Beneath a giant glass dome, where a waterfall plunges 130 feet through a forest, and a winding path leads past palms and fig trees, orchids and anthurium, a robot came rolling around a bend. It was about five feet tall, and cruising my way. In its frame were shelves of bottled water and, with a…
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GENEVA, N.Y. — Across the country, hundreds of kinds of apples were meticulously developed by orchardists over the last couple of centuries and then, as farms and groves were abandoned and commercial production greatly narrowed the number of varieties for sale, many were forgotten. Some of this horticultural biodiversity, though, has been nurtured by dedicated…
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Growing up Jewish in Oklahoma City, Aaron Goldfarb encountered few opportunities to drink eggnog during the holiday season. But romance can change a person’s circumstances. “I married a woman who loves the holidays,” said Mr. Goldfarb, who writes about beer, whiskey and cocktails for publications like Esquire and Punch. His book “Gather Around Cocktails” (Dovetail,…
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Where the first lady, Melania Trump, is concerned, theories abound. From morning-show hosts to Twitter pundits to protest poster artists, everyone has an opinion: Mrs. Trump is a prisoner in her own home. Mrs. Trump rules the roost. Mrs. Trump is complicit, clueless, estranged from her husband, advises her husband, loves Washington, hates Washington, just…
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Good morning. I’ll keep this brief because last week was a doozy in the kitchen, and this weekend was all about leftovers (maybe it still is!). It may be hard, here at the top of December, to rally around big dinners and lots of cooking, when that’s all you’ve been doing, for what seems like…
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Iain Griffiths, 32, is constantly running in and out of bars, restaurants and bakeries, collecting food scraps and carrying leaking brown boxes. As one half of the bartending duo Trash Tiki, he has to do collection rounds frequently. The food scraps are ingredients for Mr. Griffiths’ upcycled craft cocktail company, which he started with his…
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Damariya Carlisle, age 9, jumped as an instructor hauled a crab pot onto the steel deck of the barge docked on the Elizabeth River, a Chesapeake tributary in Norfolk, Va. She marveled at the Atlantic blue crabs’ claws but worried they might pinch her. The visit was part of a fourth-grade class trip in October.…
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The death of a child is most parents’ worst nightmare, one made even worse when it is self-inflicted. This very tragedy has become increasingly common among young people in recent years. And adults — parents, teachers, clinicians and politicians — should be asking why and what they can do to prevent it. In October, the…
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Because the fireplace is usually the focal point of a room — and all the furniture is arranged around it — the accessories that go with it matter. Especially the fireplace tools, which not only need to look good, but are also used to tend the fire and clean up after. “Nice fireplace tools are…
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Some days I’m grumpy; other times, my head hurts or my feet or my arms do. Yet when I play the trumpet, my mood improves and the pain disappears. Why? Alternative medicine — including music therapy — is full of pain-relief claims. Although some are simply too good to be true, the oddities of pain…
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