Reconsidering the Staycation

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/15/briefing/staycations.html

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I’ve always been skeptical of the staycation. The coinage is too cute for what feels like a consolation prize: While other people are off exploring the Blue Lagoon by camper van, you get to stay in your very own home and go to your usual supermarket for Cheerios!

So I was intrigued to discover, thanks to my colleague Catherine Pearson, that I have been staycationing all wrong. Evidently, my tendency to stumble into time off without a plan is unlikely to produce a restorative effect. Instead, one should imbue the time off with the urgency of a weeklong trip. Jaime Kurtz, a psychology professor at James Madison University and the author of “The Happy Traveler: Unpacking the Secrets of Better Vacations,” advises asking oneself, “If I were moving away soon, what would I most want to do, and who would I most want to spend time with?”

I like this spin on “live every day as if it were your last.” Any reminder that time is fleeting, no matter how cliché, is a good one if it gets you to live better or more deliberately. And now, mid-July (already!), is really the time to try this out. This weekend, you could, for instance, seek out some vegan ice cream that doesn’t taste terrible. (The new varieties are made with creamier plant-based milks that taste more like the real thing.) You could try running in a pool, which is easier on the joints but as effective as running on land. You could go for a walk or a drive while listening to “Slow Radio,” a very soothing BBC podcast featuring sounds of the natural world. (This installment showcases a nightingale singing and a newborn lamb’s first bleat.)

Whether or not you have a proper vacation planned for the coming weeks, you could envision any coming weekend as its own two-day mini-break, programming it as you would a trip to somewhere new, with an itinerary more exciting than just “sleep as much as possible” and “mow the lawn.” What do you most want to do this weekend, and whom do you want to spend time with? Sometimes, when we’re caught up in getting stuff done and living through the next crisis, just asking ourselves what we would like to do and then doing it can be, if not revelatory, at least a bit of a relief.

“The dearest baby gray rat snake was crossing our driveway the other day just as the dog and I were leaving for a walk.” Margaret Renkl contemplates summer in her backyard.

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During the strike, actors won’t appear at premieres or other promotional events like Comic-Con next week.

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Elina Svitolina, the Ukrainian tennis star, became the “uncrowned sentimental champion of Wimbledon” before losing in a semifinal.

At the couture shows in Paris, the street style rivaled the clothes on the runway.

A Taylor Swift ticket sale again broke Ticketmaster, this time for shows in France.

“Sound of Freedom,” a thriller about child trafficking championed by the political right, is not far behind this summer’s blockbusters at the box office.

Minnie Bruce Pratt, a celebrated poet of lesbian life, died at 76. Her collection “Crime Against Nature” recounts her losing custody of her children after she came out.

Ten years ago, the B-movie silliness of “Sharknado” helped Twitter become the place to talk about TV. That era has ended, James Poniewozik writes.

A fallen tree trapped people for hours at the former holiday home of Agatha Christie in Britain.

House Republicans rammed through a partisan defense spending bill that would limit abortion access, transgender care and diversity training for military personnel.

An architect was arrested in the killings of women over several years near Gilgo Beach on Long Island.

The U.S. canceled $39 billion in federal student loan debt for more than 800,000 borrowers.

President Biden’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee raised more than $72 million from April through June, far more than any Republican candidate.

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A heat wave descended on Europe, where governments have struggled to adapt to rising temperatures.

🎬 “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” (Friday): Barbenheimer. Boppenheimer. Call it what you will, but between this week’s release of the new “Mission: Impossible” film and next week’s double feature of Greta Gerwig’s poppy look at one of the most famous dolls of all time and Christopher Nolan’s sober look at one of the most famous theoretical physicists of all time, moviegoing is back! (For this month, at least.)

📚 “Crook Manifesto: (Tuesday): What do you do after you’ve won your second Pulitzer Prize? If you’re the novelist Colson Whitehead, you write a crime story set in Harlem in the 1960s. And what do you do if that book is well received? You write another! Whitehead’s equally entertaining follow-up returns to Harlem a decade later and, in his review, the ace crime novelist Walter Mosley called it “a glorious and intricate anatomy of the heist, the con and the slow game.”

An excellent thing about Naz Deravian’s recipe for crisp-edged shish kebabs is that you can cook them either outside on your grill, or inside under the broiler, making them very versatile depending on the weather and your mood. If you have time to let these marinate in the fridge overnight, they’ll be especially intense and suffused with a heady mix of cumin, paprika, dried oregano and garlic. But even a couple of hours make a big difference. Serve with flatbread on the side and loads of herbs on top for a fresh and leafy contrast to all those delightfully charred nuggets of meat.

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An inflatable water slide is a delightfully cheesy antidote to sweltering and sticky summer days. My brother gave my family a garish blowup contraption that includes a climbing wall that leads to a slide that leads to a shallow pool of water festooned with inflated water guns and a basketball hoop. The whole thing screams excess. Which means my kids love it, of course. And that’s what matters. So, if I may: Consider an inflatable water slide for your backyard. Yes, it’s a kitschy monstrosity. But your kids will squeal with glee. — Ben Frumin

Novak Djokovic vs. Carlos Alcaraz, Wimbledon men’s final: The future of tennis has arrived with Alcaraz, the Spanish 20-year-old who wears down opponents with his speed and relentless hitting. Unfortunately for Alcaraz, the old guard hasn’t left yet. Djokovic, 36, has won the past four Wimbledon titles, as well as this year’s Australian and French Opens. While his peers retire, Djokovic seems to be playing his best tennis. “It really is very good to be Novak Djokovic right now,” The Times’s Matthew Futterman writes. 9 a.m. Eastern tomorrow on ESPN.

Alcaraz was a great youth player, but he was also lucky: A candy magnate saw him play and sponsored him to compete with the sport’s best.

In the women’s final this morning, Ons Jabeur and Marketa Vondrousova are each vying for a first Grand Slam title.

Here are today’s Spelling Bee and the Bee Buddy, which helps you find remaining words. Yesterday’s pangram was mailbox.

See the hardest Spelling Bee words from this week.

Take the news quiz to see how well you followed this week’s headlines.

And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle and Sudoku.

Thanks for spending part of your weekend with The Times. — Melissa