THE NEW YORK TIMES, MONDAY, AUGUST 3, 2020 N AThe novelist Raven Leilani has
worked at Ancestry.com, at a
scientific journal, on a top-secret
project for the Department of
Defense and as a Postmates delivery
person.
An Expert in Juggling Day Jobs and Real ArtC
In the 2018 midterms, only 60
percent of votes were cast in person
on Election Day.
Rethinking Election Night Before the Media Falls
FlatB
The 100 advertisers that spent the
most on Facebook in the first half of
the year spent $221.4 million from
July 1 through July 29, 12 percent
less than the $251.4 million spent by
the top 100 advertisers a year earlier.
Did the 1,000-Advertiser Boycott of Facebook
Over Hate Speech Work?B
At least 11 suspected cases of
coronavirus in the Florida Keys last
month turned out to be
mosquito-borne dengue fever.
Stretched by a Summer of Scourge, and Now
A StormAThe United States government
spends a total of some $750 billion a
year on Medicare.
Will Shift to Telemedicine Stick
After the Pandemic?A- In the first months of this year,
Mexico registered more homicides
than at any point in the last two
decades.
Mexico, Veering From ‘Hugs Not Bullets,’
Captures Boss of Oil-Stealing CartelA
Last year, mortgages for $100,000 or
less accounted for just 10 percent of
loans used to buy a single-family
home or a condominium in the
United States, according to Attom
Data, a housing data company.
Where a Little Mortgage Can Give a Big BoostB
Of Interest
NOTEWORTHY FACTS FROM TODAY’S PAPER
MIN HEO“It’s just kind of been the way 2020’s gone so far. But we roll
with it, right?”
HOWARD TIPTON,the administrator for St. Lucie County, Fla., on Floridians having to prepare for an
early tropical storm even as hospitals and other infrastructure around the state are strained by the
Covid-19 outbreak and economic fallout.Quote of the Day
STRETCHED BY A SUMMER OF
SCOURGE, AND NOW A STORM A
- Wilford Brimley, ‘Cocoon’ Star and Quaker Oats
Pitchman, Is Dead at 85
Recognizable by his walrus mustache, the actor specialized in
playing cantankerous characters in “Absence of Malice,” “The
Natural” and other films. He died on Saturday in Utah, and
his obituary was Sunday’s most read article.
- A School Reopens, and the Coronavirus Creeps In
More schools are abandoning plans for in-person classes. One
that opened in Indiana last week, Greenfield Central Junior
High School, had to quarantine students within hours after
the county health department notified school officials that a
student who had attended the first day of classes had tested
positive for the coronavirus.
- Double, Double, Trump’s Toil, Our Trouble
The most read article from the Opinion desk on Sunday was
this Op-Ed column by Maureen Dowd, in which Ms. Dowd
asserted that President Trump’s fear of emasculation has led
him to a Shakespearean fate: “Like Macbeth, the president
made tragic errors of judgment and plunged his country into
a nightmare.”
- Body Bags and Enemy Lists: How Far-Right Police
Officers and Ex-Soldiers Planned for ‘Day X’
Germany has woken up to a problem of far-right extremism
in its elite special forces. But the threat of neo-Nazi infiltration
of state institutions is much broader, as Katrin Bennhold
learned in interviews with members of the Nordkreuz, or
Northern Cross, far-right network there.
- What’s Going On With TikTok? Here’s What We Know
President Trump alarmed techies and teenagers alike while
addressing the press aboard Air Force One on Friday when
he expressed potential plans to ban TikTok, a video app. This
explainer detailed why United States lawmakers are con-
cerned about the Chinese-owned app’s security and whether
Mr. Trump really has the authority to ban it.
The Conversation
FIVE OF THE MOST READ, SHARED AND DISCUSSED POSTS
FROM ACROSS NYTIMES.COM
The Mini Crossword
BY JOEL FAGLIANO
8/3/2020 EDITED BY WILL SHORTZ
12345678ACROSS
1 Dog name like Hairy Pawter, e.g.
4 Unit of stock
6 Africa’s Republic of the ___
7 U.F.O. pilot(^8) Restaurant suggestion, for short
DOWN
1 Hysteria
2 Strong desire
3 Element below helium on the
periodic table
4 Disney villain who kills Mufasa
5 Bagel’s center
SOLUTION TO
PREVIOUS PUZZLE CR I SP
LUNAR
UNT I E
CORNY
KNOT S
Tiny Love Stories, a Modern Love project, asks contributors
to share their epic love stories in 100 words or less. This
week’s batch of micro-nonfiction includes tales about what
interractial love has been like this year, parents who finally
call and a very special honeysuckle bush. Read one here.
Spotlight
STORIES CONTRIBUTED
BY READERS OF THE NEW YORK TIMES
After we moved to America from Bahrain, my mother would
take my sister and me to a pond to watch ducks. We were
always alone. At 5, I asked her, “Are you Allah?” She seemed
to know everything. Little did either of us know that we were
driving three towns over for these ducks, passing dozens of
parks (with ducks) along the way. Now, I’m 26. Because of the
coronavirus, our annual 200-person Eid party is back to just
us, like the days at the pond when I looked up at her beaming
face and saw a universe looking back.
Daanish Jamal
In late October, my husband and I will be celebrating our 20th wedding anniversa-
ry with a vow renewal in our suburban backyard. It will be the smallest of celebra-
tions: just us and our kids and our dog. But I still want to look pretty, and have no
idea what to wear. I’ve been searching high and low for something cute, white or
cream or light pink, maybe in a cotton or some other backyard appropriate material, with
sleeves, for $200 or less. Any thoughts? DANIELLE, LONG ISLAND, N.Y.
First: congratulations. Twenty
years is definitely a milestone
worth celebrating.
As it happens, I am a big
believer in vow renewals. First weddings
are usually stressful, fraught events rife
with complicated family dynamics, where-
as follow-up ceremonies can be more
about pure celebration. My husband and I
renewed our vows on our 10th anniversary
in Las Vegas (I was there for a confer-
ence), and it was fantastic.
And though I understand how hard it
can be to think forward to October when
what is going to happen is still so un-
known, and the possibility of a new lock-
down hangs over us, these kinds of plans
are a statement of belief in the future.
Which brings me to the dress! Or suit,
or jumpsuit. The other very positive as-
pect of a second wedding ceremony, of
course, is you get to set your own rules,
and that goes for what you wear.
For Vegas, for example, I found a (very
short) all-sequined cream T-shirt dress
with a jeweled neckline that made me feel
like Priscilla Presley in the early Elvis
years. Even now, when I’m sitting in a
fashion show and a white (or white-ish)
dress walks by, I think to myself: THAT
would make a good second wedding gown.
So while you can search the usual sites
— Charanna Alexander, a weddings editor,
suggests looking at bhldn.com — you can
also cast a much wider net and come up
with a dress that, unlike most first wed-
ding dresses, you can and will wear again,
thus also making it a useful investment.
This is sale time, so dresses and designers
that normally may be above your price
point may be a lot more accessible.
The Outnet, for example, has a great
Ganni Swiss-dot midi wrap dress that is
both romantic and wearable, as well as a
very simple ALC sheath dress with fluted
sleeves. Michael Michael Kors has some
terrific wrap dresses in lavender and a
swept-away 1940s-style shirtdress. And
Free People has an assortment of flowy,
flower-field looks at assorted price points.
Add a wrap (you never know about
outside temperatures in October), some
simple shoes and jewelry, and say I do.
Again.
Every week in the Open Thread newsletter — a
look from across The Times at the forces that
shape the dress codes we share — The Times’s
chief fashion critic, Vanessa Friedman, answers a
reader’s fashion-related question. Sign up for
Open Thread at nytimes.com/newsletters.
Here to Help
VANESSA FRIEDMAN ANSWERS YOUR STYLE QUESTIONS
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