The Guys Who Grow Glass Gardens

Onesis Castillo arrives carefully carrying a cactus, and Gilberto Gonzalez holds open the plate-glass door of Crystal Gardens to let him in. Crystal Gardens is small and Broadway is big, so you’d think you’d be likely to miss it. Except that you can’t. Gilberto and Onesis won’t let you. Crystal Gardens is at 31-18 Broadway. It is they who make the miniature fantasylands populated with cacti and cute critters. Hanging in the window, the glass globes shine in the sunlight…

Continue Reading →

The Woman Who’s So Into Style

The day is as steamy as the tea Sophie Kempner is sipping. Imbibing it is part ritual, part thirst. And it’s Sophie. Sophie grew up on a farm in England. Sophie, you see, is from England, and she brought this old-fashioned, stereotypically British habit all the way across the Atlantic with her. It makes her feel a little closer to home. Home was Chesham, a bucolic market town an hour’s train ride from London. Sophie and her two sisters — she’s the one in the middle —…

Continue Reading →

The Woman With the World at Her Fingertips

She’s traveled all over the world, but today, and nearly every day, the longest journey that Anastasia Damianeas will take is from her home to her office. It’s more than 30 miles from Melville, Long Island to Hermes Travel, which puts Nancy, the nickname she goes by, on the road for about an hour each way when there’s no traffic or good weather, which is never. Nancy and her mother run Hermes Travel. Hermes is a mom-and-daughter travel agency that has stayed in the same location,…

Continue Reading →

The Man Fully Invested in Finance

There’s not much to see in Korsa K. Nzidee‘s office because he’s just moved into it. Korsa is from Nigeria. His black granite-topped desk, which takes up most of the shoebox-sized space, is appointed with nothing more than a laptop and a small statue of a charging bull. The bookshelves are bare save for a half dozen awards and plaques, and the mini closet in the corner is crammed with three empty hangers. Korsa is proud to call it his own. He worked a long time in the corporate…

Continue Reading →