Alex Lauer

If you stopped watching The Wheel of Time after season one ended, I can’t fault you. The big-budget fantasy epic, streaming on Amazon Prime Video alongside the even-bigger-budget Lord of the Rings prequel series, received two waves of criticism during its debut: when fans of the 14-book series binged the first three episodes that were released simultaneously in November 2021, seemingly every comment online was on the spectrum of disappointed to enraged (I was the former); and when the eight…

When Torsten Müller-Ötvös took up his post as CEO of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, he had great timing. It was 2010, and the luxury carmaker, which had seen growth stagnate partly as a result of the 2008 financial crisis, was on the upswing. At the end of his first year, worldwide sales had jumped from 1,002 cars the previous year to a whopping 2,711 vehicles. “We begin 2011 with a sustainable business model, a flexible workforce and great confidence in the future success of our company,” Müller-Ö…

Cast iron has seen a wild resurgence in the last decade, but along with that renewed interest has come the same backlash that made it obsolete in the first place (though now that backlash is in meme form). The problems that plagued the heritage skillets — they’re heavy, harder to maintain and often more expensive than stainless steel and nonstick pans — are still problems today. If the biggest problem you have with cast iron is the weight, you’ll want to check out Field Company. A relatively…

We first published this review of the Mirror in April 2022. Since that time, the home fitness device — whose parent company was bought by Lululemon in June 2020 — has seen a number of significant changes, including in name: it is now the Lululemon Studio Mirror. This is part of the athleisure brand’s introduction and focus on the Lululemon Studio program, a monthly paid membership that offers access to classes on the Mirror device or an app, as well as a number of other perks, including discount…

“You haven’t used the Mirror yet? Go take a foam roller class right now!” That was my own mother a few months ago when I went over to my parents’ house for Sunday dinner. Well, Sunday snacks, followed by board games, drinks and then dinner, as these things normally go. But instead of plying me with food first upon my arrival, she pointed me into the back hall and into the room with her new Mirror. That’s Mirror, capital “M,” the impossibly chic home fitness machine that’s housed in an actual…

This article was originally published in 2021, when Bennett, the last great American crooner, released Love for Sale, his final album, with Lady Gaga. When Tony Bennett stood in the wings of Radio City Music Hall on August 5 preparing for the final public performance of his lifetime, what was going through his head? According to the nonagenarian legend, who recently announced his retirement, there’s one thing he thinks of every time he takes the stage. It’s something Frank Sinatra wrote about…

We did a complete review of lululemon’s smart home gym the Mirror last year, when the price was $1,495 for the device alone, or up to over $2,000 if you add on other gear like yoga mats, a foam roller and weights that sync up with the machine. Right now, you can pick up the sleek, discrete and feature-packed Mirror for as low as $845. If this is the first time you’re hearing of the Mirror, you should know that it’s a subscription-based piece of equipment, with a required $39 per month member…

When I ask baking experts Chris Taylor and Paul Arguin the one Thanksgiving pie question they’ve definitely been asked dozens of times before, they throw me a curveball. Instead of choosing pecan, pumpkin or apple pie as their favorite turkey-day dessert, the authors of the critically acclaimed cookbook The New Pie get philosophical. “I think my favorite pie for Thanksgiving is a well-made pie,” says Taylor. As for Arguin, his husband, he says there’s no clear winning recipe he’s compelled t…

After a year and a half of living in the suburbs, I became king of the neighborhood last summer when I unboxed the latest and greatest backyard trophy: a Solo Stove. You know the one: the stainless steel fire pit so shiny you can see your reflection in the drum. I’m not the only one in my neighborhood who owns one of Solo Stove’s so-called “smokeless” fire pits. One of my neighbors has the medium-sized Bonfire Pit, which I can see glowing on his patio on autumn nights, and another kitty-corn…

Chris Brennan got his nickname “The Westside Strangler” because of his fondness for choking adversaries into submission. When he fought a newcomer named Joe Stevenson in 1999, in a mixed martial arts bout put on by King of the Cage, he used a triangle choke to force the 17-year-old to tap, an action that admits defeat. But Brennan held his right leg locked in place around Stevenson’s neck even after the fight was over. The referee jumped in to intervene, untangling Brennan’s stranglehold before…