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How two wandering cows started a culture war
NEWFANE, NY.- One summer day, a cow and a steer walked away from their farm. The cow was black and was named Blackee. The steer was golden brown, with two stubby horns. He was named Hornee. Nobody knows when the cows got out, or how. They crossed a field and a road and wandered onto a neighbor’s yard. This type of thing sometimes happens in rural western New York, where pastures and farms stretch for miles. But Hornee and Blackee had crossed not into another farm but into an animal sanctuary whose owner saves livestock from slaughter and encourages visitors to become vegans. The next morning, Tracy Murphy, the sanctuary’s owner, found the cows in her yard. She herded them into a pen, she said, and immediately notified the local animal control agency. Six days later, an investigator with the agency came to check ... More

Amy Tan takes a novel approach to bird-watching: 'Be the bird'
NEW YORK, NY.- To them, she isn’t a bestselling novelist but simply “the flightless creature” — and, most important, a reliable source of food. They would not know her at all, nor she them, if not for the garden created around the home in Sausalito, California, that she and her husband downsized to in 2012. Areas of lawn went away in favor of flowers and some wildness, and the birds came. Now Amy Tan is bird-watching, and the birds are watching, too. They may not have read “The Joy Luck Club” or any of her other novels, but they have their eyes on her. “I’m a dependable human,” Tan writes in her newest book, “The Backyard Bird Chronicles.” “Every bird says so.” She also writes: “I am controlled by birds.” Not that Tan is complaining. She is grateful for every episode of “new bird tachycardia” — the ... More

Delighting in the lavender fields of central Spain
NEW YORK, NY.- A day in Brihuega during the lavender bloom requires only one set plan: Get to the fields by sunset, to view an unexpected, lush swath of purple as far as the eye can see, with the orange glow of the Spanish sun directly behind it. Brihuega, a small medieval town in the roughly 4,700-square-mile province of Guadalajara and about an hour’s drive from Madrid, is surrounded by farmland, villages and nature preserves of brown and soft-green hues. But each year in summer, on fields where some of the bloodiest battles of the Spanish Civil War were once fought, those colors change with the bloom of a thousand hectares of lavender, the equivalent of about 2,500 acres or 3,000 American football fields. In the past decade, the lavender harvest has revitalized Brihuega, drawing welcomed visitors — and their euros ... More

36 hours in Izmir, Turkey
NEW YORK, NY.- For much of its history, Izmir, Turkey’s third-largest city, was arguably the center of the world. Halfway down the Aegean coast, Smyrna, as Asia Minor ancients called it, was where East met West as an economic and cultural synapse at the end of the Silk Road. Today, the vibrant, 8,500-year-old “Pearl of the Aegean” — flanked to the north and south by the UNESCO World Heritage city ruins of Pergamon and Ephesus, among the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World — has again redefined itself as a hub for international explorers. The 2,400-year-old bazaar and the ancient Agora remain Izmir’s chief attractions. But the city, which played a key role in Turkey’s independence 100 years ago, has also reopened a former tobacco factory as a culture and art complex and opened a 300-mile, sea-hugging section of the EuroVelo ... More

In 'Twisters,' storm chasers want to disrupt a tornado. Is that possible?
NEW YORK, NY.- Sean Waugh holds a laptop with green, red and yellow weather radar looping as his driver rumbles down an Oklahoma highway in their government-issued truck. The vehicle holds 50 gallons of fuel, so they can chase storms all day. A rectangular cage with metal mesh covers the truck in an attempt to protect the team from hail. Hanging off the front of the hail cage are weather instruments that look like the horn of a rhinoceros charging into a storm. The truck, called Probe One, points in one direction, and a companion, Probe Two, points in another. Tall grass flows like ocean waves, and the stop sign at a crossroads wobbles. The sky is dark gray with a hint of green. Lightning flashes on all sides. The radio cracks. “Probe One, you want us to go?” “Yes, go now,” says Waugh, a researcher with the National Severe Storms Laboratory. As they disappear into the mist ... More

Hong Kong's bouncy 'wonders' leave some wondering, 'Why?'
HONG KONG.- With darkness falling along Hong Kong’s waterfront against a backdrop of glimmering skyscrapers, carnival music competed with the whine of ventilation blowers as visitors bounced on the inflatable Stonehenge. The puffy white megalithic replica was part of an installation put up this month for SummerFest, a public outdoor festival that continues for several weeks. Like its companions, including Egyptian pyramids and the giant faces of Easter Island, it was based on artificial intelligence-generated images dreamed up by Joann, an Armenian designer who has created whimsical, surreal pop-up exhibits for clients like Gucci, Marc Jacobs and Oatly Ice Cream. The exhibit, “Inflatable Wonders,” has attracted crowds. It has also elicited mockery, as well as stirred discussion about cultural sensitivity and about what gets to be considered art versus crass c ... More

Who's smiling now? Nirvana and Marc Jacobs settle logo lawsuit.
NEW YORK, NY.- Oh, that lawsuit Nirvana filed against the fashion line Marc Jacobs for using its smiley face logo without permission? Nevermind. After more than a half-decade of litigation, the sides have agreed to settle. The corporate entity representing Nirvana sued Marc Jacobs International in 2018 after the fashion line announced it would release a “Bootleg Redux Grunge” collection of clothing that featured a smiley face logo the lawsuit called “virtually identical to Nirvana’s copyrighted image." Nirvana’s smiley face has an uneven head, X’s for eyes and a wavy smile with a tongue sticking out on the right side of its face. Marc Jacobs’ smiley face, which was part of both clothing designs and ... More

Alex Izenberg was almost a teen rock star. His second chance is here.
WINNETKA, CALIF.- On his 12th birthday, in April 2003, Alex Izenberg went to Guitar Center to jam. He was the prankster of his Los Angeles public school, a high-strung and mischievous kid who hated class but loved rock ’n’ roll. He dressed the part, too — a small, cherub-faced boy with a poofy brown mop tucked beneath a top hat, a black Stratocaster slung across a velvet vest. At Guitar Center, his friends marveled at his best Hendrix, and he attracted a famous listener, too. “I’m checking out, and I think, ‘Whoever’s playing has a really cool tone, a great feel,’” Linda Perry, the former 4 Non Blondes singer and pop songwriter, remembered in a phone interview. “I’m expecting to see some older dude, seasoned. But I see this dorky little kid in high-water pants and big glasses. I was in love.” Perry wanted to know everything: Were ... More

Is she the oldest person in the Amazon?
JAVARI VALLEY INDIGENOUS TERRITORY.- After more than 100 years in the rainforest, Varî Vãti Marubo walks with a stick and, as she always has, barefoot. So when her Indigenous tribe, the Marubo, gathered for meetings this year in a village that would require a 13-mile hike across streams, fallen logs and dense forest to reach, everyone knew it would be difficult for her to attend. But, as she has for a century, Varî Vãti dealt with the elements. She caught a ride on the only transportation available: her son’s back. “Be careful with me!” she shrieked to her son, Tama Txano Marubo (all Marubo use the same surname), as he climbed down a muddy embankment with a machete in one hand and his mother on his back. Her weight sat on a blue strip of fabric that stretched tight across his forehead. “Call a truck to come get me!” she shouted to laughing relatives. “This is too much.” ... More