Abigail Covington

The New York Times • 3rd May 2025

Easing the Pain of Being Laid Off, One Email at a Time

Steve Jaffe was laid off for the first time in 2001. But that wasn’t the last time for Mr. Jaffe, now 52 and a self-employed marketing strategist in Altadena, Calif. He was laid off three more times over the course of his career, he said, and wrote a book about his experiences that he self-published in February.In addition to writing about jobs he has lost, Mr. Jaffe has been reading the layoff stories of others in Laid Off, a new Substack newsletter. “A support group like this for laid-off peop...

The New York Times • 13th April 2025

A Basketball Star Is Born

Last Sunday, the University of Connecticut basketball player Paige Bueckers achieved what she set out to do when she joined the team almost five years ago: Win an N.C.A.A. championship. After being sidelined by injuries for nearly two seasons, Ms. Bueckers, a 23-year-old point guard, led the Huskies to a blowout victory over the South Carolina Gamecocks, earning UConn its 12th N.C.A.A. women’s basketball title and becoming the school’s top point scorer in the women’s tournament in the process.Fo...

Rolling Stone • 7th March 2025

Julien Baker and Torres Were Born to Make This Album

Of all the things Julien Baker and Mackenzie Scott miss about the South, food ranks way up there. Scott is lucky: Her wife, a celebrated artist and Knoxville native, makes a mean biscuits and gravy, and she lives near an excellent catfish joint in Brooklyn. Baker, who resides in Los Angeles, can’t get a decent catfish to save her life. “It’s such a shame,” says the 29-year-old indie rocker and boygenius member, shaking her head in disapproval. 



When Scott, 34, mentions that they make the ca...

Rolling Stone • 24th November 2024

Inside the Highs and Lows of Sapphic Pop's Banner Year

H
alfway through their set, Muna address the elephant in the stadium. “We just wanted to acknowledge that someone very special is missing tonight,” says the indie-pop trio’s lead singer, Katie Gavin. It’s day one of All Things Go, an independent music festival that fans nicknamed Lesbopalooza due to its largely queer, female or nonbinary lineup, including Chappell Roan. Except the day before she was scheduled to appear onstage at Forest Hills Stadium in Queens, New York, Roan pulled out....

Esquire • 14th July 2023

A Good Sperm Donor Is Hard to Find

Early last year, my partner and I decided it was finally time to start a family. We had already tempted those pesky fertility gods by daring to wait until we were almost (gasp!) 35—after which any pregnancy would be considered by our fine medical professionals to be a geriatric pregnancy—and we still needed to factor in additional time to find some sperm. They say certain things take longer when you’re queer. This is especially true when it comes to forming a family: our plumbing prevents a spee

The New York Times • 29th June 2024

The Broad Appeal of the Elsa Dress

Dressing up as Elsa, the blond queen with magical powers from Disney’s animated film “Frozen,” wasn’t necessarily Jeff Hemmig’s idea of a good time.​​“It was well outside of my comfort zone,” Mr. Hemmig, 43, said.But he knew it would make his son, Jace, happy. So Mr. Hemmig, who lives in Killingly, Conn., squeezed his shoulders into a dress his mom made for him, which matched an Elsa costume she had made for her grandson. Mr. Hemmig then performed a rendition of “Let It Go,” choreography and all...

The New York Times • 13th October 2023

Have You Ever Seen an Elephant Twerk?

Ellie the Elephant performing at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, where she has dazzled fans of the New York Liberty with her dance moves.

Ellie the Elephant, the mascot for the New York Liberty, has danced her way into the hearts of fans as the team has played its way into the W.N.B.A. finals.

Have You Ever Seen an Elephant Twerk?

Every mascot has its thing. Some dunk. Others flip. As for Ellie the Elephant, the mascot for the New York Liberty women’s basketball team? She twerks. Amelia Bane, 33

Los Angeles Times • 2nd August 2023

For true Swifties, the fun begins when the stadium gates open

Taylor Swift’s Eras tour, which pulls into Inglewood’s SoFi Stadium for six sold-out shows beginning Thursday, provides fans with more than just a concert; it’s a hyper-curated experience that begins the moment you enter the stadium. That’s when security guards hand fans their light-up wristbands, linking the audience together for the rest of the evening.

Depending on when you choose to arrive at SoFi, your immersion into Swiftmania can last anywhere between three hours (her set length) to six-

Esquire • 24th April 2023

Inside The Battle For North Dakota’s Bookshelves

"Anal plugs!” thunders North Dakota Republican Rep. Bernie Satrom. “Anal sex. Mutual masturbation. Rimming!” He’s just issued a rare warning in the North Dakota House chamber: “To anyone listening at home with children, you might want to turn off the sound.” A small child is sitting in spitting distance, and a group of high school students (who are, predictably, losing their shit at all this) are seated a few rows behind me in the House balcony.

Satrom is reading from Let’s Talk About It: The T

The New York Times • 29th September 2022

For Queer Couples, Engagement Rings With Subversive Stones

After becoming engaged to Tim Bell, left, Joshua Farrar said he wanted a ring that reflected how, as a gay man, he has “been defying what I’ve been expected to do my whole life.” For its stone, he chose a salt-and-pepper diamond, a once overlooked variety that has become more popular among L.G.B.T.Q. couples.

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As one jeweler put it, many of her L.G.B.T.Q. clients want “the opposite of what a diamond i

Esquire • 30th June 2022

Proud of What, Exactly?

I got engaged in March 2018, two and a half years after gay marriage was legalized in the United States. A few months later, I attended a graduate school party with my fiancée proudly at my side. Between sips of warm white wine, I gushed about the engagement to my professor, a queer author and journalist, and her partner, a longtime political activist and retired professor. I expected them to congratulate us with the same flushed enthusiasm everyone else had expressed. After all, our engagement

Oxford American • 15th May 2025

When the Fire Broke Out

It is said that when Confederate General John Bell Hood torched a reserve supply train idling on tracks near the eastern edge of Atlanta, he created the largest explosion of the Civil War. So loud was the blast that Union Major General William T. Sherman heard it all the way in Jonesboro, twenty miles south. At this moment Sherman declared, “So Atlanta is ours, and fairly won.” The fire signaled to Sherman that Hood, in an effort to contain the collateral damage of Atlanta’s imminent capture, wa...