Archivists in Washington, D.C., made a timely discovery this week: the original handwritten Union Army record of an order that brought emancipation to enslaved people in Texas at the end of the Civil War. General Order No. 3 was read aloud by a Union officer, Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger, in Galveston on June 19, 1865,…
Name: Leo Sheng Age: 24 Hometown: Born in Hunan, China and raised in Ypsilanti, Mich. Now lives: In a four-bedroom house in the Mid-City neighborhood of Los Angeles that he shares with roommates. Claim to fame: Mr. Sheng is a Chinese-American actor and transgender activist who stars in “The L Word: Generation Q,” a reboot…
Riana Pfefferkorn once considered marriage “a pit that’s easy to fall into and hard to crawl back out of.” “Why pay a lot for a wedding, and more for the divorce, for something that might end in tears?” said Ms. Pfefferkorn, 38, a native of the Bay Area. “Better to stay single and have an…
[Sign up here to receive Love Letter, a weekly newsletter about relationship highs, lows and woes, in your inbox every Friday.] Father’s Day isn’t always a happy occasion. There are many children and adults for which this holiday reminds them of the absence of a father or father figure. In this week’s Modern Love essay,…
“Tell me what you’re thinking?” For as long as she can remember, Katie Rappaport has enjoyed asking that question whenever she noticed that a family member or friend had drifted into deep thought. “It’s a great conversation starter, just ask James,” said Ms. Rappaport, 33, a creative director in New York for Condé Nast. She…
ROME — For centuries, in a picturesque Tuscan town near the Mediterranean coast, legions of pilgrims came to venerate one of Christendom’s most treasured relics — an eight-foot-tall wooden crucifix known as the “Volto Santo de Lucca.” According to the legend, “The Holy Face of Lucca” had been sculpted by a divine hand and remained…
Hello, it’s Emily, and welcome to Five Weeknight Dishes. As of tomorrow, summer is here. The local gems of the season aren’t, though, at least not where I am in the Northeast — no corn, no tomatoes, no blueberries, not yet. But aren’t you ready to eat them anyway? I am ready to eat them…
It began in mid-March. Every time Michael D. L. Johnson checked his email, the University of Arizona microbiologist would find a new batch of messages, all asking the same question: Will products made with copper keep the coronavirus at bay? “I was getting three to four emails about it a day,” Dr. Johnson said. Some…
Dustin Schneider made quite an impression with Lindsay Hirsch in December 2018, when he complimented a photo of Ms. Hirsch dressed as Ariel from Disney’s “The Little Mermaid,” that was posted on the dating app, the League. “I was super excited,” said Ms. Hirsch, now 31, who was then living with her mother, Marilyn Kahn…
Picture the day — in six months, a year and a half or in 2023 — when university researchers or a pharmaceutical company announces a breakthrough against the virus that causes Covid-19. Maybe it’s a successful vaccine or an effective treatment, a discovery that brings hope and relief — especially to the older adults most…