A week after Wesley Drew Wheeler was laid off from his job writing catalog copy at the music company BMG a woman he had hoped to connect with on the dating site Lavalife sent him a wink. The layoff, announced on Halloween 2007, felt like an unusually unkind trick. “I’m trying to go out with…
As one country after another succumbed to outbreaks this year, China kept the coronavirus at bay, buying valuable time to prepare for the inevitable: a variant of the virus so shifty and contagious that China, too, would struggle to contain it. But rather than laying the groundwork for that scenario, China stepped up its commitment…
Alison Grace Ramos and Taylor Joseph Vogel met in study hall in 2008 while they were student athletes at the University of Southern California. Ms. Ramos, a member of the women’s tennis team, would frequently have a supporter at her matches in Mr. Vogel, who played on the men’s golf team. “The men’s golf and…
“How much was it?” she asked. “Free,” I said. Even in death, my relatives, like many Chinese people, don’t stop thinking about money. This year, the same as every year, my family made the pilgrimage to Wong Tai Sin Temple, where my grandfather’s ashes are stored in a columbarium. We headed to a table in…
Robert Richardson Flaherty Jr. and Carla Susanne Frank were on their way to work one morning in April 2015 when they recognized each other on a Metro train at L’Enfant Plaza in Washington. Both were headed to jobs at the Democratic National Committee. Although their teams didn’t interact — he was in communications, she in…
The Times’s fashion director casts a discerning eye on this peculiar holiday tradition.
“They might not be dead,” he said. “But their dreams of striking it rich in crypto definitely are.” The screens at his back showed the football player Odell Beckham Jr., who announced in November 2021 that he would take his salary in Bitcoin, shortly before its value began to plummet. Then came the boxer Floyd…
Is it thinkable now? This week, my colleague Paul Krugman wrote that the protests were a sign that “China lost the Covid war,” emphasizing that, despite appearances early in the pandemic, democracies now seem to have definitely outperformed autocracies, and calling on Chinese leaders to recognize the error of their ways and change course. In…
On Thursday, Pantone announced its 2023 color of the year: Viva Magenta. A hue with a lust for life. Not the aggressive synthetic of Barbie, not the intense luxury of Valentino’s couture, not the tired millennial salmon, but as the New York Times critic at large Jason Farago put it, “a saturated shade honking at…
Courtesy + Design Leah Romero If there’s one trend that reigned supreme in 2022, it might be the Y2K renaissance. The early aughts are certainly back, and there’s no shortage of proof. Britney Spears is on the radio again, George Lopez has returned to television, and Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez actually tied the knot…