According to our e-commerce and big-box retail overlords, the hottest toy this holiday season was the L.O.L. Surprise! Bigger Surprise. It didn’t reach fist-fighting-in-store-aisles levels of frenzy; it’s no Tickle Me Elmo, and it’s not 1996. But, according to NPD Group, a market research firm, L.O.L. Surprise! was the best-selling toy brand of the year…
Tumblers — drinking glasses without stems — are the most multipurpose form of glassware, equally suitable for serving tap water and single-malt whiskey. In fact, they are so ubiquitous that they might not seem as glamorous as their stemmed siblings. But when they’re distinctive, they almost always attract attention, especially as part of a table…
Bring on your questions about work and life to workfriend@nytimes.com. Include your name and location, even if you want them withheld. Letters may be edited, and responses may make you sad. My Boss Has an Anatomy I work for a local government agency in a professional office setting. My boss is a young, attractive woman.…
[What you need to know to start the day: Get New York Today in your inbox.] These are the less-than-elegant last days of what, in the days when department stores were destinations, was one of New York City’s most elegant: Lord & Taylor, a fortress on Fifth Avenue. The everything-must-go signs have been up for…
Image CreditFederica Del Proposto Marriage proposal stories submitted to The New York Times’s Society News Desk in 2018 ranged from spontaneous to well-scripted, though the jumbled manner in which a man from Illinois went about asking the love of his life to be his wife was truly puzzling. Proposal getaways were a popular theme this…
The first step in the next stage of language’s inevitable evolution — or devolution — may have already hppnd. The year now ending has been one of catastrophes. To name just two: The planet is getting warmer and the alphabet is getting shorter. Where have all the vowels gone? It’s true that A, E, I,…
Former President Barack Obama on Friday shared some of the books, movies and music he found most inspiring or thought-provoking in 2018, including works that he “just plain loved,” compiling them into a year-end list posted on Facebook. It was a wide-ranging list that included songs by artists as varied as Cardi B, Janelle Monáe…
For years, I have emphasized the importance of small-production wines. They are often the most interesting, most distinctive wines available. This is not to demean larger producers who are conscientious about their work. I have made the case as well for big Champagne houses, Bordeaux producers, Burgundy négociants and others. But generally speaking, mass-produced wines…
It’s been more than a year since Dior artistic director Maria Grazia Chiuri opened her spring 2018 show with a Breton-stripe top that posed the question, “Why have there been no great women artists?” That moment set the tone for Chiuri’s tenure at the house, as she has gone on to produce collections inspired by…
There’s a scene in the second season of “Riverdale” (stay with me, folks) that could serve as an imperfect metaphor for 2018. The telltale signs of a town in collapse are crammed into 42 bracing minutes: rioting, gun violence, families torn apart, political secrets and sabotage. It all culminates in a face-off between good and…