Trends

With his typically amped-up runway sets pared down to nothing more than a trailing spotlight, Marc Jacobs showed an exuberant fall collection Monday that reveled in the art of getting dressed. A riot of Crayola box colors and 1980s references, the show was the jolt the foundering fashion industry needed, proving that the ostentatious furs and jeweled heels of yesteryear may be gone, but luxury lives on in a purer form through energetic cut and color.

On Monday night, as the William Rast label, co-founded by Justin Timberlake, was preparing for its debut at the Bryant Park tents, sisters Nicky and Paris Hilton, both of whom can claim the "designer" sobriquet, sat texting in the front row.

Juggling glasses of white wine and baggies filled with baubles, dozens of women descended on a well-appointed Orange County home this week to trade in their old golden treasures for hefty checks. There were earrings from ex-boyfriends, ring settings with missing stones and chain bracelets from sorority sisters. One woman brought in her husband's wedding ring -- from a previous marriage.

What do you want to know about the Web? Are you concerned about online privacy? Do you get what Twitter is, or what the big deal is about social networking? Are you wondering when they're going to invent a more eye-friendly way to read online? Or how the economy is affecting the Internet? Just ask. One reason rabid new media zealots scoff at newspapers is because they're no good at being interactive. The connection between readers and writers is one way: We write. You read. They have a point.

With the recession forcing businesses to cut back on workers, employees are increasingly doing all they can to hang on to their jobs, and are forgoing many of the benefits that once allowed them to balance the demands of work and family life. In good times, many workers seized on the opportunity to use "flex time" and family leave, to telecommute and to take paid sick days.

Shamed by images of wealthy corporateers cavorting at the expense of ordinary people, U.S. companies canceled an estimated $1 billion worth of conferences in the first two months of this year and trimmed back on others. Hoteliers are calling it "the AIG effect," after the insurance company that took a public drubbing for spending freely on corporate perks despite its financial turmoil.

Food safety in the United States is no longer improving, highlighting the need to reevaluate the way an American meal makes its way from farm to table, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday. Rates of salmonella have shown the least improvement of several food-borne illnesses that the agency tracks, according to its annual report released Thursday.

Names like Dummy Ruiz and Dear Pineapple may become a thing of the past in the Dominican Republic as officials consider a ban on odd monikers. Officials say Dominicans are increasingly giving their children names that are car brands, cartoon characters or even body parts, and a judge has submitted a proposal to the Central Electoral Commission that would put some limits on the practice.

In the heady days of corporate travel, employees who had to take long flights, particularly overseas, could get their employers to spring for more comfy business-class seats. They're expensive, but companies figured it was better than losing a big contract or hurting a relationship because their employees weren't attentive after a restless flight squished in coach.

Long the stepchild of a Eurocentric art world, American art is finding new favor at home as a growing number of institutions showcase work from Colonial times to World War II. Today, the Huntington in San Marino will join the Metropolitan Museum of Art and museums around the country when it unveils a renovated and expanded gallery devoted to American art.