MARILYN JACKSON

Delta Cycle (800.474.6615, http://www.ixibike.com) of Foxboro, Mass., puts a fresh spin on the trusty two-wheeler with its new iXi bike. The 56-by-24-by-39-inch, 25-pound four speed features handlebars and pedals that fold down and an aluminum frame that, at the turn of a bolt, separates into two pieces for portability and convenient storage. For cruising, the […]

As the tools of toiling writers, the pen and bottle have enjoyed a long, and oftentimes fruitful, relationship. Perhaps in acknowledgment of this collaborative effort, penmaker Montblanc (800.995.4810, http://www.montblanc.com) has composed a new collection of wine accessories. The Sommelier Corkscrew ($260) is the line’s centerpiece, a diminutive wine opener with an inlaid wood handle and […]

Quark Expeditions (800. 356.5699, http://www.quarkexpedi tions.com) is inviting 108 intrepid travelers to join its crew this winter in a quest to surpass Norwegian Roald Amundsen’s record for the most southerly position ever reached by a ship. The Great Antarctic Explorers, a voyage scheduled for January 20 through February 14, 2006, will set off from Lyttelton, […]

The father of American portraiture and the father of the United States of America are featured in two complementary exhibits this winter at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art (www.metmuseum.org). Gilbert Stuart, the most popular American portraitist of his day (1755–1828), painted everyone who was anyone—including George Washington more than 100 times. It is said […]

The Harborfront Inn at Greenport (631.477.0707, http://www.theharborfrontinn.com), which bills itself as the first luxury boutique hotel on the North Fork of Long Island, N.Y., provides an ideal weekend getaway any time of the year. Set right on Greenport Harbor, just 90 miles from Manhattan via car or the Long Island Rail Road, the inn affords […]

Offices, luxury sedans, yachts, and private jets may be filled with cutting-edge implements, but how many are equipped to save a person’s life following cardiac arrest? Pegasys (203.426.8186, http://www.cardiolifeline.com), a medical equipment company in Newtown, Conn., has introduced the Public Access Defibtech AED (automatic external defibrillator), a 4-pound personal defibrillator that just about anyone can operate. […]

Sunday in the Park with George, the 1985 Pulitzer Prize–winning Broadway musical by Stephen Sondheim, told the story of Parisian artist Georges-Pierre Seurat as he painted his most famous work, A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, which showcases the dots, dabs, lines, and dashes of color for which he is known. Now the Art Institute […]

The aristocracy of Art Deco, the streamlined design style that swept the world in the 1910s, 1920s, and 1930s, is represented in a show at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts (617.267.9300, http://www.mfa.org) from August 22, 2004, through January 9, 2005. Coco Chanel, Cartier, Lacloche, Norman Bel Geddes, Jacques Lipchitz, and others designed the jewelry, fashions, […]

When you are ready to invest in an heirloom chess set for you and your family, Elizabeth Gann is the specialty dealer to see. Chess-lover Gann offers antique chess sets from acknowledged master artisans as well as unusual, finely crafted modern sets destined to become heirlooms.   Among the latter are Piero Benzoni’s Renaissance set […]

If you bring your dog or cat for a grooming at Karen’s for People + Pets in Manhattan, don’t be surprised if he comes back to you sporting airs: While he was having his hair washed, clipped, and combed, he may have been hobnobbing with the pets of some very important people. In business now […]