Soon after the pandemic started over a year ago, Americans started joking about the dreaded “quarantine 15,” worried they might gain weight while shut in homes with stockpiles of food, glued to computer screens and binge-watching Netflix. The concern is real, but assessing the problem’s scope has been a challenge. Surveys that simply ask people…
Good morning. Melissa Clark and I were talking the other night about our freezers, because that is what people who work in the food game do, and she casually mentioned that she had a bag of chicken hearts in hers, just as I may have said there was a pork butt and a bag of…
Golf has soared in popularity in the Middle East and North Africa, from Algeria to Qatar. But one country in the region has a sizable head start: Morocco. The sport has been here since the British exported it in the early years of the 20th century. But it gained momentum in the midcentury, thanks to…
Fonio, a cereal grain imported from West Africa, was once relegated to the shelves of tiny grocery stores frequented by immigrants primarily from Senegal and Mali. But it has gradually made its way to Whole Foods, where pouches decorated with a painted map of Africa are nestled amid packages of rice and lentils, aimed at…
A daybed is a multifunctional piece of furniture that solves a lot of problems, especially in a small home: In a remote-work space, it can serve as a sofa or ottoman. And when you have overnight guests, it turns that same space into a bedroom. But choosing the right one can be tricky, as daybeds…
For those with the disorder, when an alternate identity takes over, the person may lose track of time and have no memory of what the other personality did while it was “out.” Ms. Marshall said one woman she treated had an alternate personality who was a shoplifter and when she reverted to her main identity,…
The photographer Anne Geddes has had a long and prolific career, but she is perhaps best known for “Down in the Garden,” a 1996 coffee-table book featuring tiny babies adorably (or tweely, depending on your perspective) tucked into unlikely horticultural scenarios, as if they’re hiding by chance in someone’s flower bed. Perhaps you’ve seen these…
Menthol is a substance found in mint plants, and it can also be synthesized in a lab. It creates a cooling sensation in tobacco products and masks the harshness of the smoke, making it more tolerable. Some studies have shown that menthol also acts as a mild anesthetic. Back in 1953, when menthol was not…
Sarah Govier, a health care worker in England who experienced parosmia after getting Covid-19, created Covid Anosmia/Parosmia Support Group over the summer. “The day I opened it in August, five or six people joined,” she said. “By January we hit 10,000 people.” Now it has nearly 16,000 members. Another Facebook group, AbScent, which was started…
The new stimulus bill made tens of millions of Americans eligible for new health insurance subsidies. But many will have to wait to get help: It will probably take a year for the full emergency aid to reach people, because of website complications and other logistical problems. President Biden has promoted the subsidies as fulfilling…