OLIVE, AGAINBy Elizabeth Strout Patrick Melrose, the deeply troubled yet savagely witty character who was breathed into existence by the English author Edward St. Aubyn, seized readers’ attention in no less than five autobiographical novels, published between 1992 and 2012. Frank Bascombe, Richard Ford’s stoic and droll protagonist, propelled four of Ford’s books, beginning with…
The 52 Places Traveler The 52 Places Traveler fulfills a long-held dream of visiting Dakar and reaffirms his belief that “low season” is just a state of mind. Oct. 15, 2019 Video Produced by Meg Felling and Sebastian Modak Our columnist, Sebastian Modak, is visiting each destination on our 52 Places to Go in 2019…
This is a retail review in which I do not leave my apartment. All of the movements and decisions described take place in my mind or on my phone. Where mind ends and phone begins is sometimes unclear. All you have to know is that wherever I am, I am shopping. Personal Shopper by Prime…
Once upon a time, women’s wear was rife with transparency. With miniskirts and spaghetti-strap dresses and tank tops. With fashions intended to show some skin and combat the heat. Not anymore. Now we have hems that sweep the floor, sleeves that dangle so far down they are practically in the dust and necklines that rise…
The legend of Camembert is one of daring escape and dairy espionage. The cheese was invented in 1791 when a priest from Brie (yes, like the cheese), took shelter with a dairymaid, Marie Harel, as he fled France’s anticlerical government. He taught her to make cheese with an edible rind, as local lore tells it.…
For a dozen years, the Tony and Emmy Award-winning actress and singer Kristin Chenoweth lived just off the Hudson River on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Hard by a pier, the location was grand in the summer, but left something to be desired in the winter. The winds were such that every time the…
In June of 2018, Mark Pennington received troubling news from his ex-girlfriend, with whom he shared custody of their 2-year-old son. She had taken a hair follicle from the boy, she said, and had it analyzed at a lab. A drug test had returned positive for THC, the intoxicating compound in marijuana; evidently their son…
THE FIRST CELLAnd the Human Costs of Pursuing Cancer to the LastBy Azra Raza Throughout my career as a neurosurgeon, I have worked closely with oncologists. Many of my patients have cancer of the brain — one of the deadliest of the near-infinite number of cancers. I have always viewed my oncological colleagues with complicated,…
When my better angels are in charge of my schedule — instead of the insatiable gremlin that won’t get off Instagram — I end the day by starting my bedtime routine: lighting candles; eating early, (three-ish hours before going to sleep, in a knockoff version of intermittent fasting, it makes for better digestion and for…
Can eating tomatoes improve sperm quality? In a randomized placebo-controlled trial, British researchers tested the effect on sperm of lycopene, a red pigment found in tomatoes, watermelons, pink grapefruits and other red-tinted fruits and vegetables. The scientists divided 56 men ages 19 to 30 into two groups. For 12 weeks, one group took a daily…