Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2017/January 2018 i Town & Country

Christmas Eve has always been my family’s night. My parents held a party at their house for almost 30 years, until my brother and his wife inherited the duties. I remember the parties, for sure—keeping my little cousins away from the closet where I knew my mother hid my gifts, keeping one particular guest away from where I knew my mother hid the extra Greek cookies—but I recall the days leading up to the event more clearly and, to be honest, even more fondly. There was cleaning and polishing, shopping and baking, frying and, yes, fighting, but in all of it there was excitement and anticipation of what would greet our guests as they came, most of them consistently for 30 years and counting, up the stairs and into the…

“To put it bluntly, I used to go to visit my grandmother. Now I go to visit friends,” Samantha Perry David says of the fast-changing demographic of Palm Beach—for which she can take some credit, with the new Royal Poinciana Plaza. The shopping center, built in 1957 a stone’s throw from the Breakers, rivaled Paris’s Palais Royal before losing its cachet. It has been brought back to its former glory by developer David (daughter of financier Richard Perry and his fashion designer wife Lisa) and filled with an eclectic lineup. Sant Ambroeus, Hermès, and the Palm Beach Grill share real estate with a Mexican street food place (Coyo Taco), a produce stand (Celis), and a Croatian children’s clothier (Bognar & Piccolini). “It’s as if Bal Harbour and Sag Harbor had…

ARIANA ROCKEFELLER OLD? Dinner at Renato’s. NEW? Restoration Hardware. MAR-A-LAGO: TO GO OR NOT TO GO? If there’s an interesting event! CAROL MACK OLD? Biking on the lake trail. NEW? Royal Poinciana Plaza. MAR-A-LAGO: TO GO OR NOT TO GO? Everyone always avoided it. Trump has never been embraced in PB. STEVEN STOLMAN OLD? Happy hour at the Colony. NEW? Bradley Park, a restored public space. MAR-A-LAGO: TO GO OR NOT TO GO? It’s the Death Star. HILARY GEARY ROSS OLD? Sunday nights at PB Grill. NEW? The renovated par-3 public golf course. MAR-A-LAGO: TO GO OR NOT TO GO? They have the best chicken paillard in town! DEDE & GRACE MERCK OLD? Pizza Al Fresco and Sailfish Club’s Sunday night seafood buffet. NEW? Sant Ambroeus. MAR-A-LAGO: TO GO OR…

It has been a decade since hedge fund bigwig Philip Falcone and wife Lisa Maria dropped $49 million on the Guccione mansion on the Upper East Side. The 22,000-square-foot Beaux-Arts palace (14–16 East 67th Street) was once owned by Penthouse publisher Bob Guccione, who filled it with marble and gold and surrounded the indoor pool (one of the city’s first) with Greek statues. The Falcones bought it in 2008, and it has been a construction site ever since, irking neighbors and fueling speculation that money troubles may be to blame. But what many want to know: What’s to become of the pool? “They’d be crazy to get rid of it,” says Kirk Henckels, director of Stribling Private Brokerage. In fact, rumor has it they’re making it bigger. For your own…

On top of its book sales, film adaptation, and third life as an opera, The Bonfire of the Vanities achieved a rare feat. It turned its 56-yearold author into an enfant terrible. Thirty years have passed since Tom Wolfe’s first novel imagined New York City as an opulent failed state, where millionaires are one wrong turn from barbarian mobs and race card players on the make. Critics recognized the virtuosity of the prose and also, in the stereotypes and the gleeful trampling on taboos, an illiberal malice. Some American cognoscenti have since treated Wolfe as somehow suspect: a shock jock with a poet’s command of the language. Read now, however, the book has more to say about 2017 than anything written of late. There are the obvious echoes—the besieged rich,…

Q: How can I shake up my wife’s It bag collection? A: This holiday consider giving her an iconic bag that no one she knows will ever own. We recommend this Fendi Peekaboo Essential, made of ostrich and dyed an equally exotic shade of blue. Only 15 were produced. Q: I have a huge family and no time. How do I shop? A: Find an amazing personal shopper! I’ve been working with Tesa Render at Saks in Atlanta for years. She knows my style, my husband Steve’s style, and what my kids, family, and friends will love. —Marjorie Harvey, founder of THELADYLOVESCOUTURE.COM PERSONAL SHOPPING HOTLINES Saks Fifth Avenue, FAC@S5A.COM; Bergdorf Goodman, 212-872-8757; Forty Five Ten, 214-945-8031; Marissa Collections, 800-581-6641; Moda Operandi, 212-727-7120; Neiman Marcus, 888-888-4757; Net-a-Porter, FASHIONADVISOR.USA@NET-A-PORTER.COM HOLIDAY HACKS: SOCIAL…

The first time I went to [plastic surgeon] Gerald Imber, it was for a lump on my breast. I had a cyst removed and I came out with 16-year-old boobs. Jerry became my go-to guy, my good luck charm. He gave me a new neck on my 59th, and a newer neck on my 66th. He doesn’t do too much; he makes you look like a better version of yourself. I’m 70 years old. People think I’m 50. Plastic surgery is not thought of as ghoulish anymore; it’s much more sophisticated. And it’s as common as going to the dentist. —Peggy Siegal, author of the manifesto How to Look Like Me at 70, the Sequel to How to Look Like Me at 60, a comprehensive list of the 30 pros…

There is always something that can be done to revise face-lifts, even if you’ve gone scalpel crazy. I know many surgeons who’d be up to the task. Botched’s Terry Dubrow and Paul Nassif come to mind. (Nassif says he might be able to help, but Wildenstein would have to come clean about all previous procedures.) But she seems happy with what she’s done, and at the end of the day she has to live with it. Cher said it best: “If I want to put my tits on my back, it’s nobody’s business but my own.” —Wendy Lewis, president of aesthetics consultancy Wendy Lewis & Co.…

PAUL GAUGUIN CRUISES The m/s Paul Gauguin is an intimate, all-inclusive, 332-guest luxury vessel designed to cruise the storied isles of French Polynesia. Come discover how we make every adventure a masterpiece. PGCRUISES.com/TC SEA ISLAND Since 1928, Sea Island has been known as an exceptional destination appealing to those who appreciate gracious service and heartfelt hospitality. The only resort in the world to have received four Forbes Five-Star awards for nine consecutive years, Sea Island entices families, outdoor and activity enthusiasts, and those simply looking to refresh and recharge. SEAISLAND.com REGENT SEVEN SEAS CRUISES® Enjoy every day exactly as you wish while exploring the world’s most beautiful destinations. When aboard a luxuriouslyappointed Regent Seven Seas Cruises' ship, everything is included—from flights to excursions. Aboard Regent Seven Seas Cruises®, you really…

SURF SIMPLY At this surfing resort in Costa Rica you also do yoga, zipline, paddleboard, and ride horses. Book far ahead: Each week sells out months in advance. SURFSIMPLY.COM CHICKS WITH PICKS Ice and rock climbing, off-piste skiing, and mountaineering for women, held in wilderness areas in Colorado, Wyoming, Greece, and Iceland. CHICKSWITHPICKS.NET TOUR D’AFRIQUE Cyclists go from Cairo to Cape Town in four months, but you can join for a two-week segment. New for 2018 are fascinating side expeditions, like to Ethiopia’s Omo River valley. TDAGLOBALCYCLING.COM TIGER MUAY THAI TRAINING CAMP In Phuket you power through five hours of intense workouts (200 burpees, 300 sit-ups), followed (if you’re able) by courses in the martial arts. TIGERMUAYTHAI.COM…

For many years after I experienced my first Japanese onsen, or public bath, and whenever I was in Japan on my annual trip, I found myself playing a variation of that game recommended to nervous public speakers—the one in which you imagine your audience naked. It was the late 1990s, and I would perch, catlike, in the big window of my friend’s apartment overlooking Omotesando, one of western Tokyo’s main thoroughfares. The foot traffic in Harajuku was ceaseless and varied: young ladies who lunch, with their soft bobs and Loewe handbags; high school students dressed in the outlandish costumes that were inspiring the first wave of street style blogs and photographers; sylvan men in black hurrying with their bentos back to their desks at ateliers run by designers so famous…

Walter Max had hands like steaks and a way with leeches. For years he was the only osteopath in London, cracking necks and fixing spines on bobbies, sportsmen, and actors in the practice he had opened in 1938 near Tower Bridge. To this day I don’t know what part of Central Europe he came from, but the accent was as strong and dark as his beetling brows. Peter O’Toole, my father’s partner in their Keep Films production company, was fond of fisticuffs, which made him a regular at Mr. Max’s, and the whole family soon followed him. I was a child when he started treating my knotted muscles and ballet injuries. He applied glass vacuum cups to my back, and if that didn’t work, he made a delicate cut in…

Let’s begin with the conventional wisdom. Money can’t buy happiness. It won’t get you into heaven. It is probably the root of at least some evil. Countless philosophical treatises, religious texts, and classdissecting novels have testified to these truths. Okay. But what if there were a specific amount of money that fostered optimal contentment? Not so much that it gave rise to more problems than it solved, not so little that you had to sweat every splurge. A net worth that allowed you to pursue your personal passions—join the board of a philanthropy, support the arts, avoid flying out of Newark ever again—but didn’t make you question the intentions of friends and otherwise consume your life. A happiness number. How would you calculate such a thing? Especially in the United…

“I ALWAYS VISIT BULGARI,” ANDY WARHOL SAID, “BECAUSE IT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART.” “WE WERE STUFFING THE JEWELRY IN OUR SUITCASES,” NICOLA BULGARI REMEMBERS OF THE HOUSE’S EARLY DAYS, “TO SELL IT ACROSS AMERICA.” In some ways it’s a classic tale of coming to America. In the early 1970s a man arrives on these shores from Italy with a suitcase full of jewels. He travels around the country selling his wares. “We were stuffing the jewelry in our suitcases,” he remembers, “to sell it in suites across America: Palm Beach, Los Angeles, Oklahoma City, Houston, Dallas, Chicago, Seattle.” Just a few years after his arrival in New York he puts his suitcase down and settles into a store in Manhattan. But maybe this coming-to-America tale isn’t…

ARTS & CULTURE December 3 Flagler Museum Christmas Tree Lighting Descendants of oil baron Henry Flagler light the tree in his Gilded Age mansion turned museum. December 3 Flagler Museum Christmas Tree Lighting Descendants of oil baron Henry Flagler light the tree in his Gilded Age mansion turned museum. Through December 19 Kips Bay Palm Beach Decorator Show House In the first ever PB edition, interior designers will transform a 1925 Mediterranean. November 19 RH, Restoration Hardware The furniture brand opens its latest outpost in West Palm; it will feature a restaurant on its roof. January 17–21 Art Palm Beach The longest-running fair in town returns for its 21st year of showcasing emerging and contemporary artists. December 2 Winston Churchill The British prime minister was also an accomplished painter. His…

This month, when Miami’s Institute of Contemporary Art moves into its permanent home in the city’s Design District, occupying a three-story space next to the acclaimed De La Cruz Collection, it will be part of what the district’s developer, Craig Robins, calls the latest phase of completion. Robins, who started buying up land in the forgotten neighborhood more than 15 years ago, has turned it into a luxury shopping mecca–cum–arts hub unlike anywhere else in the world. Here, even parking garages become museums (see below), and new installations by Urs Fischer, Sol LeWitt, and the Bouroullec brothers will soon join the Instagrammable public artworks already saturating the landscape. “It’s really a place of our time,” Robins says. “The number of selfies you can take here is incalculable.”…

When I told the Italian cooks I’d been working with at El Bulli that I was going to Brescia to learn to make panettone from the world’s greatest master, they laughed,” says Bay Area pastry chef Roy Shvartzapel. “They said it would never happen.” But Shvartzapel is not easily discouraged. He made no calls, wrote no letters. He simply strapped on a backpack and boarded the train. “I got off at Brescia and walked the two and a half miles to Pasticceria Veneto. And it was closed!” The young cook stood staring at the locked door. He had no money and nowhere to go. “What am I doing here?” he asked himself. Blame it on the great French pastry master Pierre Hermé. “When I graduated from the Culinary Institute of…

Moynat recently launched a collection that showcases its ancient leather marquetry technique. Creative Director Ramesh Nair’s latest work includes a host of small leather goods—notebook covers, passport holders, pouches, key rings, and charms—each embellished with playful icons of automobiles, trains, and animals. The items are constructed with Taurillon Gex leather in colors customized for the house. Moynat’s skilled artisans practice extreme precision with every manual cut and assemble each piece together to create the designed motif. Every mosaic is a unique work of art with seams that are undetectable to both the eye and to the touch.…

SAGITTARIUS NOVEMBER 23–DECEMBER 21 You need to face facts in December, but the planets seem to like you—as does everyone else, so don’t hesitate to ask for support. January is important for you, because you’ll be focused on making your affairs more stable, but you’re best off working behind the scenes to have the most impact. Be a diplomat and you’ll win the day. CAPRICORN DECEMBER 22–JANUARY 20 Give your plans much thought as December rolls in, and delay major decisions until the 23rd. Your patience will help you make the right moves. In January you can tie up loose ends and achieve your aims. With Venus in your sign until the 18th, you’re exuding the right amount of charm, and you’ll be able to get others to go along…

Tis the season…for fitness resolutions. Our mission: to identify the best places around the world to tune up, or be transformed— spas that not only deliver a mean massage but over time seem to rearrange our very molecules. (And, since we’re all multitaskers, ones that throw in some cultural highs as well.) On the pages that follow are wellness retreats in California and Nepal, Italy and Indonesia, Mexico and Massachusetts. Among them: boot camps and pleasure domes, places medical and mystical, Western and Eastern. But what they all share (we know because we’ve been there) are top therapists, stateof-the-art facilities, good (often superlative) food, pleasing (often outstanding) decor, lovely locations (as moodaltering as Tabata training), and a take-home educational component—because we all want to make the feel-good last. Here’s to…

THE DRESSING ROOM You will be given a towel and washcloth. Put all your clothes and the towel into the baskets or lockers provided and proceed with your washcloth into the shower area. THE SHOWERS They will be individual stalls (at more Westernoriented places) or a row of handheld showerheads, each with its own low stool. Wash thoroughly with the soap (and shampoo) provided, then rinse completely (the washcloth, too), and tidy up your shower area. THE BATH The ofuro will be a few yards away. Climb in with some caution: The temperature will range between 40 and 44 degrees Celsius (104° to 111°F). Ofuro tend to be quite deep—water will come up to your chin or the base of your throat when you’re sitting. Never submerge your head. Use…

Traditional safaris are sedate affairs: hours each day in a game drive vehicle, watching wildlife cavort—and your hips spread. Now you can gallop, hike, bike, paddleboard— and really earn those sundowners. OKAVANGO HORSE SAFARIS Cantering through the channels and tall reeds of the Botswana delta alongside elephants and zebras is one of the most intense ways to experience Africa’s wilderness. You can ride, hard, up to six hours a day. OKAVANGOHORSE.COM ASILIA AFRICA Asilia’s camps, which command some of the best bush real estate in eastern Africa, will have you hiking into a volcanic crater or tracking chimps. ASILIAAFRICA.COM &BEYOND Canoe the Zambezi, explore villages on foot in Tanzania, or hike in the bush in the Masai Mara: &Beyond has lodges with active programs across the continent. ANDBEYOND.COM TIME +…

REGENT SEVEN SEAS In addition to such onboard treatments as sea salt body buffs, the line’s new Seven Seas Wellness, developed with Canyon Ranch, will have you doing: tai chi in a 19th-century palace in Marseille; vinyasa yoga on the beach in Monte Carlo; soaking in Rome’s Thermal Baths of the Popes; aromatherapy in a perfume lab on Capri. SHIP The package is limited to 20 passengers and available only on some of Regent Seven Seas Voyager’s Mediterranean sailings. RSSC.COM AMAWATERWAYS This pioneering river cruise company (it was first to stock bicycles onboard, which is now standard practice) has partnered with Backroads, the global hiking, walking, and cycling tour operator. Forget casual spins along waterfront towpaths; now there are professional guides, sag wagons (the aptly named vehicular supports for those…

Do it right and almost nothing about your vacation will resemble real life. The turquoise cove you’re floating in? Otherworldly. The mountain view from your canopy bed? Unreal. The fact that someone has refreshed your poolside iced tea without your noticing? Extraordinary. So why shouldn’t resort-sponsored lessons and clinics (especially if you’re near “pro-level” yourself) be run by the giants of your sport? No reason. Consider the bar raised. TENNIS: HAWAII At Four Seasons Resort Hualalai’s annual clinic, you can hit with Michael Chang, the youngest man ever to win the French Open. You’ll improve your backhand under his tutelage, create a performance-optimizing diet with his nutritionist, and hear about Chang’s battles with Ivan Lendl and Andre Agassi. FOURSEASONS.COM/HUALALAI DOWNHILL: UTAH Skiers at Deer Valley’s “Ski with a Champion” program…

On the Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend last year, several dozen sleek young women moved along a receiving line of pleasant young men upstairs at P.J. Clarke’s on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. They were inspecting their escort options for the 62nd Anniversary International Debutante Ball. Smiles flashed and cheeks flushed as small talk sputtered into conversation. The boys, as they’re called, well groomed and in blazers, had been recommended by parents or friends of former debutantes. Parents and grandparents loitered in a corner, corralled by the organizers to keep them from making a delicate social situation worse. It was as awkward as a Sadie Hawkins dance. “My grandmother made me come and told me to wear this,” said one young woman in a bright pink sheath. “And I look like a…

URBAN RENEWAL When it came time to update the kitchen in our Brooklyn apartment, my husband and I took inspiration from Roman and Williams, the New York–based design firm that created interiors for the restaurant Le Coucou (pictured) and will soon open a store in Manhattan, R&W Guild. That meant looking for artisan-made pieces, from plates to lighting to a stove. A canine perch was also a requirement. ODD COUPLE We share an office, and recently we both started renovations (Adam to his Brooklyn kitchen, Norman to a house in Westchester). At first we tried to be discreet—the only thing worse than listening to someone plan a wedding is listening to them choose fixtures—but soon we were making full-volume calls to contractors, painters, spouses. Very little work got done (sorry,…

$46 MILLION 1800 SOUTH OCEAN BLVD. The Addison Mizner estate, Sans Souci, has both ocean and intracoastal views, two pools, and a putting green. CORCORAN.COM $25 MILLION 680 SOUTH OCEAN BLVD. The master suite has commanding views of the ocean, which can be reached through a tunnel. ANGLEREALESTATE.COM $16 MILLION 12 LAGOMAR ROAD This renovated Mizner home is equipped with a gym, elevator, and media room and has space for a tennis court. ANGLEREALESTATE.COM $64.9 MILLION 1071 NORTH OCEAN BLVD. A bowling alley, home theater, and massage room are some of the features of this 35,000-square-foot house. ANGLEREALESTATE.COM…

When he was a kid, Patrick Schwarzenegger would tag along to his father’s movie shoots. “I remember being five years old and going to the set of Batman and Robin,” he says. “That’s when I fell in love with acting.” These days the 25yearold can still be found on set with his dad, the actor and former California governor, but it’s Patrick in the leading role. He is currently starring in The Long Road Home, an eightpart series airing now on the National Geographic channel, based on Martha Raddatz’s bestseller, which follows a unit of U.S. soldiers during an ambush in Iraq in 2004. It’s a true story that gives Schwarzenegger, who plays Sgt. Ben Hayhurst, his most challenging part to date. “It required the most commitment of any role…

You’ve never read a book by Matthew Weiner, but you certainly know his writing. Though the justreleased Heather, the Totality ($25, Little, Brown) is Weiner’s first novel, his last gig—he was the creator of Mad Men and a writer and producer on the series—brought his carefully observed point of view to millions of fans. As a followup, Heather doesn’t disappoint. The novel follows an Upper East Side princess and an ex-con along paths seemingly fated to collide. Weiner will be back on TV soon with a series about descendants of the Romanovs but says Heather won’t be his final book. In fact, he says, “I’m writing something now.” Here, he discusses his process for our peek inside the habits of a creative mastermind. How do you prepare yourself to be…

It has been almost 125 years since Kokichi Mikimoto effectively democratized the pearl, when he succeeded in nurturing the first cultured gem off the coast of Japan, setting in motion his dream “to adorn the necks of all women around the world.” “In many ways he changed jewelry forever,” says Frank Everett, senior vice president and sales director of the luxury division at Sotheby’s. “He was a tenacious scientist, a fabulous businessman, and a marketing genius who was able to convince people that cultured pearls were real, natural pearls.” Everett says he still sometimes encounters concern that a cultured pearl is not a “real” pearl, but he believes their being grown in a farmed environment does not detract from their value. He says their creation should be seen as a…

The 14 nurses who work exclusively for David Rosenberg, New York’s reigning face-lift deity, have been making lots of house calls lately, tending to patients who prefer to recuperate in their own beds. For $80 an hour, they will properly ice the face, help with showering, and keep the home sanitary (no dirty dog paws on those Frette linens). It’s a job best done by a pro, not a family member. Plus, as Rosenberg says, “it’s a lot to ask of a Park Avenue husband.”…

COMO SHAMBHALA ESTATE, Bali There are its riverbank seclusion (it feels like a secret temple of wellness), its design (it’s one of the most beautiful hotels on Bali, incorporating traditional Indonesian architecture), and its nutrient-dense cuisine, a COMO signature. But what really gets people coming back to the COMO Shambhala is its army of experts. Visiting wellness masters specialize in everything from adrenal massage to hydrotherapy, and local guides lead off-property adventures like rice field cycling and Ayung River rafting. HOW LONG Programs average three to 14 nights. WHO GOES Celebrities like John Legend; Eat, Pray, Love fans; travelers who want spa time and sightseeing. DON’T MISS A water purification ceremony at a 10th-century temple. COMO HOTELS.COM/COMOSHAMBHALAESTATE CHABLE RESORT, Mexico The 32,000-square-foot spa at this 19th-century Yucatán hacienda is centered…

DWARIKA’S RESORT, Nepal It’s not your typical spa, but if you’re in the area, this ayurvedic retreat an hour’s drive from Kathmandu is known for its masterful blend of Buddhist medicine and vedic philosophy and for its unconventional treatment rooms (meditation maze, chakra sound chamber, Himalayan salt room). HOW LONG Three to 13 nights for set wellness programs. WHO GOES Trekkers in need of TLC; ayurveda devotees. DON’T MISS Dwarika’s farm, a 90-minute walk from the resort past rural villages. DWARIKAS-DHULIKHEL.COM VANA, India There is no shortage of spiritual retreats in India, but Vana is unique in combining traditional yoga, meditation, and ayurvedic medicine with organic cuisine, beauty treatments, and cultural outings. Your ayurvedic recipe is determined by a doctor, electronics are forbidden in public spaces (but the vibe is…

TOKYO Park Hyatt Tokyo The original hotel-in-the-sky has relatively small in-room ofuro, but there’s a large, womblike bath, plus cold pool and two saunas, in the 45th-floor spa (the famous hotel pool is two floors above). Not to miss: the multitude of Aesop beauty products in the changing room. Aman Tokyo Water is the focus of this beautifully minimalist hotel in the city’s business district. The 30-meter pool is dazzling; the smallish ofuro down the hall has views of the entire eastern half of Tokyo. Not to miss: The in-room bath is the best I’ve ever seen—spectacularly deep, made from dark stone, and surrounded by floor-to-ceiling windows. Hoshinoya Tokyo This new addition to the Tokyo luxury hotel scene is a ryokan in a high-rise. As in a traditional ryokan, no…

Odysseus had to strap himself to the mast to resist the sirens’ call. The big news on cruise ships is that you no longer have to. Overindulged? No problem. There are now gyms at sea as well equipped and staffed as anything on land. There are spa menus of every persuasion. There are excursions, on water and on solid ground, guaranteed to not just burn calories but to get those endorphins going. We have sailed and inspected countless lines and ships, and the ones listed in the following pages will have you both seeing the world and getting well and fit. Consider it the T&C guarantee. (That mast? So pretty to look at during cocktail hour.)…

“The entry-level cost is now $22,000, which buys you one table at the ball but doesn’t include the dress, fees, hotel, travel, or parties.” A 2016 debutante, International Ball, New York City “I was a deb through an L.A. club called the Thursday Club. Total was $10,000-plus. Your mom had to be a member for two years prior, then you had to be a member for a year, then you became a debutante.” A 2006 Les Fleurettes debutante “Being a duchess at the Texas Rose Festival was around $30,000. The contract my parents signed said the minimum fee would be $17,000. My mom asked if I wanted a new car my sophomore year or to be a debutante. I chose the latter!” A 2008 Texas Rose Festival debutante “My biggest…

Disgraced politician Anthony Weiner’s five-yearold son is still too young to understand why his father was hauled off to federal prison this past fall. But someday the child will inevitably learn the truth—namely, that while he was still a baby, his then-51-year-old father sent sexually explicit text messages to a 15-year-old girl. Several months earlier, Weiner had also felt compelled to combine child minding with sexting with a fortysomething paramour. Even though he was not charged for that exchange, the public record (a.k.a. the internet) will forevermore include a selfie of Dear Dad in said act while his oblivious toddler sleeps against his side. It’s difficult to imagine that his son will be all that pleased. Then again, he won’t be the first son or daughter to have become entangled,…

Footsteps on the stairs. Wrapping paper shredded with abandon. Fresh logs crackling in the fireplace. The sounds of Christmas morning are as much about the years that came before as about the day at hand. The nostalgic tone often extends to the breakfast table, where comfort food and festive decor reign, with plaid place settings and piles of donuts and bacon that are almost as enticing as what’s under the tree.…