K. Ogden takes us by the lapels and intones, "no one will love it more than you!"

Ursula Sadiq demonstrates the proper technique of fairy-queen-staff-making.

Shelle Klein Houser tells us exactly how good Rob Bryan's book is.

And Daniel Allen explores the bike transit system of Taipei.

Strong stuff, people!

This is a tasty variation on something I've been pouring in the ice cream freezer for a long time. I should have tried the banana sooner.

1 frozen banana (or fresh; just takes longer)

1 generous dollop peanut butter

2 tablespoons maple syrup

1 generous shake 5-spice powder

1/4 teaspoon vanilla

Mix the ingredients and pour into your beloved ice cream maker. Y'know, the compact kind with the insert you keep in the freezer until it's ready.

Serves one. But by that I mean it serves the amount you're really gonna eat. Like, about two cups.

Yesterday was kind of epic.

Recently we spotted an H-Mart from the car while crossing back into town from Elkins Park, north of Philadelphia. I was vaguely aware it's a Korean supermarket. Our neighborhood has cheap, abundantly stocked pan-asian supermarkets, but this looked a little more upscale.

And on the way back into town, we passed through a Korean neighborhood that blends into an African-American neighborhood that blends into... and so on. But from a car, you miss a lot.

So yesterday, with the rest of my household out on their own errands, I decided to hop on my bike and pedal north... forever.

Around 0.3 forevers into this journey, I passed Fly School Circus Arts, currently located on 5th street near Cecil B. Moore. They teach you the flying trapeze. I tried it once. S'fun.

At the 0.6 forevers mark, I stumbled onto El Bloque de Oro, aka the "golden block." Actually several blocks of thriving Latino businesses and a community center.

But around 0.7 forevers, I found myself in what felt like an endless series of abandoned factories. So I changed course, rolled through the green space of Hunting Park, and worked my way north along Old York Road, which parallels Broad Street.

Old York was my ticket the rest of the way to forever: the H-Mart at Old York and Cheltenham Avenue.

I had expected a supermarket, and there is one, more of an upper middle class affair than I'm used to down in South Philly. But there is also an indoor pedestrian mall that feels more like a street market. And a vendor of Korean kitchen and bathroom fixtures. Which... are a vivid reminder that we are not the only high-tech culture on this planet that innovates in the vital arenas of consumption and elimination. But anyway.

The main score for me: red bean donuts. I hadn't experienced red bean paste desserts before, although I know they are a staple in certain cultures. These were served in a very health-label-conscious "parisian bakery" that clearly is no stranger to picky eaters, so I felt more confident than usual in ordering outside my comfort zone.

On my return home, I presented the family with freeze-dried asian pears, Korean corn chips and plum candy for dessert. The "crispy asian pears" were the clear winner; with no ingredients whatsoever other than asian pears, they scratch that "unhealthy crunchy snack" itch. I was impressed. The other two were just okay. But I get points for adventuring, yes?

I'm a big believer in leaving your backyard and exploring neighborhoods you wouldn't normally see.

I'm cognizant that in some places and times there can be risks associated with this. A tiny fraction, of course, of the risk and discomfort folks who don't happen to be white males might experience in far more places. But there are risks associated with never leaving the house, too. It also doesn't hurt that I tend to explore in broad daylight. Which is not to say that any particular places I've mentioned are less safe.

I have started picking up my guitar at the end of the day. Except, it's noisy. So I can't pick it up after nine. Which means I'm in a bit of a mad rush to play my guitar. Which is nice, no?

I have been bashing through easy songs, Bowie, Jackson Browne, Death Cab, They Might Be Giants, whatever floats across my transom.

Obviously I have forgotten a zillion chords since my last attempt at performing music... cough five years ago, and I was rusty then, really more like seven.  I am rusty as hell.

And yet, my sense of rhythm is better. Some things come more naturally.

That probably has something to do with eight (what! When did that happen!) years of dancing.

For those not paying attention, Home Star Runner is so back. Including a new Number One Jam.

Homestar is the gift that keeps on giving. Ever since I first stepped into its little ridiculous yet internally consistent universe I've been hooked on phonics.

Of course, they went away for several years, without a word of explanation, as artists will do when they damn well feel like it.

They first rose from their slumber to release a Windows 98 theme. Nice metacommentary on your "enduring relevance," bros chaps.

But then Strongbad appeared on Twitter. And now we have a steady stream of new ludicrousness in our lives.

We added a feature this week to help solve the "where is everybody" problem:

1. Click "Read." (You're probably there already.)

2. Just below "Read," you'll see three buttons: "following," "network," and "public."

3. "Following" is your usual feed. "Network" is, basically, friends of friends - people followed by people you follow, but not by you, not yet anyway. Naturally it shows only public posts. And "Public" is the firehose: all the public posts in the entire OPWverse.

It won't be long before the "public" feed is impractical to keep up with, which is why we added "network." But "public" will probably always be a fun way to sample the zeitgeist.

Above we see the number of new people arriving on One Post Wonder each week, back to the beginning.

These numbers are really too small to be significant at a weekly scale; after all, there are still only 128 accounts on OPW. (*)

So it's important not to get caught up in week-to-week fluctuations. I would have done a monthly graph but we just haven't had enough months yet.

But looking at the overall trend... wow. There's quite a pickup between the first and second halves of the graph.

Also, while I only recently started tracking "who invited who" information, I can tell you that everyone invited in that big bump last week was not invited by me!

I think this chart is even more interesting:

In the long run, content is what matters. And we're seeing impressive growth in the number of posts each week. I'm also seeing more signs of spontaneous connection between folks in my personal OPW experience.

Speaking of connection, what about comments?

Zoom!

Re: the last two weeks, for a while my personal, subjective impression was that folks preferred commenting to posting. But last week, that pattern reversed, with a significantly lower ratio of comments to posts.

As I mentioned, the data is noisy and will remain that way until the site is quite a bit bigger. But it's easy to see the signs of growth in these graphs. Not just growth in population, but growth in content and growth in connection.

(*) Yep, it's that small so far. It's easy to be surprised by this number if you've been participating, because the community is strong. Slow growth doesn't bother me; as long as we are showing signs of organic growth, we are doing the right things, and the community will grow with time.

Sure, we're too beat to go out for karaoke (*), but I found myself reading an article on Beethoven and thought "well, there ought to be some Beethoven," and I queued that up.

Really, any evening that's powered by Beethoven must be said to be a success.

(*) Well. It is only 10:40pm, and I am still awake, and anything is possible. Maybe a little evening stroll that just happens to pass the bar.

Edited to add: took said walk. Tragically, the Adobe Cafe seems to have a new DJ, and the new crowd is either nonexistent or brosville, depending on the week. Fun party people, where did you go?

Pizza dough

Packet of active dry yeast
1 tablespoon sugar
1 cup warm water
3 cups King Arthur "white whole wheat" flour
Olive oil
Additional flour at the ready
Corn meal, for dusting the pizza pan

Dissolve sugar, then yeast in warm water. Set aside to "proof" for at least 10 minutes. Eventually the yeast will foam and you'll know you've got a good 'un.

When your yeast has proofed and your veggies are ready to go, add the liquid mixture to the flour. Begin kneading. Add additional flour in small amounts as needed until a malleable but not sticky consistency is reached. Knead for five minutes.

I like to turn my hands out while pushing my thumbs in, over and over, with the NPR app yapping at me about the economics of zoos.

Pizza topping

1 cup dried shiitake mushrooms
1 red bell pepper
1 yellow bell pepper
1 yellow squash
1 large carrot
An onion
Three cloves garlic
Half a bag of field washed spinach
1/4 can coconut milk
Garam masala (or Chinese five-spice seasoning, if you don't have it)
Salt
Pepper

Rehydrate the shiitake mushrooms. I brewed them up in a teakettle with a tea ball of roiboos.

Roast the bell peppers. On a gas stove this is easy. Use tongs to pop whole peppers onto burners over medium heat. Turn them often. A little charring is OK. When there is a little char on every side of the pepper, remove it and wrap it in aluminum foil. Set peppers aside in foil for ten minutes to steam.

When peppers have steamed, remove aluminum foil. Use a knife to scrape off most of the char. If the peppers steamed properly this is easy. Remove stems and seeds and slice peppers.

Sautee the onion and garlic, adding salt and pepper to taste. Add thin, round slices of squash and carrot. Add a generous shaking of garam masala. Strain the mushrooms and add them to the sautee pan. Add bell peppers. Add spinach and sautee until wilted. Add coconut milk and sautee an additional three minutes.

Assembly

Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Pizza ovens should be hot! Don't be shy.

Liberally dust pizza pan with corn meal. This prevents the pizza from sticking.

Flatten out the pizza crust onto the pizza pan. Brush with olive oil, then roll out with a rolling pin right on the pan until the pan is well covered and use your fingers to finish the fit. Maybe you're nimbler with pizza crust than I, but I never have any luck transferring a rolled-out crust to a pan.

Pour topping over pizza and even out with your hands.

Bake for 20 minutes or until unmistakably golden-brown at the rim. If your topping is as thick as mine, you'll need the 20 minutes. If not your pizza will likely be ready a little sooner. Don't pull it out too soon or you'll have "mud in the middle."

Serve and enjoy!

Suggested Order of Battle

1. Proof the yeast.
2. Start brewing the shiitakes in the kettle.
3. Roast the peppers and wrap them in foil.
4. Chop the veggies.
5. Knead the dough.
6. Preheat the oven.
7. Scrape, clean and slice the peppers.
8. Sautee the veggies.
9. Roll out the dough.
10. Add topping.
11. Bake.
12. Devour.

Normally I wind up eating half a vegan pizza by myself; cheese is where both the calories and the fat that eventually tells your brain to stop are in a regular pizza. When you make a pizza without cheese, and especially without cheese or tomato sauce, don't be shy about using other delicious things like coconut milk! With this one I felt full after two slices and ate a third just for the hell of it.