Exhaling Life

For a while, I restrained myself from using salt and pepper in my cooking, partly because I had come to think of them as the two most overused seasonings, capable of keeping a dish from becoming more interesting than the obvious. At one point, I even wondered whether I had developed a sensitivity to salt; the slightest over-seasoning began tasting bitter to me. Salty filets at Michael Mina at Bellagio and Delilah at Wynn Las Vegas last year did little to repair the relationship. Trust me, an overly salted filet at an upscale restaurant is its own particular trauma, quite different from realizing the horrible flavor of McDonald’s new limited-edition Spicy Chicken McNuggets. I never abandoned salt entirely. I continued using it to enhance other spices and ingredients, but deliberately salty flavors, even those built around soy sauce, became increasingly rare in my kitchen. Ceramic bowl was wheel-thrown and glazed by me. Until recently. No Rice, No Deal Stir-Fry Bowl is deliberately veg...

Are you bothered by the question? More than two decades ago, a dear friend, Andrea, ten years my senior, confided that she believed feminists had destroyed our lives. Back then, work-life balance did not exist. Back then, I was asked to terminate an employee simply because she was pregnant. at Laguna Art Museum I didn't. I also didn't exactly refuse. I told the company that it was more than welcome to terminate her, but as her direct manager, I saw no performance-related reason to end her employment and therefore would not sign her separation papers. If executive management wanted to terminate her, I would accept its decision. I simply would not lend my name to it. She was not terminated. I didn't refuse to sign because I was advocating for her rights. I refused because there was no reason to terminate her. I had terminated other employees for poor performance; pregnancy was not poor performance. And the order hadn't come from a man. It came from my boss, who was a woma...

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...