LONDON — “You ask me what life is,” wrote the great Russian playwright Anton Chekhov. “That’s like asking what a carrot is. A carrot is a carrot, and there’s nothing more to know.” Well, Anton, I think there’s a lot more that can be said and known about the matter. Almost everyone loves a carrot,…
During a quick swing through Utah last spring, I texted my husband a photo from a ski area of rock- and tree-lined steeps. “Is that Snowbird or Alta?” he responded. His guess was good, but he was about 70 miles off. I was at Snowbasin in northern Utah, a 45-minute drive from Salt Lake City.…
LONDON — In 1139 Archbishop Malachy of Armagh supposedly had a vision of the future that became known as the “prophesy of popes.” In it, the Irish saint predicted the names of 112 pontiffs who would rule until the end of days. Though it was later shown to be a 16th-century forgery, the second to…
Katie Collins – PA ImagesGetty Images This London Fashion Week, a hail storm hit so hard, they actually gave it a name: Dennis, like the menace or the basketball player who hangs in North Korea. There were deep puddles outside Buckingham Palace, and deep crowds in front of tiny doors to fashion shows. We wore…
We’re all creatures of habit. We tend to wake up at the same time each day, brush our teeth, have morning coffee and commute to work, following the same patterns every day. So why is it so hard to form new healthy habits? Behavioral scientists who study habit formation say that many of us try…
Selenis Leyva barely set foot out of the Bronx until she was accepted at Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. “I specifically remember walking around the neighborhood near school and wondering what it would be like to live in one of those…
After Robert Alexander died at 51 during heart surgery in June 2018, after he was taken from the hospital to the facility that would recover the tissue and bone he had donated, he was brought to his uncle’s farm in Hinton, Okla., where his six siblings, his mother and other family members and friends had…
Parents of adolescents are often confronted by a puzzling sequence of events. First, teenagers bring us their problems; second, we earnestly offer suggestions and solutions; and third, teenagers dismiss our ideas as irritating, irrelevant or both. These moments feel ripe for connection. Why do they so often turn sour? Almost always, it’s because we’re not…
“Here is your gown,” the nurse had said as she handed over a cotton frock. After hours in the hectic emergency room, we arrived in my mother’s hospital room. My mother quickly assured her that she would not be needing it. She knew she was sick; she did not need the gown to confirm it.…
HONG KONG — “It’s like World War III,” said May Tang, an employee at the Kit Pharm Dispensary Ltd. in Hong Kong. As panic over the coronavirus outbreak has swept across the city, residents have taken to waiting in line for hours to buy face masks, disinfectant and even toilet paper from places like Kit…