Renewed Life and Joy After Tragedy

When it came to romance, Karen Soltero adhered to two strict guidelines: “Don’t get involved with someone whose hair is nicer or longer than yours, and don’t date anyone you could have potentially given birth to.” So in April 2018, when Ms. Soltero found herself chatting with Andres Peña, whose hair was twisted into a…

This Is Your New Biscuit Recipe

Good morning. Tejal Rao introduced a radical new biscuit technique in The New York Times Magazine this week, and delivered a recipe to go along with it for a tomato cobbler (above) that you should absolutely make as soon as you can. It comes from the gifted mind of Nicole Rucker, the Los Angeles pastry…

Could Your House Be an Instagram Star?

Erin Vogelpohl has tried mixing darker blues and greens into the décor of her five-bedroom house in Dallas, but they don’t play well with her 447,000 Instagram followers. So she sticks with a soft blush palette, the millennial pink that is ubiquitous on Instagram, and in her living room. For home-décor Instagram influencers like Ms.…

Sex and the Subway Ad

There is so much sex on the New York City subway now. Have you noticed? If you’re here, you must have. It’s inescapable. Sometimes, train stations are just coated in phallic cactuses. They jut out in every direction, advertising a company called Hims that sells not plants, but pills to help treat hair loss and…

How I Came to Own My Name

Lauren is my name, and always has been — or so I thought until one afternoon just before I turned 30. Over turkey sandwiches, my oldest sister, Missy, and I discussed what our names might have been. “Mom was going to name you Amy Beth,” I said. Missy nodded. “And how crazy is it that…