After years of renting, Jackson Owens and Flora Jin bought a loft in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, and it felt like the stuff of dreams. A week or so later, it was more like a nightmare. A few floors above them there was a gas leak, then an explosion. When the sprinklers came on, many of the…
The Alabama Supreme Court has opened a new front in the legal debate over when human life begins. Embryos created and stored in a medical facility must be considered children under the state’s law governing harmful death, the court ruled. Friday’s ruling was cheered by anti-abortion activists nationwide, who have long argued that life begins…
For water to freeze, it must first be super-chilled — that is, chilled below 32 degrees Fahrenheit. Only then does it undergo a phase change from liquid to solid: Its structure transforms from a loosely bound mass of flowing molecules into crystalline aggregates with a strict, regular alignment. These aggregate crystals in frozen foods can…
Of all the wildly popular American takes on Italian cuisine (spaghetti and meatballs; fettuccine Alfredo; chicken Parmesan), the latest to go viral is lasagna soup, thanks to one TikTok user with a Lego set and a thing for pasta. Christina Morales got the whole story for The New York Times, and naturally we have the…
“Throw the keys through the kiosk’s open window. We’ll get the car when we open later”: Those slightly unorthodox drop-off instructions I once received from a Hertz manager in Croatia illustrate some of the differences U.S. travelers might encounter when renting a car abroad. It pays to familiarize yourself with the local policies and protocols…
Memphis. Atlanta. Birmingham. There are certain American cities that are known for Black history. But African American history and culture can, of course, be found across the United States, in seemingly unlikely cities, like Portland, Maine, say, or Providence, R.I. Many of these places are included in the National Park Service’s Network to Freedom Program,…
I live my truest life in that hour from 12 a.m. to 1 a.m., in the spirit of a spaghettata di mezzanotte, a late-night Italian spaghetti party, which often evolves (or devolves, depending on how you look at it) from the kind of evening that wants to linger. It’s one of the few things in…
When you think about lace, “modern” probably isn’t the first word that comes to mind. The centuries-old fabric, made by looping, twisting or knitting thread into various open-weave patterns, is more likely to evoke images of quaint cottage curtains or your grandmother’s bridal veil. But now, more and more young designers are incorporating the ethereal…
Q: I’ve heard this phrase for years: “Beer before liquor, never been sicker.” But is it true? They’re familiar mantras of college students or anyone eager to avoid a hangover: “Beer before liquor, never been sicker”; “Grape or grain, but never the twain”; “Beer before wine and you’ll feel fine.” People have long been trying…
On Feb. 22, 1797, while George Washington celebrated his 65th birthday at a ball in Philadelphia, his celebrated chef, Hercules Posey, slipped from the meager enslaved quarters at Mount Vernon, the president’s Virginia estate. Stepping into the damp night under the light of a waning moon, he found his freedom, only to be lost to…
