Ancient Grains Archive

Things I Regret Not Saying to the Hostess at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Bar

...when she said my male friend had to leave because "gentlemen are required to wear long pants after eight pm," and it was 97 degrees out and the bar was totally empty. Which she had every right to do, because it's a private establishment and she did not set the policy. 1. "This ...Read More

This Week in Reading: Rebecca Mead and Hilary Mantel

As mentioned in our inaugural post, books are everything to Mallory and I. We are lifelong fools for books, and we want to share that with you. One way we'll be doing that is our Emily Books Book Club, which you'll be hearing about shortly ...Read More

Diaries and Dictaphones

I always wanted to be Lois Lane. On Saturdays, I would watch Lois & Clark from beneath my mum’s potted plants and mock up copies of The Daily Planet on my stepdad’s typewriter. Sometimes, I pretended that the kitchen radio recorded the interviews that I conducted with the cat. The delusion stretched so ...Read More

Jaya Catches Up: “The Secret Garden”

Nostalgia has a funny way of giving you a complex. It seems to inspire obsession in a concentrated way, further ostracizing those who weren’t in on the joke the first time around. This has happened to me a lot. I don’t like singing along to Disney movies as much as my friends ...Read More

Better Wedding Announcements

The bride and groom met outside of a singles yoga class; they were both too embarrassed to go inside. The groom's father is the Head of Cardiology at Cedars Sinai; his mother is a professional clogger and performs with the senior dance troupe The Clogged Arteries. The groom is a semi-professional hockey player. ...Read More

Cocktail Hour

Have at it, ladies! ...Read More

On Seeing Paul McCartney Live in 2013

The journalist Rob Sheffield recently wrote: "The Beatles remain universally hailed as the greatest thing ever, but somehow, you still think they're underrated." He also said "your Beatles will change all through your life," which is so correct and brilliant that I think it could replace all organized religion. He has a ...Read More

Momma

My grandmother, known in some circles as “Momma,” called from her cell phone at nine o’clock one Saturday night in late October, 2011. An eerie snow was falling. I was basking in the lazy glow of a House Hunters International marathon and screw-top Pinot Grigio, surfing Craigslist sublets in exotic cities far ...Read More