My Husband Keeps Leaving Me

A month after Andrew proposed to me, he and I went to couples counseling, where, in our first session, he said, “If I have to choose between you and the Army, I choose the Army.” His words knocked the air out of my chest. Five years earlier, on our first date, he had said (after…

Love Italian American Style: That’s Amore

Christopher Joseph Marazzo did the unthinkable one Friday evening in October 2019. He left his bowl of pasta unfinished, and walked over to Rose Angelina Teresa Minutaglio’s booth in the back room at Forlini’s Italian restaurant in Lower Manhattan. “She has this old world beauty, like a black-and-white photo,” said Mr. Marazzo, who turns 33…

An Instant Crush Over Mashed Potatoes

The cardboard cup of mashed potatoes Gustavo Chagas Lopes handed Luke John Robinson III on Oct. 11, 2021, was not meant to be an aphrodisiac. But for Mr. Robinson, something in the way Mr. Lopes, then the manager of the Brooklyn restaurant Sally Roots, had passed them off was spellbinding. “Gustavo is just so striking,”…

Imperfection Is the New Perfection

In high school, when I wanted to purchase a T-shirt with holes intentionally perforated throughout, my mother was appalled. I garnered the same reaction when I bought a pair of jeans pre-shredded within an inch of their life, my mother in disbelief: “Why spend money on something that’s so destroyed?” Courtesy of Miu MiuA detail…