Author: NY TIMES

In the summer of 1974, I was working as a waiter at the White Elephant, the grande dame of Nantucket hotels, a rambling gray-shingled pile that sits right on the island’s harbor. One muggy August night, I sent the six lobster dinners ordered by Francis Sargent, the governor of Massachusetts and his guests crashing to the floor when some butter on the heel of my hand propelled my tray off the stand I’d been kneeling to set it down on. Thinking about it still makes me cringe.I had not been back inside the White Elephant in almost 50 years when,…

Few words in the cinematic sphere are misappropriated as frequently and as flagrantly as “cult” (no, friends, “Mean Girls,” a pop culture phenomenon as well as critical and commercial success upon its initial release, is not a “cult classic”), so one of the many refreshing pleasures of the streaming service Cultpix is that the titles it streams are honest-to-God cult movies.And what exactly is a cult movie? Definitions and explanations vary, of course; Danny Peary, who literally wrote the book on the subject, defined them as “special films which for one reason or another have been taken to heart by…

Durga Prasad, an 80-year-old farmer, was resting under the shade of a tree in front of his home when the party workers came. An app on their smartphones could tell them in an instant who Mr. Prasad was, whom he might vote for — and why he should be grateful to India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi.“You get installments of 2,000 rupees, right?” asked a local official from Mr. Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, or B.J.P. Mr. Prasad concurred. He receives $72 a year through a farmers’ welfare program started and branded by Mr. Modi.“Do you get rations?” the official then asked,…

Specialists have begun the restoration of the Edinburgh Time Ball, one of the Scottish capital’s best known horological attractions, which hasn’t been operating since 2020.A time ball is a signaling device, a sphere that drops down a pole at a predetermined time — the best known now may be the New Year’s Eve ball in Times Square and the one at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, England. While the idea dates from the ancient Greeks, such balls were installed in the 19th century in many British ports because they could easily be seen from ships, which used the action to…

Growing up in Bozeman, Mont., Dylan Heintz loved the picturesque views of the snow-capped mountains and the small-town charm. Things were cheap: His dad bought the family home for about $80,000.These days, Bozeman feels less quaint. A steady stream of out-of-state transplants to Big Sky Country became a deluge during the pandemic, leading to soaring prices, a boom in luxury apartments that blot out the rustic scenery and a rash of higher-end businesses like Whole Foods. Drawn by Montana’s natural beauty and easy access to outdoor activities, the newcomers have created an affordability crisis and a local backlash that are…

Or roles, really: The more Gary gets into it, the more he realizes that each person’s fantasy of a hit man is different, and he starts to dress up, preparing for the part before he meets with the client. (If this movie were solely constructed as a de facto reel demonstrating Powell’s range, it would work just fine.) Then, one day, pretending to be a sexy, confident hit man named Ron, he meets Madison (Adria Arjona, practically glowing from within), a put-upon housewife seeking his services. And everything changes for Gary.A great deal of the enjoyment of “Hit Man” comes…

Twelve people were injured on Sunday during turbulence on a Qatar Airways flight from Doha that landed safely as scheduled in Ireland, the Dublin Airport said.The plane, a Boeing B787-9, was flying over Turkey when it encountered turbulence, injuring six passengers and six crew members, the Dublin Airport said on social media.The flight landed in Dublin just before 1 p.m. local time and was met by emergency medical workers, the airport said.Passengers were checked for injuries before leaving the plane, and eight people were taken to a hospital.Dublin Airport said that its operations were not affected and that the airline’s…

Levanté las sábanas para mirarme el tobillo derecho. Magullado, quizá roto. También me dolía la espalda. Llamé a mi amigo Danny para que me llevara a urgencias. Nos reímos de nuestra gran noche de juerga mientras bajábamos cojeando las escaleras, conducíamos hacia el sur por la I-91 y aguardábamos sentados en la sala de espera… hasta que el médico dijo que podía haberme roto la cervical y quedar paralítico.Cuando el médico se puso un guante de látex para examinar el músculo anal, Danny se puso detrás de la cortina para llamar a mi madre. Ella le preguntó qué había pasado.…

“Moviegoers do not want prequel origin stories,” where significant franchise characters are “portrayed not by the actor who originated and defined them, but by a younger, less-famous performer,” Scott Mendelson, a box office analyst who publishes a subscription newsletter, wrote on Saturday.“Furiosa,” directed by George Miller and co-starring Chris Hemsworth, may have been released too soon after the similar-looking “Dune: Part Two,” which delivered giant ticket sales in March, some film executives said. At the same time, they added, “Furiosa” may have been released too long after “Fury Road,” allowing the “Mad Max” fan base to cool.There has also been…

He’s a goofy little ape in a puffer vest, and he’s giving us a thumbs-up. This was just a small moment of levity in an otherwise grim and operatic film, the 2017 epic “War for the Planet of the Apes.” But it stuck with me. In the midst of a dire war for the fate of humanity, we watch this misfit creature amble into the frame, dwarfed by a magisterial orangutan on one side and the stately ape revolutionary Caesar on the other, both preparing for battle. He turns to Caesar for approval, waits for an awkward beat and flashes…