Innholdsfortegnelse for 4/30-5/13/18 i New York Magazine

1 New York’s latest cover featured Jessica Pressler’s profile of Cynthia Nixon, whose insurgent run for governor has pushed Andrew Cuomo to the left (“Cynthia Nixon Has Already Won,” April 16–29). Politico’s Albany-bureau chief, Jimmy Vielkind, wrote of it, “If you needed any evidence of how @CynthiaNixon’s run for #nygov has more heft than @ Zephyr-Teachout’s in 2014, look at the cover of New York Magazine this week … probably the most comprehensive dive on Nixon’s political biography done so far.” Versha Sharma responded, “The only thing missing in this excellent Cynthia Nixon profile … is an explanation of New York’s crazy closed primary rules, and unreasonable voter registration deadlines, which work in Cuomo’s … favor.” Jennifer Keishin Armstrong, author of the forthcoming Sex and the City and Us, was,…

THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD is required reading in high schools and colleges and cited as a formative influence by Toni Morrison and Maya Angelou. It’s been canonized by Harold Bloom—even credited for inspiring the tableau in Lemonade where Beyoncé and a clutch of other women regally occupy a wooden porch—but Zora Neale Hurston’s classic novel was eviscerated by critics when it was published in 1937. The hater-in-chief was no less than Richard Wright, who recoiled as much at the book’s depiction of lush female sexuality and (supposedly) apolitical themes as its use of black dialect, “the minstrel technique that makes the ‘white folks’ laugh.” Six years earlier, Hurston had tried to publish another book in dialect, this one a work of nonfiction called Barracoon. Before she turned to writing…

THE GOAL: Find a relaxing and rejuvenating near-universal gift that mothers, fathers, and recent grads can all get behind. THE VERDICT: Since its debut last winter, Sojo Spa Club’s 90-minute Premium Korean body scrub ($135 at 660 River Rd., Edgewater, N.J.) is drawing New Yorkers across the Hudson, willingly. The treatment (unique to Sojo) begins with a hot-tub soak, followed by a full-body exfoliation during which an attendant uses specialized mitts to vigorously scrub every inch of you, sloughing away dead skin and unclogging pores. Part two is a wet massage with lavender oil and moisturizing milk, finished with a cucumber facial and hair wash. For those wary of the Edgewater address, there’s a free 40-minute shuttle bus from Times Square, and the skyline views from the spa’s outdoor infinity…

AS OF ONE MONTH AGO, I knew of just one friend who microdosed; my friend, who is a musician, said he was taking 0.1 grams of mushrooms a few mornings a week so he could finish up an album that had been taking him years. Then, a few weeks later, I was at a different friend’s house when he walked into his kitchen, took a teeny-tiny, shriveled-up mushroom stem out of the freezer, snapped off a minuscule amount, and popped it into his mouth, a thing he now does regularly to feel “more open” while on the many work calls he has throughout the day. This was while telling me about another friend, who’s devised a way to, as precisely as possible, dilute liquid LSD into 10-microgram doses. That guy…

Period relief “A number of women who have had difficult periods report that their periods are now normal. We got a note from a woman in her 20s who said that during the month she microdosed, her periods, which are usually extraordinarily difficult and painful, were now normal. Others say they microdose before their period and their periods are now fine. We don’t know much, but we’re hoping to get much more conventional research going.” Better sex “Just a few reports of this, but one example: Married 15 years, male, 38. ‘Sex is great with microdosing … my attention is at 100 percent in the bed, easily expressed in our lovemaking and sensual touching. There is no hurry and no wait.’ ” Decreased coffee consumption “The most common comment is…

A dealer In New York, some dealers are adjusting to the spike in microdoser clients by creating diluted liquid-LSD tinctures; others are offering use of their scales to help weigh mushrooms. A scale One that registers a thousandth of a gram helps people start as small as possible. A grinder Dried mushrooms are quite fragile, but a grinder (some like a mortar and pestle, others use coffee grinders) will yield a fine powder that microdosers will sprinkle into various ingestible things, even smoothies. Gel caps “Strongly earthy” is one way dried mushrooms have been described. Weighing them, grinding them into powder form, and putting them into gel capsules is a way to make measured-out microdoses and avoid their polarizing taste. Or this starter pack The Third Wave, a start-up dedicated…

A Blueberry Edible Before a Meeting “I take chocolate-covered blueberry edibles, which are about 5 mg. each of THC—the psychoactive part of cannabis—on the way to work. It’s about a 45-minute commute, so by the time I’m at my desk, it’s starting to work. During meetings, I feel more lucid in my thoughts and confident sharing ideas that I may have thought were too radical before. I find myself making more jokes, laughing more. Before, I think I was always trying to say the right thing, playing it safe in a way. It worked, but it was also sort of boring.” —Anonymous animator A Sliver of LSD Before Talking to the Boss “When I microdosed LSD a couple of times before work, it was a mixed bag: When talking to…

How Illegal Is It? Psychedelics are Schedule 1 drugs. Though laws vary by state, if you’re caught possessing or selling even a small amount of psychedelics in New York State as a first-time offender, you could face jail time—anywhere from less than a year to up to nine years. New Mexico is unique in that it is legal to grow mushrooms there, while a Florida loophole lets people off the hook who don’t realize the mushrooms they are in possession of are magic ones. Meanwhile, current decriminalization efforts in California and Colorado could show up on ballot measures later this year. And now, a naysayer. Richard A. Friedman , professor of clinical psychiatry and director of the psychopharmacology clinic at Weill Cornell Medical College, thinks microdosers should hold out for…

UNDERGROUND GOURMET QUICK BITE Mani in Pasta 245 E. 14th St.; 646-891-0174 MANI IN PASTA is the name. Translation: “hands in the dough,” and that is where Giuseppe Manco’s mitts have been most of his 31 years. Manco runs this five-month-old East Village pizza restaurant, and his dough-making credentials are pretty impressive. The Neapolitan expat got started early at the family-run trattoria in Naples, where under the tutelage of assorted aunts and uncles he made his first Margherita D.O.C. at the ripe old age of 6. His parents had hoped he’d become an accountant, but after that formative experience, it was too late. What really must have vexed his mom and dad, though, was that while their son was working at a Neapolitan pizzeria in Rome, he fell in love…

“Rogen: Really close. In retrospect, worse—the movie didn’t turn out so maybe what he’d wanted to do wouldn’t have been any great. Sony was like, “We want you to cast Nicolas Cage.” So we talk to him and he tells us he wants to do the movie, but he wants to play the character as, like, a white Bahamian or Jamaican. Which to us was a little worrisome—it seemed perhaps were going to have dinner with him at Amy Pascal’s house to talk about the movie. insensitive. We I remember driving there and saying, being face-to-face “If he does the white-Bahamian thing at dinner, I’m going to lose it. I can’t deal with with Nicolas Cage as he’s doing a Bahamian accent.” Within 20 minutes of getting to the dinner,…

“‘There’s a bear,’ and I think what an inappropriate joke, and I look up, and there is one. I had so long imagined the moment that it feels like a kept promise. It is a grizzly … Ursus arctos horribilis. The day hones in upon it. It is on its hind legs, as tall as the willows, perhaps six feet high, or eight, and with furrowed features, it peers myopically towards us … As one, [we] raise our hands and make some unplanned, primal noise … It drops to all fours, turns, cocks its head back at us, and canters off into the scrub … A goose honks, and then another. We reek of fear.”…

HOW LONG DO YOU GIVE IT? ¶ Conversations about Harry and Meghan are among the most popular in the U.K., jostling for the number-one slot with conversations about (a) Trump and (b) Brexit. There is talk of Trump, but no debate. He is a unifying subject, like the weather. A right-wing Conservative MP told me recently that he could think of no British politician, in any party, who would have voted for Trump. So, in Britain, if you want to feel the warm glow of solidarity, you have only to say the word Trump and everyone starts singing from the same song sheet. ¶ But Meghan Markle, like Brexit, seems to divide people. Some argue that she will have a rejuvenating influence on the House of Windsor, dragging it into…

MARYANNE TRUMP BARRY (Donald Trump’s sister): Roy got the White House to give her her judgeship. Roy was out and the call came in to tell her she got it. I took the call and called her to tell her. Ten minutes later, Donald called to say thank you. ROGER STONE: Worked with Roy very heavily before and after elections. He was the one, with Roy, to find out the dirt on [Geraldine] Ferraro. Roger did not like Donald Trump or Si Newhousetold me they were losers—but if Roy used them, he would, too. His wife’s name is Bitsy. Roy called them Itsy and Bitsy. Roy was very fond of Roger, and I think he saw a little of himself when he was younger. [Reached for comment, Stone denied…

LSD What it is: A drug manufactured from lysergic acid, which is found in the fungus that grows on rye. It is taken in tablets, capsules, gelatin squares, or pieces of paper. How microdosing it feels: Users describe experiencing a boost in energy, focus, and the feeling that life is meaningful. A proper microdose, according to users of the drug, is like a day in which you’ve “gotten enough sleep and eaten well.” It’s often used to help kick addictions, from cigarettes to heroin. Many LSD microdosers find that it’s made it easier to lose weight, stop drinking, and even cut back on playing video games. Mushrooms What it is: “Magical mushrooms” contain the psychoactive compound psilocybin. They can be eaten, brewed into tea, or coated with chocolate. How microdosing…

Up until a few years ago, the longtime LSD researcher who published The Psychedelic Explorer’s Guide in 2011 was individually responding to any would-be microdoser’s questions as to suggested dosage or possible side effects through his personal Gmail. He created a protocol based on his many emailed-in reports from users that’s pretty much become the microdosing standard. Now Fadiman is working with fellow researcher Sophia Korb as they embark on the largest nonclinical microdosing study to date (59 countries and over 400 participants).…

According to the Fadiman approach, people generally microdose once every three days for about a month—one day on, two days off. But why space it out? “After reading a lot of reports and talking to a lot of people, the effects were lasting for up to two days,” Fadiman says. “The psychedelics are actually gone within a few hours, but you have the same kind of feeling—functioning better—for two days.” There’s another reason to space it out: Psychedelics, while nonaddictive, can cause a tolerance to build. The most important thing to keep in mind: Fadiman advises taking a microdose before 10 a.m. “Taking it later may make it harder to fall asleep. From there, people should keep to their daily schedule: work, leisure, meals, medications, exercise.” After the month, Fadiman…

“The first time I did it, I took 0.2 grams of mushrooms at 8 a.m. It’s what I thought was a very small amount, so I was like, Okay, I’ll take that and I can up it from there. Maybe 20 minutes later I was in the park walking my dog, and I looked up at the trees, and I was like, Huh, that looks weird. Then I looked down at my hands, which is always the test: Do my hands look trippy? And I was like, Oh, yeah, they’re trippy. The grass beneath them was super-vibrant, moving in a weird way. I was like, Okay, I guess I’m tripping at 8 a.m. on a Tuesday. I tried to go home and work, and I was not okay to work,…

ON A BRIGHT, COLD Saturday morning in a squat, unmarked building in Brooklyn, the actor Zachary Quinto is sitting at a card table while a man from Kansas City explains that he was, 14 years ago, drugged and subsequently implanted with a series of microwave chips by a (former) friend who wanted to zap him into giving up the rights to a hygienic soda-can cover that both men were convinced would, eventually, make them millions of dollars. It’s a very confusing conversation, but Quinto is steady. The interview is being filmed for In Search Of, a History Channel show of which Quinto is both the executive producer and the host. (This particular episode is about mind control.) “Are they still following you?” Quinto asks. His heavy, famous brow is furrowed.…

Q UALIFYING DAY in Georgia: the day when anyone running for an office in the state has to trek to the Capitol Building in Atlanta—the Gold Dome, as it’s known—to fill out some paperwork, shake some hands, and be officially recognized as a candidate. It’s a necessary nonevent. On this day, March 6, Stacey Abrams is qualifying as a Democratic candidate for governor of Georgia. As is always the case with Abrams, whose voluble, Bill Clinton–esque intelligence and ambition have won her national press and big checks from out-of-state donors, today is anything but a nonevent. About 40 people sweep in to watch her register—supporters in STACEY ABRAMS: GOVERNOR T-shirts, a film crew from a local TV station, energized activists, Abrams’s senior staff, members of her large family. Wearing a…

GARRY LUMBERS, 61, was back in Mobile, Alabama, this year for Mardi Gras. For the big party on Tuesday night, he and his relatives staked out a spot at Kazoola, a bar named after Cudjo Lewis that opened downtown in 2016. A stranger in his 30s walked up and pointed to Lumbers’s T-shirt: It had a photo of Cudjo Lewis and his two great-granddaughters, Mary and Martha, taken in 1927. “Yo, man,” the guy asked. “Where can I buy that shirt?” “I had it made,” Lumbers said. “One is my mom”— Mary—“and one is my aunt.” “Oh, man, I was ready to give up $30 for one of those.” These days, Lumbers says, people in the Mobile area tend to know about the origins of Africatown (also called Plateau)—and about…

When did you retire? A few years ago, and now I volunteer a few times a week with victims of domestic violence at a homeless shelter. The other days are a little more fluid. I handle our finances, which takes up a lot of time—my husband still works. What does he do? He’s a plastic surgeon. Doctor Thomas W. Loeb. Has he ever done any work on you? Yes, I’ve had a blepharoplasty and a face-lift. But I still look like me! My husband has a light touch, a natural aesthetic. Good plastic surgery doesn’t stick out. Where’s the suit from? Gucci. I have eclectic taste; I like things from Pas de Calais and Zara to Dries and Dior. I also have a big collection of vintage clothes. I’m still…

Cooper M., 23, department lead at a cannabis start-up, Seattle LSD: “A couple of years back, I was quitting antidepressants. It was tough, and microdosing helped me get through. It was much more effective than any antidepressant I’d ever taken. I took small doses a couple times a week for a few months, and I found that my focus, mood, energy, and creative thinking all improved not only the day of, but the days following as well.” Mushrooms: “Like LSD, it makes me feel in the moment, and my day-today feels fresher and less stale. The main difference is that it’s shorter and less energizing. It makes me feel more ‘go with the flow’ and less analytical and sharp.” CBD: “I take CBD—the non-psychoactive element of cannabis—every day to help…

The science that exists is exclusive to therapeutic trips. When not on psychedelics, various networks of the brain operate mostly independent of one another. But when you’re tripping, those areas start talking to each other: Brain-imaging scans from an Imperial College London study showed that psilocybin caused increased new connections all across the brain in a small sample of patients with depression. This rerouting can lead to visual and sensory changes like hallucinations, but also may result in new ways of thinking, which is why there are reports of transcendence, being able to think outside the box, and increased empathy after large-dose-psychedelic-led therapy sessions. What that does (and mostly doesn’t) tell us about microdosing. No researcher will definitively comment on what microdosing does to the brain (and they were extremely…

DAY 1 10 A.M. Used one-sixth of a tab of 100 micrograms of LSD—a brand called Aztec Xtal, which may or may not be LSD or 100 micrograms. 11:58 A.M. Have more of a sense of humor and less despair than normal, smiling sometimes. 12:35 P.M. Feel distracted by the world instead of my thoughts, which are a lighter yet more controllable overlay than normal. 12:55 P.M. Half-consciously and pleasurably and unexpectedly biked from 25th to 3rd Street. 4:52 P.M. Attention span became lower than normal; feeling the lack of what I gained earlier. 10 P.M. Continued working—reading, writing—after temporary loss of attention. Feel like I had a day like when I used to use Adderall but with less underlying despair. DAY 2 10 A.M. Four days later, used one-sixth…

Move the body “Qi Gong, yoga, stretches like that can be helpful; they get energy moving. When we’re really stuck in our head, feeling comfortable in our body can help.” Eat something “This can instantly help you feel grounded.” Go outside “Being in nature is a big one. Go to the park; it doesn’t have to be in the middle of nowhere, though still try to avoid a ton of people.” Put on some music “Something instrumental—classical, piano, guitar; mellow is key.”…

That’s right. The fried chicken at Dave Chang’s new à la carte annex to Momofuku Ko proper is served by the piece and straight from the fridge, and listed on the handwritten menu as “Fried Chicken But Cold.” Undoubtedly smart alecks will take issue with this. They’ll say, “What, no ‘Bread But Stale’? No ‘French Fries But Leftover’?” Yet just as the English like their beer tepid, some folks prefer their fried chicken with a little chill on it. Executive chef Sean Gray, who’s also “a cold-pizza person,” notes that piping-hot or even moderately hot food inhibits flavor, though food scientists don’t really know why. Another reason cold fried chicken might be better than hot: no wait for it to cool off before you take a bite. On the menu…

MOTHERHOOD will be published by Henry Holt on May 1. WHY HAVE A BABY? For a woman in her 20s or 30s who’s accustomed to living independently, who feels no religious or familial obligation to bear children, the answer comes down to the vagaries of desire: Do you want it, does the other person, how badly? The simpler question might be Why not have a baby? Here, the obvious practical issues—money, time—are easier to weigh. How to pay for the baby, who will watch the baby, where to put the baby, will the baby get in the way of everything else? And this assumes a partner on hand; without one, challenges multiply. There’s also the prospect of impending climate apocalypse, which at least one woman I know has cited as…

“‘Facing down a bear is like facing down a drunk: You just have to bluff,’ [said my guide, David]. I stood next to David, waving, clapping, and screaming … The bear left my tent and ambled in the direction of the kayak. [David] started screaming … ‘GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM MY KAYAK, YOU FUCKING BEAR!’ … ‘We have two days’ extra food … ’ David explained, ‘but only one kayak’ … I remember this vividly, because I underlined it in my notebook … ‘Are you taking notes?’ David asked, his arms waving … ‘This is my job, dude,’ I said … ‘Gotta get this stuff down while it’s hot.’”…