The Joy of Kooky

In the early 1990s, Joost Elffers, a successful Dutch book packager, met an American expatriate living in Amsterdam named Gary Goldschneider. Mr. Goldschneider was a brilliant but scattered polymath who completed his studies at Yale medical school but never practiced medicine and later became a concert pianist. He once played all 32 of Beethoven’s sonatas…

Canned Elegance

Good morning. I write from Martha’s Vineyard, in Massachusetts, where I’m with my colleague Carolyn Ryan to visit with colleagues at the Vineyard Gazette and address friends new and old at the Martha’s Vineyard Wine and Food Festival. (Missed the Derby, sadly, but was excited to learn they’re moving toward catch-and-release competition.) It’s beautiful here,…

Helping Alt-Meat Grow Some Muscle

The alt-meat industry has created quite a sizzle, promising delicious burgers, steaks and even sushi that is grown from animal cells in the lab. But most cellular agriculture still looks like mush. The manufacturing process — which starts with animal muscle and fat grown from stem cells in petri dishes — is fine for making…

Catherine Wiener, Riley Ford

Catherine Diktynna Talbot Wiener and Riley Scripps Ford were married Oct. 26. Associate Judge Rowan D. Wilson of the New York Court of Appeals officiated at the New York Public Library. Anne Fadiman, a college mentor of the groom, gave a reading. The couple met at Yale, from which both graduated cum laude, and from…

Sara Wahlberg, Michael Kurth

Sara Kathleen Wahlberg and the Rev. Michael Benjamin Evington Kurth were married Oct. 26 at Christ’s Church in Rye, N.Y. The Rev. Andrew A. Kryzak, an Episcopal priest, performed the ceremony. Mrs. Kurth, 32, is an assistant director for brand, marketing and communications at Ernst & Young, the New York professional services firm. She graduated…