Innholdsfortegnelse for August 12-25, 2024 i New York Magazine

1 New York’s latest cover story examined Kamala Harris’s rise to the top of the Democratic ticket (“System Reboot,” July 29–August 11) in a series of stories by Rebecca Traister, Gabriel Debenedetti, Kerry Howley, and Simon van Zuylen-Wood. The cover’s photo-illustration, which showed Harris atop a coconut, drew some plaudits. Commenter decouvrir called it “the most clever cover I’ve ever seen. I hope the articles continue to explore how this is a magnificent turning point. I want more of this excitement.” Others found the cover too flippant. “2024 is deeply unserious,” said @OJorgeDeAlmeida. Photo editor Emily Keegin questioned the depiction of the coconut, which referenced Harris memes, writing, “Online memes work in part because the original material is often embedded within the meme or linked. The joy of a meme…

ONE DAY IN 1991, I thought about taking my healthy six-year-old cat to the ASPCA, where she would almost certainly have been “put down,” a.k.a. killed. I had adopted Suki when she was six months old and lived with her lovingly until a dramatic upheaval caused us to be (almost literally) at each other’s throats. After nearly two months of animosity, I’d reached a breaking point: She would have to go. That I would seriously consider doing this to a beloved pet revealed me to myself in a way that still gives me pause. It is remarkable how a relationship with an animal can do that. I grew up having cats as pets, but I didn’t really own one as an adult until the age of 30; my circumstances were…

SUMMER IN NEW YORK, sunny Thursday in the park. A ponytailed woman in the realm of 30 years old gazes into the middle distance. At her breast is a baby. Tied sloppily around one of her ankles is a leash, and connected to the leash is a glossy auburn dog standing a few feet away, morosely examining a piece of trash. When the dog gets bored with the trash, he trots back to his owner and begins to tentatively hump her leg. Alert to any change of movement, the baby detaches from her mother with a squirm and a wail. The dog quickens his hip thrusts into exuberant plunges—until the owner stares daggers down and says, loudly and clearly into the judgmental Brooklyn air, “Fuck off.” And off he fucked,…

IF ALL PETS ARE to some extent prisoners, pet fish often get the harshest sentence. More than 11 million U.S. households keep freshwater fish, but despite a myriad of modern tanks on the market, many owners still opt to keep their pet-store-cup bettas and carnival goldfish in small glass bowls. The standard glass fishbowl lacks filtration, leading to less oxygen moving in and higher ammonia levels that slowly murder the inhabitants. Plus it typically holds one to three gallons of water, and while owners may think that’s more than enough, it’s not. New York “wet vet” Dr. Benjamin Rosenbloom recommends at least five-gallon tanks for bettas and 40-gallon tanks for goldfish, which can be impractical in apartment settings. Although, “I’ve had clients who are quite wealthy, with all the space…

WHEN SHE CAME forward as the Democratic Party’s presumptive presidential nominee this summer, Kamala Harris offered what has become a standard tribute to the man who had anointed her. “Joe Biden’s legacy of accomplishment over the past three years is unmatched in modern history,” she said. “In one term, he has already surpassed the legacy of most presidents who served two terms in office.” Within Biden’s party, it has become settled wisdom that he is “the most legislatively successful president since LBJ” (Democratic strategist Bob Shrum) or perhaps even “since the New Deal” (Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer). Comparisons to FDR and LBJ are also casually thrown around in mainstream organs like Politico (“In the long run, his first two years may be remembered as akin to LBJ when it…

THIS THING’S INCREDIBLE How I Turned My iPhone Into a 2007 BlackBerry IN THE EARLY DAYS of smartphones, devices with physical keyboards (like my beloved BlackBerry Bold) were the norm. Of course my iPhone can perform all the functions my BlackBerry did, but it’s also loaded with distractions that make it hard to stay on task. However, since plunking my iPhone into a Clicks Keyboard case, I feel as productive as I did in my BlackBerry days. The case has a keyboard that sits just underneath the phone’s screen. Its keys have the same satisfying click and adjustable backlight BlackBerrys were known for. I now type onto a screen unobstructed by a digital keyboard. This lets me see more search results on a single web page and keep tabs on…

I HAVE VERY oily eyelids and lashes, so when I get lash extensions, I get less than two weeks of peak fluttering fullness. Around day ten, I start finding fake lashes everywhere: on pillowcases, in the sink, even nestled in the cotton fibers of my bath mat. My favorite lash artist, Clementina Richardson, owner of Envious Lashes in midtown, developed a serum that’s supposed to help extensions stick around, so I decided to give it a try. The formula protects the glue from skin oils and moisture. “It’s kind of like a nail-polish topcoat—a topcoat for glue,” she said. You’re supposed to apply it twice a day, in the morning and before bed. I started to notice a difference around day nine, when I realized I hadn’t seen any errant…

THE LOOK BOOK GOES TO CHANEL BURNS Pre-K teacher, East Village You’re shopping for clothes to wear to work? Absolutely. I’m obsessed with the whole “caregiving but fashion girlie” vibe—like The Nanny. Like, I don’t look like I do what I do, but I do what I do fashionably. That’s the vibe. How long have you been a teacher? Just a year. I was working in fashion prior, and I mean fashion is cool—it comes with perks—but I just didn’t feel spiritually motivated to do the work. So I pivoted into teaching because there’s such a teacher shortage, and I really found my niche. It’s healthier for me to dabble and enjoy fashion by popping into closet sales. How’d you get into fashion? Through my father. He worked in the…

KRAAM 254 Fifth Ave.; kraamnyc.com Chef Pongsathorn Thinnuch uses Italian fusilli in his drunken-noodle-inspired stir-fry. He likes the way the pasta holds its shape and the sauce. SUKH 723 Fulton St., Fort Greene sukhnyc.com The khao khai ra-bert, a dark-brown fritter of crispy, fluffy omelet topped with peppery, dry-fried beef over rice, is a feat of texture and spice. SAPPE 240 W. 14th St.; sappenyc.com Highlights include a groovy neon room with a jukebox and a blood salad of minced beef, tripe, and liver the kitchen will serve raw at your request. THA PHRAYA 1553 Second Ave.; thaphraya.com It has already become an uptown favorite thanks in part to Chiang Mai–sausage–stuffed spring rolls that are so juicy they don’t need any sauce at all. PRING 401 W. 24th St.; pringnyc.com…

We see ourselves these days as existing in an enlightened state of mind about pets. Apart from when we eat them, animals have been promoted from hunting buddy or colleague to family member. In big cities, little dogs go zooming around in little bags; cats get to go to the beach now. ¶ The pandemic brought more animals into our homes, often for the first time in our adult lives. And as more of us became pet owners, some of us started to wonder about the whole enterprise. Were we really equipped to care for another species, particularly in a cramped apartment? Were we depriving the animals we love of their needs, their wants, and a good life? Were we receiving more than we were giving? ¶ We are still…

IN 1990, CONGRESS PASSED THE Americans With Disabilities Act, which, among other things, defined who and what service animals are: They must be either dogs or miniature horses, and they have to be specially trained to do tasks that help someone with a disability. The ADA makes it clear that “dogs whose sole function is to provide comfort or emotional support” are not service animals. But Americans have largely ignored that, opting instead to give emotional-support animals the same authority, official-looking vests and all. ESAs, though, are not much different from the average pet. They have no special training and possess no unique skills. They can be peacocks or ferrets or really any pet at all. The only thing that distinguishes them is a letter from a mental-health professional testifying…

ALL YEAR, MY HUSBAND and I had been debating whether to take our dog to France. We were invited by his parents to spend the week with them and their miniature schnauzer in their pied-à-terre, and it had been suggested to us that our dog’s presence might be unwelcome, that she would be stressed out by the experience, that she might not get along with the dogs of Greater Nice. That the trip wasn’t that long. That New York has some very fine dog-sitters. That we were traveling, for the first time, with a baby. I found these arguments mostly reasonable. My husband did not. The issue wasn’t, he insisted, that he didn’t want to leave Sherrie, who is a dog. It was that Sherrie, a dog, didn’t want to…

FREEDOM WAS first sighted in our Catskills town on April 13. He looked undernourished with ribs showing through his coat. But he was also skittish, and although the woman who found the dog managed to pick him up, he wriggled free before she could put a collar on him and then disappeared in the direction of Broad Street. The dog looked like a Shiba Inu, a small sturdy Japanese breed originally used for hunting. At least one person on the town’s Facebook page wondered if he was a fox. The error was understandable. Shiba Inus resemble stocky foxes with jaunty curled tails. The tail and their narrow eyes make it easy to see them as jokers, tricksters, clowns. They also have a rep as escape artists. A Shiba Inu is…

Harry Potter Squishmallows launched in 2023 and made our list of the year’s hottest holiday toys. The latest batch from the Wizarding World is now available for preorder and features Dobby the house-elf, a mandrake, Fawkes the phoenix, and the Sorting Hat. A lot of collaborations feel contrived, but this one from artist and author Phoebe Wahl and the brand Sarah’s Silks just makes sense. I love how each silk scarf could double as a framable piece of art. This year is the 50th anniversary of Hello Kitty, and this plush key chain, featuring Ms. Kitty as she looked in 1974, is my favorite piece of celebratory merch so far. LEGO releases brand-new themed building sets on a regular basis. This replica of Bumblebee, the Transformer that turns into a…

I’VE COLLECTED CATCHALLS for years, and as their name suggests, they are a place for everything—from loose coins and receipts to tubes of lipstick. I found a few for all sorts of tastes. It’s inspired by Portuguese azulejo tiles from the 18th century. An “exuberant study of a blackberry” from Book of Flower Studies, housed in the Met Cloisters. Antiques dealer Erica Weiner has a habit of swiping restaurant-branded ashtrays, including this one from Paris’s famous Café de Flore. “Turns out if you’re not drunk and emboldened to steal, you can buy one,” she says. Maraschino cherries and candy-cane stripes make for one maximalist dish. If you blink, you might think these hyperrealistic bugs are actually crawling across the plate. These plates apparently celebrate the Palio horse race, held twice…

EARLIER THIS SUMMER, I met up with friends at the latest restaurant-that’s-more-like-a-bar on the Lower East Side. As we were handed our menus, our server reminded us with a tone of gentle but unwavering insistence: We needed to be out in 90 minutes. We raced through dinner—cocktails, a dozen plates to share—and in the end had time left over. (We ordered a bottle of wine to max out our minutes.) I’d seen what happens to diners who blow their deadlines. Tables had been getting the pink slip in Brooklyn a few weeks before at an otherwise-cozy spot in Fort Greene. I was seated next to a couple still picking at the bones of their whole fish when a manager asked whether they planned on staying for dessert. “We’re going to…

EMILY IN PARIS returns to Netflix August 15. FOR ABOUT AS LONG as any millennial has been watching television, Darren Star has been making it: Beverly Hills 90210, Melrose Place, Sex and the City, Younger, Emily in Paris. His hits span four decades and various business models in the medium—broadcast, cable, streaming—all known for their compulsive watchability. It’s possible that what he loves most about writing television is the act of starting a new show; once each one had found its legs, he often left to do it again elsewhere. Nostalgia doesn’t interest him. “I’m a shark,” he says. “I like to keep looking forward.” In person, he’s tanned and smiley, wearing a fitted black T-shirt and white jeans. At his suggestion, we have lunch at Union Square Cafe, a…

Twenty-five things to see, hear, watch, and read. AUGUST 14–SEPTEMBER 11 MUSIC 1. Listen to Quantum Baby Match her freak. Tinashe/Nice Life, August 16. Riding high on the goodwill engendered by the viral success of “Nasty,” R&B vet Tinashe rolls out her seventh album. That hit and the recent “Getting No Sleep” suggest another work of sleek, sophisticated soul from the “2 On” and “Body Language” singer. CRAIG JENKINS ART 2. Go to Registered/2024 Group abstraction. White Columns, 91 Horatio Street; though August 24. This great alternative gallery’s ability to identify and rediscover is on display in this six-person show with translucent-looking paintings by Eleanor Conover, Michaela Bathrick’s concrete sculptures of little cardboard shapes, and Donyel Ivy-Royal’s ghostly figurative paintings. JERRY SALTZ TV 3. Watch Chimp Crazy An apeshit doc.…

THE CAT WAS NAMED Pablo and looked like a million others. A sweet-faced tabby, grayish, white bib, white socks, green eyes. Andrzej Kinczyk and his partner ended up with him after their roommate moved to Europe and left Pablo behind with them in Queens. Kinczyk will tell you that he was “just a regular street cat.” He’ll also tell you he was “the most beautiful cat, very independent, a very cool guy.” Needless to say, they fell for him. When they had guests over, Pablo would sashay into the middle of the room to solicit the attention he was owed. The couple doted on him, worried over him, and adopted another cat partly to keep him company. For years, Pablo seemed at ease. Then, when he was eight, the vet…

SPINE PROBLEMS Dachshunds: Thanks to shorter limbs and squatter bodies, they are predisposed to bowed legs and chronic elbow dislocation. About a quarter experience disc damage in their spines, which can lead to paralysis. HARD TO BREATHE Pugs: They are famously bred to have smaller and flatter faces, which has created breathing and dental issues and made them prone to hernias from heavy panting. Also, their signature bulging eyes get infected, their curly tails make it difficult to communicate with other dogs, their wrinkled skin can get itchy and sore, and they’re genetically predisposed to a fatal brain disease. French and English bulldogs: These freaky little bug dogs deal with many of the same ailments as pugs and often suffer from respiratory issues. They have inherited bad knees and hips,…

ACCORDING TO ZILLOW, 72 percent of rental listings in the city are labeled “dog friendly.” What might a building for one require? Perhaps an elevator. And soundproof walls. And a chill landlord. It should be located next to a beautiful dog park. Have you thought about getting a cat? No? Well, welcome to city-dog math. How big a pooch can you handle? Some big dogs make good apartment dogs. I HEARD THIS THEME a number of times from New York dog owners. Peter Kelly, a 27-year-old art adviser, lives with his partner in a tenth-floor, 1,100-square-foot one-bedroom apartment in Chelsea. In 2022, the pair adopted a Galgo, a Spanish breed of greyhound. They wanted a larger dog and went with a Galgo partly because these sorts of retired, rescued sight…

MY DOG’S NAME IS PETER. His size is medium. His sex is male. According to the law, his owner is Kelly Conaboy, the creature writing these words to you right now. According to Kelly Conaboy and what feels like common sense, however, Peter is not an owned object; he is a sentient being, charming and shy, with feelings, needs, and motivations all his own. I am thus not his owner but instead his … well, that’s the difficult part. Which word, of the many alternatives, should I use instead? The move away from the term owner in the animal-caregiver world started well before I adopted Peter seven years ago. Kitty Block, CEO and president of the Humane Society of the United States, says the organization uses terms like caregiver and…

➸ “EVERY TIME a friend asks me what to get to outfit their kitchen, I point them to this,” recipe developer and chef Jane Morgan told the Strategist’s kitchen and dining writer Emma Wartzman. The Goldilocks Utensil Set ($80) is just as useful for the serious home cook as it is for the recent college graduate learning to fry an egg. This professional-grade 12-piece array includes a standard wooden spoon, tongs, a silicone spatula, a fish spatula, a ladle, and a grater as well as items rarely found in other sets, like measuring cups and a colander. Morgan said the pieces are “no frills but high quality—like, you could find them in a restaurant-supply store.” The set is also the least expensive of its size on our list.…

FOOD THE CAMPANIAN TOURIST board must be at it again. After years of the region losing ground among well-heeled vacationers to Sicily and Puglia, suddenly a new iteration of Patricia Highsmith’s Tom Ripley, the scammer toast of Amalfi, barrels onto Netflix, and now here comes Massara, a little slice of Campania in Manhattan, which makes its boundaries clear; it’s the rare ristorante that doesn’t stock a single bottle of Barolo. That’s northern stuff. “Food in 2024 has to be regional,” Stefano Secchi, Massara’s ponytailed chef, declaimed to the New York Times as the restaurant opened in June. Campania, in the southwest of the boot—it includes Naples, Amalfi, Capri, and Ischia—favors fish, fire, and Fiano. In a tall, narrow, two-story space in the Flatiron District, Secchi and partner David Switzer, who…

I MEET THE ACTRESS Naomi Ackie outside Angel Station in North London on a balmy July afternoon. After doing the very British commentary-on-the-weather thing, we take a right and climb down a few steps onto the narrow canal path lined with houseboats. Ackie started these daily walks during the pandemic after moving out of a house share into her own place, though she’s quick to add that she’s still renting: “I don’t come from money.” As we talk, she smoothly navigates by the bikes whizzing past us and coos at cute dogs. This neighborhood feels good for her soul, she says. “I don’t think I’ll ever leave.” ¶ She moved to Angel from Tottenham around the same time she got the main role in the music biopic Whitney Houston: I…

I WAS COMING OFF of Bullets Over Broadway, but the pickings were slim. My manager wanted me to do Bride of Chucky. He called me up and he goes, “Jennifer, you got an offer,” and I go, “Oh, I did?” He goes, “It’s a major motion picture,” and he knew I always had a hard-on to do major motion pictures because I’d made so many little independent films. I was like, “Really? Why is somebody offering me a major motion picture? What’s it about?” He goes, “It’s about a little doll that kills people,” and I was like, “Oh my God, a Chucky movie? I’m not doing a Chucky movie. I can’t even believe you’re coming to me with a Chucky movie.” Back then, horror films were things that you…