Did you know that drinkable chocolate predated the chocolate bar? It’s one of the many historical tidbits dropped for your delectation in “Ottolenghi and the Cakes of Versailles,” a fun documentary directed by Laura Gabbert. In 2018, the renowned Israeli-born chef Yotam Ottolenghi (who contributes a column to The Times’s Food section) was commissioned by…
When we visit my mother, she speaks to me in Hungarian, her native language, in front of my husband who doesn’t understand a word of it. He told me he feels excluded by this because he can’t participate in our conversations. I’ve told my mother her behavior is rude, but she persists, saying, “I am…
Americans have lost more than $145 million to fraud related to the coronavirus, according to the Federal Trade Commission, which said it had fielded more than 200,000 complaints from consumers. Schemes related to the coronavirus peaked in the spring, and they focused on federal stimulus payments and other forms of financial relief, personal protective equipment,…
In speeches, in tweets, in media interviews, President Trump keeps promising that he will preserve protections for Americans with pre-existing health conditions. It’s a crowd-pleaser of a policy, but one entirely at odds with his administration’s legislative, regulatory and legal record to date. In the final weeks of the election season, expect to see the…
Kirk Williams loved racing mountain bikes and “enjoyed playing on anything that had a motor,” he said. Katie Renker, a photographer and musician, chained herself to big pink boats in climate protests and sang songs with refugee choirs. Mr. Williams graduated in 2009 with a degree in sociology from the University of Colorado in Boulder,…
In the travel wreckage caused by the pandemic, home-sharing has emerged as battered, but with a steady pulse, as rental houses became social-distancing refuges for the travel-starved. Home rentals have outperformed hotels in 27 global markets since the onset of Covid-19, according to a report by the hotel benchmarking firm STR and the short-term rental…
“On the one hand, the supermarket is the most banal, mundane place,” said Benjamin Lorr, the author of the new book, “The Secret Life of Groceries: The Dark Miracle of the American Supermarket,” standing in the produce aisle of a Trader Joe’s in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, a short stroll from his apartment. “But sometimes,” he…
While learning this spring that the coronavirus was taking a disproportionate toll on men, I was reading David Lehman’s account of his bladder cancer, a disease that also disproportionately afflicts men. His brilliantly circumspect 2019 memoir, “One Hundred Autobiographies,” reminded me that a conventional model of masculinity inhibits some men from expressing their emotional responses…
Coronavirus should be called the Standard American Diet flu. The diet is perfectly designed to make American’s who’ve dutily followed the food pyramid sick. America is like a hot dog stand. COVID is like Joey Chestnut. We’ve created the perfect backdrop for this disease to thrive. If you build a house out of…
Tel Aviv University researchers suggest that carriers of the genetic mutations PiZ and PiS are at high risk for severe illness and even death from COVID-19. These mutations lead to deficiency in the alpha1-antitrypsin protein, which protects lung tissues from damage in case of severe infections. Other studies have already associated deficiency in this protein…