A Proposal Seven Years in the Making

Mitchell Jay Karp’s marriage proposal to Barry Katz was not a simple affair. There were opera singers, a silver rose and a tremendous amount of planning. “Here’s the most amazing thing,” Mr. Karp said. “I have the biggest mouth of anyone I know and told absolutely no one about this except my therapist. There are…

After a Nudge from Aziz Ansari, a First Date

“He was a trooper,” Ms. Davis said. “The fact that he was willing to do that just meant everything.” That December, she moved in with him, into his studio apartment in San Francisco’s Marina District. “We’d talked probably earlier than most would about living together,” he said, adding that Ms. Davis had jokingly resisted at…

The People’s Republic of Shein

PLANO, Texas — There was some desperation in the air at the indoor mall where Shein had opened a pop-up store. A security guard posted at the entrance said that on each of the three days the pop-up was in business, he’d turned down about 20 bribes from people looking to skip the line. Often…