Author: NY TIMES

Sarah Jornsay-Silverberg, who lives in Lisbon and owns a graphic design business, said writing parody songs is a longtime passion of hers, and she often pens tunes to honor friends and family for big life events. Among her greatest hits is “My Dad Lee” to the tune of “Let It Be,” which she performed for Father’s Day, complete with ukulele accompaniment.To be sure, they are not the only set of sisters to use the “Hamilton” song at a real life wedding. On YouTube, you’ll find several other women who have performed their own renditions about their beloved brides. (There’s a…

Mikayla Blakes timed her jump perfectly, grabbed the rebound in front of the rim and drained the ball in with 0.8 seconds left. Not long after, she was celebrating Vanderbilt’s first win over rival Tennessee since 2019.Then something interesting happened.”After the handshake was over, I was like, ‘Who is this bald guy on the court? I swear I’ve seen this reaction before,'” she said of an ardent Vanderbilt fan who stormed the court. “I was like, ‘Who is this? I know him.”Then I got closer and thought, ‘Wow. My dad just came to court. Where did he come from?Monroe Blakes,…

Charles Phan, a self-taught chef whose family fled Vietnam when he was a teenager and whose sleek restaurant helped change America’s perception of Asian food by replacing menus of inexpensive noodle dishes and spring rolls with ones that married the best local ingredients with the food he grew up on, died on Monday in San Francisco. He was 62.His death, in a hospital, where he was taken last week after experiencing cardiac arrest during a tennis game, was confirmed by Anh Duong, the publicist for his restaurant group.Mr. Phan became something of a food world star. He published two cookbooks,…

Instagram and Facebook have recently blurred, blocked or removed posts from two abortion pill providers. Instagram also suspended the accounts of several abortion pill providers and hid the providers from appearing in search and recommendations.The actions ramped up in the last two weeks, and were especially noticeable in the last two days, abortion pill providers said. Content from their accounts — or in some cases, their entire accounts — were no longer visible on Instagram.Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, confirmed some account suspensions and the blurring of posts. The company restored some of the accounts and posts on Thursday,…

A new study suggests a possible alternative to the abortion pill mifepristone, a drug that continues to be a target of lawsuits and legislation from abortion opponents.But the potential substitute could further complicate the politics of reproductive health because it is also the key ingredient in a contraceptive morning-after pill.The new study, published Thursday in the journal NEJM Evidence, involved a drug called ulipristal acetate, the active ingredient in the prescription contraceptive Ella, one of two types of morning-after pills approved in the United States. (The other, Plan B One-Step, which does not require a prescription, contains a different drug…

Alexandra Riley wouldn’t have gone ahead with her Jan. 11 wedding if it hadn’t been for her mother, Bev Lowe. The Los Angeles wildfires were raging. Santa Rosa Valley, Calif., where she planned to marry Lucas Warrer Nilsson, a fellow soccer player, was out of the danger zone, but many of the couple’s 120 guests were still in it.“My mom took all my hesitation and worry and doubt and completely brushed it aside,” said Ms. Riley, who has played in five World Cups. It was a show of fortitude that Ms. Riley, 37, of Canoga Park, Calif., had come to…

They sure do grow up quickly, don’t they?Last week marked a milestone for the children’s brand Kidz Bop: The release of “Kidz Bop 50,” the company’s 50th album of sanitized, child-friendly covers of pop songs.The songs are sung by a small group of telegenic teenagers, who also appear in carefully choreographed music videos. The latest record has 38 tracks, including the Sabrina Carpenter hit “Espresso,” Chappell Roan’s “Hot to Go!” and Tommy Richman’s “Million Dollar Baby.”Kidz Bop is almost old enough to no longer be eligible for its parents’ health insurance.Credit…Kidz BopTime flies. In the case of Kidz Bop, which…

Clinton Bailey, an American-Israeli academic whose research and documentation of the ancient traditions of the nomadic Bedouin tribes of the Middle East helped preserve a vanishing culture for posterity, died on Jan. 5 at his home in Jerusalem. He was 88.The cause was heart failure, his son Michael said.A native of Buffalo, Dr. Bailey spent some 50 years recording the oral poetry, negotiations, trials, wisdom of the elders, weddings, rituals, proverbs and stories of the tribes of the southern Israeli Negev Desert and the Sinai Peninsula. Traveling by Jeep to desert Bedouin encampments, sometimes joining their migrations for weeks on…

Twelve years ago, the Thai couple headed to the marriage registrar’s office to take part in a mass wedding ceremony on Valentine’s Day in Bangkok. Rungtiwa Thangkanopast wore a long white dress, and her partner, Phanlavee Chongtangsattam, a black tuxedo.Officials welcomed them. But when they reached the registrar’s desk and presented their identity cards, which show each to be female, they were turned away. Marriage between two women, they were told, was not permitted.On Thursday, the couple finally had the chance to wed under Thailand’s new law allowing same-sex marriages. They joined hundreds of others for a mass wedding ceremony…

Amazon on Wednesday said it was closing all of its warehouse and logistics operations in Quebec, the Canadian province where unions gained a foothold in one of its facilities, and would lay off 1,700 employees.The closures represent a U-turn from Amazon’s recent investments in the province. The company opened three delivery stations in 2021, and one last year. It also had a small fulfillment center in Quebec and two warehouses that sorted packages. All told, the investments totaled about 2 million square feet of operations, according to an estimate by Marc Wulfraat, a warehousing industry consultant based in Montreal who…