Has this happened to you? You’re going about your day, minding your business. Then you suddenly spot a caring interaction that lifts your spirits, like a couple embracing or a stranger lending a hand to another. These days, the world could use a pick-me-up. Ahead of Valentine’s Day, we asked readers to share when they…
In Victorian England, flowers were sometimes used as a form of coded communication to express feelings that could not be spoken aloud. Each bloom was said to have a specific meaning — for example, daisies conveyed innocence, while tulips were a declaration of love — and a bouquet might be assembled to send a secret…
It is a brutal time to be single — even before Valentine’s Day showed up. The spontaneous whimsy of a regular dating life has been replaced by rolling restrictions, questionable adherence to social-distance protocols and a whole new meaning to “getting tested.” And if you have been in a relationship throughout the past year, you…
In another time, the highly anticipated spring season of Broadway would be beginning. Performers would be dropping their scripts, fans would be planning their show schedules and reviewers would be sharpening their pencils. Sadly, Broadway and many theaters around the world are in the longest pause in history, but an effort to keep the industry…
LONDON — British government scientists are increasingly finding the coronavirus variant first detected in Britain to be deadlier than the original virus, a devastating trend that highlights the serious risks of this new phase of the pandemic. The scientists said last month that there was a “realistic possibility” that the variant was more lethal. Now,…
This obituary is part of a series about people who have died in the coronavirus pandemic. Read about others here. Dr. David Katzenstein may have been a dreamer, “with sometimes brilliant and sometimes slightly off-the-wall ideas,” one colleague said recently. But from the beginning, in a biosphere spawning new undetected and unconstrained killers, he was…
As far as Dr. Anthony S. Fauci can recall, last season was the first time his life was almost completely devoid of watching baseball. “Much to my great pain,” he said in an interview with The New York Times on Friday evening. He added later, “It was just really terrible.” Before the coronavirus pandemic turned…
Chinese scientists refused to share raw data that might bring the world closer to understanding the origins of the coronavirus pandemic, independent investigators for the W.H.O. said on Friday. The investigators, who recently returned from a fact-finding trip to the Chinese city of Wuhan, said disagreements over patient records and other issues were so tense…
A FedEx driver hand-crafting soaps. A hairstylist hawking porkless bao buns. A restaurant manager repurposing denim jackets. The dream of turning a hobby in to a Plan B career is almost a cliché of the gig economy, with countless tips published on selling vintage comic books, brewing beer, playing video games and even telling jokes.…
Ms. Pancochova, a three-time Olympic snowboarder from the Czech Republic, was in the United States training and Ms. Barley, an American, had flown in from Portland, Ore., to visit her. With the United States and Czech borders mutually closed to each other, the women briefly considered walking down the aisle. “For Sarka to get her…