Love Letter: ‘Don’t Start Anything’

I’ve read many Modern Love submissions about encountering old crushes and high school flames online. (First love never dies, right? Especially in the digital age.) What struck me about Sara Glass’s essay, “Please, God, Help Me Stop Missing Her,” wasn’t that Ms. Glass reunited with an old love on Instagram. Rather, it was her acute…

A Slow-Cooked Lamb Recipe For Summer

Speaking of summer weather, or weren’t we? I pronounce it “exceedingly hot and humid.” While that’s not true of everywhere, of course, I know many people who would emphatically answer yes when asked, “Hot enough for you?” And emphatically no when asked, “Are you going to cook?” Some won’t even turn on the oven or…

Corny on Main

Last week, I told you I was in full tomato mode. Which is true. But it’s not the whole story. My other summer love is fresh sweet corn, which I find so irresistible that I drag home far more than I can carry when I leave the market. I’ll probably end up in physical therapy,…

The Mysterious Dance of the Cricket Embryos

In June, 100 fruit fly scientists gathered on the Greek island of Crete for their biennial meeting. Among them was Cassandra Extavour, a Canadian geneticist at Harvard University. Her lab works with fruit flies to study evolution and development — “evo devo.” Most often, such scientists choose as their “model organism” the species Drosophila melanogaster…

Kylie Minogue Mixes Her Signature Cocktail

Kylie Minogue’s early experiences of alcohol were not especially glamorous — canned drinks with teenage friends, boxed wine at family barbecues. But Ms. Minogue, 54, the only female artist to have topped music charts in five consecutive decades, has refined her relationship to liquor since. On a recent Wednesday morning, she stood behind the venerable…

Raja Kumari Brings West Coast Rap to India

Name: Raja Kumari Age: 36 Hometown: Claremont, Calif. Now Lives: In a three-bedroom apartment in the Juhu section of Mumbai, India. Claim to Fame: Ms. Kumari is a songwriter, singer and rapper whose work straddles both Western and Indian music, in a reflection of her dual identities as a South-Asian American. She blends English and…