• I built a strong support system while pregnant with my first child.
• After my daughter was born with disabilities, that support disappeared.
• I eventually found a new community with parents who understood my experience.

Before my daughter was born, I carefully laid the groundwork for the support system everyone told me I would need as a new Mom, especially one living far from family.

I took to heart the advice that I would need a village to make it through the early years of navigating motherhood, and I wanted my child to be surrounded by love.

Yet, when my daughter was born with disabilities and complex medical needs, my village vanished, and I had to create a new one entirely.

I worked hard to meet other first-time moms

As soon as I found out I was pregnant, I joined online groups for women who were due around the same time as me. I signed up for prenatal yoga classes because I enjoyed the gentle stretches that eased my aches and pains. However, I kept going back because I enjoyed the company of other women who, like me, were pregnant for the first time. In my natural birth class, I constantly arranged (decaf) coffee dates and offered rides to other moms-to-be who wanted to look at cribs and bouncers at suburban big-box stores.

I loved navigating pregnancy with my newly found group of expecting mothers. Together, we navigated prenatal woes like the dreaded glucose test and celebrated joys, like settling on the perfect baby name.

I grew close to several of these women. We vowed to support each other by cooking meals for one another after delivery. We vowed to get together at least a couple of times a week during maternity leave. Someone suggested creating a babysitting co-op once our newborns were a few months old, and I was all in.

My daughter was born with disabilities and complex medical needs

After a picture-perfect pregnancy, everything changed. My daughter was born disabled and with complex medical needs. She spent weeks in the NICU while I pumped milk for her round-the-clock and slept on uncomfortable hospital fold-out chairs made out of vinyl that stuck to my skin.

Most days, I forgot to eat. I didn’t know whether my daughter would live or die, or what kind of life she would live if she ever saw the world outside her hospital room. When it came time to give my daughter a Hebrew name, I chose “Chaya,” meaning “life” or “to be strong.” I was willing her to pull through, but I seemed to be alone.

My daughter survived, but my village disappeared

My daughter survived those fraught few weeks. Eventually, she went home, albeit with monitors and oxygen tanks instead of teddy bears and soft blankets.

I reached out to the moms I had thought would be my support system, knowing I would be there for any one of them if they needed me. I discovered that the moms in the group that formed when we were pregnant had indeed been getting together as planned. They didn’t want to bother me, they said, so they hadn’t reached out. They assumed I needed my space, they told me, when what I really needed was their friendship and support.

I often wondered if I was their worst nightmare, a Mom with a sick and disabled baby who made problems with sleep regression seem like child’s play. Their reaction made sense. Throughout our pregnancies, all we ever heard was that if our babies were born healthy, everything else would be OK. Now that one of us had a baby that had not been born healthy, there was no road map for how to react or for what came next.

Eventually, I found my group. Without meaning for it to happen, all of my close friends have a child with a disability or complex medical needs. I am incredibly grateful that I was able to create a village, even if it’s not the one I originally planned.

• I tried the biggest burgers at McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Burger King, In-N-Out, and Shake Shack.
• I thought Shake Shack’s burger was a little overwhelming.
• Burger King’s Triple Whopper impressed me with its flame-grilled patties and fresh toppings.

When it comes to fast food’s biggest burgers, the prices are sometimes stacked just as high as the patties.

As some chains see sales decline, brands are thinking beyond limited-time promotions and more about how they can deliver the best value for customers — and sometimes, that means supersizing their menus.

McDonald’s recently launched its new Big Arch burger, its biggest burger ever, with two quarter-pound patties and a new sauce and bun. It’s the chain’s attempt to create a more “premium” burger without a significant price increase compared to the other burgers on the McDonald’s menu.

To determine which chain offered the best value on its larger-ticket items, I compared six of the largest burgers sold at fast-food chains.

I tested burgers from McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Burger King, In-N-Out, and Shake Shack to see how they stacked up in terms of taste and overall value.

Here’s how the biggest burgers at five fast-food chains ranked, from worst to best.

Shake Shack’s double cheeseburger, my least favorite, was particularly large.

It cost me $13.89, not including tax, making it the most expensive burger I tried.

I chose pickles, onions, and Shack sauce as my toppings.

The burger patties were perfectly crispy on the outside and covered in gooey melted cheese.

The pickles were large and crunchy, and the amount of other toppings was generous. The chain’s signature Shack sauce also added a lot of flavor, and the cheese was perfectly melted.

However, the burger was almost too heavy to pick up.

I know I purposefully ordered the largest burger on the menu, but the Shake Shack burger was a little overwhelming.

This burger was massive. I saw it as a hindrance rather than an asset, and I struggled to get through more than a few bites.

The burger patties were much thicker than quite a few of the other burgers I tried, and the toppings definitely enhanced the flavor. However, for me, it was simply too big, to the point where it tasted like a giant meat-and-cheese grease bomb.

The 4×4 is the largest burger available at In-N-Out. I ranked it fifth.

The burger, which is on In-N-Out’s “not-so-secret” menu, is also referred to as the “Quad Quad” or simply “Quad,” and comes with four beef patties, four cheese slices, lettuce, tomato, spread, and the option to add onions.

It cost $10.99, excluding tax and fees.

The giant burger was difficult to hold in one hand, let alone bite into.

The burger was far too large for me to eat in one sitting, though the flavor made me want to.

The burger was delicious in every way, from the juicy beef patties to the layers of cheese and fresh lettuce and tomato.

However, I thought the additional burger patties ended up detracting from the burger’s overall ranking instead of enhancing it. The burger was overwhelmingly heavy, with the tomato and lettuce failing to offset the excessive amount of meat and cheese.

The buns couldn’t contain the juicy beef patties, and they started disintegrating as I ate the burger. Truthfully, I wouldn’t order this again. Although it was tasty, the amount of meat was just too much for me.

I also tried the McDonald’s Double Quarter Pounder with cheese.

Looking at the burger in the box, I immediately noticed that the meat was clearly the star of the show. The other toppings were barely visible beneath the patties and bun.

The burger cost me $10.49, excluding tax.

The Double Quarter-Pounder with cheese comes with a whopping half-pound of meat, pickles, onions, ketchup, and mustard.

I found this burger to be pretty flavorful, especially thanks to the condiments and the large, crunchy pickles.

However, I wasn’t crazy about the bun — while I normally love a sesame-seed bun, I found this one to be pretty bland, airy, and artificial-tasting.

I would order this burger again.

Despite having a lot of meat, the burger didn’t feel too overwhelming to eat.

I thought it was a filling yet completely manageable sandwich, especially compared to the gigantic burgers from Shake Shack and In-N-Out.

The third-best burger I tried was Wendy’s Dave’s Triple.

The Dave’s Triple burger cost $11.49, excluding tax.

Wendy’s Dave’s Triple burger comes with nearly a pound of beef, American cheese, crisp lettuce, tomato, pickle, ketchup, mayo, and onion.

The sandwich was difficult to pick up, but the ingredients seemed well-balanced.

There was a large serving of tomatoes, pickles, and cheese, so it didn’t look like the beef patties would be overpowered.

This burger was so flavorful. The cheese was perfectly melted, and the patties were super juicy.

While I couldn’t finish the entire thing, I definitely thought the flavors were there, and it was a good value for the price.

If I were to change one thing, I would remove the mayonnaise. It ended up mixing with the tomato juice in an unappetizing way, creating a tomato-mayo sauce that I thought diluted the other flavors.

My second-favorite burger was the new Big Arch burger from McDonald’s.

The Big Arch comes topped with two quarter-pound patties, three slices of white cheddar, crispy and raw onions, lettuce, pickles, and a new, tangy Big Arch sauce.

At my local McDonald’s in Brooklyn, New York, the Big Arch costs $11.59, excluding tax and fees.

The burger was heavy to lift, with toppings spilling out from under the bun.

It was super filling, and the white cheddar gave it a rich, steakhouse-style feel.

That said, with the fried onions, cheese, and sauce, it leaned heavily savory — I found myself wishing for something fresher, like more lettuce or tomato, to balance it out.

This burger felt intentional — they didn’t add a second patty simply for the sake of it.

It didn’t feel like McDonald’s threw on another patty and called it a day.

The proportions actually worked, and every layer of the burger — from the tangy white cheddar cheese to the new sauce and the crunchy pickles — felt like it was added to create a more “premium” burger experience.

The best burger I tried was the Triple Whopper with cheese from Burger King.

Similar to the Dave’s Triple, the Triple Whopper also comes with three quarter-pound beef patties, although the ones at Burger King are flame-grilled.

The burger cost me $10.99, excluding tax.

Unlike the other burgers, the Triple Whopper only comes with one slice of cheese.

However, I felt that this allowed the other flavors to really come through, leading to a less gut-filling, more appetizing eating experience.

The lettuce, tomatoes, and onions tasted fresh and added a delicious crunch to the burger.

I also liked the beef patties on this burger the most out of the ones I tried.

The burger patties had a smoky, savory flavor that made the sandwich taste like it was fresh off the grill. I also thought the patties’ shape, which were larger in circumference but flatter than some of the other burgers, made the sandwich easier to eat.

Overall, I really enjoyed this burger and would definitely order it again, if I have the appetite.

While I’m not sure I’m happy to pay more than $10 for any fast-food burger, it was a very generous serving and the most flavorful out of the bunch, without being overwhelmingly huge.

• Joshua Dat invested his life savings to open Datz Deli in Queens with his father.
• The business struggled at first until Dat created the Mac Patty — a burger with mac and cheese.
• Dat’s family now runs two successful Datz Deli locations, and he’s looking to open a third.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Joshua Dat, 33, owner of Datz Deli and creator of the Mac Patty in New York City. It has been edited for length and clarity.

My dad is an amazing chef. He’d been working in kitchens his whole life, and I felt like people never valued him the way they should have.

When I turned 29, I took all the money I’d saved from age 17 and invested it in opening a store in Hollis, Queens, with him. We named it Datz Deli — now home of the famous Mac Patty.

It was a struggle in the beginning. I discovered the place was infested with rodents when I came in one morning and found half of my food supply eaten.

During those first few months, we were making about $200 to $300 a day — not enough to sustain the business. I thought I had messed up, and that all the money I had saved my whole life was gone.

Today, we have two shops — the original in Queens and another in Manhattan. Each brings in between $1,000 to $4,000 a day.

I started Datz because I wanted to support my family

Growing up, we didn’t have much. After my parents divorced when I was young, it was mostly my mom supporting us four kids.

I would go around the house and about town collecting loose change I could find, so I could give it to my mom when she’d cry about the water bill or the electricity bill.

Some days, we struggled to have meals. Growing up like that is something you never want to go back to.

As I got older, I promised myself no one in my family would ever have to live like that again. Because of the business, they won’t.

The Mac Patty changed everything in the summer of 2023

By early 2023, we’d been open for a few months, and nothing was going right. I tried attracting customers with new creations like chopped cheeses on butter bread and roti burritos, but nothing clicked.

Then, one night, I was hungry for a beef patty with cheese, but we didn’t have any cheese left because my dad had used it all for the mac and cheese.

So, I put the mac and cheese in the patty, cut it in half, looked at it, and just had a feeling this was it. This was going to go viral.

My little sister posted a pic of it on Instagram. The next morning, people came into the store asking for it. Soon, we had lines out the door.

The Mac Patty wasn’t like anything else we had tried before. That gave me the confidence to keep building around it.

At first, I was paying influencers to visit the store and promote it. Now, I don’t have to pay anyone; the store has gained its own reputation, and I was able to open the second shop in Manhattan from our success.

I couldn’t have done it without my family

My mom quit her full-time job in bill collecting to come help with the business. She, my father, and my older brother run the shop in Manhattan.

My little sister and uncle run the shop in Queens, and I help out with online content and whatever else they need me for. I remember walking my little sis to school, and now to watch her help run this business — it’s crazy.

Working every day with your family is like what you might expect — terrible. We can fight like it’s World War III, but we know that no matter what is said or what happens, we’re all showing back up at the gate tomorrow to open the shops because we’re all so proud of what it’s become.

My mother taught us growing up that you need people who’ll never give up on you, no matter how hard it gets. And that’s what we are for each other. Nothing breaks us apart.

I like to say that I started this business, but it’s my family that keeps it going. Once we started seeing success, they really showed up for me at times when I didn’t even want to show up for myself. And I’m so grateful for that.

Next, we’re looking to open a location in Orlando — and my older sister will run it.

• Fifty-four-year-old Rich Ruohonen is a personal injury attorney based in Bloomington, Minnesota.
• He was on Team USA’s men’s curling team and is the oldest athlete to compete at the Winter Olympics 2026.
• While he’s not sure he’ll compete in the Olympics again, he still competes in curling.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Rich Ruohonen. It has been edited for length and clarity.

I started curling when I was about 12 years old. My dad taught my brother and me. Curling was a demonstration sport back then. I played in college and in law school, but not at a level close to what I play now. I’ve been playing pretty competitively for the last 25 years.

I made my first men’s national championship team in 1998 and then again in 2001. I’ve been to the last 21 out of 23 national championships; I won two of them. I’ve also been in Olympic trials. But the 2026 Olympics were my first Olympics. I was the alternate on the US men’s curling team.

I am the oldest US Olympian ever to compete.

It’s unusual to have a day job as an Olympian

I’m a lawyer and a competitive curler. Most global athletes are paid by their governments to compete in curling, bobsledding, etc. Their only job is to train for the World Championships, which happen every year, and the Olympics, which occur every four years. They might get a salary, have their expenses paid, and get to keep any winnings.

Unfortunately, in the US, that’s not how it works. It’s one of the disadvantages of being a US athlete. It makes it difficult to train full-time. We do get a small stipend, but many US athletes have side jobs.

I have to work training into my day job

My schedule is complicated. On a week when I am not preparing for a competition, I’m at the gym four days a week, leaving my house at 5:15 a.m. to drive 30 miles to the training facility. I’m there at 6 a.m. and train until 7:30 a.m., then jump in the shower and rush to work. I work from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., sometimes longer. I go home and sometimes work again.

I play in a Tuesday night league during the season. I also “throw rocks,” what we call practice in curling, several nights a week. I’ll often throw on Saturdays and Sundays, two to four hours a day. Every waking moment between those sessions, I’m working, including the weekends, to get caught up at my day job.

When I’m on the road, I’m still putting in 40 hours or more of work. It’s not easy. It’s not that I don’t have any fun, but it’s a lot of work. I don’t sleep a lot.

Curling at this level is a major commitment. There has been a lot of sacrifice, including from my wife, who stayed home because I wasn’t there and who had to do more of the stuff with the kids, who are 21 and 24 now.

While the Olympics might be over, I’m still curling

I’m playing in the senior World Championship in April. I am sure I am the only guy to ever go to the senior World Championship and the Olympics in the same year. We are hoping to win gold this year. I also do a lot of charity curling, such as for the Lupus Foundation. People raise money to play with me as their skip.

There’s already been some interest in me playing in the 2030 Olympics, but it’s hard to say yes. It’s been a huge commitment for 25 years. Even though I’d be in an alternate role again in 2030, I’m still required to do all the practices and attend everything. These other curlers are in their 20s; I’m twice their age. I haven’t fully decided. I’m still throwing well enough to keep playing, and I feel good about playing at this level. But it is harder to get up in the morning with my knees cracking all the time. I also think of how nice it would be to go to Mexico in the winter instead of Calgary.

• President Donald Trump ordered Homeland Security to reinstate pay for TSA officers on Friday.
• It doesn’t mean lines will get shorter — or tickets cheaper — anytime soon.
• Airlines are navigating a confluence of storms, like staffing shortages and rising jet fuel costs.

Jetsetting has gotten less glamorous — and that’s not expected to change even as President Donald Trump reinstates pay for Transportation Security Administration workers.

Trump on Friday directed Homeland Security to start paying TSA workers after Congress failed to agree on a path to end the partial government shutdown and fund the Department of Homeland Security.

The DHS said its agents could start seeing paychecks again as soon as Monday, but if you thought that would mean shorter airport security lines, you might want to pack a snack.

The airline industry is facing an assembly of problems — war, rising costs, staffing shortages, to name a few — that are making flying more expensive and stressful.

Staffing Shortages

The funding lapse had forced TSA officers, who make a starting salary of about $40,000 and often live paycheck to paycheck, to go without wages for weeks. Hundreds of them quit.

Even with the promise of full paychecks to come soon, the TSA will need to address this staffing shortfall.

Ha Nguyen McNeill, the agency’s deputy administrator, said almost 500 officers have quit since the partial shutdown began in mid-February. More than 1,000 TSA agents also quit during the 43-day government shutdown late last year.

The TSA employs about 50,000 officers, but it takes 4 to 6 months to complete training. That means those long lines might linger a while longer. It’s possible those open roles may not be filled in time for the FIFA World Cup in June.

“This is a dire situation,” McNeill told lawmakers on Wednesday. “We are facing a potential perfect storm of severe staffing shortages and an influx of millions of passengers at our airports.”

Adam Stahl, the TSA chief of staff, also addressed staffing lapses on Wednesday. He said the situation will “get worse before it gets better” despite Trump’s executive order.

“There are knock-on ramifications of attrition when the shutdown ends,” Stahl told “The Hill,” a TV news program on NewsNation.

He added that the recruiting pipeline is a “challenge.”

“Folks that are possibly in the pipeline or they’re considering going and joining the workforce will be dissuaded because of the lack of job security,” Stahl said.

Flying is getting pricier

Jet fuel costs are skyrocketing due to the US and Israel’s war on Iran, which is expected to add to the already elevated cost of flying.

Prices have surged to about nearly $200 a barrel since February, far surpassing the earlier $100 average.

As a result, some airlines are relying on consumers to cover the additional costs. Qantas Airways, Air India, Thai Air, and other airlines have already alerted flyers that they’re raising ticket prices.

The ongoing military conflict has effectively shut down the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway near Iran’s coast through which 20% of the world’s oil supply and liquefied natural gas typically pass. Other major oil hubs, including a key port in the United Arab Emirates, have sustained damage.

The war has also forced some countries to close their airspace, forcing airlines to reroute flights and find alternative routes.

Mounting anxiety

None of this is good for the airline industry. Some Americans are increasingly anxious about air travel, which could make them think twice about purchasing costly tickets.

In an Ipsos survey conducted in February, almost half of respondents said they’re “losing confidence in the safety of air travel.” Respondents with household incomes over $125,000 had even less confidence.

“That’s likely a worrying stat for the travel industry as the high earners are much more frequent fliers,” the global market research firm wrote in its report.

Less than 30% of respondents said they felt “confident in the safety of air travel.”

The survey doesn’t specify a reason. However, there could be several factors, including the war’s impact on international travel, rising ticket prices during a time of economic anxiety, the fallout from staff shortages, or a string of recent emergencies.

In January, a passenger jet collided with a Black Hawk helicopter near the Reagan Washington National Airport. Sixty-seven people died. And this week, an Air Canada passenger plane crashed into a fire truck, killing two pilots.

• Bank of America has agreed to pay $72.5M over its banking relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.
• The deal to settle claims brought by Epstein’s victims must first be approved by a judge.
• Bank of America maintains that it “did not facilitate sex trafficking crimes.”

Bank of America has agreed to pay $72.5 million to settle a proposed class action lawsuit alleging the bank facilitated financier Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking operation, according to a Manhattan federal court filing released Friday evening.

The deal, which requires sign-off from a judge, would pay “all women who were sexually abused or trafficked by Jeffrey Epstein, or by any person who is connected to or otherwise associated with Jeffrey Epstein or any Jeffrey Epstein sex-trafficking venture, between June 30, 2008 and July 6, 2019, inclusive,” the filing said.

Lawyers have said they are aware of “at least 60 women who were victimized by Epstein” during that time period, the filing added.

US District Judge Jed Rakoff, who is overseeing the case, gave the parties a March 27 deadline to file the terms of settlement and an April 2 hearing to decide whether to approve them.

Bank of America said in a statement that the deal allows it to “put this matter behind us and provides further closure for the plaintiffs.” The bank continues to deny wrongdoing: “Bank of America did not facilitate sex trafficking crimes,” it said.

Epstein, known for rubbing elbows with titans of industry and political powerhouses, was found dead in his Manhattan jail cell the morning of August 10, 2019, while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges.

JPMorgan agreed to pay $290 million, and Deutsche Bank agreed to a $75 million payout, to settle similar lawsuits brought by the same group of lawyers representing Epstein victims.

Rakoff previously tossed a parallel lawsuit the attorneys brought against BNY — formerly Bank of New York Mellon Corp. — but allowed portions of the case against Bank of America to move forward.