In February, Barb McGowan took a seven-day cruise on Holland America Line, visiting the Bahamas, Turks and Caicos, and the Dominican Republic for just $343, or $49 a day, excluding taxes, port fees and extras. By comparison, Holland America currently lists a seven-day Caribbean itinerary in October from about $700. The catch: She had just…
If there is a word for people who behave like terriers, tucking themselves into cramped spaces that would drive others into fits, it probably has not been invented. But it would describe Liz Gilson. Born in France to American parents, Ms. Gilson spent several childhood years living in a stately home in England where she…
On its busiest days, Venice swells with tourists who clog the city’s narrow streets, leave behind piles of garbage and often frustrate locals. So the canal-crossed city is fighting back. Starting on April 25, and for another 29 days scattered mostly around national holidays and weekends through mid-July, day trippers to the historic part of…
Like many single people attending friends’ weddings, Alexandra Telford Dale and Patrick John Kohout were each given a rundown of eligible guests attending the June 4, 2022, nuptials of John O’Malley and Samantha Pelcher in Manchester, Vt. For whatever reason, though, “They left us off each other’s lists,” said Mr. Kohout, an account executive at…
Though Tanya Tanwar Sareen’s brother died in 2015, she feels he had a hand in introducing her to her future husband. “Taj helped put us in each other’s path,” she said. “He probably got tired of my making bad decisions,” she added with a laugh. Maj. Taj Sareen, a jet pilot in the Marine Corps,…
In February 2020, when Krystle-Jayne Mei-Ying Ng first saw the dating app profile of Hanna Sophia Rinderknecht-Mahaffy, one crucial detail struck her: her listed height. Ms. Rinderknecht-Mahaffy’s profile on Her, a dating app for L.G.B.T.Q. women and nonbinary people, said that she was 6-foot-6. For Ms. Ng, who is 5-foot-2, the height difference was a…
In October 2022, Dr. Olivia Arden Sacks’s professional life as a surgical resident was consumed by long hours, an academic paper, and thoughts about her rotation. But amid all the hard work, she had a moment of clarity: Anika Lynn Bieg was the person she wanted to marry. Such precision is “how I make decisions,”…
I name my houseplants after movie characters that die. That way, if they don’t survive, it’s less tragic and more like a plotline. This is all according to my Hinge profile. It’s also real, unlike profiles that embellish (“where’s my happy place? with you gurl”) or lie (“still figuring out my dating goals”). My plants…
Sometimes I receive emails from readers saying that I recommend too many Brooklyn restaurants. Though I disagree, I will admit: That’s where I’ve lived since arriving in New York City, so I think it’s a very special place. When I moved here in 2012, Brooklyn was in the midst of a restaurant renaissance driven by…
If you’re 50 or older and reading this article, chances are you are wearing a pair of inexpensive reading glasses to correct your presbyopia, or farsightedness, the age-related decline in vision that makes it progressively more difficult to see fine print and tiny objects. Eventually, everyone gets the condition. But for nearly a billion people…