Twenty stuffed animals lay ominously shoulder-to-shoulder on their bellies in a perfect circle on the floor. My 11-year-old daughter, Mary, sat in the middle, as though performing some esoteric ritual. I was used to such tableaus. Mary’s stuffed animals were more than things she held at night. They were patients in her veterinary practice, students…
“Believe it or not, your next home could be in a dentist’s office,” a popular shelter magazine declared, referring to underused New York City commercial buildings that were being turned into apartments. The year was 1979, and the magazine was Apartment Life, a monthly dedicated to young Americans who had moved out of their college…
In a curious way, the Oscars are the culture’s yearbook. For nearly a century, the class heroes have annually paraded in front of the cameras for us to measure and judge, giving us an unexpected snapshot of shifts in our mores and expectations. And one of the delights of paging through Dijanna Mulhearn’s “Red Carpet…
When I first contacted Delia Barry, she asked to be called back later. It was a Wednesday afternoon in Greystones, Ireland, where she lives, and she was playing bingo. “It’s just more of a social gathering for local senior citizens, which I am one of,” Ms. Barry, 83, said by telephone. When not at bingo,…
Nora Achmaoui made the first move on Khalid Alherani in September 2021 in typical Gen Z fashion: She liked two of his pictures on Instagram after finding his profile on her explore page. Although they disagree on what exactly happened next — she said he immediately liked her “whole feed,” while he claimed that could…
Khushboo Chaudhary was just stopping by a friend’s party in the East Village in March 2019 when she spotted Param Gupta, the man she had been talking with on Hinge. They had first matched on Coffee Meets Bagel in January 2019, and shortly after, on Hinge. After they matched for the second time, he reached…
When Courtney Mashaye Smith told Andrew Jordan Fede that he seemed like someone who would be in business for himself, he felt seen in a way he had never experienced. “I felt that Courtney really gets who I am and what I want to do, and wouldn’t mind being bold with me,” he said. The…
Kirsten Paige Erwin said she felt an immediate sense of calm on her first date with Ricardo Kozuchowicz in March 2017. The two met for dinner at the Saint, a now-closed Mexican restaurant in Seattle, after connecting on a dating app. But while their easy connection was developing, so was Mr. Kozuchowicz’s struggle to secure…
Before you ask, BORG — which is pronounced like the aliens from “Star Trek” — is an acronym for “blackout rage gallon.” The drink going by this name is a mixture of water, alcohol, sweet flavorings and some hangover remedy, like Liquid I.V. or Pedialyte. The concoction has become increasingly popular on college campuses across…
Fashion weeks have been happening around the world for almost two straight months. They started with the men’s wear shows in January, which were followed by the couture shows, which were followed by the four consecutive fashion weeks in New York, London, Milan and Paris. (Somehow, Copenhagen managed to squeeze in its fashion week during…