In the summer of 2001, seven months pregnant and working in a research lab in Iowa City, I signed up for an eight-week fiction-writing class taught by James Alan McPherson. I turned in my very first short story, “Immortality,” which Jim enthused about in class, though I was too inexperienced to understand his excitement. I […]
Read MoreTag: Content Type: Personal Profile
Alicia Keys Steps Into a New Spotlight
“I really do,” she said. She explained that with previous projects, “I didn’t start out right, but kind of ended up right.” But this time, she said, “I didn’t want to go out and get too diluted and get too many partners. We have all the right partners, all the right minds. It’s the right […]
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Haters, Waiters, Fools and Buffoons: Eric Adams Rates His Critics
At a high school in Southeast Queens, not far from where he grew up, Mayor Eric Adams began addressing the crowd at a community conversation. Introductory pleasantries quickly yielded to complaints of indignities the mayor said he has suffered, and he began excoriating his critics, mostly unnamed. Except for one. “Let me tell you what’s […]
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Book Review: ‘Going Infinite,’ by Michael Lewis
GOING INFINITE: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon, by Michael Lewis Reading “Going Infinite,” Michael Lewis’s strange new book about the disgraced crypto entrepreneur Sam Bankman-Fried, you soon get the sense that Lewis felt unusually flummoxed by his material. Among the reliable pleasures offered by a Michael Lewis book are his formidable storytelling […]
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What to Know About Laphonza Butler, Newsom’s Appointee to the Senate
Laphonza Butler, president of Emily’s List and a former labor leader, is Gov. Gavin Newsom of California’s choice to fill the Senate seat of Dianne Feinstein, who died at 90 on Thursday in Washington, D.C. The selection was announced on Sunday. Though Ms. Butler, 44, has never held elective political office, she has been a […]
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Secretary of State Blinken Plays the Guitar to Launch “Music Diplomacy” Initiative
It’s usually not a good sign when video of a senior government official singing goes viral on social media, where the crowds are as tough as they come. But when Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken picked up a black Fender guitar at a State Department event on Wednesday night and joined a band for […]
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Kati Kariko Helped Shield the World From the Coronavirus
She grew up in Hungary, daughter of a butcher. She decided she wanted to be a scientist, although she had never met one. She moved to the United States in her 20s, but for decades never found a permanent position, instead clinging to the fringes of academia. Now Katalin Kariko, 66, known to colleagues as […]
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The Honey Pot: What’s Behind the Rise of the New Feminine Care Brand
On a recent July evening in Midtown Manhattan, a trio of teenage girls swooped into the feminine care aisle at Target. Skipping over the boxes of Always and Tampax tampons, they made a beeline to a shelf with sanitary pads from the Honey Pot Company. One asked her friend if she was going to pick […]
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Gwyneth Paltrow Looks Back at 15 Years of Goop and More: ‘Don’t Put Me on Truth Serum.’
“I don’t think that anybody thinks I actually operate my company,” Gwyneth Paltrow said. Ms. Paltrow, an actress and the founder and chief executive of Goop, was draped horizontally over a chair in the living room of her home in Amagansett, N.Y., in late July. “I think people think I’m the figurehead,” she said. “I […]
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Book Review: ‘How to Say Babylon,’ by Safiya Sinclair
HOW TO SAY BABYLON: A Memoir, by Safiya Sinclair The unclean woman. It’s an archetype Safiya Sinclair ponders when she’s 5, terrified of becoming one and perhaps already sensing the inevitability. We are in a Jamaican fishing village called White House where Sinclair’s young parents, Djani and Esther, nurture a dream: to build a virtuous […]
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Onstage, Michael Gambon’s Depth Transcended the Unspoken
Even in silence, he thundered. Make that, especially in silence. The last two times I saw the mighty Michael Gambon onstage, his characters didn’t have much to say, and in one case, nothing at all. Both the plays in which this British actor, who died on Wednesday at the age of 82, was appearing on […]
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How Dumbledore Became Michael Gambon’s Most Recognizable Role
In the latter part of Michael Gambon’s long and storied acting career, some of the most animated analyses of his performances could be found not in theater or film reviews, but in forums for the “Harry Potter” fandom, where dedicated Hogwarts obsessives would dissect his every onscreen utterance as the wizard Albus Dumbledore. It wasn’t […]
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Near the Catskills, a Rustic Estate Recast as an Artists’ Retreat
After splitting their time between London and the foothills of the Catskill Mountains for over 20 years, the celebrated British artists Gary Hume and Georgie Hopton are saying goodbye to their expansive estate in Accord, N.Y. Ms. Hopton, 56, described the decades of having two lives — one fast-paced in a cosmopolitan city, another slow […]
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Enough About Gram Parsons’s Death. It’s Time to Celebrate His Music.
Parsons’s best album, though, is also the one I find most difficult to listen to: his second solo effort, “Grievous Angel,” released posthumously in 1974, full of darkness but also Harris’s luminous backing vocals. Sometimes “Grievous Angel” just makes me angry, because his early death means we’ll never know if he could have written a […]
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Yuki Tsunoda: The Potty-Mouthed Japanese F1 Racer Who Became a Cult Star
The pressure was on Yuki Tsunoda. Within days, he would compete in a Formula 1 race in his home country, Japan. Bad luck had forced him out of two previous races minutes before the start, and speculation was rife that he might be demoted after some disappointing performances. Yet at a fan event in central […]
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Hollyanne Milley’s Career Presses On as Her Husband’s Wraps Up
On an unseasonably warm night in February, dinner guests at Gen. Mark A. Milley’s Virginia home were wondering, a bit nervously, what could possibly be going on. General Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had been called away once, twice, three times, retreating upstairs to a secure room to consult with other […]
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General Mark Milley’s Term Had It All
“When there’s an opportunity to negotiate, when peace can be achieved, seize it,” he says. The remarks cause a furor: Ukrainians worry that the Biden administration is preparing to abandon them, and White House officials scramble to reassure them that U.S. support remains solid. Feb. 11, 2023 The text from a reporter comes to General […]
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Wes Anderson on Roald Dahl and ‘The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar’
Fifteen years ago, while the director Wes Anderson was adapting Roald Dahl’s “Fantastic Mr. Fox” into a stop-motion animated film, the author’s widow, Felicity, asked whether he saw cinematic potential in any of Dahl’s other tales. One came immediately to Anderson’s mind: “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar,” a short Dahl published in 1977 about […]
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As Menendez’s Star Rose, Fears of Corruption Cast a Persistent Shadow
Robert Menendez’s education in political corruption came unusually early. In 1982, he turned against his mentor, Mayor William V. Musto of Union City, N.J., the popular leader of their gritty hometown. Mr. Menendez took the witness stand and testified that city officials had pocketed kickbacks on construction projects, helping to put a man many considered […]
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Striking U.A.W. Workers’ Views p Industry Vary by Generation
On Friday morning just before 10, Steve Kellums, 54, and his son Keegan, 24, sat side by side in the older man’s living room in Westland, Mich., a short drive from the Ford Motor assembly plant where they both work. One week into the strike by 3,300 workers at the plant, they were anxiously awaiting […]
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Levi’s Heir Daniel Lurie to Challenge San Francisco Mayor London Breed
Daniel Lurie, an heir to the Levi Strauss clothing fortune, announced on Tuesday that he would run against Mayor London Breed of San Francisco next year, at a time when the city is struggling to overcome a number of crises in its downtown core. Mr. Lurie, 46, planned to launch his campaign Tuesday at a […]
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A Mass Shooting Survivor Relives Trauma During Back-to-School Season
“Welcome to Helena Middle School!” the principal, Cal Boyle, was saying to her now, on the evening before the first day of school, as Brenda and her family arrived for a walk-through with all the new students. Caleb wanted to practice opening his locker and meet a few of his teachers. Brenda trailed a few […]
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After 3 Decades, Kelly Wearstler Remains a Celebrity in Interior Design
But when it came to defining her style, she resisted labeling it. Instead, she said, “I’m constantly moving forward and pushing myself — I don’t want to repeat myself.” “As a designer, I’m a free spirit,” she said. “It’s like a moving target.” Amy Astley, the editor of Architectural Digest, said that it was hard […]
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Does Robert Menendez Have Enough Teflon to Survive Again?
In a state long attuned to the drumbeat of political corruption — salacious charges, furious denials, explosive trials — Senator Robert Menendez has often registered as the quintessential New Jersey politician. He successfully avoided charges in one case, and after federal prosecutors indicted him in another, he got off after a mistrial in 2017. “To […]
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Gael García Bernal and Perla Valtierra on Making Work That Lasts
“Design and craft are, for the most part, completely foreign to me,” says the Mexican actor and producer Gael García Bernal, 44. But when he encountered the work of the 39-year-old Mexico City-based ceramist Perla Valtierra, he felt an immediate connection. Combining a traditional Mexican aesthetic and materials with a Japanese-influenced perspective — Valtierra lived […]
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The Year Lou Reed Gave Up on Music
“Loaded,” the Velvet Underground album Reed had been working on, was released in late September, and he was startled when he heard it. There had been some changes from what he’d recalled as the final recordings. The incantatory coda to “New Age” had been shortened, and the bridge to “Sweet Jane” had been cut entirely, […]
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India’s ‘Lake Man’ Relies on Ancient Methods to Ease a Water Crisis
After Anand Malligavad tumbled into a lake, he thought he might die. Not from drowning, but the stench. Like hundreds of other lakes in the southern Indian city of Bengaluru, the one Mr. Malligavad suddenly found himself in was a receptacle for sewage, plastic debris and construction waste. His unplanned dip happened in 2017, when […]
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A Former Hockey Enforcer Searches for Answers on C.T.E. Before It’s Too Late
Page 68 of Boston University’s Hope Study questionnaire asks, “Have you ever injured your head or neck in a fight or been hit by someone?” For Chris Nilan, a simple yes could never convey the whole story. The answer stretches out over 300 bare-knuckle fights as a professional hockey player, and countless other brawls on […]
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Jimmy Carter’s Final Chapter: Peanut Butter Ice Cream and His 99th Birthday
Maybe it’s the peanut butter ice cream he still enjoys. Or the fact that his first-place Atlanta Braves are cruising toward the playoffs and he wants to see another World Series. Or as many of his loved ones and former advisers suggest, maybe he is just too stubborn to follow anyone else’s timetable. Whatever the […]
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Christine Quinn Still Wants to Be Mayor. Will Her Work Stop Her?
Christine C. Quinn was impatient. The leader of New York City’s largest provider of shelter for homeless families with children, she peered over her fuchsia reading glasses at her team, assembled in a conference room, and rattled off a list of instructions. It was a few weeks after she had helped persuade the City Council […]
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Julia Allison, Pioneering Influencer, Finds Love With Law Scholar Noah Feldman
Still, there was an acculturation process — particularly for Mr. Feldman, who is not really the dance-like-no-one-is-watching type. To begin with, Ms. Allison was immersed in a scene, centered on Burning Man, about which Mr. Feldman knew nothing. “Many of Julia’s friends have jobs I didn’t know existed until I met Julia,” Mr. Feldman said. […]
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