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Grow

The Sill


Even if a salesperson at a plant shop says your fern will be easy to take care of, I’ve found that it can still die rather easily. Enough people have killed houseplants that this 3-in-1 Soil Moisture Meter exists. If your plant is wilting, stick the meter into the soil for 10 minutes and it will calculate the moisture and pH level. Plus, it includes a light sensor that warns you if the plant needs more time in the sun. With the reading, you’ll know whether a watering can or an acidic solution will salvage your plant. ($15, thesill.com) —Jensen Davis

Listen

Project Unabom


In the nearly two decades it took the F.B.I. to find the Unabomber—the anti-technology domestic terrorist who shipped homemade bombs to civilians from 1978 to 1995, killing 23 people—there were many suspects. Eric Benson, the host of a new, comprehensive podcast on the Unabomber, devotes an entire episode to law enforcement’s longtime leading suspects: a group of nerdy teen boys in Chicago who played Dungeons & Dragons. While the boys were questioned for years, the actual Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski—a former math teacher turned recluse and environmental terrorist—kept making bombs and writing his anti-industrialization manifesto in rural Montana. Benson talks to the no-longer-young boys, Kaczynski’s brother, and several Washington Post editors who published the killer’s manifesto in full, along with many others, to consider every angle of the saga. (podcasts.apple.com) —Jensen Davis

Oleg Deripaska
Track

O.C.C.R.P.


Why go window-shopping on Madison Avenue when you can go Russian-asset browsing instead? Thanks to the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (O.C.C.R.P.), we have the Russian Asset Tracker, a database of Russian oligarchs’ and their enablers’ resources. The carefully organized Web site lets users scroll through a list of names, each one with the person’s total asset amount and “occupation” handily listed next to it. Click on a profile to find the list of countries each oligarch is sanctioned in, as well as his “reason of inclusion”—or, a condensed list of crimes—and also some standout assets. We recommend looking at Oleg Deripaska’s more than $400 million worth of real estate in Sardinia and Alisher Usmanov’s 27 bank accounts at Credit Suisse, which total over $2 billion. (cdn.occrp.org) —Clara Molot

Wear

Haremlique à la Mer


Just when we thought we had finally procured enough beachwear, a merciless heat wave came and reminded us that this once niche category is now the foundation of our summer wardrobe. Caroline Koç, the Turkish designer behind Haremlique à la Mer, understands this conundrum perfectly. Her collection of caftans, shirtdresses, pareus, and accessories is designed to be worn with a bathing suit, but each piece provides enough coverage and panache to exist off the beach as well. Our August ’22 dinner-party look will be centered around the Sultan’s Garden shirtdress, which can be worn with a matching pareu, white jeans, wide-legged chinos, or even a slim Bermuda short. Easy, breezy, and machine washable—the trifecta of summer style. ($340, us.haremliquealamer.com) —Ashley Baker

Forward Lines Hoodie
Wear

Áwet New York


Áwet New York, a fashion label launched by Áwet Woldegebriel in 2020, aims to create clothes that are both well suited to modern life and support New York’s Garment District workers, whose livelihoods were threatened by the pandemic. The house’s new Forward Lines Hoodie is made of French terry cotton and printed with an abstract, colorful design that artist Caroline Harris made using 588 intersecting lines. In homage to the life of George Floyd and the 588 people who attended Woldegebriel’s biweekly Martha’s Vineyard salon discussions on systemic racism, the brand is donating 30 percent of hoodie sales to the N.A.A.C.P. and the National Urban League. ($287, awetnyc.com) —Ashley Baker

Watch

The Old Man


If you’re one of the people who believe Jeff Bridges is a national treasure, then you already know that this smart, moody thriller filled with twists is not to be missed. If you’re not yet one of those people, here’s your chance to see how Bridges builds and animates a role. In The Old Man, which streams on FX, Bridges plays a former C.I.A. operative. Thirty years earlier, during the depths of the Cold War, he gathered secrets as an agent on the ground in Afghanistan, during the Soviet occupation. Now his past has caught up with him, and someone in the government wants to settle some scores. Speaking of great actors, the other treat here is the operative assigned to bring him in: John Lithgow. (fxnetworks.com) —Michael Hainey

Issue No. 159
July 30, 2022
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Issue No. 159
July 30, 2022