Not Your Pre-Pandemic Las Vegas

A decade ago, after a rained-out Thanksgiving desert camping trip with our five kids, my wife, Kristin, and I headed to the nearest available lodging, the now-shuttered Hard Rock Casino in Las Vegas. Watching our brood eat their Thanksgiving meal as cigarette smoke and slot-machine clamor wafted over their cheeseburgers, Kristin and I locked eyes…

A Clear Connection Leads to Marriage

Elizabeth Conway and Kyle Manley were brought together in an old-fashioned sort of way. Theirs was not a relationship born of perusing profiles online, but rather by the improbable pairing of two people who filled a conversation had by longtime friends who frequently get “on the line,” with each other, as Ms. Conway put it.…

The Mystery Text That Sparked a Romance

If it were not for Christian Zavala’s spontaneity and bravery, he and John Berno would not have met. The two matched in March 2017 on Scruff. For two months hellos and niceties were occasionally exchanged. “Christian was stunningly beautiful,” said Mr. Berno, 38, a psychotherapist in private practice in Manhattan. “I was intimidated. I dodged…

Welcome to the Space Jam, Again

Every three hours, every day, for the past seven and a half years, an anxious, spirited Twitter bot has transmitted a short message of perseverance and hope into the universe. “The Space Jam website is still online,” it tweets. Or: “Hooray! Space Jam is still online!” To date, the bot, @SpaceJamCheck, has assured a changing…