Need a Recommendation, or a Piece of Advice?

Or a review of Nickel Boys? We're here on all counts, and the comments are OPEN.

Greetings from Los Angeles, where we are — as you have surely heard — in quite a mess. The destruction from the wildfires is absolutely beyond anything I’ve ever seen. Someone told the LA Times that the Pacific Palisades looked like an atomic bomb hit, and it’s not hyperbole; both that neighborhood and my beloved nearby Altadena have been largely flattened. Literally nothing is left on several streets. I know three people whose homes were miraculously spared, but they are the only ones left on the entire street. The rest are just… burned out shells. I also know several folks who’ve lost their homes and everything in them; my Instagram is a parade of GoFundMe links. It’s awful and it breaks my heart. The good news is that the community — and, indeed, the world — has shown up to help in a major way over the past few days. People want to pitch in, and they truly are. (You know that something has really gone left when World Central Kitchen has set up shop walking distance from your house…