Don't Bogart My Blog: Sunday Best: How people talk about you after you die

February 2, 2020

If you’re wondering how worried you should actually be about the coronavirus, I’m here with some perspective: While the World Health Organization has declared the virus a global emergency, the United States has seen only eight reported cases to date. For some context, the flu kills about 35,000 Americans every year (it has sickened around 15 million this season alone). What’s scarier than the virus itself may be the way the world reacts to it. Distrust is already a factor in mainland China and beyond. As experts are still learning more about the virus and working to contain it, there is one thing you can do to protect yourself: Wash your hands. — Alexandra March

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What Do We Owe the Dead?

Fans of late Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant gathered at a memorial on Sunday at the LA Live entertainment complex across the street from the Staples Center in Los Angeles.Etienne Laurent/EPA, via Shutterstock

Most of us — other than the most evil — can expect unadulterated admiration when we die. It’s the norm to posthumously heap praise, despite a life of imperfection. But why do we do this? “I wish to suggest here that there is something about death itself that motivates us to act as we do.”

What Does It Mean to Have a Serious Drinking Problem?

Bianca Bagnarelli

So you haven’t hit the sort of cinematic rock bottom you’ve seen in the movies, but maybe you wonder if you drink a bit too much. How can you tell? “Sometimes it’s best to trust your gut.”

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At 35, I Am Running Faster Than I Ever Thought Possible

Ann Mazur of Charlottesville, Va., left, and Amanda Macuiba of Gurnee, Ill., after qualifying for the 2020 Olympic team trials at the 2019 California International Marathon on Dec. 8 in Sacramento.Nicole Bush

“I had always thought that, at some point in life, most people become ‘who we are.’ Our lives are built around whatever that is, and no matter what we might actually be capable of, this idea keeps us fixed in one place.”

‘American Dirt’ Has Us Talking. That’s a Good Thing.

A portion of the United States-Mexico border fence in El Paso.Tamir Kalifa for The New York Times

She crossed the United States-Mexico border only to be confronted with more barriers, ones that loomed across American society and the publishing industry. But that industry just took a bet on elevating the immigrant experience — and “they can’t back away from that now.”

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Even With Student Loans, Millennials Are Managing to Save

Kiersten Essenpreis

Millennials as a generation are defined by their financial burden and lack of wealth compared with the previous generation’s, but new data shows that they’re working aggressively to catch up — and they have actually saved more for retirement than Gen Xers did at the same age.

Read the full Opinion report here.

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