Black peopleafrican americansblack culture and history

The bunny almost was broiled. In the most notorious scene of the 1987 thriller “Fatal Attraction,” the spurned Alex (Glenn Close) terrorizes her ex-lover Dan (Michael Douglas) by boiling the family pet on the stove. “Initially, I had her grilling the bunny,” the screenwriter James Dearden said in a recent telephone interview. “But I thought that was too grotesque. So we boiled the bunny instead.” The result remained fairly gory. “The stench was unbearable,” the film’s director, Adrian Lyne, recalled of shooting the scene with a rabbit purchased from a butcher. “It permeated the whole house.” Three decades after it became an Oscar-nominated cause célèbre and grossed $320 million worldwide, “Fatal Attraction” continues to pervade the culture. “Bunny boiler” has become synonymous with a female stalker, and a “Saturday Night Live” sketch last season depicted the Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway cooking a CNN anchor’s rabbit. Thirty years after the film’s Sept. 18, 1987, release, I … [Read more...] about ‘Fatal Attraction’ Oral History: Rejected Stars and a Foul Rabbit

The family of a Black mother who was fatally shot through a front door by a white neighbor who had allegedly hurled racial slurs in the past say they are “elated” by the neighbor’s arrest—but disappointed that it only came after days of protests and outrage. Susan Lorincz, 58, was on Tuesday charged with manslaughter with a firearm in relation to the death of 35-year-old Ajike “AJ” Owens last week, according to the Marion County Sheriff’s Office. “I am elated that there was an arrest. It’s disappointing that it took so long to happen,” Owens’ mother, Pamela Dias, told MSNBC Wednesday. “My daughter was shot behind a locked door. …It was a senseless act that didn’t have to happen. I am left to care for three precious grandbabies because their mother was taken away from them. It’s devastating, it’s heartbreaking.” She said it has been unbearable to see her grandchildren lose their mother; two of them witnessed the shooting in Ocala, Florida, on Friday night. “The grief, the … [Read more...] about White Neighbor Who Fatally Shot Black Mom Through Front Door Arrested

When Taqwanna Clark went to buy a video camera at Fry’s Electronics in Houston, she asked if they had a layaway plan. The cashier instead handed her an application for a store credit card. She applied. “Instantly, it came back declined — like, No!” she says. “Denied, denied — you know, your credit is not good enough.” Clark was 30 and working as a security guard at the Port of Houston. On weekends, she performed as a rapper in the local club scene, under the name T-Baby. She wanted the camera to shoot music videos, to promote her music career. “If I can’t afford a $200 camera,” she recalls thinking, “then I’m in a bad way with this credit thing.” Clark had lived with money anxieties since childhood. In elementary school, her family endured periods of extreme poverty. For a time, on the cusp of homelessness, they lived in the bare framing for a house her father was building on a wooded lot owned by a family member. They slept in an unfinished room and warmed canned food by a … [Read more...] about The High Cost of Bad Credit

Even as strong earthquakes have shaken the region , the centuries-old city of Oaxaca remains largely unrattled. In the shadow of Monte Albán, the hilltop capital of the Zapotec civilization, this multicultural hub in the highlands of southern Mexico was once a quiet regional center. In recent years, the city has been transformed, for better or worse, as bohemian expats and artists have been drawn to its mild, semitropical climate, sturdy Spanish colonial architecture, rich culinary and craft traditions and thrilling art scene. Galleries and boutique hotels, upscale restaurants and trendy mezcalerias have opened in dizzying succession. Increasingly worldly, it remains a place where Mexico’s perilous and complex history reveals itself in ways both beautiful and brutal. Friday 1) 4 p.m. GET CULTURED Opened in 2011, the Centro Cultural San Pablo is housed in a former 16th-century Dominican convent and set around a tiled patio etched with bright green moss. The … [Read more...] about 36 Hours in Oaxaca

To hear more audio stories from publications like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android . Suzy Niffenegger slept outside in Las Vegas for the first time in late August 2019. She put what belongings she still had — including her collection of what she refers to as her “ ’80s big-hair wigs” — into storage and filled a backpack with dog treats, toys and blankets for her 22-pound terrier, Brownie. She barely slept, bunking on top of picnic tables, where she folded up her blankets into a cocoon. Brownie would lie next to her, but the dog didn’t sleep much either. “If I dozed off, and someone walked within say 15 feet of me, she alerted me,” Niffenegger told me recently. “That dog was a trooper. I mean, she saved my life so many times.” The setbacks that led to Niffenegger’s life outside — a word she prefers to “homeless,” which she can’t bring herself to say — started in early 2019, when she lost her job at a call center. She tried to forestall financial … [Read more...] about When No Landlord Will Rent to You, Where Do You Go?

See the article in its original context from March 18, 1998 Section Page Buy Reprints View on timesmachine TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. THE waiter looks worried. He makes a gesture with his hands, searching for words. ''Worms,'' he says finally. ''Gusanos are worms.'' ''How are they cooked?'' I ask. ''Fried,'' he says. ''In lard. But I am so sorry. We have just run out.'' What a shame. I have come to Cien Anos, a small, fancy establishment in Tijuana, because the restaurant has a reputation for ''alta cocina Mexicana.'' Friends from San Diego have sent me here to try the huitlacoche crepes. I have eaten this esoteric corn fungus in restaurants from California to New York, but its charms have always eluded me. Perhaps, I thought, it is something you have to experience on native ground. The San Diego friend who sent me to Cien Anos insisted that I also try all the little appetizer dishes that are the … [Read more...] about Critic’s Notebook; A Taste of What the Early Bird Caught