Welcome. I spent too much time this morning looking around the internet for a Jay McInerney short story that I thought was called “Cigarettes.” (It’s actually called “Smoke,” and you can buy a digital copy if you like, or find it in “How It Ended,” his 2009 collection of stories.) I was interested in revisiting it because of how the story describes a New York that no longer exists, of smart people living and working at the nexus of creativity and finance, always out in restaurants or throwing dinner parties where people stay too late, where in the morning there are Marlboro butts in the wine glasses in the sink, where there are no children and married people cheat.
It felt like sociological escapism, to read such a tale, like Thackeray for a tl;dr moment, and I thrilled at the picture of the bygone era. You might feel similarly watching “Molly’s Game.” But I wanted the experience of the printed word, the ability to cast the scenes and style the apartments myself, in my head.
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That’s what life’s like at home sometimes, months into this strange and tumultuous time. We seek escape, diversion, a way of feeling about the world that doesn’t hinge on the news from the latest press conference or weather event. Maybe we’ll find it in the kitchen, baking a cake, or staring at a monitor, imagining a new life in Stonington, Conn., or staring at the phone, scrolling through great art accounts on Instagram. (For sure we’ll find it in the filmed version of “Hamilton,” which comes online this weekend.)
At Home provides all that serendipity and more. It’s a catalog of our best and most wide-ranging ideas for how to live a full and cultured life during a difficult time, a way of finding joy and deliciousness in a world that sometimes doesn’t have a lot of it to show. We publish stories about that every day. Please visit us At Home to discover them.
What to eat.
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When J. Kenji López-Alt saw a social media post of soft-serve ice cream dripping with chile oil he knew exactly what to do, creating a chile crisp sundae that you will not soon forget.
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Are you throwing away the peels of your clementines and lemons? You’d be having a lot more fun if you used them in our recipe for trash cocktails.
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And don’t think Melissa Clark was done after she planned your socially-distanced barbecue (above). She signed off on cake for breakfast with her new cornmeal muffin recipe and she has a cool cucumber soup that can be ready in just a few minutes.
How to pass the time.
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The world lost a comedy legend when Carl Reiner died. You can read about his 70 years of show business in his obituary, or you can skip to the good stuff by streaming some of his best work at home.
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Fivio Foreign’s “Big Drip” has been an unofficial soundtrack to a summer of unrest, and in our “Diary of a Song” series, Joe Coscarelli dug in on the late Pop Smoke’s role in taking Brooklyn drill global.
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When people are debating the safety of eating inside a restaurant, thrill-seeking is mostly out of the question. But our “Through a Lens” travel series has been consistently offering the next best thing to circling the globe. This week’s edition headed to Los Islotes to swim with the sea lions.
Like what you see?
You can always find much more to read, watch and do every day on At Home. And you can email us: athome@nytimes.com.
