The world can look a little dark and ugly sometimes. I think what we're supposed to do when we lose perspective (I'll never find a job I don't despise! I have no real friends anymore!) is to say bright, inspiring things to ourselves like, "You're healthy! Be grateful!" Or, "Somebody somewhere loves you!" Or "You're not starving in drought-ridden country with no medical attention!"

This never works for me.

Which is why I was so happy to stumble onto this Sightseeing Heat Map of Popular Spots Around the World on Peta Pixel yesterday.The map is generated by a site called Sightsmap that takes "the geographic data from the photos uploaded to Panoramio...and uses it to generate a..map."The point here for most of us is to visualize where the most popular sightseeing places on the planet are, and where people are taking the most amount of photographs. (If you were traveling and wanted to really get away from the hustle and bustle of it all, for example, you should go to gray Northern Russia). For those of us who are having a lack-of-perspective day, though, the map can help out. Barring war journalists and experimental artists, why do people take photographs? Because they see something beautiful—be it the Eiffel Tower in Paris or a mud puddle in Victoria, Texas or their mom, smiling in front of rickshaw in Bombay, India. Each dribble of purple or red or orange or yellow is a concentration of strangers realizing hey, there's something out there I want to remember, there's some wonderful worth looking at a second time. I'm just saying...that many people can't be wrong.

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I am a huge fan of the late, great Hollywood set, costume, and interior designer Tony Duquette—his creations were bold, whimsical, and fabulous. Now Coach has teamed up with his longtime collaborator, Hutton Wilkinson, on a jewelry line that reflects Duquette's unique aesthetic, including pieces inspired by his signature "California Sunburst" design. Wear the statement necklace (left) to liven up a plain white shirt.

Tony Duquette for Coach earrings ($58), necklace ($498), and charm bracelet ($498); coach.com.           





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Someone I know once said to me, "I used to think I would be truly happy once I had published a book. When that didn't do it, I realized what would truly make me happy was... a house." She was only about 80% kidding. We looked around her cluttered apartment at the time and nodded at each other.

Clearly, there was some easy key to life satisfaction. If it hadn't turned out to be some career goal being met, most likely happiness would turn out to be related to having the right real estate. This woman has since acquired a house and she reports that eternal bliss has not been achieved. "Ach, the basement is flooding!" she said the last time I saw her. What about the theory that here lay happiness? She claimed not to remember the conversation.

I'm now aware enough to know that it's too flip to say happiness lies in accomplishments or housing or the most chic raincoat that would make every outfit look perfectly pulled together...but...there must be some key to feeling sanguine, right? Here is the question filmmaker Roko Belic set out to discover in his soon-to-be-released documentary, The Happy Movie. Belic writes for The Huffington Post about his experiences making the film, and some of the intriguing things he learned about happiness. One of the happiest people he came across in his filming was a poor rickshaw puller in an Indian slum. Said the rickshaw puller, "When I return home and see my son waiting for me, and when he calls out to me 'Baba!' I am full of joy."

Belic reveals that "one of the leading researchers of happiness in the world, Ed Diener, at the University of Illinois" told him "that a person's values are among the best predictors of their happiness. People who value money, power, fame and good looks are less likely to be happy than people who value compassion, cooperation and a willingness to make the world a better place...People who express their love—who rejoice in the health and happiness of others— are more likely to feel loved and happy themselves."

People who express their love. Not the people who have the most, or even who are themselves the most loved. I feel both that we know this...and that we need to remind ourselves of it every day. Love someone today. It's easy. It feels good. And it's free.

Visit The Happy Movie site for more on the upcoming Happy Day, and for information on how you can see the sure-to-be-uplifting documentary.

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Image courtesy of Sadie Stein, The Paris Review

My relationship with cooking is sorely in need of a little therapy. Lately I've been saying things like, "I hate food," and, "Why does everyone need to eat so often?" I have two small children, which means I usually have about 30 seconds between the first pangs of hunger visit their tiny stomachs and the descent into screaming chaos. They are exceedingly devoted to food in nugget form, which my maternal guilt induces me to buy in its organic, exorbitantly expensive varietal. More nights than I care to admit my husband and I order in, and then we each try to get the other one to answer the bell when the food comes. You know, "cook."

All of which would horrify a true home economist, a housewife (as stay-at-home moms were called back when we were allowed to ignore our kids all day) like Bettina, of the 1917 cookbook A Thousand Ways to Please a Husband.

This cookbook, which is not nearly as titillating as its sensationalist title suggests (unless you have some really creative uses for vinegar sauce and weak coffee) is the subject of Sadie Stein's great essay "Ways and Means" for The Paris Review.  A Thousand Ways to Please a Husband, as Stein writes, is filled with vignettes of the fictional Bettina and Bob's married life, complete with recipes perfect for the thrifty wartime bride with a hankering for pimentos. Bettina has great passion for "the word 'economical,' her energy-efficient fireless cooker (a slow cooker of sorts), and the budget notebook that is her preferred topic of dinner-table conversation." She lectures her husband on the price of steak, the joys of buying in bulk.

The book is a hoot as far as retro recipes go. All that white sauce! But, as Stein points out, "the emphasis on modern methods, labor-saving devices, and the science of housekeeping—not to mention that suffragette brunch!—is clearly intended to inspire the young bride not just with confidence but with a sense of the importance of her role." You must read her whole essay, in which Stein discusses her project of cooking every recipe in the book —the results are hilarious. But what strikes me most is how Stein writes, "like any young bride of 1917, I wanted to enter into Bettina’s perfectly ordered existence." She calls the book "a bastion of make-believe order in a scary world."

How appealing! Because this world, it is scary and complicated and messy, in ways that no one can protect her family from, no matter how hard she tries. And personally, I rarely savor a sense of the importance of my role as a "young bride." My resting state is more general befuddlement. So while Bettina's menus and mathematics give me palpitations, I do very much like the idea that I could take control over my home life and better manage household expenses, that the food I prepare for my family could impose a sense of calm, instill some order. Would Bettina allow a toddler to mash $3 worth of Dr. Prager's fishies into a cup of pink milk? I doubt it! If only I, like Bettina, could plan my menu a week at a time, intelligently using leftovers in an organized manner, cheerily reminding my family of how efficiently our little industry could operate. And you know, maybe with the right recipes and a better attitude, I can.

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You know a good bra can give you a much needed lift and even improve your posture, but slipping this microfiber tunic from Mission Control over it takes the miracle work one step further...at least when it comes to back flab. The wide straps won't dig and the back panel extends all the way up to your shoulder blades (smoothing any lumps or bumps below it). Bonus: Compression panels cinch you in at the waist and slim your tush and thighs so you can knock 'em dead in a curve-hugging dress.

$68, MissionControlUSA.com

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Waking up to a warm breakfast is near the top of the pleasant-ways-to-start-your-day list, right up there with shuffling groggily into the kitchen to a hot carafe of freshly brewed coffee. Thanks to the wonders of the drip machine's timer, we are never fumbling with filters at ungodly hours. And with a slow cooker, we're now in on the breakfast goodness, too. Here are two easy ways to introduce your kitchen workhorse to the first meal of the day.

Oatmeal. The trick to chewy but not mushy oats is in the cooking time. Resist the temptation to set the timer for 9 hours. The oats--even those sturdy steel-cut ones--will lose all texture if you cook them that long. Although some recipes call for just 4 to 6 hours of cooking time, you may prefer to have a bit more sleep than that. So 7 or 8 hours is a fine compromise. Just before going to bed, combine 1 cup of oats and 3 cups of water in a slow cooker. Set on low, cover and cook. In the morning, stir in milk, cream, spices or fruit to taste.