Names and faces

■ Jill Biden, a descendant of Italians, donned an apron and rubber gloves Monday to help culinary students at a Navy school in Italy make ravioli and noodles, a task she said she mastered with her grandmother. “I’m used to Italian cooking,” the U.S. first lady told the culinary class at Naples Middle High School, a U.S. Defense Department school at U.S. Naval Support Activity Naples. The base is home to more than 50 separate military commands. Biden, 70, visited the school as part of her work back home supporting military families through an initiative called Joining Forces. She also dropped by a robotics class and praised the fortitude of military kids and their parents at a pep rally held in the gymnasium. Her paternal grandparents were Italian, and she spoke of how her grandmother would hang the fresh noodles in her kitchen. Sometimes she helped make the pasta. “I used to make homemade pasta all the time for dinner,” Biden said after she and a female student showed off their tray of cheese ravioli for news cameras trailing the first lady. At the robotics class, she listened as students described the robots they built and watched as two traced a black line on a table. When a third robot malfunctioned, she said: “Sometimes that’s life.” At the pep rally, the first lady praised military children for being strong enough to constantly adjust to new homes, new schools and new friends. Biden accompanied her husband, President Joe Biden, to Rome to participate in the Group of 20 nations summit that ended Sunday. He flew to Glasgow, Scotland, on Monday to attend a major U.N. climate conference. She boarded her plane back to Washington after the school visit.

■ “Seth Meyers: Lobby Baby,” recorded for Netflix at the Pantages Theatre in Minneapolis in 2019, ended up getting an Emmy nomination. That may be one reason Jeff Foxworthy chose the same venue to tape his own special for the streaming giant. To casual fans, Foxworthy is mostly known for “you might be a redneck” jokes and hosting “Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?” But during the second of two performances on Saturday, he managed to get through an hour of material without ever uttering the word “redneck.” Instead, the set revolved around “the good ‘ol days” — and whether they were really as good as the older generation seems to think. Younger viewers who end up watching the TV special may wince at bits about women who ramble without taking a breath and overpack for weekend vacations. The 63-year-old joked that if his wife had to pick between his life and her shoes, she’d tell the doctor that her husband would like to be cremated.

Foxworthy

Biden