Good morning. Iranian and U.S. officials are meeting in Oman. It’s the first in-person negotiation since the United States and Iran were at war last June. And the Olympics open today in Italy. The Games are a show of global unity — in a moment when that seems very far away. The first medals will come tomorrow, but athletes are already curling, skating and skiing. Follow along here. But before we get to more news, let’s huddle up.
America’s gameThe Super Bowl is one of our great secular holidays, rivaled only by Thanksgiving for its place in the American imagination. More than 125 million people watched the game last year, either for the contest itself or for the halftime show and the advertising that breaks up the plays and quarters. Who’s playing? It’s the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots this year, not that a majority of the viewers are likely to care. (The Seahawks are favored to win, at least according to the giant digital billboard for a prediction-market site that’s outside my window in Times Square.) They just enjoy the spectacle, the wonder of a shared national experience, the thrill of not knowing what’s going to happen. Because anything can happen! In 2008, the New York Giants managed to squeak past the Patriots to win Super Bowl XLII, ruining their perfect season. Four years earlier, Justin Timberlake tore off a part of Janet Jackson’s costume during the halftime show, introducing the term “wardrobe malfunction” to the world. And remember Katy Perry’s Left Shark? The Super Bowl’s always magnetic, even if the peer-reviewed studies suggest the sport is not just dangerous but deadly. The ads
But maybe you’re in it for the advertising, the chance to make like a client at Don Draper’s shop, giving thumbs up or down to pitches from the creative teams. Mike Hale, one of our television critics, takes measure of the Super Bowl ads every year, updating his ratings as the commercials arrive on our screens. (He’s tough. Clydesdales don’t move him at all.) Thus far, Mike’s positive on Emma Stone for Squarespace (a collaboration with the arty director Yorgos Lanthimos) and the Christian ad campaign “He Gets Us.” He’s less so on Adrien Brody for TurboTax — and the N.F.L. tight ends who gathered to suggest that getting screened for prostate cancer allows a man to relax … his tight end. (See Mike’s rankings here.) Halftime!
Bad Bunny, fresh off his win for album of the year at last weekend’s Grammy Awards, is the headliner. An American citizen from Puerto Rico, he sings and raps primarily in Spanish. How you feel about that probably says something about your politics. It’s not just the Spanish. The rapper and singer decried the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown during the awards ceremony, angering many on the right. (President Trump called Bad Bunny a “terrible choice” for the halftime show and said he would not attend the game.) So however joyous his singing and dancing, his performance on Sunday will undoubtedly be, as my colleague Jennifer Medina put it, con política. To counter it, the conservative group Turning Point USA announced that it would stream an alternative halftime show, headlined by Kid Rock. “We plan to play great songs for folks who love America,” he said. But a whole lot of people are looking forward to Bad Bunny — not least the small community of Puerto Ricans who have played professional football. “The stage is bigger than the N.F.L. itself,” the retired offensive lineman Willie Colón told The Times. “The stage is indicative to where we’re at right now.” The feast
Whatever you’re watching at halftime, whatever team you’re rooting for before and after it, whatever ads you like or loathe, there’s no point in taking part in the Super Bowl game day on an empty stomach. The gang I used to run with at NYT Cooking has plenty of recipes for the day. But I’ll give you my menu and see if it sparks joy: oven-fried hot wings with blue cheese dressing; cheese enchiladas; a honking big platter of nachos; some crab and artichoke dip. The point, for me, is not so much to consume all that food as to make it for those who’ve come into my home to sit on the couch and watch the big screen. You don’t want them dourly munching on a bag of chips. You want them laughing and prop-betting and discussing all that’s happening around them, good and bad. Feed everyone heartily, and watch the human connection flourish. That’s a good goal for all Americans this weekend, however you feel about the state of the world. See you on Sunday.
Iran
Immigration
Politics
Russia-Ukraine War
Business and Economy
International
Canadians have been mad at America for a while. As Trump’s threatens territorial expansion, that rage is spreading across the West, writes Stephen Marche. Carlos Lozada wrote an elegy for The Washington Post he loved. Introducing Crossplay Go word to word in our first 2-player game. Spell. Score. Outsmart your opponent. Download app
Heated? Yes. Rivalry? No: A gay former professional hockey player married a sales associate at Cartier in Toronto after a decade of ups and downs. Click! A tea party: A playtime experiment showed scientists that apes have the capacity for make-believe. Your pick: The most-clicked story in The Morning yesterday was about Swedish lighting.
1 x 10⁻¹²— That is one-trillionth. Laboratories that conduct sports doping tests have instruments that can detect substances down to that fraction of a gram, known as a picogram.
Sign up to our Games Briefing to follow the latest from the Olympics, which will run for the next few weeks.
|
