Writing Portfolio.

Brigitte Knightley’s debut novel, “The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy,” has everything fans of enemies-to-lovers romance are looking for: disagreement that becomes flirtatious banter, ethical quandaries, forced proximity, and characters who can overcome their prejudices to see a human beneath a label.

A Diego Rivera mural titled “The Allegory of California” hides in a private staircase inside the City Club of San Francisco. It depicts a woman often referred to as the Spirit of California and the bounty she offers up: a cornucopia of working men and their promise of progress.

When FDR fought to establish the minimum wage in the 1930s, he intended it to be a living wage. In his 1933 speech on the National Industrial Recovery Act, he said, “No business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country… and by living wages, I mean more than a bare subsistence level—I mean the wages of decent living.”

European aristocrats used to spend several years abroad as part of their education. Can the practice be democratised and updated for a globalised world?

The rhythmic crunch of dry grass as I walked, the California sun on my shoulders, dogs barking further up the trail – these are the sensations that made me fall in love with hiking during the pandemic. I started with sojourns around the block just to get away from my studio apartment in downtown Los Angeles during lockdown, but soon traded in those little concrete-encased strolls for steeper five-mile hikes with ocean views in the city’s famed hills.

It would be too simple to say that religious people drink coffee because it’s not alcohol. When coffee was first commodified, all three Abrahamic religions had to contend with how this new beverage fit into each faith’s ideal way of life. Each religion had their opponents and proponents but most eventually accepted the beverage.