Jenni Avins

As women everywhere know, deciding between heels and flats can be fraught. But it’s nice to have options.

Wildfires in northern California wildfires have destroyed some 1,500 structures, including homes and businesses, and prompted California governor Jerry Brown to declare a state of emergency in counties that include the famous winemaking regions of Napa and Sonoma. Grapes are far from the only crop endangered by the seasonal dry Diablo winds fanning flames across the region.

On Monday, October 9—also known as Columbus Day in the US—while residents of New York City debated whether statutes of the man responsible for setting in motion New World genocide and slave trading should be allowed to stand, members of some 75 Native American tribes gathered for second day on Randall’s Island to celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day instead.

There is nothing funny about powerful men using their position to intimidate, harass, and abuse women. That has never stopped American late-night comedy shows of using their platforms to address and ridicule the US presidents, executives, and stars who’ve been accused of such behavior—Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, Bill O’Reilly, and Bill Cosby among them.

As the comedian Marc Maron pointed out in his new standup special, Too Real, Tom Petty was the rare artist who both liberal bohemians and cultural conservatives could agree upon.

St. Louis, Missouri

This summer, I began to engage in a secret ritual. In the wee, dark hours of morning, I would rise from my bed and drive to Malibu, a short 20 minutes before rush hour. There, I would park on the side of the Pacific Coast Highway, pull on a wetsuit, shoulder a surfboard down to the water, and paddle out as the sun rose. Surfers call this dawn patrol.

All week, I’ve been admiring my friends’ kids on Instagram, adorably suited up for their first days of school in crisp shorts, clean sneakers, fresh fades, and body-dwarfing backpacks.

It might sound like a Prince cover band, but “diamond rain” is a scientific phenomenon about which physicists have long hypothesized. And it was just proven possible to recreate.

At the end of last year, I moved from New York City to Los Angeles. I was thrilled about the associated life changes, including the fact that I could now buy wine at the grocery store, which is illegal in New York.

It is often said that the best surfer in the water is the one having the most fun. And yet, competitors in the sport are often judged on factors such as speed and the aptitude with which they combine dangerous maneuvers.

It’s a widely acknowledged truth that meetings are the worst—not only because of time wasted during the meeting itself, but also for what they do to the rest of one’s workday.

In  a fanciful advertisement from 1956, a limber American housewife is spirited to Frigidaire’s “Kitchen of the Future,” where she delightedly pushes buttons, gazes at flickering screens, and twirls a rotating cylindrical fridge. She skips away for an interlude of recreation involving tennis, golf, and sunbathing, then returns to remove a fully baked—and frosted—birthday cake, candles lit, from a large glass dome.

Fashion of late has developed a penchant for clothing and accessories that make it challenging for a person to look conventionally attractive—dad hats, shapeless dresses, and unflattering pants among them.

Maryam Mirzakhani, the Stanford University mathematician who was the only woman to win the Fields Medal, died Saturday (July 15) of breast cancer at age 40.

At more than 35 years and 11 months old, Roger Federer has led a pack of tennis geriatrics into Wimbledon history this year. After winning the tournament final on Sunday (July 16), he has become the oldest man to take the All-England crown in modern days.

US Customs and Border Protection agents are allowed to search the contents of travelers’ phones but not their data stored exclusively on the cloud, according to a letter from federal officials.

Cannes, France

Culver City, CA

You’ve probably seen her on your Instagram feed: a woman awash in natural light, wearing a cocoon-shaped dress in a shade of golden turmeric or faded paprika. She wears flat leather sandals, has unkempt-but-pretty hair, and is likely in the company of a handmade ceramic, a succulent plant, or a piece of avocado toast. She is LA’s Silver Lake shaman, and she’s coming soon to a city near you.

On a recent Sunday, I found myself overwhelmed. It was my last free day between several consecutive weekends of travel, visitors, and weddings. The morning had ticked away, and my boyfriend and I had groceries to buy, paperwork to file, a house to tidy, and something to do at Home Depot. As I contemplated how to productively use the afternoon, my chest tightened. I stepped outside for a gulp of fresh air. There, an idea struck.

Works by the artist Jeff Koons are generally not available to the everyday collector. In 2013, his Balloon Dog (orange) was the most expensive piece of art by a living artist ever sold at auction, at $58.4 million. The following year, more than half of the highest-selling auction lots in ArtNet’s database were works by Koons, who consistently tops the publication’s list of “most expensive living artists.”

The world of fashion is filled with comings and goings. Nowadays, it’s common for a creative director to spend a few years with one label, before moving on to another. Who’s designing at Dior now? And what of Valentino? For everyday American women—even those who love to get dressed—the answer isn’t relevant.

The acclaimed short story writer and journalist George Saunders’ first novel, Lincoln in the Bardo, has been out for just five weeks, but the bestseller is already headed for the silver screen. Hollywood’s favorite polymath power couple, the actors, screenwriters, and producers Megan Mullally and Nick Offerman, have acquired the movie rights to the book, for an adaptation they will produce with Saunders, as Deadline reported.