If everything else were destroyed, buttons would not be a bad representation of the last few centuries of human history. They have recorded, in miniature, the French Revolution, the construction of the railroads, whaling voyages and countless modern fascinations: dogs, cartoons, telephones, martinis.
It’s all there.
That is the playful premise of Tender Buttons, an only-buttons shop in a tiny townhouse on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Buttons are small, and there may be millions in the shop as well as in the apartment above (which is not open to the public), where the owners, Millicent Safro and ,Diana Epstein, brought the spoils of their global button hunts beginning in the late 1960s.
“We traveled the world to find great rarities or little treasures,” said Ms. Safro, now in her 70s, who lives upstairs amid the buttons. (Ms. Epstein died in 1998.) “There is something amusing about the idea of going traveling in search of a button. But what we did, we tried to do well.”
The shop, at 143 East 62nd Street, deals mainly in modern buttons, ranging in price from $2.75 for a classic four-hole horn button to $30 for a crystal evening-wear piece. They sit in cardboard boxes tucked into one wall, color-coded and bearing evocative titles chosen by Ms. Safro, like “Engraved Waterlily in Metallic Color” and “Architectural Swirl c. 1950.”
In the cabinets are collectible buttons, too, some of which are valued in the thousands of dollars. There have been George Washington inaugural buttons and Civil War buttons, and humorous sets made after the Depression known as “goofies,” depicting things like pickles.
In the preface to Ms. Safro and Ms. Epstein’s 1991 book, “Buttons,” Tom Wolfe wrote, “Tender Buttons is not a shop but a button museum that happens to de-accession daily in order to keep going.”
The shop opened in an old button store, slightly farther uptown, in 1964. The owners hung their button at the current address in 1968. Since then, customers have included Gay Talese (seeking horn buttons for his suits), Julie Andrews (pearls), Joan Collins (rhinestones with glass), Lynne Cheney (green rhinestones) and Nora Ephron (she bought a set of card suits in red Bakelite).
On a recent rainy afternoon, a customer appeared at the counter and recited a phrase heard every day in the shop. “I lost a button,” said Jennifer K. Zimmons, who works in international finance. “Opal, antique, oval,” she said, presenting the more loyal buttons on her blouse.
Barbara Stoj, who has worked in the shop for more than two decades, went in search of a match. “I could close my eyes and know where the chair is, where to go,” she said. She produced two buttons. Ms. Zimmons said, “Go with your first instinct.”
At a table, Lori Canter, who lives in the neighborhood, debated between a “Perfect Classic Horn Toggle” and a “Unique and Exciting Jurassic Horn Tips” for a sweater. Two tourists from Tokyo bought buttons labeled “Voodoo Charms,” having been directed to the shop by a tour book.
Connie McSeain came in, shaking off rain. She needed buttons for a double-breasted jacket for her employer, Ted Hartley, the C.E.O. of the Hollywood studio RKO Pictures and an actor who appeared in films with Cary Grant and Robert Redford. A sonata was playing, and Ms. McSeain said she wished her parents had insisted she learn to play the piano as her sisters did.
“People say things in the button shop they wouldn’t say elsewhere,” Ms. Safro said later. And they love spending time there. “There’s something about it,” she added. “ I don’t know if it is orderly or happy. But people come before the dentist, after the dentist. Before the shrink, after the shrink. We once had to tell a husband who called, ‘Yes, your wife spent all Saturday afternoon in a button shop, listening to the opera.’ ”
Columbia Professor Files Sexual Harassment Suit Against University
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Enrichetta Ravina, an assistant professor of finance, has filed a gender discrimination lawsuit against Columbia University.CreditSam Hodgson for The New York Times
Enrichetta Ravina thought the professor was her mentor, helping her get access to an invaluable trove of data for her research into how workers allocate their retirement savings. It was scholarship, she believed, that could help her earn tenure at Columbia Business School.
But then, she said, the comments started. The professor told her about watching pornography and his sexual exploits, she said. He started making advances toward her, calling her “sexy.” And, she said, he had the ability to have that crucial data set taken away.
In a lawsuit against the university filed on Tuesday in Federal District Court, Ms. Ravina said she complained repeatedly to Columbia officials about the situation, but that they only dismissed and belittled her. The suit claims Ms. Ravina was subjected to gender discrimination and sexual harassment, and asks for more than $20 million in damages. She also wants more time to apply for tenure.
“I never really wanted to be in this position, but this was the only thing I could do,” Ms. Ravina, 40, an assistant professor of finance and economics at the business school since 2008, said in an interview on Tuesday. “I felt really betrayed. I thought the university should have solved this.”
Beginning in May 2014, Ms. Ravina brought her complaints to senior faculty members and administrators at the business school, the lawsuit says. One dean, the lawsuit says, called her circumstances a “soap opera.” Others told her to forget her complaints and to walk away from her research project. In November 2014, the lawsuit says, the office that ensures the university is in compliance with Title IX, which prohibits gender discrimination in educational institutions, found no violation.
University officials told Ms. Ravina in June that she would be put on paid academic leave for the 2015-16 academic year, a period during which no action was expected to be taken regarding her tenure, the lawsuit says. By September, it claims, the leave was revoked, and in December she was told her tenure process would begin and “run on an accelerated basis,” the lawsuit says. With less time to prepare, Ms. Ravina feels she has little chance of getting tenure.
The university declined to discuss Ms. Ravina’s case because of the pending litigation, but said in a statement on Wednesday that “the university treats allegations of harassment with the utmost seriousness.”
As part of her research, Ms. Ravina examines data sets to track the personal finance decisions of individual households.
In the 2009-10 academic year, the lawsuit says, Geert Bekaert, a professor of finance and economics at Columbia since 2000, told Ms. Ravina that he could help her get access to a large set of data because of a relationship he had with the company that owned it. In the contract with the data’s owner, Ms. Ravina said, the company had the right to revoke access, and Mr. Bekaert could influence it to do so.
Ms. Ravina spent more than two years preparing the data for her research. Once she reached the point where taking the data away would have derailed her project, the lawsuit says, the harassment by Mr. Bekaert began.
She claims that he retaliated against her when she rebuffed his advances by delaying and impeding her work. At one point, the lawsuit says, he told her that if “she were ‘nicer’ to him, he would allow her work to proceed faster.”
Ms. Ravina has filed a separate lawsuit against the professor.
On Wednesday, Mr. Bekaert denied the allegations, and argued that the claims had been investigated by the university and found to be baseless.
“I am sickened that a colleague — I was never Prof. Ravina’s supervisor or superior — would manufacture false stories, statements and events and attempt to destroy my reputation,” Mr. Bekaert said in an emailed statement.
“In reality,” he added, “this is a sad example of no good deed goes unpunished: We collaborated for years doing research with a unique data set I had obtained from a company I worked for, and in return she fabricated a series of completely false allegations about me, some today for the first time.”
Ms. Ravina said the ordeal has been damaging to her professional reputation but also to her well-being. The lawsuit says her “emotional distress is so severe that, for the past two years, she has seen a psychiatrist weekly to cope with her symptoms.” The psychiatrist said she had a “general anxiety disorder.”
“I think my story is awful, but my sense is that many women go through this,” Ms. Ravina said. “The school has failed me, and it might have failed other people as well.”
A woman who hid six lemons in her trousers in an effort to smuggle them into New Zealand has been sent packing back to Hong Kong, after falling foul of strict…
The amount of sugar in fruit juices, juice drinks and smoothies targeted at children is "unacceptably high", researchers and campaigners say.
They found an average of five teaspoons of sugar per 150ml serving in the 24 smoothies they surveyed - close to the daily limit for a young child.
In the journal BMJ Open, they argue such drinks should no longer count as one of the UK government's five-a-day.
But manufacturers say juices can make it easier to reach this target.
'Free sugar'
Current NHS guidelines state a 150ml serving of fruit juice or a 150ml glass of smoothie can count as one of the five fruit and vegetables people are encouraged to eat each day.
At the same time, parents are advised that children between four and six years of age should consume no more than 19g (about five teaspoons) of sugar a day, while children between seven and 10 years old should have a maximum of 24g (six teaspoons).
But researchers from the University of Liverpool, together with members of the campaign group Action on Sugar, say the way drinks are currently sold can make this very difficult to stick to.
They looked at a range of fruit juices, juice drinks and smoothies sold at seven UK supermarkets between July and August 2014, focusing on drinks they felt were targeted at children - for example, those on the children's section of a shop's website or cartons that would generally fit in children's lunchboxes.
Of the 203 fruit juices, fruit drinks and smoothies they found, they say the free sugar content ranged between zero and 16g per 100ml.
Among the 158 fruit drinks analysed, the average sugar content stood at 5.6g/100ml (just over one teaspoon).
Among the 21 fruit juices, they found an average of 10.7g/100ml (just over two teaspoons).
And in 24 smoothies there was an average of 13g/100ml (just over three teaspoons).
The term "free sugar" refers to sugar naturally occurring in honey, syrups and fruit juices, or added by a manufacturer, rather than that found in whole fruit, vegetables and milk.
NHS experts say these free sugars are broken down by the body in a different way and can be harmful to health.
Dr Louis Levy, at Public Health England, added: "We know that juice and smoothies are high in sugar, which is why PHE recommends limiting them to a combined total of 150ml glass per day, to be drunk with a meal to protect your teeth.
"However they also provide some fibre, vitamins and minerals so count towards one of your five a day.
"The other recommendations for individuals in this paper support current government advice."
Meanwhile, Gavin Partington, of the British Soft Drinks Association, said:"Only last week Public Health England confirmed that 150ml of fruit juice or fruit juice smoothies can contribute to the five-a-day target.
"Very few people reach their five-a-day target, and given the positive contribution it has to the diet, it is counterintuitive to suggest that 100% pure juice should not contribute to it."
The NHS Choices website on the other hand, has specific advice about juice drinks, warning people to "watch out for drinks that say juice drink on the pack, as they are unlikely to count towards five-a-day and can be high in sugar".
US President Barack Obama and his aides went to Havana with high hopes. Here's a look at what US officials were striving for - and how they did.
It was the first visit to Cuba by a US president in almost 90 years - and that alone made Mr Obama's three-day trip to the island historic.
In his speech to the Cuban people, the president talked about coming to bury the last remnants of the Cold War in the Americas and a new era of friendship between the countries.
But the White House also wanted some deals on more tangible goals from this visit.
Cuba Inc
Image copyrightAPImage captionSecretary Kerry with Rodrigo Malmierca Diaz, Cuba's minister of foreign trade, earlier in the year
Business executives from Airbnb, a company that offers short-term rentals the digital payment company, PayPal, and other companies travelled to Cuba for President Obama's visit. They spoke with Cubans about their plans for the future.
And over the weekend executives from Starwood Hotels signed a deal with Cuba, the first one in decades for a hotel company.
Dissidents were arrested over the weekend, and President Castro told Mr Obama that they didn't have political prisoners in Cuba. Those are bad signs for Mr Obama and human-rights advocates.
On the other hand Mr Obama got to meet with dissidents in Havana. And Mr Castro took questions from journalists at a press conference, a rare occurrence in a place where the media is controlled by the state.
Image copyrightReutersImage captionThere is a reward of up to $2m for the capture of Joanne Chesimard, known as Assata Shakur
White House officials have tried for years to convince their counterparts in Havana to stop providing a haven for individuals wanted by US authorities.
Former Black Liberation Army leader, Joanne Chesimard, also known as Assata Shakur, who was convicted of killing a New Jersey state trooper, and other fugitives currently live here.
Administration officials said they spoke with Cubans again, saying that they wanted the US fugitives to be sent back.
But the US officials said they didn't make much progress this week - and would continue to try.
Grade: C
Better health
Image copyrightReutersImage captionA Cuban military reservist fumigates inside a home as part of the preventive measures against the Zika virus
After the first case of the Zika virus was detected in Cuba this month, Obama administration officials stepped up their efforts to work with Cuban officials on combating the virus.
White House officials told me that they've made progress on this front, developing closer ties with Cuban health professionals.
Still Latin America experts in the US say there's still a lot of work to be done - and say that US officials will keep continue to try and develop partnerships on global health programmes with Cubans.
Grade: B
Dollars and cigars
Image copyrightEPA
Cuban government officials impose a 10% tax on US dollars exchanged for local currency, and US officials have been trying to convince them to remove the tax.
The Cubans are now on the verge of lifting the penalty - and may do this very soon.
The penalty doesn't affect what you can buy, though. US officials as well as lots of journalists who came to Havana with the president were able to buy Cuban cigars for themselves and their friends.
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