I go to college in New York City and live with my best friend. She’s from here; I’m not. I Googled her parents recently (for fully innocent reasons). I knew they were wealthier than my middle-class family, but I had no idea they were buy-a-record-price-penthouse-and-make-the-headlines rich! I was shocked: My friend is humble and avoids…
The cancer that has struck Alex Trebek, the 78-year-old host of the television quiz show “Jeopardy!,” is uncommon and devastating: a Stage 4 malignancy of the pancreas, the insulin-producing organ that lies behind the stomach. Pancreatic cancer strikes about 55,000 people each year in the United States, accounting for 3 percent of all cancers but…
Exposure to secondhand smoke increases the risk for chronic kidney disease, a new study has found. Korean researchers studied 131,196 nonsmokers, dividing them into three groups: those who had more than three days a week of exposure to secondhand smoke; those who had less than three days a week; and those with no exposure at…
El Espace is a column dedicated to news and culture relevant to Latinx communities. Expect politics, arts, analysis, personal essays and more. ¿Lo mejor? It’ll be in Spanish and English, so you can forward it to your tía, your primo Lalo or anyone else (read: everyone). Let me know if any of these sound familiar:…
The world’s longest reigning monarch has already emailed and tweeted, and on Thursday she passed a new milestone by publishing her first post on Instagram. Wearing a bright tangerine coat with a matching hat, Queen Elizabeth II stepped up to a glass lectern, removed a long black glove and gently tapped “share” on an iPad.…
A viral fever is a higher-than-average body temperature that a virus causes. Often, a person will experience symptoms that may include a runny nose, coughing, nausea, fatigue, and body aches. While not every person experiences a fever when they have a virus, a fever can be a sign that the body is trying to fight…
The assignment was to write a four-page research paper on any biology topic. My son, Sebastian, is a high school freshman, and it was his first real chance to shine. I expected him to pick something like photosynthesis. He went with psychedelic drugs instead. Let me tell you what would have happened if I had…
Send questions about the office, money, careers and work-life balance to workfriend@nytimes.com. Include your name and location, even if you want them withheld. Letters may be edited. Only the Early Bird Isn’t the Worm As a freelance writer, I work from home. Many of my “work associates” are either (A) people who email me ideas…
The link between statin use and the development of Type 2 diabetes may be even stronger than previously believed, a new study suggests. Researchers prospectively studied 8,567 men and women whose average age was 64. All were free of diabetes and not taking statins when the study started. In a follow-up of up to 15…
Just before dinner is over at Pirosmani in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, the waiter will clear everyone’s plates, and first-timers may worry that the kitchen has forgotten about that order of Georgian dumplings. But fresh, spotless plates are a requirement for enjoying the baseball-size khinkali; they serve as a test of one’s dumpling-eating skills. “You have…