New York Times SLOW NEWS DAY

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Another florist on Madison Avenue told me she’d decorated private elevators with corn husks, which comforted me because I’d hate to think of someone coming home alone late at night from an exhausting day in distressed securities, only to ascend to his apartment divorced from the company of dried vegetation.

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Ms. Morris, the psychologist, had just spent $8 — $4 apiece — for the drinks, thinking that one would not be enough to last her through the concert. “I don’t want to have to come out to get more,” she explained. Ms. Morris appeared captivated by the petite container, and had snapped a photo with her iPhone that she planned to post on the photo-sharing site Instagram.

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At an offbeat service on Sunday night at the Jewish Museum of Florida, organizers were trying an innovation that few if any rabbis have embraced: using the language of the tech generation instead of the Torah to keep the crowd of 20- to 30-year-olds, mostly unmarried and transient, connected to their Jewish roots and to one another.

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Charles McConnell, a recent graduate of Trinity College in Hartford, Conn., who plans to travel and play professional tennis while looking for a job in politics, wanted an apartment where he and two fraternity brothers could each pay about $2,000 in rent.

With the help of the Next Step Realty, a national real estate company that specializes in finding apartments for new college graduates, they found a three-bedroom in Murray Hill, complete with exposed brick, working fireplaces and a skylight. A coin laundry, a pizza place, a grocery store, A.T.M.’s and other services are within a block.

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“Women like to be helped, while men like to help themselves, but be guided,” said Greg Unis, a senior vice president. “They don’t want to be pounced on when they first walk into the store.”

Inside Club Monaco’s Bloor Street flagship in Toronto, a dedicated space for men’s wear opened in November and has displays of tweed jackets mixed with chopped logs, and you might hear a track from the Rolling Stones album “Exile on Main St.” or 1960s reggae.

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The restaurant may have given you the freebie because you are a FOM (friend of the manager) or a PX, a person extraordinaire. PX used to be V.I.P., but most restaurants stopped using that label years ago because it was so widely recognized and offended non-V.I.P. customers who heard it being used. Some PX’s are also flagged NR, for never refuse.

At some restaurants, HSM is short for heavyset man; at others, LOL stands for little old lady — two types of diners who may need special seating. Customers with bad reputations are often flagged HWC, handle with care. And if there’s an 86 on your profile, chances are you will be making alternative plans for dinner. There are also some more profane acronyms, though most managers say they have been all but phased out for fear of lawsuits.

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An announcer repeatedly boasted that it was “distinctively Canadian,” without further explanation.

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Of course, some buyers may be fully aware that they are buying fakes, ones that look delightfully realistic and spruce up their homes. But Mr. Bamberger said many people who bought art over the Internet were, at heart, bargain hunters, delighted to think they were getting a deal.

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“When you look at the kit, it’s sort of like, ‘Duh,’ it’s just a bunch of measuring apparatuses,” she said. “It’s a tool. But people don’t know what to do when they don’t have a tool to go by. I’m always trying to use my hands: ‘This is what four ounces of chicken looks like.’ With the kit, it becomes a no-brainer.”

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In recent years, the Target run — or a shopping trip to a similar big-box store — has become a new college tradition, right up there with spring break and sleeping through class. This time of year it’s common to see students and parents roaming the aisles, checking off items from an ever-growing list of essentials. The goal, it seems, is to turn the dorm room into a plush home away from home.

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These competitions form their own distinct subculture. Yet they are also distinctly American, not so different, underneath the false eyelashes, from Little League games, and raising a host of issues revolving around class, gender and parents’ aspirations for their children. As they have proliferated in recent decades, in an age when many public schools dedicate few resources to dance, they’ve created opportunities for youngsters who might otherwise have few chances to get onstage.