How ridiculous do people who aren’t Masai look when they’re wearing Masai jewelry?  Probably very ridiculous.

But over the weekend I saw some very pretty Masai bead and leather bracelets that I wanted to have and wear.  Proceeds benefit an African organization that brings health care and education to Masai children, but that’s really beside the point.  What I want is some of that Masai glamor.

In last night’s dream I was walking outside an old country house and stepped onto a Thonet chair to reach an open window.  The chair, which had been left out in the elements, was worn and warped.  It gave way and sent me crashing to the ground below.

The chair, one of the first to be mass-produced, consists of just five elements.  It’s such a simple, ubiquitous design yet it remains incredibly evocative.  It’s sort of crafty, sort of modern, sort of ordinary, and (although Michael Thonet was Austrian) very French.  I’m still trying to understand its place in my dream.  Is it the platonic idea of chair?

I visited Venice once, four years ago, in late summer, with a large group of friends.  I remember rushing around shopping for jewelry and glassware, fuelled by rounds of wine and espresso.  And I remember walking home from dinner late one night through a piazza in firelight.

But this piece in this weekend’s travel section makes me want to go back, right now, right away, and wander slowly and alone through all the city’s quiet streets, cafes and museums.  “Venice in Winter” sounds like the perfect antidote to winter here, or anywhere else.

(Photo by Dave Yoder for The New York Times)

I’ve become addicted to the predictable but pleasing cop procedural “Detroit 1-8-7,” which is filmed on location, and mesmerized by scenes of this devastated city.

One shakedown was staged in this parking lot, constructed in 1976 within the shell of an old, abandoned theater.  It’s dreamy and sad.

(Michigan Theater, Detroit, by Rapp & Rapp.  Photograph by Sean Hemmerl)