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AN INVISIBLE COLLABORATION Allegra Hicks (above) is the latest creative to work with The Invisible Collection, which collaborates with interior designers, artists and makers to produce exceptional pieces for the home. Allegra, who is based between London and Naples, is fascinated by transforming the ephemeral into the timeless. In this case, she has created moulds of a range of media – including crochet, as seen in the round ‘Minerva’ table light and the ‘Hera’ coffee tables (both above), and also twigs collected from Neapolitan pine trees. Once cast in bronze by a foundry using the lost-wax technique, these become immortalised as pieces such as the ‘Mediterraneo’ side table (above). Why crochet? ‘I love the idea of taking something soft and turning it into a hardened, bronze object,’ she says. Prices for…

SYLVIE BECQUET “It’s simple, but not so simple,” says Becquet of her light-filled Paris home, which she shares with her husband and the couple’s terrier, Easy Lady. The photographer has lived in the fifth-floor duplex apartment in the city’s 16th arrondissement for the past decade. There’s nothing fussy to be found among its treasures, but there are plenty of treasures to fuss over: a view of the Eiffel Tower, for one, and a plaster mirror rescued from the set of Jean Cocteau’s La Belle et La Bête. ALANNA HALE For Hale, the centerpiece of her San Francisco apartment is a bookshelf of her own making, built from repurposed wood scaffolding and topped with beloved books and personal mementos, like a ceramic elephant that was originally part of her baby mobile. “The camera was…

It’s been a year like no other, and we aren’t talking about the pandemic. There were rapid-fire public offerings, surging cryptocurrencies and skyrocketing stock prices. The number of billionaires simply exploded. Forbes found an unprecedented 2,755 around the world—660 more than a year ago. A staggering 86% are richer than they were then. Altogether they’re worth $13.1 trillion, up from $8 trillion in 2020; their average net worth is $4.7 billion, $900 million more than last year. The U.S. still has the most billionaires, with 724, followed by Greater China with 698. We used stock prices and exchange rates from March 5, 2021, to calculate net worths. For the full list of the world’s billionaires and our methodology, please visit forbes.com/billionaires. 1. Jeff Bezos $177 BIL ⬆ • SOURCE: AMAZON AGE: 57 •…

At age 14, this Minneapolis-area two-story went through an awkward phase. It had plenty of space—about 4,200 square feet—but the homeowners and their three teenagers had outgrown the rooms as they were. The homeowner says the kitchen was so cramped that her son picked her up and moved her to get into the dishwasher for a clean glass. Add to the dysfunctional layout an “old country” layer of wallpaper, barn red and sage walls, and what seemed like acres of orange-tone woodwork, and it was time for a refresh. Enter Sarah Martin, the designer behind the design-build firm Beautiful Chaos, to lead the house gracefully through its growing pains. On the chopping block: unnecessary walls, rooms without purpose, and dark colors. Martin opened the kitchen, family room, and a four-season porch to…

SOME PEOPLE CONSIDER RENOVATIONS to be a trial; decisions and discomfort are borne for the end result. Others consider renovations a creative act, a process that is just as much of a reward as a home tailored to your exact taste. The clients for this luxurious yet laid-back 4,000-square-foot, four-bedroom apartment in Manhattan’s Carnegie Hill neighborhood were firmly in the second camp. “Together, we’ve renovated two apartments, and we built a house from the ground up on the Jersey Shore,” says the wife, a lawyer. “Our last apartment definitely leaned traditional. Our beach house was midcentury modern. Over time, we’ve become more interested in taking some design risks.” She and her husband, who works in finance, were looking for a younger designer, one who thrives on collaboration with craftspeople. “We…

The musical and literary salons that the British poet James Fenton and the American writer Darryl Pinckney host in their Harlem townhouse are a delight not only for their guests, but also for passersby. Temperatures willing, they throw open the wide-paned windows so that the gentle strains of a Chopin sonata can sound out from two grand Steinway pianos in their living room. When the couple first viewed the residence, in 2010, they had no way of knowing that music would be central to their lives there, as neither of them is a musician. Instead, they are both belletrists: Between them, they’ve written poetry, essays, and novels as well as reported from war zones. (They both have books forthcoming: a memoir by Pinckney and a collection of classic essays on interior…

CHIEF MARKETING OFFICERS have fallen out of fashion in recent years. Some researchers claim they don’t add value, and many companies, including Johnson & Johnson, Uber, and Hyatt, have scaled back or even eliminated the position. A new study finds that, on the contrary, CMOs have a crucial role to play in multinational companies. They can be instrumental in helping those businesses grow globally—but only under certain conditions. “Every multinational enterprise faces two major challenges: a rise in nationalism and a saturation in domestic markets,” says V. Kumar, a professor at St. John’s University and the lead author of the study. Unlike other C-suite officers, he explains, CMOs have expertise on the front lines of the business—and that firsthand customer experience is vital to international growth. And because their responsibilities are…

“Lo mejor de esta casa es la DISTRIBUCIÓN, con muy poco PASILLO y muchísima LUZ entrando durante todo el día”.María Santos A unque ahora todo respire calma, su hacedora y propietaria, la interiorista María Santos, confiesa que recuerda el proceso hasta llegar a esto con estrés. Ya se sabe que en casa de herrero, cuchillo de palo, y María, embarazadísima y ocupadísima con todos los proyectos de su estudio, fue dejando lo suyo para el final. Lo único bueno es que vivía en el mismo rellano, justo en la puerta de enfrente. “Todas las mañanas uno de los oficios llamaba a mi puerta: ‘Tengo una pregunta, ¿me puedes invitar a un café?’. Luego pasaba yo con el bebé en brazos”, recuerda. Llevaba ya 15 años viviendo en este edificio más que…

A POLITICIZED RIFT IN THE AMERICAN Catholic Church has widened in June, as U.S. bishops voted to draft instructions to the faithful on who should receive Communion—with an eye toward dissuading high-profile Catholics who support abortion policies and gay rights, like Joe Biden, from presenting themselves for the ritual. According to a church official, many bishops had been concerned about the confusion such an apparent conflict could otherwise cause among Catholics. Biden regularly attends Mass and takes Communion at St. Joseph on the Brandywine near his home in Wilmington, Del., and at Holy Trinity in Georgetown, two miles from the White House. He has long turned to his faith for solace, close friends say—in particular during times of trial or personal tragedy. But how the President practices is “personal,” White House…

FOR 2022, WE BROADENED THE FORMS OF INFLUENCE WE RECOGNIZE—SEEING LEADERSHIP FROM DIFFERENT VANTAGE POINTS On the cover of TIME, the year ended as it began. In January, our cover featured Alexei Navalny, the imprisoned Russian opposition leader and famous dissident, who warned, in a profile by TIME senior correspondent Simon Shuster, against appeasing Vladimir Putin: “Time and again the West falls into Putin’s elementary traps,” Navalny said. “It just takes my breath away.” This time there was no appeasement, as TIME’s 2022 Person of the Year Volodymyr Zelensky, who appears on the final cover of the year, persuaded the West that freedom was at stake not just in Ukraine but across the world. “If they devour us, the sun in your sky will get dimmer,” Zelensky told Simon during a remarkable…

When I had COVID earlier this year, I lost my sense of smell. Can smell training really help me get it back? A loss of smell, or anosmia, is one of the most common symptoms of COVID-19. About 80 percent of people infected experience some kind of disturbance of the sense. We don’t fully understand why, but it’s likely that the virus disrupts or destroys the tiny, hairlike cells in the nasal passages that detect odors and send signals to the olfactory bulbs in the brain, where those odors are interpreted. While many people regain the ability to smell soon after they recover from COVID, some have more persistent anosmia. And another small group regains their sense of smell but in a distorted way, called parosmia; for these folks, scents may register…

Phil received the Walter Scott Houston Award at Stellafane 2018 for his lifelong work promoting and teaching astronomy. I have heard from several readers who, while they enjoy looking at showpiece targets, also like it when we go off the beaten path. So this month, let’s turn our eyes to the faint and the formidable hiding within the constellation Cepheus the King. Spotting Cepheus may itself be a bit tricky, since its brightest star, Alderamin (Alpha [_] Cephei), shines at magnitude 2.5. The rest of its major stars, which form the image of a house with a steeply pitched roof, all shine between 3rd and 4th magnitudes. To locate Alderamin, look not quite halfway between Deneb (Alpha Cygni) and Polaris (Alpha Ursae Majoris). Once you’ve found the dim twinkle of Alderamin through your…

Bob’s recent book, Earth-Shattering (Little, Brown and Company, 2019), explores the greatest cataclysms that have shaken the universe. Nearly nine years ago, this page explored randomness and its apparent ability to generate the universe around us (see my January 2013 column, “It’s random”). Since then, science articles have continued to cite chance — such as a planet happening to sit a specific distance from its parent star — as the presumed mechanism for life on exoplanets. It’s tempting to attribute natural phenomena to chance because we already see it operating widely. For example, it’s how evolution works. The problem is that few people seem to understand the limits of chance. I think it’s time to give this subject a deeper look. Let’s expand on some of my previous examples: Consider putting eight books…

AFTER ‘ROCKET LAKE,’ 5 THINGS INTEL MUST DO ON DESKTOP TO GET ITS CPU MAGIC BACK Intel must replicate what Apple has done. The Apple M1 is the first ARM-based system on a chip designed by Apple Inc. as a central processing unit for its line of Macintosh computers. It was inspired by their ARM A14 chip. It is deployed in the MacBook Air, Mac mini, and the MacBook Pro. It is the first personal computer chip built using a 5nm process. Apple claims that it has the world’s fastest CPU core.—Richard Keyes It is past time for Intel to move its chip design to at least 10nm, achieving all of its economies in circuit density and power consumption, especially when TSMC and Samsung are already at 7nm. It boggles the mind…

MAKING POSITIVE CHANGES in your life is more than a numbers game. We can’t just muscle our way through a new activity for 21 days—a time frame that’s been bandied about since the 1960s—and expect it to be ingrained. On the contrary: “This notion that there’s a magic number of days to form a habit is garbage,” says Katy Milkman, PhD, a professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and author of How to Change (Portfolio, 2021). Research has found huge variations in how long it takes for new behaviors to become consistent—anywhere from a few weeks to many months. And the more complex the practice, the longer it takes. The real secret is carving out space in your life for an activity or objective, making it…

“As soon as the next warm spring evening arrives, you’ll know where to find Leslie and Art Richer—on their dock. Their home is perched at the edge of Lake Thoreau, a reservoir in Reston, Virginia, west of Washington, D.C. Art and Leslie bought a dated relic of a house in the spring of 2016. “It was a typical 1978 quote-unquote modern house,” Art says. “It was really just a bunch of little rooms. Only in the living room and part of the kitchen could you even see the lake.” The couple asked architect Jim Rill to help them open up the spaces and, most importantly, maximize the connection to the water, which is only 25 steps away. The house’s innate blandness, Rill realized, offered potential. It reminded him of a loftlike…

For most of my adult life, I usually avoided eggs. I had read that since yolks are full of cholesterol, eating them would raise my blood cholesterol and harm my heart health. Then, around three years ago, to lose a few kilograms, I reduced simple carbs and added more protein to my diet – including eggs. But I wondered what that would do to my cholesterol levels, so at my next medical check-up, I asked for a blood test. My doctor surprised me with this response: “We were wrong about that all along. The best research says you don’t need to avoid eggs.” To reassure me, she ordered the blood test. The results? Same healthy cholesterol levels as before. It got me wondering: how many other people were unnecessarily avoiding eggs…

To call this a cookbook is really an understatement. This is a glimpse into the glittering extravagance and influential hospitality of two remarkable women. Jane Churchill charts the intrepid, eccentric and influential lifestyles of Nancy Astor and Nancy Lancaster through the prism of their entertaining, and the recipes served in their grand English country houses. Jane, a close relative of the ‘two Nancys’, grew up visiting these houses, tasting the recipes and experiencing their way of life first-hand. Despite being born and raised in the American state of Virginia, both Nancys spent their married lives in England in a succession of magnificent houses. As society hostesses, they influenced formal British culture with their iconic style and Southern hospitality. In Entertaining Lives: The Nancy Astor & Nancy Lancaster Cookbook, Jane explains that…

The aspect of Gandhian values that tend to receive most attention, not surprisingly, is the practice of non-violence. The violence that is endemic in the contemporary world makes the commitment to nonviolence particularly challenging and difficult, but it also makes that priority especially important and urgent. It is extremely important to appreciate that non-violence is promoted not only by rejecting and spurning violent courses of action, but also by trying to build societies in which violence would not be cultivated and nurtured. We would undervalue the wide reach of his political thinking, if we try to see non-violence simply as a code of behaviour. Consider the general problem of terrorism in the world today. In fighting terrorism, the Gandhian response cannot be seen as taking primarily the form of pleading with…

Almost all the models we tested clean well, are easy to load, and come in a stainless finish. They also use far less water and energy than washing by hand. The picks here are excellent overall performers, and most have a timed-start feature, a heavy-duty or pots and pans cycle, and self-cleaning filters. The ratings rank models by overall performance. $ BOSCH ASCENTA SHX3AR75UC Cycle Time: 95 min. Water Usage: 4 gal. $630 88 The combination of superior performance and features that more commonly appear on pricier washers makes this model a great value. It scores very well for washing, drying, and quiet operation, and its 95-minute cycle for a normal wash is one of the shortest of any washer that CR tests. bosch-home.com BOSCH 300 DLX SERIES SHS863WD5N Cycle Time: 150 min. Water Usage: 4 gal. $770 84 This midpriced model earns a…

GIVEN THAT heart disease is the number-one cause of death of adults in the U.S., it’s surprising, even alarming, how little people know about it. The condition kills more women each year than all cancers, including breast cancer, combined—a fact 68 percent of Americans don’t know, according to a recent Cleveland Clinic survey. About one in 16 White, Black, and Hispanic women over age 20 has it. We’re also fuzzy on preventing it: In the same survey, only 20 percent of respondents thought you should start getting your cholesterol tested in your 20s (true), while 58 percent said that popping an aspirin every day can help protect you (false). There are things you can do to fend it off, though, and they don’t involve a pill. Most incidences of cardiovascular disease—which…

Look anywhere and you’ll find music. Without a single exception, every culture produces some form of it; like language, it’s a universal trait in our species, and over the millennia it has bloomed into a diverse and stunning global symphony. Yet music’s origin remains one of the great secrets of human history. The oldest known instruments are 42,000-year-old bone flutes discovered in caves in Germany. Vocal music surely predates these, but the problem, according to University of Amsterdam musicologist Henkjan Honing, “is that music doesn’t fossilize and our brains don’t fossilize.” With little hard evidence, scientists still debate what evolutionary purpose music serves. And because its purpose is obscure enough to warrant debate, some skeptics question whether it serves any purpose at all. Charles Darwin thought it did. In music, he found…

Benoit VIAENE Arquitecto de formación, la búsqueda del mobiliario perfecto para sus proyectos le empujó a crear lo que necesitaba con sus propias manos. “Y ya no pude parar”, confiesa. Primero fue la madera y, tras ella, llegaron la piedra, el corcho y la cerámica. Todo a través de un proceso eminentemente intuitivo de prueba y error. “No hay reglas ni influencias, ni siquiera un proceso definido. Es el desarrollo de un lenguaje único a través de la materia”, nos cuenta. Utiliza maderas poco convencionales, como el álamo, el sipo y el modificado térmicamente. En continua búsqueda de aquella pátina capaz de redondear sus muebles, el fuego y su forma de trabajarlo, casi esculpiendo el material, se ha convertido en uno de sus sellos de identidad. “Mi trabajo es una reacción…

The differences begin to fade a bit as one drives down Texas Highway 4, between the Gulf of Mexico and the Rio Grande, toward one of the southernmost points in the U.S., where Musk is preparing to launch the world’s largest rocket. Gleaming spacecraft—some retired from duty, others still in production—rise stories above the sparse terrain. His company is gobbling up local housing and encouraging employees to move there. “Creating the city of Starbase, Texas,” Musk announced on Twitter earlier this year, to the evident surprise of the residents of Boca Chica, where his facility is located. (A county official noted that “Sending a tweet does not make it so,” and that a petition must first be filed.) For nearly a century, TIME has named a Person of the Year—the individual…

WHEN PEOPLE HEAR THE WORD extinction, they invariably think of dinosaurs. But we are now on the verge of soil extinction—the greatest crisis of our times. Can soil ever turn extinct? Yes, it can. If you remove organic content (in the form of plant litter and animal waste) from soil, it turns into sand. This is called desertification. Conversely, if you add organic content to sand, it becomes soil. Soil extinction may be a relatively new term, but the process it describes has been unfolding over the past 100 to 150 years because of unsustainable agricultural practices. An acre of soil in the world is turning into desert every second. This is a statistic with grave consequences for all life on this planet. The problem is that we treat soil as a…

Maya Feller Registered dietitian, Brooklyn When she was growing up, the world came to Feller’s kitchen. “My mom’s table was always full of women from around the globe having awesome, energetic discussions over a meal,” she recalls. It wasn’t until after college that the Massachusetts native grasped the connection between eating and health. “I was training for the Boston Marathon, and at about mile 12 I would think, Where did breakfast go? I decided to find out.” Feller earned an MA in clinical nutrition at New York University, then worked at community-based nonprofits before starting her own practice in 2013. Rather than shoehorning clients into dietary guidelines, she listens as carefully as she analyzes lab results. “There’s no one-size-fits-all way to eat healthfully, so I ask who they are, how their work-life…

A day at the spa rejuvenates the body, invigorates the mind, and nourishes the soul. Despite the lack of deep-tissue massages and exfoliating facials, the master bath in interior designer Brooke Wagner’s Newport Beach, California, home imparts a similarly serene atmosphere. “I wanted the design to feel very organic and spa-like with lots of texture and natural stone,” Brooke says. Completed in 2017, the home is defined by lofty windows and plenty of natural light. To bring similar luminosity to the 180-square-foot bath, twin angled skylights in the 13-foot vaulted ceiling catch the morning sun in the east on one side and meet it on the other as the day advances. Statuary marble mosaic tiles line the floor and shower, forming the foundation of a soothing, predominantly white palette marked with cool…

1 Centaurus A Centaurus A (NGC 5128) is a standout object for Southern Hemisphere observers. NGC 5128 is often called the Hamburger Galaxy because of the two regions of stars (the bun) that surround a dark dusty lane (the burger). And it’s a heck of a meal: A mere 12 million light-years away, Centaurus A has a diameter of about 60,000 light-years. Scottish astronomer James Dunlop discovered NGC 5128 in 1826 using a 9-inch reflecting telescope in his observatory in Parramatta, New South Wales, Australia. Astronomers gave it the catalog name Centaurus A because it was the first radio source discovered in the constellation. Both NGC 5128’s appearance and its radio emission have their roots in a galactic collision. The main body of Centaurus A — a giant elliptical galaxy — is absorbing…

»Venus continues to dominate in the morning, along with a retinue of fellow planets gracing the predawn sky. Mars, Saturn, and elusive Mercury provide lots to observe. Jupiter largely is hidden from view after its conjunction with the Sun. Meanwhile, the evening sky carries William Herschel’s great discovery of 1781, the planet Uranus, easily visible in binoculars. Let’s start with a closer look at this distant giant. The only planet visible in the evening sky is 6th-magnitude Uranus, nestled within a dim region of Aries the Ram. It stands due north of the circle of stars depicting the head of Cetus the Whale. The easiest way to find the field of view containing Uranus as you scan around with binoculars is to draw a line between Hamal, the brightest star in Aries,…

IN A 19TH-CENTURY NEIGHBORHOOD IN MEXICO City, a jewel of 20th-century Mexican modernism sits quietly tucked away among the trees. Across town, the design cognoscenti book months in advance for a timed peek at Casa Luis Barragán, the home and studio of the famed Mexican architect. But here in the city’s Colonia San Rafael enclave, furniture designer Mark Grattan has only to roll out of bed to find himself immersed in the world of Barragán, having scored a coveted apartment in a rare building designed by the late icon. Grattan is the founder of a red-hot furniture design studio, VIDIVIXI, and a star on the rise. Solange Knowles recently nabbed him as a product development consultant for her design studio and creative agency, Saint Heron. And this spring, the charismatic young…

WINGED Regarding “The Last Shift” [April 2021]: What a shift indeed! You say the Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing is “a veritable four-door Corvette.” I say nay, nay. The Caddies can be equipped with six-speed manuals, while the new C8 is automatic only. The world has shifted indeed. —Kevin ParsonsMeridian, ID I love driving a manual, but the Cadillac Blackwing story refuses to accept that automatics have gotten so good that one should not feel ashamed of getting an automatic in a car like that. A reasonable case could be made that this is too much car for a manual. The manuals’ only hope is in fun little cars—which also are dropping like flies (no more Fiesta ST)—and maybe the Wrangler. The Miata is likely going to be the Alamo for the manual, so if…

Liz Lange does not believe in ghosts. In fact, she’s dismissive when asked whether Grey Gardens, the 1901 East Hampton, New York, estate she and her husband recently restored, is haunted. “I didn’t expect to see ghosts because I simply don’t believe in them,” the creative director and chief executive officer of women’s luxury fashion and lifestyle brand Figure says of what it felt like to move in. Which isn’t to say the past is not present at Grey Gardens. Shortly after purchasing the home in late 2017, the fashion entrepreneur embarked on an extensive restoration of the storied estate, working with architecture firms Ferguson & Shamamian and Bories & Shearron to modernize the operation of the house while preserving much of its original design. This involved digging a full basement to…

lesson number 1 A mix of vintage and modern art pieces—an ancestor’s self-portrait, a contemporary piece created by you, a thrifted antique mirror—gives soul to crisp, clean walls. “I love the saying, ‘I’m frugal, that’s why I don’t buy cheap,’” Danie Gohr says with a laugh. But she’s not kidding. This creative homeowner has a distinctive eye for style and has deftly guided her home from builder basic to a chic modern farmhouse dressed in a style she calls “cozy minimalist.” And she has done it without breaking the bank. When Danie and her husband, Chuck, decided to build in 2017, they took the builder’s floor plan into their own hands and imaginations to make it what they wanted—increasing the size of the pantry, raising the ceiling height, and adding porches front and back.…

SHORTLY AFTER GRADUATING FROM COLLEGE, Tatyana Miron Ahlers moved from Boston to Brooklyn and took up residence with four guys in their early 20s. “We could barely be bothered to kick the junk mail out of the doorway,” says one of those roommates, Kelefa Sanneh, now a staff writer for the New Yorker. But Ahlers “embarked upon brave projects to try and upgrade the place,” says Sanneh, recalling the arrival of “a beautiful pair of 1940s slipper chairs, which lived unhappily amid our postcollegiate crap like exotic animals in a shabby zoo.” At her next apartment, a miraculous space in Manhattan where a hidden deck was accessible via a kitchen window, she taught all her peers how to entertain effortlessly. Freshly arrived in the city, I remember climbing through that window…

1 Elevate an Entryway To improve your foyer’s form and function, give it some eye-catching organization. Simply paint these oversize wooden hooks to play up the space’s colors, then mount them at a variety of heights, so everyone in the family can reach. 2 Rock Out in Your Mudroom Putting a boot tray by the door is one way to enforce your “no shoes in the house” policy. But to kick it up a style notch, fill it with pretty yet practical pebbles or stones from a garden center. They’ll act as a drain, allowing rain, sleet, or snow to seep to the bottom while boots and other footwear dry on top. Most of the moisture will evaporate, but to keep it clean and mildew-free, dump out the rocks and rinse everything as…

On a typical wet Singapore afternoon back in October 2013, Dipa Swaminathan, a Harvard-educated telecommunications lawyer, was driving home after working out at the gym when she noticed two road cleaners crouched under cardboard sheets near her home. They were completely drenched. That is so sad, Dipa thought as she drove past. She stopped the car and reversed back to where the migrant workers sheltered, rain pounding down heavily against them. Rolling down her window, Dipa asked the men to get into her car so she could take them to her house for cover. The workers shook their heads. “We are muddy and we will dirty the car,” said one. “I can wash my car, hop in!” Dipa insisted. Dipa drove the workers to her home, where they took refuge on the front…

cuando decidimos mudarnos a Madrid, queríamos vivir a las afueras. Mi ilusión era una casa con gallinas y huerto, una amiga alquilaba la suya, estaba en medio de la nada pero era preciosa y perfecta para ello. Vinimos el pasado agosto 24 horas solo para verla, mientras otra amiga me organizó un par de visitas en el centro porque estaba convencida de que si me mudaba al campo, completamente aislada, no me gustaría Madrid y sobre todo no le gustaría nada a mi marido (tenía razón). A la una de la tarde, después de visitar la casa del campo, me llamó y me dijo que había encontrado un piso increíble esa misma mañana que tenía que ver. Fuimos y fue amor a primera vista. ¡Menos mal!”. Así comienza su relato…

DARK AND HANDSOME White marble counters will always have classic appeal. But look out for bolder alternatives: deep, rich tones, such as sea green, black, and brown. Among the introductions at the recent Kitchen & Bath Industry Show: Cosentino’s Dekton Avantgarde collection, including Laurent (shown here), and a range of rich black quartz patterns from Caesarstone. CABINETS GET THE BLUES … … and greens. After years of white cabinets and more white cabinets (with the occasional gray finish thrown in), color is coming back to the kitchen. So far, the most widely used colors seem to be deep and muted shades of blue and green, from navy and indigo to hunter and sage. Designers are embracing these shades in a big way, taking them beyond the base cabinets onto the walls, sometimes mixing…

Strawberry Freezer Jam HANDS-ON TIME 35 min. TOTAL TIME 24 hr. 4 cups hulled fresh strawberries4 cups sugar½ tsp. lemon zest1 1.75-oz. pkg. regular powdered fruit pectin or 6 Tbsp. classic powdered fruit pectin¾ cup water 1. In a large bowl use a potato masher to crush the berries until you have 2 cups. Stir sugar and lemon zest into berries. Let stand 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. 2. In a small saucepan combine pectin and the water. Bring to boiling; boil 1 minute, stirring constantly. Add to berry mixture; stir about 3 minutes or until sugar is dissolved and mixture is no longer grainy. 3. Ladle jam into half-pint freezer containers, leaving a ½-inch headspace. Seal and label. Let stand at room temperature 24 hours or until set. Store up to 3 weeks in the refrigerator…

Not sure what to do about dark spots or other discoloration that never seems to fade? The path to a brighter, more even complexion starts with powerful skincare. An important component of a brightening skincare routine is vitamin C, says Chicago dermatologist Caroline Robinson, M.D. But don’t stop there! She notes that “any routine attempting to address hyperpigmentation has to do so from multiple angles.” Keep reading to learn exactly what the right steps entail. VITAMIN FORTIFIED Your routine should include one vitamin C product applied after cleansing in the morning (and always topped with sunscreen). Lumene Nordic-C Arctic Berry Oil-Cocktail $25; target.com Sweet Chef Ginger & Vitamin C Bright Spot Tonic is part treatment, part toner. $18; target.com La Roche-Posay 10% Pure Vitamin C Serum also contains smoothing salicylic acid. $40;…

WHEN YOU HIT THE SACK only to find yourself awake again just a few hours later, pondering the meaning of it all, you may feel alone in the universe. But the truth is you have plenty of company. Occasional, short-term insomnia was estimated to affect an eye-opening 30 to 50 percent of the world before 2020, aka the Year That Stole Everyone’s Sleep. By July, according to a report in NeurologyToday, experts around the country were talking about “Covid-somnia,” a dramatic increase in sleep disorders spurred by the upheaval of the pandemic. Fortunately, there are simple ways to reduce that deficit and get some shut-eye. 1 WARM UP, THEN COOL DOWN Those lucky people who nod off effortlessly have something in common: “Their body temperature naturally drops a tiny bit just before…

Cauliflower-and-Lentil Stew With Onion Relish 1 red onion, finely chopped (about 1¼ cups) and divided3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger (from a 2-inch piece)Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper1 teaspoon garam masala or berbere spice blend1 cup red lentils, rinsed and picked through4 cups cauliflower florets, cut into bite-size pieces (from ½ head)1 can (14.5 ounces) diced fire-roasted tomatoes3 cups packed baby kale½ teaspoon finely grated lime zest, plus 3 tablespoons fresh juice 1. Place ½ cup onion in a small bowl of ice water. Heat oil in a pot over medium-high; add remaining onion and ginger and season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until onion begins to brown, 6 to 7 minutes. Add garam masala; cook, stirring, until fragrant, 1 to 2…

VACCINATED AMERICANS WILL BE ABLE TO visit Europe this summer, after E.U. leaders agreed to open the bloc’s borders to foreign tourists on May 18. Although the E.U. hasn’t set an exact date for the reopening, the news is a boon for the air-travel industry, which suffered plunging revenues due to COVID-19 restrictions. Bookings for highly lucrative transatlantic routes have surged, and executives are enthusiastically touting the concept of “revenge travel,” predicting passengers will fly more than usual in 2021 to make up for months of being grounded. But revenge on the virus comes at a cost for the climate. The pandemic succeeded at something policymakers and campaigners have been powerless to do: ending decades of almost uninterrupted rapid growth in aviation’s carbon dioxide emissions, which fell by a record 48%…

PICK A POSSE… Approach selecting containers like shopping for a sofa. What you grow may change (think throw pillows), but your pots should be sound investments that last for seasons. Start with a palette, like varying shades of warm terra-cotta or cool, steely grays, then assemble a variety of heights and shapes to keep things visually interesting, like the vignette of clay vessels shown above. Keep in mind that smaller pots require frequent watering in hotter months—but don’t be tempted to put a small species in a large pot, because the roots can get oversaturated and rot. Instead, group several in one large container. Also, if you live in a cold climate, you’ll need to move clay or ceramic pieces inside in winter (or empty and wrap them in a waterproof…

Anyone who’s been to Round Top, Texas, knows it’s a special place. Situated halfway between urban hubs Austin and Houston, this tiny town of 90 residents hosts the twice-yearly six-day Round Top Antiques Fair. Known worldwide for its wealth of wares, the fair lures 50,000 people to Round Top every six months. A few lucky ones will stay in Paige and Smoot Hull’s No. 1450 rental cottage. A longtime Round Top shopper herself, Paige introduced found treasures—farming implements, antique finds, and on-the-cheap scores—into the cottage for a look she calls modern vintage. The sofa, for instance, is a castoff from Paige’s mom (dressed in a $50 Target slipcover), part of the ceiling is sheathed in salvaged wood the Hulls found at a Habitat for Humanity ReStore, and the living room chandelier…

Glenn has been an avid observer since a friend showed him Saturn through a small backyard scope in 1963. What is the best beginner telescope? What do the numbers 7x50 on my binoculars mean? How much magnifying power do I need to see the Andromeda Galaxy? These are just a few of the questions readers of this column have sent me over the years. I could have answered them and many others by simply replying: “Join your local astronomy club to find out.” Admittedly, that would be a rather brusque response. But it’s true. One of the best sources of astronomical know-how, particularly as it pertains to backyard astronomy, is your local astronomy club. Not only will members be able to answer the majority of questions you might have, but in many…

Not long ago, Linda Khan was sitting by a hospital bed in Houston, feeling ill at ease. Beside her lay her 88-year-old father. His heart was faltering. He needed surgery. What troubled her almost as much as his health was the fact that all day the two of them had engaged in nothing but depressing small talk. She and her father had always had good conversations, but now he seemed to be sunk in querulous contemplation of his predicament. He talked about the lousy hospital food, the tests, the doctors, the diagnosis, the potential outcomes. The scope of his interests seemed to have shrunk to the size of the room. That day in the hospital, Khan’s eye fell on a stack of books that people had brought as gifts. Her father had…

IN THE FOLD Your October 2021 cover made me laugh. “Pay Less,” “Cheap & Fast.” Sounds like the first online date I went on. —Kristopher ContrerasMiami, FL THE COUNT I read the entire October 2021 new-cars issue while waiting in line at the county treasurer’s office to pick up personalized plates for my car. Thanks for your efforts, but I could’ve used another 16 pages. —Bob DickelmanJohnston, IA Well, you could’ve told us what you got on your personalized plates, but here we are—Ed. ROLLOUT Very clever, C/D, to use song titles for all the new-cars headlines in the October 2021 issue. I especially appreciated your use of “Weird Al” Yankovic’s “Like a Surgeon” for the Hyundai Santa Cruz—most people ignore parodies for the original, but I think that song was much more appropriate there than Madonna’s. —John BellSacramento,…

For more than a century, kitchens have evolved at a steady clip. Victorian models were no-nonsense workspaces buried downstairs or in the back of the house and managed by servants. During the first half of the 20th century, they blossomed into cheerful rooms where housewives cooked three meals a day while keeping an eye on their children. After World War II, a hunger for sociability and a thirst for effciency led to kitchens that opened to surrounding rooms, with islands holding the appliances as well as the storage space that had gone missing when walls were taken down. And that is pretty much the story of kitchens today. The question is, When is the white-kitchen trend finally going to die? “People are very attached to this light and airy thing, which is…

The Conti’s omnipresent torque and unimpeachable composure flatten climbs and melt distance Half an hour in the company of the Continental GT Speed Convertible, the droptop version of Bentley’s most dynamic road car yet, and not only have I stopped worrying, I’ve entirely forgotten exactly what it was I was fretting about. My previously furrowed brow is pebble smooth, the knot in my stomach untangled and replaced by a blissful contented calm. After all, it’s hard to wring your hands about your carbon footprint (a cool 320g per km), or whether or not the Convertible might be a vaguely nonsensical way in which to enjoy Speed specification when they’re clasping one of the most deliciously tactile steering wheels in all existence, its flawless circumferential stitching just so in the hand like a…