WSJ Off Duty

0:00Low Vision or have another print disability which makes reading holding a book or turning your page difficult or impossible. The content is copyrighted by the respective publishers. For more information please visit us on the web at nfradioreading.org. This is Patricia Mary and for the next hour I will be reading from the Saturday, Sunday, September 5th and 6th issue of off-duty from the Wall Street Journal on the Niagara Frontier Radio Reading Service. From the front page of off-duty, preppy style is booming. What does it look like now? Charging the new variations of a bountiful and bankable American style. And this is by Sarah Spallings. At least editor business, Pink Palm Puff with a hoodie in 2023. Known for sweatsuits featuring seashells, palm trees and embroidered phrases like

1:01everything comes in ways. Pink Palm Puff, thanks to teenage fans, has since become representative of another P word, preppy. Who those who associate the term with navy blazers and t-nose that may come as a surprise. But as teens what close constitute preppiness today and Pink Palm Puff might come in the same breath as Raffler Anne, Lily Pulitzer and other labels that have long defined the look. What started as a uniform of students on the campuses of elite schools has grown into a colorful, ever-expanding American style. One that over decades have been remixed in cities and beach towns or runways and online. Preppy style has also become hot again. Raffler Anne sales have climbed, especially in Asia, outperforming some European luxury

2:06giants. Tommy Hill fingers year over year revenue rose in the first quarter of 2026. An LLB is undergoing a significant U.S. retail expansion, getting seven locations, last year and five so far in 2026. Three more are planned before the year's end. Even as the preppy look has evolved, its underlying meaning hasn't changed, as Lisa editor of the official preppy handbook published in 1980. The satirical book with lines like, it is the enalibal right of every man, woman and child to wear khaki is still a Bible for preppy style. Lisa's 2010 sequel, True Prep, co-written with Kid Marveled and Preppy's Mass Appeal. The whole point about preppy is to feel at ease Lisa 68s at an interview when her handbook

3:12was released, it was achieved by wearing worn-in Oxford shirts, corduroy pants and spary top ciders. Now it might mean wearing an Aloe, ALO, sweatsuit, printed pajamas and one of eight different versions of new news boat boots. The different generations understand it differently, Lisa said of the preppy style. What you're seeing with generation alpha, she added, is not really preppy in the way that I've defined it in the past, but it's not entirely not preppy either. Ivy Heritage, worn-in, buttoned up and classic. Before preppy became a term encompassing a broad satirical universe, it started out as a word describing the wardrobes of students at college, preparatory schools and Ivy League universities. The release of Love Story, the 1970 movie set at Harvard, pushed preppy fully into popular

4:19culture. Oli McGraw, who plays a working class student, diversely uses preppy to describe her wealthy love interest play by Ryan O'Neill, who dresses in sport coats and thick cable knit sweaters. Lisa, the official preppy handbook for the codify the style. It's ten fashion conk, I'm sorry, commandments promote values including conservatism, neatness, bright colors, sportiness and preppy, her hand also also dramatized the styles. Looking, acting and ultimately being preppy is not restricted to an elite minority, lucky, enough to attend prestigious private schools. It's a line in a prologue. Jason Duell's the author of the 2021 book, Black Ivy, a revolt in style said that Black Prep has existed almost as long as any other kind, citing my old Davis and W.E.B. Du Bois

5:27as examples of style. There's that idea that Black people kind of flick through GQ Magazine or something and discovered this look, Duell's 62nd set. It's always been part and parcel of the American, I'm sorry, the African American world, off campus casual, sporty, coastal and bright colors. As the teen growing up in Chicago in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Reginald Jolly embraced a preppy style inspired by Ralph Florent. He later co-founded Dem Dare, a group of party promoters who adopted a preppy, sporty, aesthetic. Many of its members known as Ariens, blended labels like polo, Ralph Lauren, LaCoste, New Balance, Unite Colors of Benton and Fila, says Jolly, an artist in his 50s who goes by Regino. It has an aspirational thing to it, he said of the aesthetics favored by Daryans.

6:33That is like opposite of the environment that I'm in, being on the west side of Chicago. The environment wasn't a preppy thing. The early 2000s styles of Kanye West, the artist who now goes by yay, Y-E, reflected Dary in style. When Nay, who also grew up in Chicago, released his album The College Dropout in 2004, he was known for wearing bright sweaters and vibrant polo shirts with hot colors. Its version pointed out preppies have always loved color, often trading their navies and neutrals for cheerier shades when they decamp to venecation destinations like Dorcas, Sea Island and Massachusetts, Martha, Nierd, and Nantuck. I'll mention it in the official preppy handbook, which has a chapter style, I'm sorry, title. Summer is a verb.

7:35Another destination in Lisa's handbook, Palm Beach, Florida, was where Lily Pulitzer, a grandam of preppy style, started her name's sake line of brightly printed dresses in 1959. She is said to have conceived of them while working at a juice stand with the aim of creating colors that would disguise stains. New Ivy, a street runway luxury invented to mash up. Starting in the mid-twenty pens, a scented streetwear labels like Supreme and Vitamol stole the spotlight and market share from those paddling preppies. Doug B. Ralph Lauren, a diffusion line introduced in 2004, shattered in 2013. York Street, a J. Press diffusion line, had an even shorter lifespan. It was an operation from 2012 to 2015.

8:39Jack Carlson, 39, J. Press, President and Creative Director, came to the heritage brand after starting rowing blazers in 2017. It, along with brands like NOAA and Me Leon Doar, turned preppy clothes into looser streetwear, giving preppiness, new energy after it had a falling out of fashion. Luxury European labels have furthered that momentum. They include the salion, whose creative director Michael Reiner, a Ralph Lauren alum, has designed rugby sweaters, peacocks and his own take on boat shoes. Eater Crow, 51-year-old New York, are known as preppy peat to his over 26,000 followers on Instagram, has become a face of the new school Ivy look without fits like blazers

9:39worn with loafers and married tie shorts. Recently co was featured in an issue of the Indie magazine Dozer, which inspired to make an updated version of the official preppy handbook. Justinian Mason, the 29-year-old founder of Dozer, said the intention behind that issue of his magazine was to show that prepp is more accessible today. The new school of campus online, preppy turned peppy. Around 2021 to 2024, preppy came a TikTok trend, resulting in many of its modern affiliations. Pink, palm, puff, hoodies, golden goose sneakers, stony clover, makeup bags with varsity style patches, and roller webbed monkey printed pajamas. One of the more inexplicable items associated with preppy style on TikTok was a pink nirvana

10:44sweatshirt that with the brand smiley face logos sold at urban outfitters. All of the stuff was press B because it was colorful and upbeat, says Anna Faye Rubens time, an 18-year-old content creator and student in Washington, DC, who started posting videos about the TikTok of prep in 2023. Some people say that this new preppy was meant to be peppy, but some spelled it wrong, Rubens Dineset. Addison Willis, a 19-year-old student in Dartmouth, became smitten with the preppy style. She started seeing on TikTok as a high schooler outside of Dallas. When she moved to New Hampshire for college, she saw the traditional side of prep marked on neutral tones and cable knits. Willis still loves her roller-revit pajamas, but is now incorporating more of the new

11:47English chic girl aesthetic into her wardrobe. Pink Palm Puff has also embraced more moody tones, a recent collection including sweatshirt and shorts in navy and gray. Rubens Dines TikTok videos include clips where she talks about the evolution of prep. Playing characters from the 80s, 90s and 2000s and mercenaries herself in preppy history has taught her that it isn't a set style, she says. It seems that it's a constantly evolving style that kind of just has been keeping the same name. From the fashion page, these under the radar brands will keep your style set up ahead. Wearing an indie label can show you're in the show, the no. These 12 should be in your wardrobe. And this is by Pasha Green Spice. And high-end luxury conglomerates and fashion retailers are at the end of the spectrum.

12:53Independent brands without corporate overloads are on the other or on another plane entirely. They fuel epitopes for new and novel with clothes that are creative, not commercial. A reason that many indie designers are eventually poached to bring their visions to bigger companies. I speak from experience. In 2008, I had my own Indies Women's Label Hester before pivoting to writing, editing and styling. In a world of a logarithm driven style, discovering an indie brand can be exhilarating. The special moment when you feel like you found something new and maybe all your own. Wearing an indie brand can also show you're in the no. The dozen here, a mix of independent women and men's wear brands are some of today's most exciting. The ones to watch and shop to keep your style ones at the head.

13:57The first one is Bonnie, D-O-N-N-I. The brand bio, the founder is Alyssa Stein. And she worked at Chenow before starting her Los Angeles Women's Label. It is known for manufacturing close to home and using high and natural fibers to create sporty basics with a luxurious twist. Big teffa, dim shorts and silk trap pants. Notable items is a breezy, polon, linen pants. Basically, they're a time to demos. They're a very popular product. But don't sleep on Bonnie's loose cotton blouses. And the Donny, the pop pinstripe T-top sells for $244. And it has very wide sleeves, which look like go three quarters on the way down. And it has a peasant look blouse type.

15:00Here's another brand which is 63.97. The brand bio is the New York Women's Label Reflects, Founder Stella E.C.'s background running a showroom that has worked with other fuzzy independent brands, including the row and 3.1 Philip Leam. 63.97 had a design who is Lizzy Owens brings a strong menswear influence to its collection, which catered to the pace of the perennial fashion insider with relaxed prices that have some bite. The notable items is a reliably a source of good genes. The brand's other standout includes an unfutsy silk dress with a vintage feel. Here's a long dress down to the vehicles. And it is sleepless and it's called the S-curve dress and it is red and in cinnamon, it

16:03is a little pricey at $795. Another brand is Kahoo C-A-H-U. The brand's bio is the Parisian accessory company is all about durability without sacrificing design. A philosophy exemplified by the use of PBC, which is also found in bouncy castles. I'm sorry, castles. Kahoo's and mole, founder, Lemon Kahoo, a protester upscale design with the rubbery material as if she was using calf skin leather. The notable items is Kahoo's silk sleek tote bags, available in a range of sizes, a strike of balance between unitarian and high fashion and pervious to water and wear. They can take a toddler level thrashing and they're big, out medium bag, which is brown

17:06on one side and orange on the other and looks like it has very nice 30 straps. It sells for $477. Michelle Del Rio, brand bio. Michelle, designer Michelle Del Rio's namesake women's label, another base in Paris draws on her Latin American background. Del Rio's grandmother's favorite Boleros, Flamingo dance and charms. The talent tokens featuring religious or iconic are among the inspiration for her design. Notable pieces are the pieces like the brand's Ruby Deckett, a lightweight coat rendered in a crisp cotton that's part members only decked. Our billowy dress shirt, a homage to the cruising culture of Del Rio's native California and her L.R.O. Ruby jacket, which again is very blousy and it has a zipper up the front.

18:11It sells for $430. Arma, ARMA, the brand's bio is a new generation is at the helm of the family run business, founded in 1985, breathing fresh life into its leather and suede goods for women and men. Arma, with TAS production facilities in Turkey, manufactures for other luxury brands, making it appealing to those who seek quality but who don't want to pay a premium for us at a slave. The notable items is Arma's neck for timeless silhouettes with a modern head is reflected in pieces like its ME, EMY Deckett, a sharply tailored, slightly cropped, chore-co-made of supple lambs leather and sophisticated earth tones and it has large pockets and three buttons. And the Army, AMY, leather, classic jacket sells for $750.

19:16Easton's Marley, the brand, the bio brand is founder's Kendall Marsh and Kylie Mason. Both also stylists are keenly aware of how overwhelming it can be to have too many options. They're intentionally limiting the offering of their Los Angeles women's brand to a handful of hyper-curated clothes and accessories, dresses and sunglasses, inspired by the retro style of their grandmothers. The notable items, the brands Odette Dress, a drop waisted captain, channels both Bohemian Sheik and Old Hollywood Glamour. Its aviator and other sunglasses have a similar modern nostalgic spirit and their dress Easton's Marley Odette Dress sells for $275. Lens Venom, the bio is after 30 years designing, cutting and sewing jeans for others.

20:18Venom Leibord started his name, Seck, New York men's Venom label in 2019 at 62 years old. His products nod to Venom as the uniform of American subcultures from punk to hip hop as well as to the 1970s and 80s street style of his shoe. His notable items is Leibord makes jeans and various fits relaxed, slouchy, straight using different types of Venom. His most premium styles feature salvage Venom worn in America exclusively for his label and his GD-113 relaxed wide leg jeans. Their little pricey at $310. They look like regular jeans. They have a little bit wider legs, they are not slim style. A day's march. It's a Swedish label made inroads in the wardrokes of American men and women when it opened its

21:22first US store in 2024. That location has since closed but that hasn't spoiled appetite for the company's streamlined basics which are manufactured in Portugal and still sold online. The notable items are Rumi, Enem and Clean Knit showcase the brand Scandinavian sensibility as do button up shirts in a pleasing sear sucker fabric that makes a subtle statement with checks, not strikes. The March Land and Tetshirt sells for $160. It's a men's dress shirt but it has checks and status types. Carter Young, if you're a man who dresses to a track, let Carter Young show you the way. Drawing inspiration from old books and movies, the label's cultivated cool is undeniable. Look no further than the musician George Anio who wore a double-breasted tan suit from

22:27the brand at his wedding to the singer Charlie XC X Last Summer. Notable items, excuse me, the louch-legged elegance of Carter Young's formal attire also permeates his casual calls like cotton waffle knit sweaters, wide-leg chinos, both gateway pieces to the nonchalant style. And the V-neck sweater is $129 and you can get it at Firefetched All One Word. Banna B-A-N-A. Jim and LMA, sorry, Larson, the husband and wife behind Banna, are connoisseurs of vintage American menswear, the couple's obsessive research and forms, their designs which are known for thoughtful details. For example, utility shorts with a key chain loop and extra pockets for tools.

23:29The notable item is a bike on swagger permeates the brand's tightly edited collection of blazers, buttoned down shirts, flaired trousers and outerwear like a canvas leezor jacket with an exaggerated collar and curved patch pockets. And the Banna New York David Leezor jacket sells for $595. Jim Canore found her even Canore design his men's clothes and accessories in San Francisco with a slow fashion philosophy that centers around small batch production and rigorous fabric selection. Many materials are sourced abroad from small mills in Belgium, Ireland, Italy and Japan, and feature natural, neutral colors. These notables are the relapse fit trousers with an internal elastic waistband and a wide

24:32slightly cropped leg. Reflect the knees that Canore also brings to a shirt, shorts and jacket. The Evan Canore plastic pants sell for $825. Corp. A list daily collaboration with brands like Carr Hart of UIP and GHBS have widened the spotlight on the Jamaican Scottish men's wear designer Nicholas Ailey, whose reputation has also been burnished by awards from the British Fashion Council and other organizations. His clothes and accessories often feature punchy patterns and bold palettes bridging the gap between wearable and winsome. The notable item, the pieces like a vibrant hand crocheted bucket hat, fair island cardigan and daily's popular rag-eight club graphic teacher, showcased the personality he brings

25:33to his brand. And his bucket hat sells for $385 and is called the Nicholas daily hand crocheted bucket hat. You are listening to the reigning of articles and features from off-duty from the Wall Street Journal and the Niagara Frontier Radio Reading Service. From the off-duty travel page, as a summer winds down in Maine, oyster season hits its peak. Then, Amlisata River is home to some of Maine's oldest oyster farms and enough distinct types to fill a whole weekend of tasting. And this is by Jen Rose Smith. Brackish waters dripped down Anna's arm as she showed me a palm-sized oyster. She had just pulled from a cave at the Glidden Point Oyster Farm on Maine's Dham Akata River. As close as it's source as it gets, said Anna, who was leading a 26-hour long tour of

26:39the site. Away from the dock, I sat down with the tram oysters and a stabby, plastic-handed knife. The bounty came not just from Glidden's 40-acre oyster operation where the shellfish grow in cages on the Dham Akata's surface and bottom, but from neighbors up and down the river. Aquaculture farms can be found all along Maine's coastline with an official Maine oyster trail linking many of the stops along the way. But the greatest concentration of farms is along the 19-mile Pidal Darmusata, the, I'm sorry, Darmuscata, the site of oyster feast for thousands of years. Your travellers on a tight timeline a quick trip around, but Darmuscata is a chance to sample the best of the state where oysters reach peak flavor just as summer crowds disperse.

27:41In just two days on the road, I tried to cover as much ground as possible. At Glidden, the first stop on my trip, the oysters had the unami tang of tic and soup. A dribble of barely tamed their muscular salinity. The night before I had wet my appetite at the parlor, a four-seat oyster bar in nearby bath. Bear-certified oyster salmahe, Virginia's effort, explained at what makes Darmuscata's oyster so good, cold, clean water, a silky river bottom, and a salt pond that feeds the river, functioning like an all-you-can-e buffet for growing bivalves. There's something really special in the water, says Shafer. Her company, Lady Oyster, takes travellers on tours of oyster farms. Graduation in minerals, current, and temperature along the Darmuscata means eat farms, oysters

28:44taste a little different. It's just like unfiltered taste of the place, she says. Linden is one of the oldest farms I'm Darmuscata, along a handful that were started in the 1970s and 80s. At heads after the wild oyster had grown in the area, had been choked out by industry. Another farm established late last century was the Picoud Oyster Company, whose co-founder Smoky McKeen met me for mid-day beers at the Riverside Seafood Restaurant, Schooner Landing, after my visit to Gwitten. When McKeen's company started farming oysters in 1986, Mochef's thought the shellfish came in a can, he said. McKeen recalled how he and other farmers at the time would pitch restaurants on serving fresh oysters while simultaneously developing a scrappy style of aquaculture to propagate

29:47them in the Darmuscata. We were literally broadcasting seed oysters over the side of our boats, McKeen said, referring to the way they would distribute juvenile oysters across the river bottom. It worked. Later that day, Chip Holmes, co-owner of the Darmuscata's River Cruises told me that it doesn't got Darmuscata farms now produce 80% of main oysters. We were abroad and open sighted boat at Holmes was staring past some of the river's farms. During his $45 two-hour tour, it impacts from a dock at the Schooner Landing, Holmes offered a steady pattern of oyster-related wisecracks as his partner, Olga Oris, shucks and hands out shellfish. The oysters from Harren Island and one man operation in Fitch Cove about three miles downstream

30:47from Schooner Landing, a piece of brass, fad, butter. I'm sorry, the varieties from the Peppa Caw oyster company started with a salty brine that tee up an oceanic kick of kelp. As the oysters kept coming, I kept eating them. This level of gluttony is nothing new on the Darmuscata. The area is littered with massive piles of shells called middens. Left by indigenous groups who ate the river's wild oysters for more than a thousand years. The next morning, I followed a loopend-lined walking trail to one of the biggest piles. Shell-backed shell-midden, which was once estimated at 45 million cubic feet, enough shells to bury a Manhattan block, 20 stories high. Recently, the area's wild oysters started reappearing. A university of Maine's study published last year noted their research in mid-coast

31:51Maine. Climate change likely plays a role since they prefer warmer waters. But the farmed oysters introduced in the 1970s and 80s may have helped upcleaning the river. Genetic evidence suggests the wild oysters are their offspring spawned that slipped the cages and grew free. Their numbers pale and compare in comparison to that of farmed-raised oysters on the Darmuscata, which remained the main draw. For my final shell fish meal, I joined the evening crowd at the Shucks Station, a seasonal restaurant in a former gas station owned by Brandon Persons. He is also the owner of the Blackstone Point Oyster, a farm near Well-backed shell-midden. This was a sacred place where so many Native Americans came together to share food, parts and set up the area. At the Shucks Station, I joined the evening crowd dining at its outdoor picnic tables.

32:55The house oyster blackstone points at a sea weed with and creamy aftertaste. Have fear, pleasant cold oysters were the briniest of the 11 types I had on my trip. At the next picnic table over a little girl, tipped an oyster back and dropped it on the ground. One more shell for the modern midden. What to know before you go. You can slurp your way along the Darmuscata at any time of the year, but timing still matters. Here's what to know. Go now. September kicks off what many considered to be the tastiest season, says Gliddens Point, Anna. The oysters have a robust flavor, she says, because I have our storing fat and sugar for the winter, resulting in crowd pleasing meat to shell ratios. While Gliddens harvest oysters, even when ice forms amamacada, its tours run only through

33:59mid-Akobar. Order in, some Darmacada operations, including norbega, spiced or incorporated and Gliddens Point, offer overnight shipping year round. Brendan Parsons of the Shuck Station says cold months have better oysters. Winter ones are salty, minimal crisp and firm. Shuck invention. Old wisdom claims that you should eat only oysters in months with names that contain the letter R. But from May to August, peak travel seasons on the coast, waterside oyster bars crank out shut I have that are soft, buttery and still delicious. There's never a wrong time to sit at the beach and eat oysters, Parsons says. From the rumble seed page, Ann Niel aims a heavyweight and venture bike. Do parties have a multi-stratup V for railing can be a handful in parking lots, but it transforms

35:03into an Edgel corner caving. I'm sorry, corner carving machine at high speed. Again, I Dan Niel. Knock off effects, atrope casualty chaos. The Ducati multi-stratup V for railing lay in the gravel beside 17 mile drive on California's Monterey Peninsula, where I had dropped it moments before. I pulled over on the road in Pebble Beach to check an address when my foot slid out from under me and the bike fell heavily under my graceless straddle. Maybe if I had been able to fit my riding boots into my carry on luggage or if the cycle shop in Monterey had my size, I would have been wearing boots with thick, long soles and thick heels and not Allen Edmund's wing tips. Then maybe my foot would not have lost purchase in the ground and the railing, now lying

36:05like a Poldex giraffe, would have remained upright. Such is the arrow of time. The way to pick up a heavy bike is to turn your back to it, grip it underhanded by the frame and handlebar and press the bike to vertical with the strength of your legs. I grabbed the bike's bustle and he'd all thing with the effort. My wing tips slid out from under me, the bike didn't move. I might as well have tried uprooting a fire hydrant. It was then I remembered why it's called railing. This version of Dupati Sublime Montestratup family is set up for long distance touring equipped with an oversized 30-liter 7.9 gallon gas tank that, when full, adds about 50 pounds to the dry weight of 529 pounds. All up top. Also this specimen borrowed from the Dupati's North American press fleet was a rolling

37:10showroom of touring, overlanding accessories, notably the two aluminum cargo boxes mounted with a panor style. Our example was not just heavy, but hot heavy. I was about to try again this time barefoot when a large man appeared beside me. He had been driving by and stopped to help like a big hairy angel. No problem he said is he raised the bike back to vertical. I have one of these at home. I've been there. The category players in European luxury adventure motorcycles. The multi-stratut is typically shopped against the equally intrepid BMW R300. I'm sorry 1300 GS and KTM1390 super adventure designed for two up and deroged style riding and bucket list touring. These bikes have big wheels, huge engines, complex suspensions and redical ground clearance.

38:16All of which make them heroic of in-scene. The multi-stratut is typical with a seat height adjustable from 34.3 to 35 inches. To make the multi-stratut more manageable at low speed translation, to make it possible for short rider to touch the ground, it's equipped with an automatic lowering device. Drop seat height by about 1 inch at speeds below 6 mph for ease of mounting and dismounting. Once the bike accelerates to 30 mph or 12 mph in off-road mode, the hydraulics return to its full set. As a multi-stratut gets rolling, the clumsiness gives way to a deeply balanced, pin-sharp precision and effortless lock to lock agility. For the 2026 model year, Ducati's chassis is often raised the aluminum, swing-round pivot,

39:21one millimeter, improving the rear suspension and high-squat geometry, even when the bike is heavily loaded. All I know is that when Pevel Beach's Prefect Controls F force me to execute, I'm sorry, because, I konstant our of the Congrafters. bike from scratch, you might not go with a 1,158cc, 90 degree V engine that generates peak power at 170 miles per hour and a stratospheric 10,750 RPM in what Ducati calls the Grand

40:24Terizmall version of the V4 engine peak torque only comes in a furious 9,000 miles, I'm sorry RPM's great if you're racing motocross but not if you're working your way up a steep trail boulder, I blow boulder. Some tech porn, the multi-strategy showcases the latest and rarest of the company's active, semi-active suspension with automatic self-leveling called the Ducati Skyhook Suspension EVO. The EVO updates allow the rider to change suspension settings on the move regardless of riding mode. First however, they must master the left grip position where the turn signal doubles as a selector for the menus appearing on a 6.5-inch TFT screen. My thumb got a cramp. The electronic combination braking system links the front and

41:29rear anti-lock braking system so the using either the front or rear brakes engage both according to the rider's mode, all the rhythms and the bikes loaded weight. The multi-strategy like why bristles with rider assist technology. The test bike fitted in the full adventure trim and painted a gorgeous soft metallic teal which adds $500 to it, came equipped with front and rear radar adaptive cruise control aluminum panthears heated seat and muffler and carbon fiber from mud guard. The multi-strategy lights up the night with dynamic cornering headlamps integrated into the upper facing. Speaking of which, the multi-strategy's most outrageous mention is not it's height at its girth. The windshield is 40 millimeters wider. The upper

42:30faring is wider as is the lower faring, sorry, including gill-like deflectors that can be opened or closed for the rider's comfort. Rapping your thighs around the extended range gas tank feels like spooning a beer tank. I had thought of using the multi-strategy to lane split throughout the inevitable traffic dams during Monterey car week held earlier this month but between the panears and the handlebars it was too broad for comfort. I didn't want to head to my collection of side-mairs so I kept to the lanes mostly. Note I'm not sold on the V4 cylinder deactivation when the revs and loads are like the engine control shuts down the rear bank of cylinders to save fuel. When the bike is rolling idly and coasting the deactivation cycling is noticeable throttle tip and seems just at flat but then it goes bonkers. For me the multi-strategy is like a kite that

43:36grows more stable the faster the wind blows while it's unquestionably qualified for off-roading where it really shines on a long well-gruned asphalt. At 11 p.m. and Friday night I straddle up and road north on highway one. I might have wound up it up a cut that was bliss. The next night saw me along on a dark and misty 17 mile drive. I was delighted by the automatic LED cornering lights illuminating corner A pecs and hidden hollows that I would otherwise have had to take on faith. Man I love those bring on the night. It's a fantasy bike. Multi-strategy appeal is the promise of spontaneity, self-determination, the idea that you can check up and light out for the hills and maybe never come back. Just don't forget the boots. Base price for the 2020 6th du Coddy, multi-strategy

44:38V4 rally is $31,995. Tested as Dan Neal did is $33,790. You're listening to the reading of articles and features from off-duty from the Wall Street Journal on the Niagara Frontier Radio Reading Service. This is from Volkswagen's page. Treatment for her debilitating migraines inspired this author's new novel. Understory, Chloe Benjamin's greatly anticipated follow-up to her breakout in Immortalist is an ambitious fantasy inflected adventure story. And this is by Lauren Melcheng. Chloe Benjamin's Wildest Dreams came true in 2018. Word of mouth for her sophomore novel, Immortalist, about a quartet of siblings who all learned the exact date of their future death was uncontainable. It was translated into over 30 languages and sold over 600,000 copies in the US

45:46according to her publisher. Benjamin's book tour initially planned this two weeks worth book story events ended up lasting more than a year. A whole thing made her sick. The migraine she struggled with since she was a teenager intensified. It was just incredibly strong pain, she said of the crash that followed her book's publication. Still, she kept saying yes to be infotions as they rolled in. By the time Benjamin 37 was ready to settle back into her quiet life as a writer. In 2019, her light sensitivity had reached a point where Benjamin and her husband offer off an eight-binner in the dark. Her head thrombed every time she looked at a computer screen for too long. I was in pain daily, but writing is what gives me joy and purpose so I kept trying. It wasn't till her mother in Las Vegas that she tried a cognitive behavioral therapy

46:49based mythology that addresses the brain and nervous systems role in chronic pain that things began to change. She got an idea for her third novel, Under Story. Benjamin's greatly anticipated follow-up to her breakout hit is an ambitious and fantasy and flakkyd adventure story that unfolds in parallel universes. Coming in at 500 pages, the novel is an epic about love, loss, and the magic of the natural world. As a center is a crumbling merit of two scientists, the movie, I'm sorry, the story moves from a research basin and art to a whimsical Wisconsin ample farm and eventually to a wild place called the diverse. Putnam has positioned the book as its title, his lead title of 2026 and hailed a film, the production company behind the Harry Potter film series as

47:53auctioned film adaptation to write in conjunction with Warner Bros. Beneath the fantastical plot, it's also a portrait of a woman collapsing under the weight of her suffering. The only way out is through finding a new world and a new set of beliefs that kind of comes out of my history with pain and recovery, Benjamin said. While working on the book, I was learning to be in a healthy relationship with myself and for my body and mind to be in a healthy relationship. Writing a sci-fi twist on a tail of a healing journey allowed Benjamin to stretch her canvas with exuberant digressions on fungi and the electricity of the human brain, the book's passion for weird science evokes misfrisble. The eccentric elementary school teacher whose field trips in the children's book series The Magic School Bus involves a shape, shifting vehicle and can transport

48:58essences inside human bodies and encounters. You're seeing more and more literally writers flirt with John Ross as Emily Solmer, a book buyer at East City Bookshop in Washington, DC. Book influencers love John Ross fiction and it trickles out from there. According to the data firms, Serkana, Books and Science Fiction Sales in 2025 were up 22.1 percent in the US. Benjamin's research trips for the book to a perth do a sheep farm in an all-women's mushroom conference. The author purchased chocolate covered hallucinogenic mushrooms, which he said she microdosed in the name of research. Our role player, Burr, the author of the summer's runaway bestseller, yesterday is one of the book's greatest champions. It's so ambitious, Burrk said. Women are often expected to write quiet, intricate family dramas, but Chloe went ahead and wrote

50:03an unbelievably fated scientific novel. Benjamin is super suspicious about discussing her works in progress and won't disclose what her next book is about, but said that her recovery has helped her find a balance between writing and living. She's up on herself and isn't always taking mental notes when she is away from her computer. You can be in a sort of men-pied mode where you're always looking for things to use and spiriting those things back to a creative process. She said, it can also really separate you from tactile sensory and even interpersonal experiences. She and her husband now eat dinner with the lights on and she's allowing herself to watch television without doing something supposedly productive. She's currently bingeing the widow's pay. I think that a lifetime of perfectionism and striving and sort of putting my mission and my

51:03work over my health, over my health just hit the wall, she said. I'm the book review fiction, Emma Klein-Switzy, plus Dranger Beauty by Matthew Agsta and Emma Deas by Rita Indiana and this is by Sam Sex. The title of Emma Klein-Switzy, SWITZY, it's 352 pages and it sells for $32 at Random House. It's a goofy nickname for Switzerland, the last stop for the novel's main character David Hastings. David is a divorce 70-something business executive suffering from the early or perhaps middle stages of Alzheimer's. He was fired by his firm for accounting errors and has since been given a center by a sympathetic corporate front. But even basic tasks have become unmanageable and David has chosen to end his life and an assisted suicide clinic in Zurich. The difficulty is

52:06that this decision can only be made while he is still a sound mind. It would appear premature. It's done correctly he recognizes. The novels follows David's journey to the appointment, which involves private debts, luxury hotels and other entitlements of a wealthy man making his exit. He is accompanied by Cody, a colleague whom David relies upon but has little affection for. On his way to Zurich, David stops in London to visit his daughter in Granson. His relationship with them is also polite but distant. He has not told his daughter about his illness, much less planned suicide because he has certain she would have him declared incompetent and stop him. Their farewell is a cordonly strange and strained, lacking the gravity of circumstance would seem to provoke. The visit underscores David ultimate solitude in the end he is along with his failing mind.

53:08David's mind is the true setting of Switzerland. Misclined inhibits his thoughts in clothes, third person and the Ochi writes in the past tense her narration evokes an intimate, sometimes smolering feeling of present tenseness of being confined within David's immediate consciousness. Using the bathroom and ordering from a menu, our tests that require all his alertness. Off his brain would go slipping away on a loop he reflects and he'd focus his attention on observing the pathway of his thoughts, trying to leave a trail of mental breadcrumb so he could find his way back. Amid this decline other forms of perception have sharpened a height sense of smell. He is keenly aware of the oxidation of his aging skin and the permission in the bar of soap and awakening of long buried memories. Misclined creates a porous mental tapestry of

54:08frayed gaps and vivid imagery. The author conjugates a similar feeling of anxiety and immediacy for her previous novel, The Guest, which was written in 2023 about an imposter on Long Island New York, faking her way into a swanky beach community and happens. In both books, a reader advances from seeing to seeing a zelbalancing on a tightrope. Lying to the wilder, I'm sorry, wider context of events and aware that disaster could occur at any minute. The writing is piercing and sensual, suspenseful and misclined, deserved praise for engaging a style recognize her own. The drawback is that the novels are all surface lacking the interior and character development that provides immersion and depth. Perhaps with Switzerland, Misclined has reached the end point of what

55:10these castrophobic dramas can achieve. David has one errand of conscious before he goes to the clinic. He apologizes to a francey once portrayed, but otherwise approaches death with the formality of a man keeping a schedule. The book, Powerful Constructs, has it nearest the final appointment describing a terrible actinery of last names. David's last male, his last change of clothing, his lats of paperwork, Misclined recounts at all without looking away. You've been listening to the reading and articles and features from Saturday, Sunday, September 5 and 6 of Off-Duty from the Wall Street Journal. We read from Off-Duty every Saturday at 8 p.m. Your reader has been Patricia Mary. Thank you for listening. God bless and be safe out there. Coming up next in the Niagara frontier, Radio Reading Service. We have Sports Illustrated.

56:13At 10 o'clock we have the Athletic and at 11 o'clock we have Episode Number 7 of London Falling by Patrick Raiden Keef. Stay with us.

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