James' World 2

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Steven Preister’s house in Washington, D.C. is a piece of American history, a gorgeous 110-year-old colonial with wooden columns and a front porch, perfect for relaxing in the summer. But Preister, who has owned it for almost four decades, is deeply concerned about the environment, so in 2014 he added something very modern: solar panels. First, he mounted panels on the back of the house, and they worked nicely. Then he decided to add more on the front, facing the street and applied to the city for a permit.

Permission denied. Washington’s Historic Preservation Review Board ruled that front-facing panels would ruin the house’s historic appearance: “I applaud your greenness,” Chris Landis, an architect, and board member, told Preister at a meeting in October 2019, “but I just have this vision of a row of houses with solar panels on the front of them and it just—it upsets me.” Some of Preister’s neighbors were equally dismayed and vowed to stop him. “There were two women on my front porch snapping pictures of my house and declaring, ‘You’ll never get solar panels on this house!’” Preister says.

Renewable energy is at a curious crossroads. It’s needed to avert further climate damage, and solar and wind power are now remarkably cheap. But even clean-energy proponents often dislike the aesthetics of the new technology. They’re happy for solar arrays and windmills to exist somewhere—just not within sight. Many homeowners’ associations refuse to let residents install panels.

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Illustration by Kotryna Zukauskaite

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(Emily Wright/The Washington Post)

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In college, after being subjected to plastic-tinned deli sushi and leftover club meeting pizza, I began craving home cooking. Specifically: simple, cozy jia chang cai, or homestyle Chinese dishes that many families, including mine, put on the weeknight dinner table. I pined after tomato-egg stir-fry the most, perhaps the simplest and coziest of all.

Ideally, the tomatoes are bursting with August ripeness and the eggs are beaten with Shaoxing or rice wine. The sweetness in the mixture, sharpened by a spoonful of sugar, almost turns it into a treat. Nearly every Chinese family has its own version; some make it sweeter, some lean more savory. Until I missed it, I didn’t realize how emblematic of home it was.

Tomato-egg stir-fry is a light, easy dish made with ingredients you likely have in your fridge. It’s quick to whip together for dinner after a long day of class, work, or travel, though I love eating it for breakfast and lunch too. Pairing it with white rice and cucumbers marinated in soy sauce makes it a complete vegetarian meal that hits just about every cravable texture and flavor—and it comes together in minutes.

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Photograph by Isa Zapata, Food Styling by Spencer Richards

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Who among us isn’t depressingly familiar with the constant tug of war between putting off tasks that require focus, and, like a moth to a flame, being drawn to distraction?

Sometimes we blame ourselves, cursing our tendency to procrastinate. But we should give ourselves a break. We’re living in an unprecedented age where billions of dollars have been made by machines designed to tempt us away from doing what we had planned to do.

These thoughts are hardly new. But something happened recently, which—ironically—has captured no small amount of attention and provided me with a glimmer of hope that the Internet that has rewired our minds could also be used to untangle them.

Last month, YouTube suddenly suspended Lofi Girl, a music live stream that had been broadcasting, uninterrupted, for some 20,843 hours—more than two years—gathering 660 million views in the process. The takedown was due to a false copyright claim and was later reversed. But such is Lofi Girl’s popularity that its fans were, briefly, bereft.

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Right now, this dish is my favorite way to eat chicken fresh off the grill because it turns all the delicious parts of the popular chicken Caesar salad into a sandwich you can pick up and bite into.

Boneless, skinless chicken thighs — or breasts, if you prefer — get a short, quick marinade in oil, mustard and garlic powder before grilling. You can cook the protein on a grill pan or in the oven, if you prefer.

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