To hear more audio stories from publishers, like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android. MOLLEHUSVEJ BORDER CROSSING — She drives from the Danish side, in her Toyota Yaris. He cycles from the German side, on his electric bike. She brings the coffee and the table, he the chairs and the schnapps. Then they sit down on either side of the border, a yard or two apart. And that is how two octogenarian lovers have kept their romance alive despite the closure of the border that falls between his home in the very north of Germany and hers in the very south of Denmark. Every day since the police shut the border to contain the virus, Karsten Tüchsen Hansen, an 89-year-old retired farmer, and Inga Rasmussen, an 85-year-old former caterer, have met at the Mollehusvej border crossing to chat, joke and drink, while maintaining a modicum of social distance. “We’re here because of love,” said Mr. Tüchsen Hansen, when I visited them last week. “Love is the … [Read more...] about A Closed Border Can’t Stop This Elderly Couple: ‘Love Is the Best Thing in the World’
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Past Into Present: 4 Journeys That Changed Us
An African-American resort town in Michigan, circa 1970; a raucous family road trip from Kansas City, Mo., to New York state; a bittersweet return to Hyderabad, India; and a college student’s self-discovery in Australia: Four New York Times Travel contributors share their memories of trips that still impart a sense of wonder and hope. Lost in Time on the Shores of Lake Idlewild By Ron Stodghill At some point, even as I began racking up frequent-flier miles, I came to accept a simple truth: I’d find no sleep as peaceful as I found on Lake Idlewild. My slumbers in Michigan’s densely wooded, all-black resort started as a kid. Belly full of fried catfish, Jones Homemade Ice Cream and ZotZ penny candy from Lee-John’s Novelty and Soda Bar, I would curl up on a lounge chair by the lake and snooze for hours to the sound of waves gurgling along the shore, the purring of fishing boats motoring by, the crackling of the Detroit Tigers radio broadcast wafting … [Read more...] about Past Into Present: 4 Journeys That Changed Us
The Slap That Changed Everything
A few months ago, a man on the street catcalled me and then spanked my left butt cheek. Although I was wearing a thick winter coat and the slap did not leave a mark, my skin was pulsating from it. I felt dirty. And while I did not see his hand or even look directly at his face, I could not stop visualizing the grime caked beneath his fingernails. For years, I have trained myself to dissociate from situations like these, to laugh them off or to compartmentalize them into something that’s outside of my life. It was especially important for me to let these men (or any men) know that they couldn’t truly hurt me. A physical assault from a catcaller wasn’t the standard fare, but like many women, I have been routinely harassed simply for looking the way I look, my boundaries violated both physically and sexually. It started early, when I was only 15, and a group of teenage boys at high school tackled me in front of the bus stop, a rush of animal aggression that I didn’t understand. Maybe … [Read more...] about The Slap That Changed Everything
Australian veteran loses defamation case over reports of Afghan execution
SYDNEY, Australia — One of Australia’s most decorated soldiers lost a defamation lawsuit against three newspapers that accused him of involvement in the murder of six Afghans while on deployment, a stunning end to a case that lifted the veil of secrecy over the elite SAS. The newspapers proved four of the six murder allegations of which they accused former SAS corporal Ben Roberts-Smith, but “in light of my conclusions, each (defamation) proceeding must be dismissed,” said Federal Court Judge Anthony Besanko in Sydney on Thursday, in a summary of his findings. Australian civil courts require a lower threshold to prove allegations than criminal courts do. Roberts-Smith has not been charged with any offenses. The ruling marks a win for media outlets seeking greater accountability for Australia’s military, typically bound by confidentiality. A 2020 report found credible evidence that members of Australia’s Special Air Service Regiment (SAS) killed dozens of unarmed prisoners … [Read more...] about Australian veteran loses defamation case over reports of Afghan execution
The Newest High-End Amenity: Houses That Come With Horses
Plenty of luxury housing developments are built around glamorous perks: a manicured 18-hole golf course, a private beach club, even an exclusive on-site restaurant crowned with Michelin stars. Tucked in the coastal jungle of Western Mexico comes yet another hyper-luxurious real estate offering, this one banking on a novel perk: a pony named Karen. Karen and 48 of her equine colleagues make up the centerpiece of Mandarina, a billion-dollar residential resort gamble currently being carved into a cliffside overlooking the Pacific Ocean in Riviera Nayarit, Mexico. Its Mexico-based developer is betting that the palatial, celebrity-architect-designed stables erected at its heart — where the skills of two polo pros and their herd of athletic beasts are available to all residents — will help put this luxury outpost rising from the jungle on the It-people map. “With the ultraluxury market, this could be their fifth, six, seventh, 10th home — and it is touches that make the difference,” said … [Read more...] about The Newest High-End Amenity: Houses That Come With Horses
FILM REVIEW; Evanescent Trees and Sisters In an Enchanted 1970’s Suburb
See the article in its original context from April 21, 2000 Section Page Buy Reprints View on timesmachine TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. Lux Lisbon, one of the five self-doomed sisters whose lissome dance toward extinction is the subject of Sofia Coppola's first movie (and of Jeffrey Eugenides's first novel, on which it is based), is first glimpsed in the act of finishing a red Popsicle. As played -- incarnated might be a better word -- by Kirsten Dunst, Lux is at once a blond icon of girlish suburban innocence and an emblem of womanly eroticism. Like Sue Lyon in Stanley Kubrick's ''Lolita,'' with her lollipop and her heart-shaped sunglasses, Ms. Dunst turns Lux's every glance and gesture into an ambiguous provocation. In Mr. Eugenides's book, and in the script Ms. Coppola has reverently carved from it, Lux and her sisters exist only insofar as they are the objects of masculine desire, which upon their deaths … [Read more...] about FILM REVIEW; Evanescent Trees and Sisters In an Enchanted 1970’s Suburb