Yesterday The New Yorker published a comprehensive story about Tropical Race Four, a type of fungus that is currently threatening to destroy the United State's banana crop. While there are more than 1,000 types of bananas, only one, the Cavendish banana, is ideal for cultivating and exporting. Thus, the majority of banana plantations in the world harvest Cavendishes. However, the Tropical Race Read more

Though the dream of Brighton Beach, the Jersey Shore-inspired reality show about Russian-Americans, has yet to be realized, an article in The New Yorker all but assures it will be. The show's producers, two 20-somethings of Ukrainian and Belarusian descent, have received hundreds of audition videos and are shopping the show. Besides an uptick in vodka sales, the show is sure to bring the gaudy, Read more

In this week's issue of The New Yorker, writer Judith Thurman asks an age-old question: what can you do about wrinkles? The answer, she finds? Not much. "Apart from dying, there is, to date, no permanent cure for wrinkles," she writes. From there, the article explores the history (and occasional hucksterism) of anti-aging treatments, zipping from Cleopatra's techniques to modern-day fixes like Read more

Paul Popenoe was not a psychologist or psychiatrist, nor did he finish college, but the father of marriage counseling in America was called Dr. Popenoe anyway. After all, he did have an honorary degree in sociology. Before he opened the American Institute of Family Relations, his marriage counseling center in Los Angeles, he led a successful campaign to sterilize the mentally ill. It spawned a Read more

The cover of this week's issue of The New Yorker was created using an iPhone. Artist John Colombo created the portrait of a west side Manhattan diner using Brushes, a $5 painting application. It's not the first cover he's created using the app; the first appeared last Spring. Since last June, Colombo has been posting his weekly Brushes illustrations on The New Yorker blog Finger Painting. Brushes Read more

The “presiding grande dame of West Coast interior design,” Kelly Wearstler, is featured in a six-page profile in the Sept. 14 issue of The New Yorker. I've always considered Wearstler (pronounced "Worst-ler") an enigma — wife of a hotel mogul, author, Top Design judge, crimped-hair enthusiast, Southern belle, ex-Playboy model — but her design skill is irrefutable. So, it was interesting Read more

Most of us describe our homes in fairly generic terms, tossing out "modern," "traditional with a twist," or "relaxed Regency," if pressed for a characterization. Well, leave it to Jonathan Adler and Simon Doonan to turn dull description on its head. To hear how they describe their home, read more Read more