Exhaling Life

This morning, my mind froze as I read about an alleged gang rape involving eight Cornell University students that occurred nearly two years ago, in 2024. Most of us learned the details only after Jane Doe filed a civil lawsuit on September 14, 2026, in New York State Supreme Court, New York County, against Matthew Ingalls, Johnathan Newell, Winston Lee, Gillio Lopes, Diego Sarabia, Scott Norris, and Scott Kretzschmar, alleging that the seven men raped her while they were students at Cornell University. The alleged assault occurred during the night of October 19 into the morning of October 20, 2024. Jane Doe later reported the incident to Cornell University Police. Cornell separately conducted its own disciplinary investigation, followed by hearings under its Title IX process, while Cornell University Police conducted the criminal investigation that was referred to the Tompkins County District Attorney’s Office. at LACMA No criminal charges followed. The District Attorney’s Office did n...

There is something inherently sexy about gloves, perhaps because they understand what fashion occasionally forgets: concealment can be far more provocative than exposure. For centuries, gloves signaled propriety, status, and restraint, placing a thin barrier between the hand and everyone it might touch. The irony is exquisite. Cover something ordinarily left bare and suddenly its unveiling becomes intimate. Hollywood certainly understood the assignment. An opera glove beside a bare shoulder did not temper the seduction; it sharpened it, turning the slow removal of something as innocuous as a glove into theater. Photo by Hans on Unsplash That delicious tension between restraint and revelation is what makes gloves such compelling style makers. Satin whispers old-Hollywood glamour. Supple leather carries a certain authority. A flash of color beneath an otherwise serious coat can do more for an outfit than another strategically purchased handbag ever will. And when Autumn finally begins i...

A few years ago, I worked as a Project Manager for a marketing agency. What most people did not know was that I wasn’t simply managing marketing projects. Part of my job was to conduct root-cause analysis and privately address what I found with the VP of Operations. The agency was losing clients, and part of my assignment was to conduct root-cause analysis within the PMO. No one ever told me the two were connected, but I wondered whether leadership believed they might be. Ganna Walska Lotusland I worked alongside another Project Manager, a smart guy with a project management certification whose vertical happened to be one of the problematic ones. He didn’t know that evaluating his project pipeline was part of my assignment. His failure to follow project management best practices had already been escalated. He also had reluctance to escalate problems early enough to keep them from affecting clients. One Client Success Manager was a recurring problem. She routinely failed to turn in ...

Walnut shrimp is decidedly Chinese-American, with roots in Cantonese-style restaurant cooking. Crisp fried shrimp dressed in a sweet, creamy mayonnaise-based sauce and paired with candied walnuts became a Chinese restaurant favorite by the late twentieth century, particularly in California, before making the leap from banquet tables to the mainstream. I was introduced to walnut shrimp as an adult at a wedding banquet and did what any reasonable person who dislikes walnuts would do: I picked around them. Years later, I discovered that I am actually allergic to nuts, though thankfully not in the dramatic, call-an-ambulance kind of way. Apparently, my lifelong walnut avoidance had been onto something. So this is my version: nut-free walnut shrimp, which admittedly makes the name a little ridiculous, with Sriracha added for a kick because I’m that kind of gal. INGREDIENTS [serves 2 with rice] one pound large shrimp, peeled and deveined a half teaspoon kosher salt one egg white a third cu...

Autumn has a way of making getting dressed feel interesting again. Perhaps it is the cooling air, or simply the relief of no longer negotiating with heat, but suddenly there is room for texture, layers, and a little more intention. The closet does not need to be reinvented for the occasion. As I wrote in Curated: Summer 2026 Style Makers , style is about curation: knowing what belongs, what still works, and what deserves the occasional addition. at LACMA There is confidence in that kind of restraint. It is the difference between wearing what fashion tells us is new and knowing ourselves well enough to decide what is worth bringing home. A beautifully cut jacket, an unexpected shoe, or a sweater with just enough personality can shift pieces we have owned for years into something that feels entirely current. The point is not to become someone new every season, but to become increasingly certain of the person already standing in front of the closet. And then there is color. Summer’s white...

Weddings are overrated. A friend once reminded me that I can afford to say this because I had a beautiful one, nearly two years in the making. Fair enough. Perhaps experience, and the aging that follows it, has a way of bringing certain things into focus, particularly what actually matters in a life. Amsterdam, Netherlands We are often told that what matters in the end is who surrounds us. I never drank that Kool-Aid. Perhaps the better measure is how we live: not how our lives appear through the eyes of others, but how we feel when left alone with ourselves in a room. The preciousness of a life is not found in the lifestyle built around it. It lives in the way we treat those whose lives we touch and those we simply encounter, including people who can offer us absolutely nothing in return. After all, can someone who does not recognize the preciousness of others, even total strangers, truly understand what precious means? And if they don’t know what precious is, how can they possibl...

Did you know that linguine comes from Liguria, in the northwestern region of Italy? It means “little tongues” in Italian. Nearly identical to fettuccine, I've been cooking with linguine more often lately. In part, this is because I've transitioned to eating more shrimp than salmon with pasta, somehow associating fettuccine with salmon and linguine with non-fish seafood, such as squid . Call it culinary logic of the highly personal variety. Ceramic bowl was wheel-thrown and glazed by me. This Lemon Shrimp Linguine was developed out of necessity: weekday hunger after a long day, when ambition is low but standards remain inconveniently intact. It balances the brightness of lemon and shrimp's gentle brininess with the creaminess of milk, the sharpness of salt, and zucchini's melancholy sweetness. Easy to assemble on the stovetop in a nonstick pan , this linguine is destined to become one of those recipes you return to over and over again. ING...