White Lotus-Seed Mooncakes, the Best Pens, and Other Recent Strategist Finds

“It advertises itself as the gum you chew after smoking. Sometimes I’ll see it in California, but I prefer to buy it in New York. To me, it’s a token of a place. The flavor is indescribable — it has a weird, perfumy smell. The box used to have shiny silver lettering on it, and now it’s just gray. But otherwise, it hasn’t changed.”

“This guitar is an extension of your arm and your soul. It’s a game changer for someone like me who plays both rhythm guitar and solos. One thing people might not know about the Stratocaster is that it’s not a bass, but I’ve played bass riffs and guitar riffs at the same time on it.”

“My barber introduced me to this clay pomade, and I love how it feels. It’s not too greasy or shiny, and it gives just the right amount of lift and volume my hair needs. It lasts through the day, and I like the smell — it’s subtle, clean, and fresh. Perhaps bergamot? I don’t find it too masculine or feminine. I go through quite a lot of it.”

When I was a kid upstate, grating cheese with the turn of a wrist was reserved for one place: Olive Garden. It felt celebratory to watch the server make Parmesan rain down until someone dared to say “when.” It wasn’t until my 20s that I realized I could have this cheese-on-demand system at home. Unlike handheld rotary models, the Susteas grater base locks onto the countertop with suction and a lever. The food “pusher” keeps ingredients firm against the five interchangeable blades, which make quick work of potatoes, onions, carrots, and blocks of cheese. The only downside: There’s no lid to store and stack the blades with the grater, but that’s a minor quibble when my house is as joyous as an Olive Garden. —Alyse Whitney

White lotus-seed paste is a classic mooncake flavor, one that food photographer and blogger Peggy Chen calls a guaranteed win: “The white lotus-seed paste is smooth and nutty, and the salted egg yolk has a savoriness that balances out the sweetness.”

Cookbook author Kristina Cho prefers to bake her own mooncakes, but for long-distance friends and family, she sends these slightly sweet offerings from the Hong Kong–founded Kee Wah Bakery.

If traditional dense, square mooncakes are a bit too rich for your palate, Ilha Candles founder Michelle Hsu suggests trying Taiwanese-style mooncakes, which feature a flakier outer layer and are usually stuffed with mung-bean paste and braised minced meat. “It gives them a perfect sweet-and-savory balance,” she explains.

“I feel like it started with only me, but now it’s, like, half of the kids in my grade,” says eighth-grader Pippi of the analog Timex she has been wearing to her city public school since the “bell-to-bell” phone ban — that’s about 8:30 a.m. to 2:40 p.m. — took effect in September. Soon after the first day of the ban, she became the timekeeper for her friend group. But now nearly all of her peers have watches of their own. “The date and the day of the week are really important in class, but nobody seems to know what day it is, and neither do the teachers,” adds Zella, Pippi’s elder sister and a high-school sophomore. Zella wears a Shark watch by Freestyle, one of the most popular brands among teens. Even 17-year-old influencer Allegra Pinkowitz — who tells me that at her school a lot of kids hold on to their real phones every morning and turn in other smartphones instead — has noticed many of her friends buying Shark watches and is thinking about getting one herself.

When figuring out the best ways to host overnight guests without an air mattress, I was intrigued by the idea of a beanbag chair that converts into a bed. The filling of the Cordaroys beanbag is actually the bed — a giant duvet stuffed with shredded poly foam instead of down, which you fold up and zip into the cover. I was surprised by how comfortable my queen-size version (it’s also available in full and king sizes) was since it doesn’t have a flat surface like the other alternatives I tried. On the Cordaroys bed, it felt like I was sleeping on a big fluffy cushion; I was cozy and happy. When converted back into a beanbag, it becomes a very comfy place to lounge. While it does take up a lot of space, it’s a great option for a kid’s bedroom — beanbag chair by day, extra bed for a sleepover by night. —Amelia Jerden

The Anterique is hands down the best for writing if you want a very fine line with a seriously smooth flow and ink that doesn’t smudge even a little. This smudge-free smoothness is due to the combination of nonsticky, oil-based Mach Ball ink and Anterique’s ultraprecise pen tip.

The pigmented ink on this fine tip doesn’t smudge or run when wet, and the metal-reinforced plastic nib comes in a range of sizes, from the superfine 003 (0.15-mm.) to the thicker 12 (0.7-mm.).

This writes like a traditional fountain pen but has a plastic-encased felt tip that’s easy to control and helps the ink flow smoothly. The water-based ink is on the liquid-y side but dries instantly. It’s refillable with cartridges.

A ballpoint is utterly rudimentary, and the BIC Cristal is its platonic ideal. It writes incredibly well — it’s consistent, smudgeless, and vibrant with a moderate but not too thick line that practically begs to be used in a composition notebook.