【推荐1】Slowly, so slowly that we never even noticed how it happened, our family stopped talking to each other. Our own worlds opened up to us through the computer or the cell phone or the CD player.

Family Night was born when Mom called us for dinner. Jessica and I came and sat down. Dad loaded his plate and started to rise from the table.

“Where are you going?” Mom questioned.

“To the living room. I have some work,” Dad replied as he hurried away. Mom’s face got tight, but she said nothing. About two minutes later, my cell phone buzzed. Jessica kept her earphones on during most of the meal. Mom was clearly upset.

Family Night started the next week. Mom established three rules: no phones, no music, and no leaving the table. Everyone would eat together and play a game together “like a real family.”

All seemed to be going according to Mom’s plan until the first buzz of a cell phone. After dinner, we had been playing the board game for only ten minutes when another cell phone let out a shrill scream. This time the phone belonged to my father.

“Work’s calling. I have to answer,” he whispered as he hurried out of the room.

Mom sighed, but she forced a smile and encouraged us to continue with the game. We kept playing through every interruption afterwards: the beeping of Jessica’s phone, the buzz of another text message from Darnell, the soothing voice announcing the arrival of an e-mail on Dad’s computer. When the game was over, Mom released us to our rooms.

That first Family Night was not a success, but Mom soldiered on. Every Monday evening we silenced our electronics and gathered around the table; and each time, setting aside our technological toys became a little easier. The next two months my father would be taking business trips. We wouldn’t be able to have Family Night every Monday.

To my surprise I realized that I would miss those few hours each week when the house was filled with my family’s laughter and conversation. I was also glad to know that when we really wanted to, we could silence the electronic buzz and just be a family again.

【推荐3】Sharing E Umbrella, a new umbrella sharing company based in Shenzhen, China, recently announced that it had lost most of the 300, 000 umbrellas since it was set up.

China’s sharing economy has been growing rapidly, with companies offering anything from bicycles and basketballs to phone batteries for people to rent. Customers make a small deposit (押金) and get to use the thing for a daily cost, with a fine put in place for every day if they fail to return the product in time. It’s a simple business model, and market data shows that people see sharing as a cheap and convenient way to cut down waste.

Zhao Shuping founded the Sharing E Umbrella, an umbrella sharing service, in April. By the end of June, he had already started in 11 major Chinese cities, including Shanghai, Nanjing and Guangzhou. While picking up the umbrellas was relatively simple, as they were made available (可得到的) at bus and subway stations, the return system turned out to be a different matter. “Umbrellas are different from bicycles,” Mr. Zhao told Chinese news site ThePaper.cn. “Bikes can be parked anywhere, but with an umbrella you need something to hang it on.”

So instead of bothering to return the umbrellas back to a station, a lot of people just took them home, and Sharing E Umbrella has reportedly lost track of most of the 300,000 umbrellas. Considering that borrowing umbrellas requires a 19 yuan deposit, with a fee of 0.50 yuan per half an hour usage, Zhao says that he suffers a loss of 60 yuan per lost umbrella, so the company is now in the red, but he is not ready to stop it just yet. Zhao announces that Sharing E Umbrella still plans to roll out (推出) 30 million nationwide by the end of the year.

【推荐2】Much of our health depends on what we eat. We all know about the benefits of eating properly for our physical health, but food - and cooking it - is proving to be good for our mental health as well.

Some people are now advocating the healthful value of cooking food. It’s not just about the end result but the experience someone goes through. Dr Mark Salter, a consultant psychiatrist, told the BBC, “Baking and cooking are good ways to help patients develop planning skills, short-term memory and social skills - all of which suffer in mental illness.” TV chef and author Nadiya Hussain also agrees that cooking is great for improving our mind. She says, “Baking is always about healing... It’s never really been only about getting a cake.” And she thinks that baking is an important tool for our socialization and mental health.

Certainly, creating some delicious food has helped some of us get through the recent lockdown. It has given us something to do and helped take our mind off annoying things. People say that kneading dough (揉面团) to make bread, for example, has given them a sense of calm and control. Research has shown that doing creative tasks, like cooking, makes us feel happier. Nicole Farmer, who studies how food impacts our biology, behaviour and mental health, says, “cooking represents the shared human experience of food, and nurturing people through food, so I think that’s an opportunity for immediate positive emotions, which benefit our mental health.”

Of course, cooking can be a very sociable activity and a rewarding experience. Hopefully, as we start to mix with friends and family again, we can enjoy the benefits once more and put us all in the right frame of mind.