During the 17th and 18th centuries in England, people’s attitudes toward sexual behavior — and, of course, sexual misbehavior — changed dramatically. To a large degree, this revolution pivoted on the dynamic between private actions and public, civic and religious ideals. How much, or in what way, should society police the erotic life of individuals? Was adultery a crime? Were prostitutes the devil’s snare, or were they the pathetic victims of male callousness and exploitation? Should both sexes be held to the same moral standards? And exactly what standards should those be? Read full article > >

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Book World: ‘The Origins of Sex,’ an early awakening

The plan would move half the books in the stacks of the flagship Fifth Avenue library to New Jersey.

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Changes Planned at N.Y. Public Library Are Assailed

Stephanie V.W. Lucianovic is a Bay Area writer and editor. Her first book Suffering Succotash: A Picky Eater's Quest to Understand Why We Hate the Foods We Hate , a humorous non-fiction narrative and exposé on the lives of picky eaters, will be released by Perigee Books on July 3. My husband is a calculus professor and one who brings food items into the classroom with surprising regularity. No, he doesn't bring pies on Pi day – though he can recite the string up to a couple dozen digits – but he does bring Pringles. As a teaching aid. This afternoon when I walked into his study, I nearly tripped over a plastic Safeway bag filled with six red cans of Pringles. “Is it Pringles Day already?” I asked, nudging the bag. Pringles Day is the day Dr. Mathra lectures on the classification of critical points in multivariable calculus , and he uses the saddle-shaped Pringles to illustrate his points. After class, the students get to eat his illustrations. It's their favorite day. However, this Pringles Eve, Dr. Mathra is kicking himself because in addition to stocking up on Pringles, which were invented by Proctor & Gamble & heaven in the 1960s, he also got an oblong can of Lays Stax, the parvenu potato chip that's only been around since 2003. Personally, I've never been turned on by Lays Stax. Not only are they covered with the stink of being the unoriginal upstart that is so obviously trying to rip-off the adored-for-decades potato chip, but they're not thin and delicate enough, they're not oily enough, and they're not addictive enough. However, none of the above is Dr. Mathra's complaint with them. “It's ridiculous!” he fumed, “They set themselves up as a Pringles competitor, but it's an entirely different curvature!” The shape of the Lays Stax – known as a parabolic cylinder – is way less mathematically interesting than the hyperbolic paraboloid of a Pringles, which is also known as a saddle. In math, the Pringles saddle shape exemplifies how you can stand at the flat point of a surface and not be at the highest point of your surroundings or at the lowest point of your surroundings. Basically, you could call the saddle “the taint” of critical points. T'aint the highest point, t'aint the lowest. “Um, sure. If you wanted to be crass about it,” Dr. Mathra mumbles. The big three types of critical points in multivariable calculus are the bottom of a bowl (aka the local min), the top of a dome (the local max), or in the middle of a saddle (saddle point). “The Lays Stax shape isn't even as interesting as a bowl – it's a wishy-washy bowl. I mean, you can make the Lays shape with a piece of paper ,” Dr. Mathra explains. (In my twelve years of being married to him, I have frequently found that being able to make something with paper is met with derision.) See, you can't replicate the Pringles saddle shape with a piece of paper without cutting the paper and actually adding more paper to it and that makes it more mathematically desirable. Sensing he has my attention throughout all of this raving, Dr. Mathra continues, “They've got these Lays Stax right next to the Pringles as though they are equivalent. How can they do that? One is a positive semi-definite quadratic form and the other is an indefinite quadratic form – they're not even the same definiteness!” When I don't react, he insists, “Oh, come on – that will KILL in class tomorrow!” And why should you, the non-calculus student, care about the Pringles saddle form? The principal application of calculus is optimizing, or determining whether you are at a maximum. You use calculus whenever you want to optimize, well, anything. “If you are at a local max (the top of a dome), everywhere you go moves you down. If you're at a saddle, there's a way you can go that will take you up.” Knowing this is important when thinking about increasing filthy lucre, precious time, diminishing resources, or a supply of Pringles. And that, my friends, is why Pringles will always, always beat Lays Stax. Flavor is subjective. Math is irrefutable.

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Saddle up for maximum snack satisfaction (mathematically speaking)

“ Fifty Shades of Grey ,” the erotic novel by E L James, features cliche characters, highly implausible plot turns and dialogue that alternately induces cringes and giggles. ( Sample line : “ ‘Look at me,’ he breathes, and I stare into his smoldering gaze . . . cold, hard and sexy as hell, seven shades of sin in one enticing look.”) But many of my friends — and, judging by the bestseller lists, millions of women across the country — can’t put the book down. Even I will admit to ignoring my children to read what’s being called “mommy porn,” which details the titillating adventures of the young, innocent Anastasia Steele, who is initiated into the world of kinky pleasures by one Christian Grey, a sexy older billionaire who woos her into a dominant-submissive relationship. Read full article > >

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‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ is seen as improving women’s sexual health and wellness

Technical glitches and chaotic trading marred the stock debut of Facebook on Friday, disappointing investors and company officials who had planned for a festive first day on the market, people familiar with the matter said. Read full article > >

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Glitches mar Facebook stock debut

“Downton Abbey” addicts take heart! Season three of that luscious Edwardian bonbon may still be months away from delivery, but mystery dowager Anne Perry stands at the ready with her latest gaslit costume drama, “ Dorchester Terrace .” Read full article > >

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Book World: ‘Dorchester Terrace,’ by Anne Perry

In the late 1990s, the craze for initial public offerings was hailed as the dawn of a new age. The Internet was replacing manufacturing. Who needed a factory floor when you could point and click? Facebook’s Friday IPO, which opened with a staggering $104 billion valuation for the company, hasn’t transported us back to the bubble years of the 1990s. But, like that time, today’s Facebook frenzy is about what our society values. When Mark Zuckerberg rang the opening bell on Friday, his company’s $38 share price wasn’t rooted solely in the economics of the social networking giant. What the financial analysts are selling isn’t just the initial public offering of a company that Zuckerberg started in his dorm room at Harvard eight years ago. They are selling an image of the United States. Read full article > >

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The $104 billion question: What does Facebook’s value say about ours?

Facebook, the social network that began eight years ago in a Harvard dorm room, will debut Friday on the stock markets having raised $16 billion, making it the third largest initial public offering in U.S. history. Read full article > >

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Facebook’s market debut draws criticism from lawmakers

Let’s say you are a devoted fan of Kurt Vonnegut ’s books, love the sardonic comeuppance stories of John Collier and Roald Dahl , own all of Edward Gorey ’s little albums and enjoy watching reruns of “The Twilight Zone.” Where else can you find similar instances of sly, macabre wit, of such black-humored, gin-and-tonic fizziness in storytelling? Read full article > >

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A master of satirical science fiction

Wondering what Facebook’s upcoming initial public offering of stock means for you? The Post’s business editors turned to our investment columnist Barry Ritholtz for some plain talk on the stock sale: I’m a regular Joe investor, should I clear out my piggy bank to buy Facebook shares? Read full article > >

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Facebook’s IPO: What does it mean for you?

Carlos Fuentes, the politically engaged Mexican novelist and irrepressible bon vivant who stood at the forefront of Latin American letters for more than half a century, died May 15 at a hospital in Mexico City. He was 83. Read full article > >

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Carlos Fuentes, Mexican novelist, dies at 83

Chefs with Issues is a platform for chefs and farmers we love, fired up for causes about which they're passionate. Michael Anthony is the chef-partner at New York City's Gramercy Tavern . Last week, he received the James Beard Award for Best Chef NYC – but he almost didn't live to see that day. In late October of last year, I underwent open heart surgery. There was no warning, no history of disease, no serious abuse that led the inner lining of my ascending aorta to tear. Sometimes things just break. While attending a signing for the Eleven Madison Park Cookbook , I began experiencing chest pain. As I think anyone else my age (early 40s) would feel in that moment, I was in complete disbelief. I was both embarrassed that I might pass out and concerned that whatever I was experiencing might keep me from celebrating my colleagues’ big moment. After a quick exit, I returned to Gramercy Tavern. I knew something was seriously wrong. I was rushed to Beth Israel Hospital. Within a few hours of arriving, it was determined that I needed emergency open heart surgery. There was very little time to spend with my wife, no chance to see my children and no second option. Strange how a lifetime is ultimately translated into only minutes – clarified, distilled, precise and yet unfair. There was just enough time to gather what was wrong with my heart and who was sent to fix it: Dr. Charles Geller . In times like this we can feel thankful for competent, well-trained, extremely disciplined professionals like him. Yet what I was most struck with was his warm and confident smile. Maybe because I was introduced to him while lying on my back, it seemed clear by his build that Dr. Geller was no stranger to the pleasures of the table. He asked me about my profession and seemed to shudder with excitement when I told him about being a chef. He allowed me, despite the intensity of the moment, to believe that he was on my side. He explained calmly what we were about to experience together. In an instant, I became indebted to him forever. I woke up a day later with many questions swirling through my head. The immediacy of the surgery hadn’t allowed me to contemplate what this might mean for my career as a chef. There had been more pressing issues at hand. Now that I had made it through and was starting to wrap my head around what happened, I wondered if my body, the body that had just betrayed me, would recover enough to allow me to return to the kitchen. I also wondered why this had happened to me. Why now? I have always felt proud of my diet and the health-conscious cooking that we serve at the restaurant. I lead a balanced lifestyle, but wondered if this condition was at all related to my being a chef. While some of my larger questions have remained unanswered, I have since been told by a number of doctors that it does not seem likely that my diet or lifestyle had much of an effect on my condition. What I did learn from this experience was what I took away from the hospital staff, who left me feeling the same as Dr. Geller did, which was deeply cared for. The optimism and warmth I received from them was overwhelming and powerful. Of course, these folks were carefully trained to perform the technical aspects of their jobs, but what stood out to me was how they listened to me and responded with thoughtful and gracious gestures. They rose above the call of duty to be encouraging, which stiffened my resolve to bounce back. When I returned home from the hospital, I didn’t know where to start. Would I have a different outlook on life? On cooking? How would this experience change me? Eventually, I realized that at the core of this powerful exchange was hospitality – the very same force that distinguishes what we do every day at Gramercy Tavern. It is all of the caring things the staff did to make me feel they were genuinely on my side that I will remember long after the memory of the names of the drugs and the details of my surgery fade. After my surgery and homecoming, the gestures of encouragement poured in: get well cards, concerned emails, thoughtfully chosen books and poems, inspirational movies and carefully packed handmade food. I appreciated everyone who reached out during this time, but it dawned on me that the cooks had a special ability to connect and communicate by the food they shared . Some simply nourished and others dazzled but everyone told a story. With the help of these restaurant folk and their deliveries, I eased my way back in to being myself again by tasting each expression: barley and basil brought solidarity in tough times, kale and beet salad reconnected me with the garden, chicken fricassee invoked nostalgia, parsnip soup acted like a familiar handshake, poached lemon char sparked dreams, chocolate chip cookies felt just like a pat on the back. Each bite made me feel a profound sense of thanks to those who lent a hand or a meal when I needed it most. Through the careful choices and deliberate styles, informal gestures and intricate work, whether immediately consumed or painstakingly preserved, we communicate so much with those who are at the receiving end of a thoughtful meal. Their gestures pushed me to develop enough strength to return to the kitchen to reenter this dialogue, and this generosity of spirit made me feel unbelievably proud to belong to the restaurant industry. While we work day in and day out to provide for our guests, my experience reminded me why taking care of each other comes first. Previously – Serving up gratitude in troubled times What have food-based gestures of kindness in troubled times mean to you? We'd love to hear your story in the comments below.

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Chefs with Issues: Food for the heart

Defense contractors have slowed hiring. Tax advisers are warning firms not to count on favorite breaks. And hospitals are scouring their books for ways to cut costs. Across the U.S. economy, anxiety is rising about the potential for widespread disruptions after the November election, when a lame-duck Congress will have barely two months to resolve a grinding standoff over taxes and spending. Read full article > >

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Taxmageddon sparks rising anxiety

The father who came to our family-medicine clinic with his young daughter seemed concerned. The girl, he said, had become a voracious consumer of books. But not in a good way. “She eats them,” he explained, describing how she tore away the pages, one by one, and put them in her mouth, munching and chewing on them. Read full article > >

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Pica, the compulsion to eat dirt and other oddities, is found in many cultures

Some authors, like the novelist James Patterson, are producing 12 or more books a year to satisfy readers who are increasingly used to on-demand entertainment.

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In E-Reader Age of Writer’s Cramp, a Book a Year Is Slacking