LONDON — E L James does not like speaking to journalists, who often want to know deeply personal things, like how much money she makes and whether she has a sex dungeon in her basement. Her aversion to publicity can be inconvenient, and somewhat impractical. As one of the world’s most famous and in-demand authors,…
Send questions about the office, money, careers and work-life balance to workfriend@nytimes.com. Include your name and location, even if you want them withheld. Letters may be edited. Hear that? Cubicle Cacophony I lead a small team. I have an office with a door. My team sits outside my office, in a cube setting. Their noises…
BOMBAY BEACH, Calif. — On a blustery Thursday in late March, Stefan Ashkenazy, a hotelier and arts patron from Los Angeles, was bucketing through town in his dusty Chevy Tahoe, pointing out the sights while overseeing the finishing touches on a medley of unusual construction projects: a skeletal-looking Ferris wheel, which, he said, would soon…
The idea never crossed my mind until the afternoon I stood folding laundry and heard a woman on the radio telling the story of donating a kidney to someone she didn’t know. I had turned 50 the week before. I didn’t think I cared about this milestone, but then I had an epiphany: At last…
“Let’s be outrageous,” Brandon James Gwinn murmured into a microphone. “Let’s misbehave.” It was Monday night at the Playboy Club and everyone seemed to be behaving relatively well. People chatted, checked their phones, ate prawns served pink and prone on a bed of crushed ice, like sunbathers stranded atop some glacier. Besides, when a culture…
LONDON — On a recent spring morning, the Royal Opera House’s revival workroom, which is part of the costume department, was a hive of activity. Amedine Ballo, one of the revival workroom technicians, was hand-sewing gold thread onto a burgundy and pink chorus costume for the opera “Faust,” opening this week, because part of it…
LOS ANGELES — I keep coming back to Nipsey Hussle’s vigil — the thousands of candles, flowers and handwritten notes — left where the rapper and activist was shot and killed outside his clothing store in the city’s Hyde Park neighborhood on March 31. Every time I come back, I’m surrounded by a sea of…
I first met Karl in the late ’90s. It was a warm July night in Paris during Couture Week, one of those romantic evenings where you look back and think, That was so memorable and magical. It was Paris at the height of Paris couture. He wanted to invite some “cool younger people” to a…
I am probably being irrational, but I’d like your advice anyway. My husband is an avid hunter. He goes frequently with his brother during hunting season. He is also extremely responsible. He keeps his rifles locked, and the key to the gun cabinet is well hidden. But we have two small children, and I am…
Two years ago, I spent Christmas with my family in North Carolina with a mission: to digitize a dozen or so of my favorite childhood photos. Looking through childhood photos is fun for some people. “Look back on old memories! Revel in the past!” But if you’re like most people, looking through childhood photos is…