“Modern Love,” a new series from Amazon, takes its name, theme and most of its main characters and story lines, such as they are, from a weekly column in the Style section of the New York Times. In it, guest writers tell a personal tale of love in all its shapes, sizes, colors, flavors and ages. (It is also a podcast for which well known actors read the columns.) The series is just about what you might expect from the Style section of the New York Times coming to life: a little patrician, kind of pleased with itself, but well made and certainly good-looking.

It’s an anthology, a respectable sounding word, and the episodes play like short stories, though even at 30 minutes each, much elaboration is necessary — building out characters, adding dialogue and drama and comedy. Broadly speaking, they are peopled by creative types, like the mostly professional writers whose columns these are. They’re well-to-do, or well-enough-to-do. When I say that it is not only a letter to love but a location-shot love letter to New York, you are correct in interpreting this to mean it is like a Woody Allen movie.

The series, which began streaming Friday, was developed by John Carney, who directed “Once” and wrote and directed “Sing Street” and knows a thing or two about putting a lump in the throat of the slightly arty mass market. Its cast is starry yet interesting: Anne Hathaway, Tina Fey, John Slattery, Dev Patel, Catherine Keener, Andrew Scott and Jane Alexander. It’s a pro job, though at times it feels professional in a Madison Avenue kind of way, as if you are being sold something, rather than told a story. Most feel minor, even when the subject is major, perhaps because they’re so faithful to spirit of the essays. I don’t mean that as a criticism. And I did choke up a few times.

A range of stories is clearly what Carney had in mind. And yet in two episodes (maybe three), a main character conceals a mental health condition. In two episodes, characters stay up until dawn and learn something important. Two episodes — three, at a tiny stretch — involve surrogate fathers. Two include trips to the zoo.

Nothing says you have to watch them all. But you might spare half an hour to watch Fey and Slattery bat lines at each other in a passive-aggressive double act, no? Or maybe Anne Hathaway dancing in a supermarket parking lot is more your thing. To help you decide, I bring you this semi-informative, quasi-scientific, intermittently analogous field guide to the rare birds and odd ducks of “Modern Love.”

“When the Doorman Is Your Main Man.” Cristin Milioti is a freelance book reviewer somehow able to afford a nest in a building with a white-glove doorman (Laurentiu Possa) who is protective but not territorial, able to smell a bad boyfriend at 60 paces. (The apartment was passed down in the family, so the rent is low, we are pointedly told.) Well, I thought it was rather sweet, in spite of Los Angeles being characterized as “phony.”

“When Cupid Is a Prying Journalist.” Catherine Keener plays a reporter, based on essayist Deborah Copaken (war photographer, TV producer, novelist, you don’t want to know), interviewing tech success Dev Patel for the New York Times Sunday magazine — you can bet your meta. The talk turns to lost love. Each has a story. Courtship ritual: “She told me about her plans to set up a file-sharing app, I told her about my ideas to set up a dating site.” Zoo: Bronx.

“Rallying to Keep the Game Alive.” The one with Fey and Slattery. Written and directed by Sharon Horgan (“Catastrophe”) from a column by novelist Ann Leary, the wife of Denis Leary — which accounts for Slattery’s character being an actor named Denis, though he’s more Roger Sterling than Leary here. The stars play a married couple who may be coming to the end of their relationship, or maybe not. Habitat: Central Park West. Main metaphors: penguins, tennis. Who’s that cameo? It’s Ted Allen from “Chopped.”

“Take Me As I Am, Whoever I Am.” Terri Cheney (high-powered show biz lawyer turned mental health advocate, author of “Manic: A Memoir” and “The Dark Side of Innocence: Growing Up Bipolar”) wrote the essay on which this episode is based. Anne Hathaway convincingly changes her feathers from sparkly to darkly as the mood strikes her (without warning), confusing a suitor, among others. Habitat: Fairway Market‘s Red Hook, Brooklyn, branch, in whose parking lot an imaginary production number takes place. Who’s that cameo? Judd Hirsch!

“At the Hospital, an Interlude of Clarity.” The woman (Sofia Boutella) wears the plumage while the man (John Gallagher Jr.) is drably arrayed in this story of a date that goes good by going bad. Previously mentioned categories this fits: mental health; all-night hang, like “Before Sunrise,” but with surgery and prescription drugs. Range of habitats: $2,200/month apartment; hospital; pretty little park.

“So He Looked Like Dad. It Was Just Dinner, Right?” Fatherless Julia Garner imprints fatherhood upon handsome boss Shea Whigham, who gets the wrong idea. (Inter-species communication is difficult.) Audrey Wells’ script (directed by actress Emmy Rossum) goes further than Abby Sher’s one-dinner essay. A rom-com in which the rom is wrong (it’s not even rom). Kind of creepy but a little poignant too. Zoo: Prospect Park, by the seals.

“Hers Was a World of One.” Adapted from Dan Savage’s much darker “DJ’s Homeless Mommy,” set alight to warm the cockles of the heart and make s’mores over. Andrew Scott and Brandon Kyle Goodman play a gay couple looking to adopt; Olivia Cooke is the pregnant, homeless-as-lifestyle girl — a hobo, I guess — who moves in and turns their lives upside down. Gratuitous French film reference (mine): Jean Renoir’s “Boudu Saved From Drowning” (1932). Who’s that cameo? It’s Ed Sheeran, not as himself.

“The Race Grows Sweeter Near Its Final Lap” Author/runner/cousin of the person for whom the Pell Grant is named Eve Pell wrote the source essay, a story of late-life love. Main melody: The voice of Jane Alexander, almost 80. (James Salto, 16 years Alexander’s junior, plays her significant other.) Not much in the way of plot, and you should expect the expected, but sightings of Alexander are rare enough to be savored. Secondary melody: Bobby Short’s “I Happen to Like New York” (the Cafe Carlyle version) to wrap up. If you catch just those few minutes, you’ll have seen some great television.

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Neil Young has once again reconvened his gloriously loud rock band Crazy Horse for a new album, “Colorado,” due Oct. 25, their first together since 2012’s “Psychedelic Pill.”

For the new album, early Crazy Horse member and recurrent Young collaborator Nils Lofgren is back in the fold, taking over for guitarist Frank “Poncho” Sampedro, who is dealing with health issues.

With Bruce Springsteen pursuing solo endeavors, Lofgren, 68, is temporarily free from his responsibilities as a longtime member of the E Street Band, allowing him to renew his working relationship with Young. That connection dates to 1970 when, at age 18, he first recorded with Young on the “After the Gold Rush” album.

“The whole idea was not learning songs too well, trusting your instincts,” says Lofgren. “That’s the heart and soul of that band.”

Lofgren also was in the Crazy Horse lineup in 1973, when Young recorded and toured with his “Tonight’s the Night” album, and again teamed with Young for his hotly debated 1982 electronic album and tour, “Trans.”

The guitarist, singer and songwriter told The Times that each stint with Young and Crazy Horse (which also includes bassist Billy Talbot and drummer Ralph Molina) is “like getting on a wild horse that just keeps throwing me. I get back on, the Horse throws me, and I get back on again.”

That process also is on full display in “Mountaintop,” the companion film about the making of the album that Young made with his wife, actress and filmmaker Daryl Hannah. It screens Tuesday for one night only in theaters around the country.

How did your latest return to Crazy Horse come about?
In the last year or so we had done seven shows as Crazy Horse. Frank Sampedro has done an amazing job, but after 37 years he’s done for now, so Neil asked me to jump on board with no rehearsals, and I was the right guy for that job.

How did that go?
On the last night, we felt we were really becoming a band. Neil didn’t want to do a set list; he just wanted us to walk out and play what comes to mind. It’s a reckless way to approach a show. But it was a great, great night.

And that’s what led to you also participating in making the ‘Colorado’ album?
I was just about to release my new album, and out of the blue, Neil called and said, “I’m sending you some new songs I’m writing. Is there any chance you could get to Telluride [Colorado, where Young and his wife, Daryl Hannah, took up residence recently] for a couple of weeks?” We jumped into it and started recording these beautiful new songs.

How is playing with Crazy Horse now different than it was back in the day?
There’s a clarity and confidence now because we’re way weathered. And there’s a gratitude for having the experience with old friends. There’s less chaos in our lives now. Peace brings focus and gratitude.

How does it compareto your years with Bruce in the E Street Band?
There are a great many similarities between Neil and Bruce. The only real differences are the tone in their guitars and their voices. Both want things to be immediate and emotional, not over-rehearsed. They don’t micromanage. They both like ragged, emotional rock ‘n’ roll. I guess when you look at things like “Tonight’s the Night,” Neil might let things get a little more ragged. But in both bands I’m given enormous latitude to play what I feel.

Crazy Horse is known for cranking things to 11. But there are some genuinely tender moments on “Colorado.” The track “Eternity” is a great example.
Ten years ago I had both my hips replaced after way too many years jumping off trampolines, drum risers and playing basketball in city courts for as much as 20 hours a week. After both hips were replaced, I took up tap dancing again, which used to be a hobby of mine. When I got that demo of “Eternity,” I got to the point where Neil sings “clickety-clack, clickety-clack,” like a train-track rumble. I was sitting in my chair and I started tapping my feet on the floor for fun.

When this Crazy Horse reunion began, I got the word, “Here’s where we’re gonna meet — send up your gear.” So I decided I’d also pack my tap board and mic. Neil told the engineer, “Nils is gonna be tap dancing,” so we plugged in my tap board. It was quite extraordinary. I actually get a credit on the album for it. It’s a beautiful, hopeful song.

Neil was originally planning a Crazy Horse tour for this fall, but it was put on hold after the death in June of his longtime manager, Elliot Roberts. That must have been a real shock for all of you.
That was brutal. Losing Elliot was a terrible blow. He was in the room when I walked in on them 50 years ago. He was always there to advise me. I really miss him. Losing David [Briggs, Young’s longtime producer and one of his closest friends, who died in 1995] was also a terrible blow. There’s no other David like there’s no other Elliot. But what can you do to honor them but carry on?

In between performances with Bruce and Neil, you recently engaged in a surreal Twitter feud with former Trump communications director Anthony Scaramucci, in which you traded insults. How in the world did that happen?
My wife Amy was the architect. She’s quite the Twitter warrior for what’s right — women’s rights, children’s rights, human rights. When Sarah Huckabee Sanders retired, we caught the Mooch singing her praises on Twitter. Amy and I were so incensed, I ask Amy to help me respond and she did. We called him out for that ridiculous notion of Sanders being a beacon of truth and honesty, which she’s anything but. He fired back, calling me a third-rate talent and said I should be grateful for what little fame I might get from his response to me. That led to a real battle that became viral. After some heated back-and-forth, we got to a little bit more of a mutual understanding — I don’t know if the word is forgiveness — but we calmed it down ourselves. He took so much heat from the E Street Nation, it wasn’t something he had planned on. He backtracked a bit. Amy and I would like to think maybe it was a step toward his awakening about the horror that we’re in.

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So much for law and order.

Jane Fonda’s aspirations to get arrested in D.C. repeatedly are going swimmingly. And this time, her “Grace & Frankie” costar Sam Waterston, a veteran of the police procedural “Law & Order,” joined her.

In their latest display of civil disobedience, the actors were detained by U.S. Capitol Police Friday amid ongoing climate change protests that snared Fonda last Friday, just as she wanted.

This is the second scuffle with law enforcement in a week for the Oscar winner, who has said she plans to get arrested as many times as it takes to make her point, and the first for Waterston.

Capitol Police confirmed Friday that they arrested 17 people “for unlawfully demonstrating” in the unit block of First Street on the southeast side of the Capitol.

All were charged with disturbing the peace through crowding, obstructing or incommoding, police spokeswoman Eva Malecki told The Times.

Representatives for the actors did not immediately respond to The Times’ requests for additional comment Friday.

The Associated Press reported that Fonda was taken away in a paddy wagon. Photos from the scene documenting the weekly youth-led rallies, known as “Fire Drill Fridays,” showed Fonda, 81, with her wrists up and wrapped in zipties. Waterston, 78, was photographed being escorted by police with his hands behind his back wrapped in ties, too.

Fonda, a longtime political activist, recently told The Times that the protests will take place every week at 11 a.m. and will highlight a different issue. She’ll be joined by groups including Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and Oil Change International, all of which are active against climate change.

Fonda had hoped to take a year’s hiatus from her Netflix series “Grace & Frankie” to live in Washington, but she was contractually unable to. Once the show ends, she intends to return to the Capitol steps, she said.

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When police took Jane Fonda away Friday in Washington, D.C., it was the second time she had been arrested during climate change protests this month. But it wasn’t the second time she’s been arrested overall.

Long revered (and reviled) as a staunch member of the resistance, the two-time Oscar-winning actress has been outspoken about her brushes with the law while advocating for her many causes, ranging from the Vietnam War to the #MeToo movement.

Her fist-in-the-air mug shot from a 1970 arrest at a Cleveland airport — on suspicion of smuggling drugs and assaulting a customs officer — became a silent symbol of disobedience.

At the time, she was traveling on a speaking tour to spread awareness about the Vietnam War. Lab tests later confirmed that the pills she was carrying were vitamins.

Fonda recently told The Times she planned to get arrested every week while marching for climate change on Capitol Hill. The 81-year-old got her wish twice — last Friday and now today — along with her “Grace & Frankie” costar Sam Waterston.

Fonda’s arrest history has produced not only an iconic mug shot but also several quotable soundbites about activism and resistance. Here’s a roundup of her quips.

2009: “It was the ‘Klute’ haircut”

Fonda retrospectively elaborated on the 1970 Cleveland incident on her website in 2009. In a lengthy post about the mug shot and arrest, she explained that she was on her way back from a tour stop in Canada when airport authorities stopped her and raided her luggage, supposedly on orders from former President Richard Nixon’s administration.

Later in the message, the activist speculated that the whole stunt might have been part of a conspiracy to keep her from protesting the Vietnam War — with some additional commentary on her mug appearance, which she attributed to her Oscar-winning turn in 1971’s “Klute.”

“I think they hoped this ‘scandal’ would cause the college speeches to be canceled and ruin my respectability,” Fonda wrote. “I was handcuffed and put in the Cleveland Jail, which is when the mug shot was taken. (I had just finished filming ‘Klute’ so, yes, it was the Klute haircut).”

2016: “I slipped out of the handcuffs”

A few years ago, Fonda made an appearance on “The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon” — as did her 1970 mug shot. While chatting with the host, Fonda explained how she achieved her cavalier power pose.

“I was in handcuffs, but I have double-jointed hands, so I slipped out of the handcuffs,” she said, demonstrating for Fallon and the audience. “It really surprised the guards.”

The comic then presented Fonda with a real set of cuffs, which she clicked on like a pro before Houdini-ing her way back out of them in seconds.

“Just try to arrest me,” she joked.

2017: “It was a frame-up”

Fallon wasn’t the only late-night host to ask Fonda about Cleveland. During a segment of “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” featuring longtime partners-in-crime Fonda and Lily Tomlin, the comedian brandished a copy of Fonda’s mug shot while chatting about the Women’s March.

The actress quickly took the opportunity to clear her name.

“I have to say, I was accused of smuggling drugs — they were vitamin pills,” she said. “But the guy who arrested me said he was taking orders from the Nixon White House. It was a frame-up.”

Colbert then revealed another photo up his sleeve — Fonda’s mug shot printed on a coffee mug, which is still for sale on the star’s website — joking, “The revolution will not be televised, but it will be merchandized.”

“It was my idea,” Fonda said proudly. “And there’s evening bags of my mug shot too. And all the money goes to my nonprofit.”

2018: “I sure got a lot of mileage”

Last year, Fonda joined the likes of Tessa Thompson, Common and Lena Waithe for a highly publicized “Respect Rally” at the Sundance Film Festival in opposition to Trump. On the car ride there, she reminisced to The Times about her previous airport arrest and mug shot, which served as the poster for the documentary “Jane Fonda in Five Acts.”

“I sure got a lot of mileage out of that arrest,” Fonda said with a laugh from the front seat of the festival-bound SUV.

Fonda was unfazed by the snow storm and bitter Park City cold as she approached her appointment to speak about women’s rights along with fellow leaders, including “Fleabag’s” Phoebe Waller-Bridge and high-profile attorney Gloria Allred.

“Onward!” she said, lifting her famous fist into the air. “Let’s go kick ass!”

2019: “What can [Trump] do?”

While speaking with The Times prior to storming Washington on behalf of Mother Earth, Fonda offered some insight into her fearless mentality when facing authorities.

During the conversation, she detailed her plans to take on the fossil fuel industry and her desperation to change President Trump’s attitude about environmental issues. And if that meant going to jail, so be it.

“I’ve been here before,” she said in the interview. “I mean, I can’t be attacked any more than I already have. So what can [Trump] do? I’ve got nothing to lose.”

2019: “That’s the least of it”

After her first climate change protest arrest last week, Fonda spoke with CNN about about her experience, her decision to move to Washington and her activist inspirations, including Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg.

When interviewer Christiane Amanpour tried to focus the conversation on the nitty-gritty of Fonda’s recent arrest — asking about having her wrists zip-tied and being carted off in a police cruiser — the seasoned activist immediately put her ordeal into perspective.

“That’s the least of it,” she said with a shrug. “There is so much going on in the world and over it all is this ticking time bomb … but we do have time. We have time, and it’s going to require that people in every country all around the world organize and mobilize and — if necessary — bring governments to a halt if we can’t make them do the right thing.”

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“South Park” is the latest beneficiary of Hollywood’s rerun mania.

The show’s creators and media giant Viacom Inc. expect to share between $450 million and $500 million by selling the streaming rights to the animated comedy, one of the longest-running TV series in U.S. history, according to people familiar with the matter.

As many as a half-dozen companies are bidding for exclusive U.S. streaming rights to past episodes of the show, which has been available on Walt Disney Co.’s Hulu in recent years. Viacom and the show’s creators hope to secure a new deal by the end of 2019 and could decide on the winning bidder as soon as this weekend, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the negotiations are private.

The value of popular TV reruns has skyrocketed, fueled by new streaming platforms seeking programming that can attract subscribers and provide an edge over rivals. Viacom and “South Park” creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone expect the multiyear deal to net more than double what Hulu paid in 2015.

That’s comparable to what Comcast Corp. paid to license “The Office” for its coming streaming service Peacock and what AT&T Inc. paid to grab “Friends” for HBO Max. Both of those programs are on Netflix for now. Netflix Inc. responded by paying more than $500 million for worldwide rights to “Seinfeld.”

Most shows won’t generate such fevered bidding, but “South Park” is a rare title. Created in the late 1990s, the animated comedy about potty-mouthed children in a small Colorado town is in its 23rd season. The longest-running show on Viacom’s Comedy Central, it is still one of the most-watched TV programs among young men and has been renewed for three more seasons.

Comedy Central just aired the show’s 300th episode, and the sheer volume means “South Park” will garner less money per episode than “Friends” or “Seinfeld.” But Viacom and the show’s creators expect the overall deal amount to be comparable, said the people.

Peacock and HBO Max are rushing to build libraries of shows ahead of their debuts next year. They are announcing new licensing deals every few weeks and have been the most aggressive in bidding on library titles. Both are in the chase for “South Park,” the people said.

Netflix, Amazon.com Inc. and Hulu have previously shown an interest in adult animation, though Netflix is now focused more on original series, such as “Big Mouth.” Netflix has dropped out of the bidding, according to one of the people.

Hulu, meanwhile, remains interested in keeping the show on its platform, though only if the price doesn’t go too high, one of the people said.

CBS Corp., which is merging with Viacom, has its own streaming service that could be a home for the show. But that merger won’t close before the licensing deal does, and CBS doesn’t have the same resources on its own as most of the bidders.

One company that probably won’t be bidding is Apple Inc., the people said. The tech giant has eschewed controversial programming that could damage its brand, and it’s wary of offending China, where it sells a lot of iPhones. “South Park” was just banned in China after an episode mocked the country’s censorship of Western movies and TV.

The riches from the sale will be split between Viacom, Parker and Stone under a unique deal forged in 2007. The creators and the media giant split all the digital rights 50-50 under a joint venture that covers streaming, mobile and games.

Netflix previously licensed “South Park” through a deal with Viacom, a transaction that paid out in the tens of millions. Hulu snagged the rights in 2014 and reupped a year later.

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Parker and Stone have used the proceeds from “South Park” and their hit Broadway play “The Book of Mormon” to create and fund their own studio, which was valued at $300 million in 2013. That value is about to go way up.

Jamestown might be 325 miles north of Los Angeles in the Sierra foothills, but this historic Gold Rush town still has a Hollywood connection. Dozens of movies and TV shows have been filmed at Jamestown’s Railtown 1897 State Historic Park, which offers rides aboard a vintage steam train along with a glimpse of one of the last working roundhouses in the country. Jamestown even has its own “Walk of Fame” highlighting the movies and shows filmed here (they include such classics as “Little House on the Prairie,” “Back to the Future III” and “Unforgiven”). The tab: A night at the National Hotel costs $140-$160, plus tax; lunch for my family of four with appetizers and drinks at the Service Station was about $90, plus tip; and coach tickets on Railtown’s Polar Express cost $50 per person.

THE BED

Jamestown’s charming Main Street, just off California 108, is lined with hotels, restaurants, antique shops, wine-tasting rooms and a cigar lounge. The National Hotel’s balcony, which displays miniature flags from countries around the world, overlooks Main Street. The hotel has nine rooms, most featuring brass beds with pillow-top mattresses and private bathrooms with pull-chain toilets. The hotel offers indoor and courtyard dining along with a historic saloon where you can sip a Gold Rush Margarita.

THE MEAL

Guests at the National Hotel are served a buffet breakfast with quiche, sourdough French toast, homemade granola and more. For lunch or dinner, head a short distance on Main Street to the Service Station. The restaurant has a beautiful old bar inside and a relaxing lounge out back. Our meal started with mimosas and fun appetizers that included soft pretzels with beer cheese and stone-ground mustard dips. I enjoyed my grilled chicken sandwich with garlic pesto aioli and sun-dried tomato spread with cheese, bacon, tomato and arugula served with a side of onion rings. After our meal, we got some exercise by strolling the Walk of Fame from Main Street to Railtown 1897 State Historic Park.

THE FIND

Railtown hosts weekend train rides from April to October as well as special events throughout the year. The park’s festive Polar Express train rides, based on the book and movie of the same name, will be Friday and Saturday Nov. 29 and 30 and Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays through Dec. 22 (except Dec. 1). Passengers are encouraged to wear their pajamas on the hourlong, evening train rides. My family and I rode the Polar Express a few years ago when our kids were 1 and 10 years old. We didn’t dress in our pj’s, but we quickly got in the spirit. It’s difficult not to as dancing waiters serve hot cocoa and cookies as you head to see Santa at the “North Pole.” Once there, Santa boards the train and hands each passenger a sleigh bell.

THE LESSON LEARNED

Tickets for the Polar Express train rides went on sale Oct. 11 and often sell out. For those who can’t face Christmas just yet, there’s Railtown’s Harvest Haunt Express. Passengers are encouraged to dress up as pirates and princesses on Oct. 19 and 20 and as witches and wizards on Oct. 26 and 27.

National Hotel, 18183 Main St., Jamestown; (800) 894-3446, national-hotel.com. Not wheelchair accessible. (rooms are upstairs).

Service Station 18242 Main St., Jamestown; (209) 782-5122, jamestownservicestation.com. Wheelchair accessible.

Railtown 1897 State Historic Park, 10501 Reservoir Road, Jamestown; (209) 984-3953, railtown1897.org. The Polar Express hotline is (209) 984-3407. Railtown staff, with notice, can accommodate most wheelchairs on train rides and tours.

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I read Rosemary McClure’s piece “A Big Island, a Small Check” [Oct. 13] and realized you’d already written one on Kauai. Here are some of my suggestions for Kauai.

She had some expensive spots on the list, but these places in Kapaa — Lava Lava Beach Club, Sam’s Ocean View and Oasis on the Beach — have some less expensive menu items too. Get to Oasis by 4 p.m. Wednesdays to get a seat for the Wednesday night show. Be prepared to hear the astounding ukulele performance by Aldrine Guerrero.

How could she omit Tip Top Motel, Bakery & Cafe in Lihue? It’s been there for more than 100 years.

She can’t leave out the Saddle Room in Waimea. Get a burger and a Bloody Mary.

Paniolo Santa Maria Style BBQ in Kapaa has the best barbecue on the island. It’s my favorite. Open mic night on Wednesdays will often leave you awestruck.

Don’t forget Kauai Beer Co. in Lihue and Koloa Fish Market in Poipu.

Chris Worley
Kapaa, Hawaii

Global Entry workaround

Regarding “A Global Entry Slowdown” [On the Spot, by Catharine Hamm, Sept. 29]: In my experience the Customs and Border Protection staffing problems exacerbated by the ongoing border crisis have caused serious delays.

Closing the Los Angeles office has had a ripple effect on the entire Southern California application process. In August there were openings at several offices, yet by mid-September the first available appointment at Long Beach was April 14. Calexico, Calif., had an opening two months later. An option for expediting the interview process is open for returning international travelers, though it’s frustrating to find local offices closed or overwhelmed by the process.

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My application was filed in April, conditionally approved in August, with a successful interview concluded in late September after a long day’s drive to Calexico and return home.

Sean Holland
Los Angeles

The Wall Street and political junkie arms of Twitter are, well, all a-twitter over an article in Vanity Fair implying that someone has been pocketing billions by front-running sudden policy shifts by President Trump.

We don’t want to spend too much time debunking the article, which has been dismantled in detail by others, including Matt Levine of Bloomberg (a former investment banker) and futures market experts such as George Pearkes.

But we do want to take aim at one of the recurrent arguments appearing in the debunkings, which is that “every trade involves both a buyer and a seller,” and, therefore, the impulse of one side is exactly canceled by the impulse on the other. In other words, if someone has inside knowledge on which he or she is trading, then someone else must have equivalent motivation for taking the other side. Ergo, no story.

Vanity Fair

That’s a very flawed argument, which we’ll return to in a moment.

First, the Vanity Fair assertion. Author William D. Cohan, himself a former investment banker, took aim at a number of trades in the market for Standard & Poor’s 500 futures and matched them against moves by Trump or other events that moved the stock market sharply and suddenly — Trump swerves on tariff policy, the drone strike on Saudi Arabia oil installations, etc., etc.

Vanity Fair called these trade “fantastically profitable,” and Cohan quoted a futures trader, anonymously, as saying, “There is definite hanky-panky going on.” Cohan made a similar claim back in July too.

As it happens, there’s no evidence to support Cohan’s picture of the futures trading. Market traders say he’s conflated what could be thousands of individual trades into single transactions, and that his assertion that the trading volume spiked suspiciously just prior to market-moving events doesn’t hold water. The volumes aren’t unusual overall, and one of his target dates was the last day of a quarter, when lots of activity takes place for legitimate portfolio reasons.

Moreover, there’s absolutely no evidence in Cohan’s stories, or elsewhere, that someone with connections to the White House has been trading on information about Trump’s chaotic policy-making. That’s especially so given that some of the trades involved events almost certainly outside White House knowledge, such as the drone strike and statements about the trade war coming from China that appear to have blindsided Trump along with everyone else.

So we can set the Vanity Fair allegations aside. But what about the buyer-and-seller argument?

At some level it’s true, of course, that every security or futures contract that’s bought must have a seller on the other side, and vice versa. But that doesn’t mean that both sides come to the transaction with equivalent motivations, or that they balance each other out. In his cogent deconstruction of the Vanity Fair piece, Felix Salmon explains that instead of calling one trade a sale and another a buy, Cohan could have just as well called the first a buy and the second a sale, since there were traders on both sides in both transactions–in other words, implicit in Cohan’s analysis is the erroneous idea that the buyers and sellers came to the market with equivalent, if opposite, motivations.

To take one of Cohan’s sample trades, “someone” sold short 120,000 S&P e-mini futures hours before the drone strike Sept. 13; when the market opened the following Monday, the S&P 500 index fell sharply, ostensibly earning that mysterious trader or trading group a nine-figure profit. (The e-mini is an electronically-traded future one-fifth the size of a conventional futures contract on the S&P 500 index.)

Yet the short sale of 120,000 contracts doesn’t mean a single trader bought the same contracts. For all anybody knows, the sellers, if they existed, assembled their short position from thousands of traders on the other side. Sure, for every contract, there was a seller and a buyer, but the number of sellers didn’t have to equal the number of buyers, and almost certainly did not.

It should be obvious that this trope doesn’t hold true anywhere in the investment markets. If it did, there would be no reason to prosecute insider trading, since buyers and sellers would come to the market with eyes equally open. That’s not how things work: Trades are typically initiated by one participant, and the others react.

A stock buyer with inside information about a pending merger will buy on the expectation that the stock will soar. He or she has to find a willing seller, who presumably isn’t privy to the same information. One can’t look at that transaction and say it must be innocent because there was a seller for every buyer.

So, yes. There are sound reasons to doubt the Vanity Fair claims, including the dearth of any concrete evidence for them. But the idea that there are sellers for every buyer isn’t one of them.

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California’s unemployment rate dropped to the lowest it has been in four decades as the Golden State outpaced the nation in job creation last month.

Joblessness stood at 4% in September, less than in any month since the current methodology was introduced in 1976, state officials reported. That was down from 4.1% in August and a year earlier.

Year over year, state payrolls grew by 320,000 jobs, to a total of 17.53 million. That was a 1.9% growth rate, compared with 1.4% nationwide.

Led by three sectors — professional services; arts, entertainment and recreation; and manufacturing — employers added 21,300 jobs during the month, down from an exceptionally strong 32,000 in August.

The U.S. unemployment rate was 3.5% in September.

“California is not immune to risks faced in the rest of the U.S. and the world, but for now, the state’s jobs machine continues to purr, defying recession fears,” said Lynn Reaser, an economist at Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego.

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Robert Kleinhenz, an economist with the Los Angeles consultancy Beacon Economics, was equally upbeat. “With yearly job gains in nearly every one of the state’s major industries, including those most affected by trade conflicts, this is a reassuring report, especially at a time when there are concerns that the economy is cooling,” he said.

Nonetheless, some see the effects of President Trump’s trade wars beginning to take a toll.

“The ongoing trade war and the slowing global economic activities represent stiff head winds for the state’s economy,” Loyola Marymount University economist Sung Won Sohn said via email.

“Trade and transportation, which includes warehousing, remain lethargic. L.A. and Long Beach ports have reported significant slowdown in shipping activities compared to a year ago.

“Technology, a workhorse for the state’s economy, has lost some momentum in part due to the trade friction. For example, the job gains at the information sector — which includes web hosting, data storage, audio and video streaming, internet publishing, search portals — have been flat since its peak in December 2018.”

September payroll growth was notable in several Southern California areas, including the Inland Empire (6,300 jobs) and San Diego (4,900). Year over year, the Inland Empire (+2.3%) has experienced the fastest rate of job growth, followed by San Diego (+1.8%), Los Angeles (+1.1%) and Orange County (1.1%).

In Northern California, the San Francisco metro area added the most jobs (1,300), followed by San Rafael (600), San Jose (400) and the East Bay (200). Year over year, however, Northern California payrolls grew faster than those in the southern part of the state, with a 3.4% jump in San Francisco, a 3.1% increase in San Jose and a 1.9% rise in the East Bay.

Among the major industry sectors adding jobs across the state:

• Professional and business services added 12,700 jobs, for a year-over-year total of 83,700.

• Manufacturing payrolls rose by 4,100, for a year-over-year total of 13,900. Most of that was in computer and other electronic products, aerospace and motor vehicles. “Tesla is a source of exports,” Kleinhenz noted.

• Education and health services expanded by 4,100 positions, for a year-over-year increase of 83,300.

• Trade, transportation and utilities grew by 2,700 jobs, for a year-over-year total of 3,300.

• Leisure and hospitality added 800 positions, for a year-over-year total of 46,400.

The state’s monthly job report, released by the California Employment Development Department, is based on two surveys. The unemployment rate comes from a federal survey of 5,100 California households. The nonfarm payroll job numbers come from a separate federal survey of 80,000 California businesses.

As WeWork prepares to cut potentially thousands of jobs this month and more executives head for the exits, SoftBank Group Corp. is assembling a rescue financing plan for WeWork that may value the office-sharing company below $8 billion, according to people familiar with the discussions.

The new figure is a fraction of the $47-billion valuation the start-up commanded as recently as January. The talks are fluid and the terms could change, said the people, who requested anonymity because the discussions are private.

WeWork, reeling since it scrapped its initial public offering, has been considering dueling plans from SoftBank and JPMorgan Chase & Co. to shore up its finances before it runs out of cash as early as next month. The company’s board could make a decision as soon as this weekend, according to some of the people familiar with the situation.

Representatives for WeWork and SoftBank declined to comment.

JPMorgan has been pitching investors on a $5-billion junk-debt package for WeWork. The unsecured and secured notes portion of the bank’s plan are being offered on a “best-efforts” basis, according to people familiar with the matter, meaning banks haven’t committed to funding the deal irrespective of investor demand.

The bank has been sharing its proposal with about 100 investors as it tries to line up support for what would be one of the riskiest debt offerings in recent years, people with knowledge of the matter said earlier this week.

Uncertainty around WeWork’s future has whipsawed its bonds in recent weeks. The debt plunged to record lows on Tuesday as the company weighed a financing package that included debt that could yield 15%, only to erase those losses a day later amid reports that SoftBank was considering a new investment. The debt currently trades at about 85 cents on the dollar, and hasn’t been near par since before the company pulled its IPO last month.

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SoftBank, which with its affiliates already owns nearly one-third of WeWork, has been in discussions to provide the company with $5 billion of funding in a mix of equity and debt. The financing would come directly from the Japanese firm, rather than its Vision Fund, a person said earlier this week. SoftBank would not amass a majority of voting rights, though its stake would increase, the person said. Part of the package may include non-voting preferred stock.

Part of the appeal of the SoftBank plan is the office-sharing company’s long-standing relationship with the investment behemoth, one of the people said. At the same time it would further dilute existing shareholders and employees — a consideration in favor of the JPMorgan proposal.

As WeWork’s board debates the best option for keeping the lights on, its executive ranks are rapidly thinning, with at least six C-level executives and the vice chairman leaving since last month.

Adam Kimmel, WeWork’s chief creative officer, is the latest to submit his resignation, according to two people familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified discussing a personnel matter. Kimmel joined the company in 2017 after a long career as a fashion designer and took on projects such as designing the company’s San Francisco offices. WeWork parent We Co. didn’t immediately have a comment on the departure.

Chief Executive Adam Neumann and his wife, Chief Brand and Impact Officer Rebekah Neumann, departed last month, followed by the chief product officer, the top spokesman and the head of marketing.

WeWork could cut about 2,000 jobs in the coming weeks, though the decisions haven’t been finalized.