Serri Graslie

From the people on our money to the effects of calling someone black, this week, we bring you four reads that illuminate a bit of history or pieces of regulation you may not have known about.

Growing waistlines, a savvy clothing industry and good old-fashioned stubbornness have kept many men in pants that don't fit. It doesn't have to be this way.

By some measures, not much has changed for the American male in the past few decades — girls still do better in school and men still make more money. In other areas, the differences are profound.

Organizers of the Winter Games are preparing to serve up quite a bit of the hearty, deep-red Russian soup. Which is kind of ironic, says Russian food writer Anya von Bremzen, since borscht carries with it complicated political implications. And not all borschts are created equal, she warns.

MenuStat, a site launched by the New York City Health Department, aggregates detailed nutritional information about menu items at the nation's largest restaurants. The department hopes it will encourage consumers to choose healthier items on the menu.

Restaurants with a "weak" reputation are more likely to write fake positive reviews, a study finds. But chain restaurants, which do not benefit greatly from Yelp, are less likely to commit review fraud.

Dish Network announced this week that it will shutter the 300 or so remaining Blockbuster stores it owns across the country. But in some places, dozens of the video stores will have an unlikely afterlife.

Hungry bugs and warmer temperatures mean pine trees aren't producing as many seeds as they once did, driving up the cost of Italian pine nuts to $120 per pound in some cases. Cookbook author Julia della Croce found a colorful — and delicious — alternative in pistachios.

Homemade sodas are hot these days: Americans bought more than 1.2 million home carbonators last year. For the Fourth of July, we asked mixologist Gina Chersevani to help us tap into the trend with a soda float inspired by Independence Day.

Postwar marketing of convenience foods pushed our grandmothers to take many shortcuts in the kitchen that modern foodies might find unpalatable. Many involved Jell-O. Cookbook author Jeremy Jackson updated his grandma Mildred's famous strawberry cake recipe to remove this old-school secret ingredient.