Recipes to Alter Your Mood

Good morning. “Tomorrow was another day, at least by the calendar,” the novelist Patrick O’Brian wrote in “Blue at the Mizzen,” “but the two could hardly be told apart: the heat, the faintly drifting cloud, the ship pitching heavily with no way on her, the flaccid sails, were all the same.” It’s been like that…

Rachel Bloom’s Life Is an Open Book

There’s no question you can ask Rachel Bloom that runs the risk of scrutinizing her too closely. “I love that,” she said. “Please, overanalyze.” Television viewers already know Bloom as the star and co-creator of “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,” the musical comedy-drama that delved deep into the messy life of her lovestruck protagonist, Rebecca Bunch. That CW…

Shopping for Desk Lamps

Since the pandemic struck, improvised home offices have been put through their paces. If your work-from-home setup is ready for an upgrade, the right desk lamp is a good place to start. Beyond providing light exactly where it’s needed, “the task light becomes one of the things that creates your little work office at home,”…

Finally, New Jersey Might Be Cooler Than New York

HOBOKEN, N.J. — In the very important, high-stakes fight for tristate area coolness, New Jersey rarely has the upper hand. (The tristate, for those without a Northeast-centric worldview, has traditionally referred to New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.) But two weeks ago, New Jersey residents voted to amend the state constitution and legalize recreational marijuana,…