Blazing a Path Trading poodle skirts and blouses for trucker hats and flannels, decades before the term “gender nonconforming” entered the mainstream, Aunt Barbara stopped trying to fit into her Missouri farm town. I innocently called her “Uncle Barbara” as a toddler. She always laughed. For all of her standing out, for the acceptance that…
When the British American writer Ruth Whippman decided to thaw one final embryo, she was 42 years old. She and her husband had two sons, Solly, then 6, and Zephy, 3. Their remaining embryos all had XY chromosomes, too. As her pregnancy became visible, most people assumed she was trying for a girl. When she…
Summer berries make us all look like great bakers. Their acidity effortlessly balances sweet cake and muffin batters, their juices saturate cobbler tops and trifles, and they willingly reduce into chewy jam at the edge of crisps and crumbles. I have half a mind to stop writing there, and to just let you follow any…
In Melissa Clark’s “Dinner in One” cookbook — which is her collection of one-pot recipes, you’re welcome — Melissa shares that her family refers to pearl couscous as pasta bubbles. Pasta bubbles! Is there any better term for capturing the delightful chew and pleasingly spherical shape of this tiny pasta? (The “pasta bubbles” recipe, by…
Falling as it does in mid-June, Father’s Day coincides with an upswing in outdoor excursions. Whether your dad is into backpacking, fishing or forest bathing, he could probably use a few upgrades for his campfire cooking. Replace his worn-out plastic cooler with one from Oyster, a Norwegian company that launched its gleaming aluminum, vacuum-insulated version…
Dear Tripped Up, Last October, my extended family spent a week in Todos Santos, in Mexico’s Baja California peninsula, for a wedding. All went well, but when I got back, I noticed an unusual charge on my credit card: $1,500.49, made on the day we flew home to the United States from San José del…
Diane von Furstenberg’s friends like to tease that, had she been on the cinematic Titanic, she would have found a way to hoist up Jack from the freezing water and onto that wooden door. Three days later, Jack in tow, she would have sashayed into a soignée New York dinner party wearing that 56-carat blue…
Maureen Dowd: Anne Hathaway was conceived in a wrap dress. Diane von Furstenberg: Her mother told me that. You once went to a party at Brigitte Bardot’s house in Saint-Tropez. I did. It was pirate-themed. You and Barry gave Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez their engagement party. You think they should be married in outer…
Maureen Dowd: Anne Hathaway was conceived in a wrap dress. Diane von Furstenberg: Her mother told me that. You once went to a party at Brigitte Bardot’s house in Saint-Tropez. I did. It was pirate-themed. You and Barry gave Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez their engagement party. You think they should be married in outer…
In yet another seismic shift in the fashion world, Chanel announced on Wednesday that Virginie Viard, Karl Lagerfeld’s handpicked successor, was leaving the fashion house after five years as its artistic director — years in which, though her collections received a critical drubbing and speculation was rife about her possible departure, sales exploded, reaching almost…