New York Magazine August 15-28, 2022

1 New York’s latest issue explored the ways dating apps have transformed sex and romance in the decade since Tinder hit the scene (“Ten Years of Re-Re-Re-Re-Downloading Tinder,” August 1–14). The series of stories featured Allison P. Davis on her own long-standing relationship with the apps. Journalist Roxanne Khamsi tweeted, “There’s a lot of talk about how technology changes our behavior but no article has captured the profound effects of dating apps—and how they sabotage human connections—as well.” Oli Franklin-Wallis commented, “This! Is! Writing! @AllisonPDavis making me so glad that I missed out on Tinder and married so young people (single, unhappy people, mostly) mock me for it.” Editor-in-chief of The Atavist Magazine Seyward Darby tweeted, “A recurring nightmare of mine is that my husband doesn’t exist and I have…

A MONTH AGO, Joe Biden’s presidency was on the brink of failure. His legislative agenda was moribund, the economy was teetering on the precipice of recession, and Democrats were speculating in the press about who else they could nominate for president in 2024. Biden, like Jimmy Carter, seemed destined to be remembered as a president overwhelmed by economic crosscurrents and a Democratic Congress he could not productively lead. The situation has changed with astonishing speed. Biden has salvaged his domestic-policy agenda, his party’s base has snapped out of its torpor, and the economy is showing signs it just might pull through. And while not all these developments are his own doing, nor do they completely extinguish the political danger he faces, they all redound to his benefit. In the span…

THE LEADING Democratic candidates in New York’s newly created Tenth Congressional District are getting a little sick of one another. At a televised debate in August, City Councilwoman Carlina Rivera told ex-prosecutor Dan Goldman, who is the heir to the Levi Strauss fortune, “You’re a walking campaign-finance loophole,” referring to Goldman’s decision to give his campaign $1 million from his personal coffers. “I believe in the Constitution,” former representative Elizabeth Holtzman sniped at Assemblymember Jo Anne Simon, as the two jousted over whether there should be term limits on Supreme Court justices. “Maybe you haven’t studied it sufficiently.” (Simon favors the limits and criticized Holtzman for not backing them.) The winner of this contest will walk away with a high-profile prize: a district that includes Wall Street, Greenwich Village, the…

ON A MUGGY AFTERNOON at the ragged end of July, Nestor Cortés Jr., the mustachioed, heavily tattooed left-hander for the New York Yankees, was pouncing off the mound to field ground balls and fire them to first base. The night before, the Yankees had won on a walk-off home run from Aaron Judge, their six-foot-seven, 282-pound juggernaut and the front-runner for the American League’s Most Valuable Player Award. Not since Derek Jeter have the Yankees enjoyed such a captivating superstar. But the 27-year-old Cortés, built at the human scale of five-foot-11, has emerged as a star in his own right, quietly capturing the hearts of the Yankee faithful as the team tries to win its first World Series title in 13 years. For most professional athletes, there’s a time, usually…

WHEN WE THINK about the economy, there’s a tendency to rush headfirst into the swirl of numbers moving up or down each month, plot them on angular charts, and spin out a story of what it all means. Inflation, unemployment, pay raises, gas prices—together, these indicators are supposed to jell into a coherent narrative and tell us where we’re going. The problem with the current economy is that the numbers don’t make any sense. Less than a month ago, some commentators were claiming we were already in a recession, thanks to two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth. Then the July jobs report hit, showing that the economy had added a staggering 528,000 jobs and that the unemployment rate hit a 53-year low. Prices are high, everything is expensive, and…

THE BOAT WAS A beauty of a thing: some 500 tons across 171 feet of glass and steel as white as Santorini. All rounded edges, the five decks—one with a glass-bottom pool—were made for July on the Mediterranean, sunset dinners among the islands near Sicily, cocktails in the turquoise shallows off the coast of Ibiza. Her would-be captains showed off pictures of the $50 million vessel at parties, bragging that it would be “bigger than all of the richest billionaires’ yachts in Singapore” and describing plans to adorn the staterooms with projector screens, creating a waterborne gallery for their growing collection of digital art in the form of NFTs. No matter that they had originally told friends they were shopping for a $150 million vessel; the superyacht was still the…