, tooth dullers, Panzerplatten ("armor plates"; Germany) and worm castles.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardtack    

A rusk is a hard, dry biscuit or a twice-baked bread.   It is sometimes used as a teether for babies.   In some cultures, rusk is made of cake rather than bread:  this is sometimes referred to as cake rusk.  In the UK, the name also refers to a wheat-based food additive.   In Argentina, rusk is called tostadas de mesa (literally 'table toasts'), slices of twice-baked bread generally available in supermarkets in plain and sweetened variants.  Cake rusk is called bay biscuit; its ingredients are egg, sugar, oil, self-rising flour, and vanilla.  See other variations at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rusk    

Possessing nearly unparalleled technical facility, a brilliant ear for tonal color, and innovative programming style, Peter Richard Conte is one the most admired “orchestral” organists of this era.  Appointed in 1989 as the fourth Wanamaker Grand Court Organist and presiding over the world’s largest fully functioning musical instrument (29,000 pipes) at the Wanamaker Building in downtown Philadelphia, Mr. Conte is a masterful and enthralling performer, arranger of jaw-dropping organ transcriptions, and creatively astute silent film accompanist who is equally at home with a work by Franck or accompanying a Charlie Chaplin film.  https://concertartists.com/artists/peter-richard-conte/    

A babka, or an Ugat Shmarim is a sweet braided cake or viennoiserie that originated in the Jewish communities of Poland and Western Ukraine.  It is popular in Israel where it is known as a yeast cake.  It is also popular in the Jewish diaspora.  It is prepared with a yeast-leavened dough that is rolled out and spread with a filling such as chocolate, cinnamon, fruit, or cheese, then rolled up and braided before baking.  Babka developed in Poland and next in the Jewish communities of Central and Eastern Europe in the early 19th century.  Extra challah dough was rolled up with fruit jam or cinnamon and baked as a loaf alongside the challah.  Chocolate was not originally used, as it was not generally available; the chocolate babka was likely a mid-20th century American development.  Its name (though not necessarily the dish itself) may be related to a type of Easter cake popular in Poland and Ukraine known as baba or the diminutive babka, which means "grandmother", related to the Yiddish bubbe.  Although the Polish and Ukrainian babka are mutually synonymous with their Jewish counterparts, the appearance and preparation of each babka is drastically different.  The Eastern European babka is known for its tall, stout, fluted sides formed in a traditional pan, and reminiscent of a grandma's skirt.  In comparison, the variant introduced by émigrés to New York consists of strands of rich yeasted dough interwoven and baked in a loaf tin.  Thank you, reader.   

The official Oxford Word of the Year 2025 is rage bait.  Rage bait is defined as “online content deliberately designed to elicit anger or outrage by being frustrating, provocative, or offensive, typically posted in order to increase traffic to or engagement with a particular web page or social media content”.  With 2025’s news cycle dominated by social unrest, debates about the regulation of online content, and concerns over digital wellbeing, our experts noticed that the use of rage bait this year has evolved to signal a deeper shift in how we talk about attention—both how it is given and how it is sought after—engagement, and ethics online.  The word has tripled in usage in the last 12 months.  Rage bait was first used online in a posting on Usenet in 2002 as a way to designate a particular type of driver reaction to being flashed at by another driver requesting to pass them, introducing the idea of deliberate agitation.  The word then evolved into internet slang used to describe viral tweets, often to critique entire networks of content that determine what is posted online, like platforms, creators, and trends.    

December 3, 2025