Pittsburgh has been known as the Steel City, the City of Bridges and the City of Champions. Now the city has a new designation: the Birthplace of Pop Culture. It's the invention of VisitPittsburgh and part of the second year of the organization's pop culture marketing campaign. (Today)

It was an offer I couldn't turn down: An invitation to share a house here with three longtime ski companions and an opportunity to conduct some "product evaluation" at three snow- and sun-blessed New Mexico resorts. (02/05/2012)

Correction Appended (02/05/2012)

AS a child, Allegra McEvedy spent holidays being carted to temples and ruins with her father, a historian. "Where my friends were all lying on beaches in the Mediterranean, I was clambering over ruins in Turkey. I'd seen every outpost of the Roman Empire by the time I was 16," she said. When her parents suggested the children keep travel diaries, she began a lifelong fascination with collecting recipes. "My sister would faithfully reproduce the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul," she said. "Mine was all about what we'd had for breakfast and the great ice cream we had in Florence that afternoon." (02/05/2012)

Correction Appended (02/05/2012)