I peered into the glossy box trembling in Sam’s hands. Inside sat an oval-cut diamond engagement ring. Hand-engraved leaves and milgrain edges detailed the rose gold band, while a baguette and two smaller diamonds hugged both sides of the center stone. The ring was immaculately designed, flawlessly constructed and not at all me. “How did…
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My good friend, who is white, is raising her young biracial daughter as a single mother. She is a loving mom, but in my opinion, she has not given enough thought to helping her daughter form a healthy self-image as a person of color. My friend is not a racist, but she was raised in…
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Courtesy As the denim editor of ELLE, I’m constantly searching for the best jeans. And as someone who is 5’8” (five inches taller than the nation’s average), I know the challenge of finding a pair that fits my long legs all too well. In the interest of research (and the job!) I’ve tried almost every…
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LONDON — Nearly 170 million children worldwide, including more than 2.5 million in the United States and half a million in Britain, missed out on the first dose of the measles vaccine during the past eight years, opening the door to global outbreaks of the disease, a Unicef report said on Thursday. “The ground for…
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Send questions about the office, money, careers and your total fantasy of work-life balance to workfriend@nytimes.com. Include your name and location, even if you want them withheld. Letters may be edited. Family Fudge It I’m a young mother working for a company that prides itself on being “family friendly.” Nonetheless, I was pressured into work…
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Americans are among the most stressed people in the world, according to a new survey. And that’s just the start of it. Last year, Americans reported feeling stress, anger and worry at the highest levels in a decade, according to the survey, part of an annual Gallup poll of more than 150,000 people around the…
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Knives are a strange breed. Most people don’t really feel one way or another about them, but there is also the fact that some people love them while there are others who go out of their way to stay as far away from them as possible. Sure, the people in the latter group are not…
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Matt Haag wasn’t exactly dressing to impress during his teenage years on the competitive Call of Duty circuit. The 26-year-old recalled, sheepishly, the basketball shorts and Payless kicks he wore on flights to tournaments around the country back in 2008. All of his gamer friends and teammates looked the same way: schlubby. But in the…
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The most common cause of injury deaths in babies under a year old is unintentional suffocation, and almost all of these deaths are preventable, a new report found. Researchers used a federal government case registry to look at the causes of infant deaths by injury between 2011 and 2014. Of 1,812 sudden and unexpected infant…
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CRICCIETH, Wales — Everyone here seems to know Jan Morris, even the waitress at the local fish restaurant. “Have you met Jan before?” she asks as Morris materializes from what, due to a trick of the light, looks to be the ocean itself, clouds of white hair wafting and fluffing around her face. Morris is…
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