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    ‘Carl the Collector’ Puts an Autistic Child (Well, Raccoon) in the Lead

    Several recent TV series for adults have featured autistic lead characters. A new PBS show looks to expand that trend into children’s programming.Carl isn’t unlike many small children you may know. He balks when his mother suggests he get rid of some of his many stuffed animals. If his friends want to play a game that isn’t his favorite, he feels frustrated. And when he realizes he has left one of his prized toy collections away from home, he needs help falling asleep.But Carl also differs from most of his peers, and not just because he is a fuzzy little raccoon. Carl is autistic, with reactions that are often longer-lasting, more intense or more socially awkward than those of his pals. As the title character in PBS Kids’ animated television show “Carl the Collector” — and the first autistic lead character in a PBS children’s series — he offers young audiences a rare close-up view of autism spectrum disorder, demonstrating to those who are not on the spectrum, and to those who are, how they can help one another navigate childhood challenges.“The stories overall are just human experience, stories for everybody,” said Zachariah OHora, the best-selling children’s author and illustrator, who is the creator of “Carl the Collector.” “We just get to see it through all these different lenses.” (The show began streaming last week across PBS Kids digital platforms and airs on PBS stations.)Geared toward viewers ages 4 to 8, the series debuts with a story in which Carl figures out that he can make a photo scrapbook of the plush toys he seldom plays with, which makes them easier to give away. In another episode, when Carl insists on his choice of what to play and when, his buddies persuade him that they should devise a rulebook that includes taking turns.“So much of the strategies and techniques that are used to support and help autistic individuals are really just extensions of good practice,” said Stephen Shore, an autistic professor of special education at Adelphi University and an adviser to the show.That support seems especially important now. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that one in 36 American children is now diagnosed with autism — up from one in 150 in the year 2000. Although medical experts attribute the rise partly to increased testing and broader diagnostic criteria, the disorder remains a major concern for parents.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    How to Plan a Family Heritage Trip

    In the second season of the TV show “The White Lotus,” three generations of a fictional American family travel to Sicily to try to reconnect with their ancestral roots. Though their journey goes hilariously wrong at times, heritage trips like theirs have become serious business.Decades ago, Americans who were interested in traveling to explore their roots had to rely on family lore, sort through dusty books and, often, follow their gut. But DNA-testing sites, online genealogical databases and social media have made searching far easier, fueling a growing interest in heritage travel.Global heritage tourism is a nearly $600-billion-a-year industry, which is expected to keep growing by about 4 percent annually through 2030, according to market analysis by Grand View Research. And TV programs like “Who Do You Think You Are?” and “Finding Your Roots,” which follow mostly celebrities as they discover their heritage, are continuing to inspire other journeys.Not everyone goes on a heritage trip for the same reason: Maybe you want to meet living relatives to swap photos and stories. Maybe you are tracking down official documents to obtain dual citizenship. Or you could simply be looking to connect with a place your family once called home.Here are some tips for planning your own heritage trip.Follow your DNAServices like Ancestry.com, FamilyTreeDNA, MyHeritage and the struggling 23andMe use your genes to decode your family’s likely places of origin. Other DNA-testing websites cater to specific ethnic groups, like African Ancestry or Somos Ancestria, for Latino origins. The cost of the DNA test kits, which usually require a saliva sample, can vary from about $40 to $300, depending on the company and how detailed you want your results to be.Do some free online sleuthingBirth, death, marriage and census records can help you narrow your search to specific places. You can dig into these sources through the U.S. Census Bureau or the National Archives and Records Administration. If you don’t know where to start, FamilySearch is an easy-to-use, free website funded by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. (You don’t have to be a member of the church to use it.)We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    6 Minutes. 62 People. 1 Epic ‘Sunset Boulevard’ Sequence.

    A group of young men and women, all dressed in black, marches down a busy street in the heart of Times Square. Walking in formation, they dodge parked cars, bicycles and pedestrians, as the man leading them belts out a song.“Sunset Boulevard, ruthless boulevard / Destination for the stony-hearted.”This ambitious scene from the director Jamie Lloyd’s Broadway revival of “Sunset Boulevard” hinges on a live tracking sequence that goes backstage and spills onto West 44th Street. It’s shown in real time on a massive LCD screen to the audience inside the St. James Theater, but passers-by — both unsuspecting and calculating — get a front-row view, at least during the number’s three-minute outdoor portion.“We’re sort of crossing our fingers a bit every night,” said Nathan Amzi, who designed the scene with Joe Ransom and Lloyd. Everyone, he added, “has to have laser focus to make it work.”Through rain, bone-chilling temperatures and the crush of crowds from neighboring shows, this scene, which takes 62 people to pull off, goes on.The title song, “Sunset Boulevard,” which is sung by the hapless young screenwriter Joe Gillis (played by Tom Francis), functions as a sort of dream sequence in the musical. The character contemplates the circumstances that led him to take up residence at a Los Angeles mansion as the boy toy of the faded silent film star Norma Desmond — and tries to justify them.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Late Night Can’t Believe Matt Gaetz Won’t Be Attorney General

    Jimmy Kimmel said the scandal-ridden ex-congressman’s withdrawal was “exciting news for Judge Jeanine Pirro, who will be our next attorney general.”Welcome to Best of Late Night, a rundown of the previous night’s highlights that lets you sleep — and lets us get paid to watch comedy. Here are the 50 best movies on Netflix right now.A Distraction From the DistractionsMatt Gaetz, who was President-elect Donald J. Trump’s choice for attorney general despite allegations that he’d used drugs and had sex with a 17-year-old, withdrew his name from consideration on Thursday.Jimmy Kimmel said the ex-congressman from Florida had “crawled back under the rock of cocaine he scurried out from under.”“He said he decided to take his MAGA hat out of the ring because his nomination was becoming a distraction to the critical work of the Trump/Vance transition. Which is true: President-elect Trump should not be distracted from his critical work of creating other distractions.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“Gaetz said he was honored that Trump nominated him, and he looks forward to spending more time posing as a high school senior on the Roblox Reddit page.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“See, the thing is, Trump did this wrong. He did it in the wrong order. First, you nominate Diddy for attorney general, then Matt Gaetz.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“This Gaetz situation is a setback for Trump, but it’ll all be forgotten as soon as he nominates new surgeon general Dr. Heathcliff Huxtable.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“All of this attention on this sex criminal was unfairly distracting from the critical work of all the other sex criminals who have been nominated.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“And while this is sad news for Gaetz and his fans, it is potentially very exciting news for Judge Jeanine Pirro, who will be our next attorney general.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“Poor Rudy Giuliani. He has to be on the twin bed in the office his son converted into a guest room right now, going, ‘What about me?’” — JIMMY KIMMELThe Punchiest Punchlines (Withdrawal Edition)“Former Florida congressman Matt Gaetz withdrew today as President-elect Trump’s nominee for attorney general. This puts a lot of pressure on Trump, because now there’s not much time to find somebody worse.” — SETH MEYERS“Matt Gaetz is out? But his nomination was only eight days old! Once again, he can’t even make it to 18.” — SETH MEYERS“If you’ve ever dreamed of being an attorney general, update your résumé, because they have an opening.” — DESI LYDICThe Bits Worth WatchingGwyneth Paltrow and DJ Khaled played a game of “True Confessions” on Thursday’s “Tonight Show.”Also, Check This OutRachel Elizabeth Seed’s mother, Sheila Turner Seed, in “A Photographic Memory.”Capariva FilmsRachel Elizabeth Seed’s new documentary, “A Photographic Memory,” weaves meditations on memory and the nature of photography with a personal narrative about her mother, a photographer who died when she was 18 months old. More

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    Chuck Scarborough to Step Down as WNBC News Anchor After 50-Year Career

    The celebrated broadcaster, who started at the New York station in 1974, announced that he would wrap up his anchoring career on Dec. 12.Chuck Scarborough, the broadcaster who for 50 years brought New Yorkers news of blizzards, financial collapses, terror attacks and assassinations, said Thursday that he would step down from his anchoring duties at WNBC.“The time has come to pass the torch,” Mr. Scarborough said at the end of the 6 p.m. newscast. “Fifty years, eight months and 17 days after I walked into the door here at the headquarters of the National Broadcasting Company, I will step away from this anchor desk.”Mr. Scarborough, 81, said his last broadcast as anchor will be on Dec. 12. He will not leave WNBC entirely, and will contribute periodically to special projects, NBC 4 New York said in a statement.Beginning with “Good evening, I’m Chuck Scarborough,” Mr. Scarborough became an institution in New York over the decades he delivered the news about everything from storms and financial crises to protests and plane crashes. He announced the shooting of John Lennon in 1980, helmed newscasts in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks and won praise with his team for its coverage of the Covid pandemic.Mr. Scarborough anchored WNBC’s 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. weekday news shows for more than 40 years. In 2016, he stepped down from the late broadcast and continued as the co-anchor at 6 p.m. The station said his replacement will be announced later.“Chuck Scarborough is the gold standard in American broadcast journalism,” Eric Lerner, the president and general manager of NBC 4 New York, said in a statement.A native of Pittsburgh, Mr. Scarborough was in the U.S. Air Force for four years before he set off on a career in journalism. He received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Southern Mississippi, and served as an anchor at two stations in the state.That was followed by anchoring jobs in Atlanta and Boston before Mr. Scarborough landed at WNBC in 1974.When he marked his half-century as an anchor in New York in March, Mr. Scarborough hailed what he described as the city’s resilience.“Each time it was knocked down, people were saying, ‘That’s it, New York can’t possibly survive,’” he told The New York Times. “And each time, we would recover.” More

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    ‘The Blood Quilt’ Review: An Elaborate Tapestry

    Katori Hall’s new play about sisters gathering after their mother’s death features standout performances but an overabundance of themes.Quilting is about more than just fabric and stitches; it’s about blood, love, memory and trauma. That’s the premise at the center of Katori Hall’s “The Blood Quilt” at Lincoln Center, about four sisters gathering to complete a quilt three weeks after their mother’s death. The play itself a beautiful patchwork of themes and ideas that feel packed to the seams.It’s the first weekend of May, which means it’s time for the Jernigan sisters to convene at their family home at Kwemera, an island off the coast of Georgia where the Jernigan clan have lived for generations. But Kwemera isn’t what it used to be, and more change is imminent; there are plans for a bridge that will connect the mainland to the island, which means locals are being bought out by developers. Still, Clementine (Crystal Dickinson, with perfect gravitas), the eldest sister, remains staunchly a Kwemera woman, having lived her whole life there, where she nursed their mother in the last years of her illness.Clementine is the fierce guardian of family traditions, including the annual quilting ritual, so Gio (a riotous Adrienne C. Moore), the heavy drinking second oldest, has reported for duty, as has Cassan (Susan Kelechi Watson, perfectly demure), who has brought her teenage daughter Zambia (Mirirai) for her first quilting circle. And there’s an unexpected guest — Amber (Lauren E. Banks), the youngest, who’s a successful entertainment lawyer in California and has been absent for the last few years.Quilting is a days long project, with each sister assigned her own separate duties. But the quilt isn’t the only reason for this reunion: there’s the matter of their inheritance, if any, and the financial loose ends remaining after their mother’s death. The money issues stir up the women, but it’s their contrary, complicated and self-contradictory ways of grieving, along with their long-held grudges against one another, that truly unleashes the storm of drama inside the home.The world of “The Blood Quilt,” which opened Thursday, is inviting: Hall’s characters are fully formed and clearly motivated, the family’s history is rich and Kwemera feels alive, in part thanks to the eclectic homespun set design by Adam Rigg. Quilts are draped everywhere in this tiny cabin, which is so close to the water that the front of the stage drops off into a grassy basin.Hall, who won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for her play “The Hot Wing King,” uses the same level of artistry and meticulousness in crafting a metaphor that the sisters do in crafting their quilts. Their roles and quilting preferences mirror their places within the family. Zambia, caught in the messy adolescent process of defining her identity, takes the role of stitching the centerpiece — an apt, if heavy-handed, representation of a younger generation taking the baton in a family tradition. And the quilts themselves embody memories and even a bit of magic. A Jernigan story about a family matriarch who gave a quilt square away to each of her children sold off to slavery isn’t just emotionally resonant; it proves that these quilts are literal scraps of history.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Review: In ‘Death Becomes Her,’ Spiking the Fountain of Youth

    Hilarious star turns from Megan Hilty and Jennifer Simard make the mostly unfunny 1992 film into an intermittently memorable Broadway musical.Not since Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne themselves performed there in 1958, leaving a trail of scrapes and bite marks in their wake, has Broadway’s Lunt-Fontanne Theater housed such equal-billing dragons as the ones Megan Hilty and Jennifer Simard play in “Death Becomes Her.” The musical, which opened on Thursday, stars the two comic treasures as lifelong frenemies for whom the “lifelong” part is an understatement. Their animosity is eternal.That Hilty and Simard make it so jolly is a big relief and a big surprise. The 1992 Robert Zemeckis movie on which the show is based may be a queer camp classic, but its misogynistic ick factor is high. The leads — Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn — are shot leeringly yet unflatteringly, a queasy combo. The violence they do to each other is more vivid than the vanity at its root. What binds them, even in acrimony, goes largely unexplored. And, fatally, the film is not very funny.For its first 30 minutes, the musical is nothing but. When introduced, Hilty’s Madeline Ashford is a star of a certain age being hoisted by chorus boys in a creaky vehicle called “Me! Me! Me!” Its opening number, “For the Gaze,” establishes her epochal narcissism while also winking, in its title pun, to the material’s cult audience. The staging, by Christopher Gattelli, goes so breathtakingly over the top — costume changes, key changes, cameos by both Liza and Judy — that half the lyrics get lost in the laughs.Though best known for her vocal chops — fully exploited here in glossy songs by Julia Mattison and Noel Carey — Hilty is an inventive and beguiling comedian, putting a warm spin on even the meanest zingers. Indeed, one of the improvements in Marco Pennette’s book for the musical is that those zingers seem like love pinches, painful but titillating. They are often self-directed, too, and thus a kind of self-pleasure. When Simard’s Helen Sharp tells Madeline she’s stunning, the diva responds, with evident delight, “Well, thanks to my hair, makeup and neck team.” She also credits “that tapeworm diet.”Simard is simply brilliant. I say “simply” advisedly; it takes a lot of craft and homework to stand next to Hilty and not be outdone. Happily, her Helen is an astonishing creation of disappointment and disparagement: Dorothy Parker boiled down to a syrup, spitting takedowns like sour candies. “Love her like a twin,” she says of Madeline, in a voice of squeaky chalk. “Who stole my nutrients in the womb.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    ‘Midnight Family’ Is a Fresh and Energetic Medical Drama

    Set among a family of private ambulance drivers in Mexico City, the Apple TV+ series is a thoughtful and cinematic adaptation of a 2019 documentary.“Midnight Family,” on Apple TV+, is a Mexican drama (in Spanish, with subtitles or dubbed) about a family that runs a private ambulance. There aren’t enough ambulances for all the emergencies in Mexico City, so bootleg paramedics blare their own sirens and pitch in.Our heroine is Marigaby (Renata Vaca), who splits her time between medical school and working with her father and brothers on the ambulance. She is passionate about medicine but spread awfully thin — eager to keep the hands-on rush of in-the-field emergency care but desperate to be a proper doctor. She is tired of being looked down on by hospital employees, tired of having to solicit payments from patients mid-ride.Her older brother, Marcus (Diego Calva), likes the ambulance fine but mostly thinks about his girlfriend. Her little brother, Julito (Sergio Bautista), is just a kid, but he handles all the crises with precocious aplomb. Her father (Joaquín Cosío) does not take great care of himself and relies on Julito for probably too much. Her mother (Dolores Heredia) is warily inching her way back into the picture.The show is based on a 2019 documentary of the same name, but the vibe of this TV adaptation is less gritty realism than just solid medical drama. Episode 3, about the 2017 earthquake that killed hundreds of people, has both a bleak, broad grounding and also a weepy individual through line, as all good natural disaster episodes do. Mercifully, this is fresher and more energetic than contemporary network doctor shows and also more cinematic. The nighttime color palate glows, sometimes radiating warmth but other times emitting a kind of woozy menace. Scenes set in traffic don’t feel too phony baloney, even if some characters feel pat.Like many other medical dramas, the show gets flabbier the farther it gets from the hospital, or in this case, the ambulance. The domestic plotlines are a mixed bag: Marcus’s relationship woes are not hugely compelling, though the potential for rekindled romance between the separated parents has a fraught charm.There are graver sins than being reminiscent of “Grey’s Anatomy,” though the pointed voice-overs and rule-breaking romances here add to the similarities. If “Midnight” is a little predictable, so be it; it’s still quite a ride. More