A Cake for America

Good morning. I was on an adventure with one of my kids. We’d eaten a lot of cheese pupusas at El Nopal in Patchogue, the hot masa slathered in salsa roja and washed down with mango purée, then driven sleepily into Blue Point and west along Middle Road to Meadow Croft, the former summer estate…

Some Democrats Talk About Cosmetic Surgery Insurance. It Doesn’t Exist.

Image A window display outside a clinic in Miami. Elective cosmetic procedures are almost never covered by medical insurance, and economics explains why.CreditEllis Rua/Associated Press The “Medicare for all” bill written by Senator Bernie Sanders would cover not just standard medical services, but also vision, dental and long-term care. It would offer more health benefits than…

The Mystery of Davé

Image Outside Davé, the once-popular Asian restaurant near the Palais-Royal in Paris. It closed in 2018.CreditJelena Stajic PARIS — In the summer of 1998, this newspaper ran an article about a restaurant here. “The first rule of fashion is that if something is fashionable, it is doomed to become unfashionable, especially if it is fashionable…

The Endlessly Frosty American Indoors

Modernity was born 116 years, 11 months, two weeks and two days ago, at a printing plant in the East Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, when a junior engineer named Willis Carrier devised a contraption that blew air over water-filled pipes to dry out the humidity that was gumming up the pages of a humor magazine…

A Look Back at Vintage Swimwear

The swimsuit reflects the underbelly of society: It privileges superficiality, has been used to police cultures and values increasingly irrelevant norms of gender and sexuality. Yet, it survives and lives unstably in the public imagination, vacillating between our collective affection and disdain. Last June, Miss America ended its nearly 100-year-old swimsuit competition. “We are moving…