Choices can be so limiting. For the fortunate, at least, there are times when there is too much of everything to make a decision. Overabundance breeds paralysis—in the shampoo aisle at CVS, in the antiquities department of the Louvre, on the menu at Shopsin’s, or with the movie and television titles on Netflix and Amazon.
And that’s why Air Mail has a rigorously concise selection of “bests.” Every week, we select one—just one—podcast, television show, restaurant, bike, and cool item that readers will want to know about.
This week, we chose Our Boys for the “Watch” category. It’s an Israeli thriller on HBO based on real murders committed in 2014, and it is so nuanced, sophisticated, and smart that Benjamin Netanyahu asked Israelis to boycott it.
Just this podcast: How To!, in which Charles Duhigg interviews a listener with a problem, consults with experts, and then offers advice on how to solve it. (He says: “What if Dear Abby was an investigative reporter?”)
The gadget this week is a $30 hairbrush whisk. Don’t ask; just try it.
Sometimes variety takes the spice out of life. Jeff Gordinier, the food writer, is an adventurous globe-trotting eater, but whenever he can, he orders the same dish at his favorite New York restaurant, Via Carota: grilled artichokes. He says he has had it at least 50 times, including the night he proposed to his wife.
We are just as strict about our “Style” recommendations. This week, Ashley Baker, our style editor, recommends one skirt, a midi for $1,350. (O.K., it’s Prada.) After all, this is Fashion Week in New York, and amid all that excess, it’s a gift to revel in less.
That’s why we have only one playlist. Doutzen Kroes, the Dutch model and actress who is married to the D.J. Sunnery James, selected the music for this week’s Airplay, and she chose one theme: danceable tracks.
Even our wide-ranging Arts Intel Report is all about helping readers narrow their choices. Arts editor Laura Jacobs and her team of experts comb through plays, ballets, exhibitions, concerts, book fairs, movie festivals, and museum shows in more than 150 cities around the world and select the best or most interesting for AIR, our culture search engine. Decisions must still be made, but this makes them so much easier to reach.
We wish we could say we have only one story about the British royal family, but this week there are too many generations and too many scandals to fit into just the one. So, for more and less, read on.
