Author: Lance Garrison
Mr. Rattner served as counselor to the Treasury secretary in the Obama administration. Dec. 28, 2023 Some years are defined by a single event or person — a pandemic, a recession, an insurrection — while others are buffeted by a series of disparate forces. Such was 2023. The economy and inflation remained front of mind until the war in Gaza grabbed headlines and the world’s attention — all while Donald Trump’s candidacy loomed in the background.1. Inflation Fell, Incomes Rose Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Bureau of Economic Analysis Note: Inflation and income data through November; Real income refers to…
To the Editor:Re “Why Claudine Gay Should Go,” by John McWhorter (column, nytimes.com, Dec. 21):Mr. McWhorter argues that Claudine Gay, the president of Harvard, should be held to the same academic standards as the institution’s undergraduates. If only that were true!When I was a graduate student there in the late 1990s, I was warned by a senior professor not to pursue a case of plagiarism because it might lead to a lawsuit. The university, he confided, had recently lost a costly court case brought by the parents of a student accused of plagiarism.Plagiarists are rarely brought to account, especially in…
This way of speaking sounds to the modern ear almost Caribbean. Family memories of my grandfather, who was born in 1899 and died before I was born, are sparse at this point. However, those still alive who met him as children remember that he sounded as if he were from the West Indies. Yet he grew up near Atlanta; he very likely had the old-school style of Black speech rather than the one that developed later.This means that Black people of Southern origin from the 19th century portrayed in such films as “Lincoln” and “Django Unchained” did not sound as…
Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a long-term illness that you’ll likely live with for decades. Most people have mild to moderate symptoms, but they can be unpredictable — flaring and then tapering off. So, what can you expect in the future, and can you better control your symptoms?Can UC Go Into Remission?Ulcerative colitis is what experts call a relapsing and remitting disease. This means symptoms come and go over time. There may be months or even years when you won’t have any symptoms at all.There’s no single definition of what it means to be in remission with UC. Your doctor could…
What are your hopes for 2024? See how they compare with those of 11 people I put that question to. (Most of them replied by email. The people from Afghanistan and India spoke by phone.)Fran Drescher, an actress and the president of SAG-AFTRA, which staged a 118-day strike against movie and television producers this year:In 2024, I am looking forward to a sudden and essential collective human emotional growth spurt, whereby empathy becomes the main emotion that informs all behavior.Andrew Marsh, the chief executive of Plug Power, a fuel cell supplier:My hope is to see 2024 as the year we…
Dec. 27, 2023 – Sleep deficit is a global problem. Perhaps nowhere is this truer than in Omagh, a small city in Northern Ireland, where residents have been kept awake since September by a sustained, persistent buzz or hum at night that often comes with a vibration.Reports of hum-related sleep disruption are not a new phenomenon. Glen MacPherson, PhD, a former University of British Columbia lecturer and current high school math teacher and ethnographer, says that he’s been tracking what is known as the “Worldwide Hum” since he first encountered it in 2012. “It sounds strikingly like there’s a car idling…
My parents split when I was young; I don’t really remember the time they were together. My mom and dad’s new partners, both kind, gentle, generous men, brought their own culinary flair to the family; respectively, pot roast braised with off-brand Coca-Cola and tater tot casserole. Together, my parents, my brother and I remained a take-and-bake household, a Lean Cuisine household, a Hot Pocket household. We were not people who took joy in the preparation or consumption of food.My brother and I spent our youth shuttling along the western edge of Lake Michigan between our mom and my stepdad in…
The Insurrection Act is a dangerous centuries-old federal statute that authorizes the president, with few restraints, to deploy the U.S. military inside the United States to suppress threats the president perceives to the constitutional order. Commentators have recently proposed tightening the law following reports that former President Donald Trump and his advisers are planning to use it aggressively for law enforcement and to quell domestic disturbances if Mr. Trump is once more elected.This focus on Trump is understandable but inadequate in capturing the compelling case for reform. It has been clear for decades that the poorly drafted and antiquated law…
In May 1996, an autonomous resupply vehicle docked with Russia’s ailing Mir space station. It carried the usual items — food, clothes, scientific equipment — along with much more cherished ones. The American astronaut Shannon Lucid received M&Ms. For the two cosmonauts, Yuri Usachev and Yuri Onufriyenko, there were perfume-scented letters offering a welcome respite from the smells of the space station, which astronauts have likened to body odor, trash and hot metal.Films and books may focus on the gritty strength of explorers, but in their diaries they speak with almost motherly affection for gentle touches of home. Space crews…
We’re in a season of hand-wringing and scapegoating over social media, especially TikTok, with many Americans and politicians missing that two things can be true at once: Social media can have an outsized and sometimes pernicious influence on society, and lawmakers can unfairly use it as an excuse to deflect legitimate criticisms.Young people are overwhelmingly unhappy about U.S. policy on the war in Gaza? Must be because they get their “perspective on the world on TikTok” — at least according to Senator John Fetterman, a Democrat who holds a strong pro-Israel stance. This attitude is shared across the aisle. “It…