In our very online era, design trends seem to bloom and wither faster than ever. Concepts that might at first strike us as unexpected can quickly be turned into clichés by algorithms. See: Zellige tiles or banana leaf wallpaper. One antidote to this rapid churn is, of course, more analog sources of inspiration, in particular…
Spend time on any crowded sidewalk and you’ll see heads bent over and eyes cast downward. One recent study of college students found that a quarter of people crossing intersections were glued to a device. “I don’t think people are aware of how much they’re distracted and how much their situational awareness changes when they’re…
It is possible that the most dazzling couture show in Paris this week is not actually taking place on a runway at all, but in an entirely different sort of setting. Possible that said couture show is not an invitation-only affair with gold ballroom chairs and the latest celebrity du jour, but rather one open…
If you want to stay healthy as you age, experts say you have to keep moving with a mix of cardio, strength and balance training. But there’s another critical element, one that doesn’t get as much attention. It’s what gives you the ability to toss a heavy trash bag into a can or lift a…
A powerful storm diverted dozens of flights in Britain and Ireland on Sunday and Monday, sending passengers to Germany, France and northern Britain, and stranding some at airports overnight. At Dublin Airport, 166 flights were canceled Sunday night, another 29 flights were canceled on Monday, 36 flights were diverted to other airports and 34 aircraft…
Restaurants have started gearing up for the Lunar New Year, with Year of the Dragon starting on Feb. 10 and New Year celebrations lasting about two weeks. Tolo, the chef Ron Yan’s restaurant which opened in early November, will offer a special $100 per person menu for parties of six to 12 that includes classics…
The American land artist and designer Mary Miss was traveling in Europe in October when she received the kind of news that no one in her line of work wants to hear. One of her most significant artworks, owned by an Iowa museum, would need to be closed to the public because it had fallen…
When winter arrives in western Austria and the sun disappears all too quickly behind the snow-capped Alps, you can stand in bare orchards and still taste the sun-ripened fruit that the trees once bore — just sip a glass of schnapps. For centuries, farmers in the Tyrol region have mashed, fermented and distilled apples, plums,…
When Crystal Wilkinson wants to summon her kitchen ghosts, she retrieves a fuchsia-hued dress from her closet and hangs it in the doorway. The sturdy, double-hemmed garment invites her grandmother Christine, who sewed it by hand and wore it often before she died in 1994, to join her. The dress acts as “a literal and…
I didn’t grow up in a breakfast household — not in any traditional sense, anyway. It was both a requirement and an afterthought: a stop at the gas station for some packaged muffins or the Cuban bakery for a ham croqueta in a roll, often eaten in my dad’s car on the way to school….
