Envy Apartment

Lit Life “She is my alter ego,” says Sue Grafton of her fictional heroine, Southern California private detective Kinsey Millhone . “I’m an introvert, so doing half of what Kinsey is beyond my poor capabilities. But it’s fun to get to live her life without penalty!” Grafton, on the phone from her home in Montecito, California, is the best-selling author of what’s known to countless mystery fans as “the alphabet series .” The project has become Grafton’s life’s work, beginning with “A Is for Alibi” in 1982 and continuing through this month’s publication of “Y Is for Yesterday” (Putnam, $29). The final book in the 26-volume series, “Z Is for Zero,” will be out in 2019. And while the rest of us have aged several decades, Kinsey’s gotten only a few years older. Early on, Grafton said, she realized that even if she wrote a book a year, “after 26 years [Kinsey’s] going to be way too old to be running around hitting bad guys with her pocketbook. I thought I’d better keep her credibly young, ...

Among the residential brokers who take a whack at commercial, there is a steep learning curve . The businesses, everyone will tell you, are extremely different. Success in one rarely translates to success in another, and very few manage the transition. But Sonia Stock, an associate broker at Douglas Elliman, is good at taking a whack at things—be it a tennis ball or a client from out of nowhere. Like this one time… In the summer of 2004, Stock (then focused solely on residential) had a dental appointment in Union, N.J. Coming from New York and being a runner, she figured she’d take the train from Penn Station to Rahway (the station closest to her appointment) and sprint the eight miles to her dentist. But when the train arrived late , she knew running wouldn ’t get her there in time. So the experienced world traveler hit the side of the road and stuck out her thumb and was picked up by a woman in a Mercedes. “We got along very well,” Stock said, recalling what would turn out to be one...

Bloober Team’s Observer is here and it’s pretty darn great . Set almost exclusively in an apartment building, the game has you explore the lives of multiple residents living within Kraków slums (AKA The Stacks). These people offer diverse stories , reactions and sometimes secrets, so I thought I’d make a handy guide to each of the occupants to help you find them all and know what you’re in for. This should be obvious, but there are light spoilers here. The guide is work in progress, so if you have any special observations and additions, let me know in the comments! Legend : Main Story | Side Mission | Person / Place | Secrets Ground Floor 002 – The guy here is very paranoid of his surroundings and dislikes you snooping around. 003 – A hollow projection / VR addict that really dislikes being in his own skin. 005 – Hostile guy that has no time for Lazarski. 006 – Tom and Irene, the way too chipper couple that probably wear matching sweater vests . 007 – Adam’s...