The Great Pandemic Wedding Boom

If the world is ending, who do you want by your side? Nancy Townsend selected Herb Thomas: A man she met for lunch in early March, whom she FaceTimed later that month, dined with (outdoors) in April, and got engaged to the week after Easter. They married Sept. 6, 2020 at the Harriet Wetherill Park…

Yes, People Are Smoking More

Maria Neuman blames Netflix. “Last night, I blistered through seven cigarettes because I was watching a movie,” said Ms. Neuman, 51, a freelance writer who lives in the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles. “It’s bad enough that I started smoking again during a pandemic. Now, I’m smoking inside.” Milo Martin, a poet in Los…

Super Bowl in Quarantine

Welcome. The Super Bowl is on Sunday, and like so much else these days, it looks different from previous years’: players tested daily, the stadium filled to just one-third its capacity, fans socially distanced and wearing masks. Whether you’re tuning in for the game; for The Weeknd’s halftime performance, on a stage set up in…

Low Effort, Big Reward

Hello and welcome to Five Weeknight Dishes. These days, I find myself swinging from wanting to cook beyond the boundaries of my routine and wanting to cook whatever requires the least effort. (I also order more pizza delivery than I ever have in my life, and I love it.) Last week, breaking the routine meant…

It’s Not Every Day We Get a New Blue

Nautical, mystical and the de facto shade of several social networks, blue is a color that has deep cultural cachet, while being nearly impossible to find in nature. The blues that abound in nature — a butterfly, a navy beetle, even blue eyes — are not natively blue, according to scientists, but instead are reflections…