jb: collected

David F. Gallagher, a deputy technology editor at The Times, is answering selected questions from readers Sept. 28-Oct. 2, 2009. Questions may be e-mailed to askthetimes@nytimes.com. Mr. Gallagher is…

Nice overview of how fonts over the web could be handled.

Shopping for wine is a lot like parenting a teenager. You feel stupid when you’re in the middle of it, and when you finally emerge, you’re desperately ready for a drink.

Impressionism - painting outside of a studio with quick, loose brushstrokes to capture an evocative impression of their subject. Van Gogh was an Impressionist but wanted to express how he felt…

Hale’iwa, Hawaii — Once in the Elks Club in Honolulu, an elderly man of Chinese ancestry said in a low voice to me: “This club used to be very exclusive. And the one next door too.” He meant no…

FOR proof that Communism was bound to fail, pull a chair up to the table of a restaurant critic and his three guests. Then watch what happens after he tells them what to order, the food has been…

Liz Steyer after breakfast with three of her four children, ages 5 to 16. Laptops and cellphones are banned during meals.

New Scientist has a series of articles about aspects of humanity that scientists don’t quite have a handle on…like pubic hair, art, dreams, and teenagers.

Even our closest relatives, the great…

You’d need the equivalent of a 228-lane Brooklyn Bridge to move all those people into Manhattan during Monday morning rush hour.

At best, it would take 167 inbound lanes, or 42 copies of the…

The American Time Use Survey asks thousands of American residents to recall every minute of a day. Here is how people over age 15 spent their time in 2008.