By Ian Prasad Philbrick

Good morning. We're diving into The Times's archives with the help of a professional.

Times past

The end of the year is an opportunity to look back and reflect. So today we're bringing you something in that spirit: an interview with Jennifer Parrucci, a senior taxonomist at The Times, about the interesting things she has found digging through the paper's 171-year archives.

Ian: What exactly is a taxonomist?

Jennifer: Yeah, no one knows what I do. They're like, "You're a taxidermist?" I make sure our current articles can be easily searched and categorized. That work grew out of The New York Times Index, which is a reference book of every person, organization, location and event the paper has written about. It started being published regularly in 1913.

For example, if I search for the first mention of John F. Kennedy in the paper I can find, I get a three-sentence story about him returning from England, where his father was the U.S. ambassador, in 1938. I can find it because someone working on the index that year thought, He seems important enough. I'll add his name.

I've also created a massive spreadsheet of fun gems I've found combing through the archives, mostly as a passion project. You go in and sometimes find things serendipitously, from the serious to the ridiculous, like an attempted robber who got caught because he stopped for lemonade or a man who only ate pickles and crackers and ended up in the hospital. I also help reporters looking for old coverage on specific events, like April Fools' Day or the Academy Awards.

Searching must get complicated as events — and the paper's coverage — evolve.

It does. World War I wasn't indexed as World War I, because the archivists back then didn't know there would be another. So you have to think, OK, what would it have been called? That's one thing about the archives: Things change. Language changes. We used words we don't use today. We framed things in ways we don't now.

You can also see how our journalistic standards have changed. My favorite archival project I've done was to collaborate on two books: Cats of the Times and Dogs of The Times. I got to go find every dog and cat story in the archives. I don't know that a story about a cat running through a church would make page 2 of the paper today, but it did in 1897.

It's almost like you're describing a different newspaper. Have you come across anything particularly strange?

Before Adolph Ochs bought The Times in 1896, some of the paper's coverage was a little dicey. There was a lot of society coverage. It was more partisan. It also used to report very seriously on ghost stories and other paranormal activity. One in-depth article, from 1870, is called the "True History of the 27th Street Goblin."

I also keep a collection of my favorite absurd front-page stories. Back when the people assembling the paper had to lay out the articles by hand, sometimes there would be leftover space. So you'll occasionally find short, strange stories on the front page that were there to fill it. In 1854, there was one about how a live scorpion was found on a piece of driftwood off a steamer boat in Cincinnati.

The Times has TimesMachine, an online archive of issues that we've used to cover historic events like Queen Elizabeth II's death in The Morning this year. What is the value of making the archives publicly available?

Context. The day men first landed on the moon in 1969, for example, a story about the Chappaquiddick car accident involving Senator Ted Kennedy was also on the front page. So was a story about the first man to row solo across the Atlantic. If you couldn't flip through digital pages, you wouldn't know those stories appeared next to each other. You wouldn't see the ads that filled the paper. You wouldn't see what was happening in the culture at the time. You wouldn't see the photos. And I don't know any other paper with the breadth of archives we have.

Have you stumbled across any fun Christmas-related stories?

There's one I love from 1900 where these little boys set a bear trap for Santa, but they ended up trapping their cousin instead. There's another from 1973 where a group called the Ethical Culture Society set up a meet and greet with Frankenstein's monster for kids, as an alternative to sitting on Santa Claus's lap. There's also one that was in our cat book from 1935 where a child in Boston attempted to mail the family cat to Santa. The cat was returned, alive.

More about Jennifer: She grew up in New York and studied library science at Pratt Institute. Her father did archive-related work for The Times for 40 years. She remembers attending Bring Your Daughter to Work days at the paper's old West 43rd Street building, where kids could create mock newspapers.

For more

• If you're a Times subscriber, you can search TimesMachine for stories published between 1851 and 2002.
• Follow the @nytarchives Instagram account to see old photographs.
• Here's how World War II brought about the New York Times Crossword.
• A 2017 Styles series explored old marriage announcements.
• The Overlooked project publishes obituaries for notable people whose deaths went unreported in The Times.

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NEWS

• A fierce winter storm has left Buffalo, N.Y., and its region reeling. At least three people died in Erie County, and thousands were without power. The bitingly cold temperatures are expected to persist.
• In Canada, the winter weather grounded flights and brought cold that "freezes flesh in minutes."
• New York City's largest utility asked customers to conserve energy as frigid weather increased demand.

• As Moscow wages war in Ukraine, its mercenaries have already established control in the Central African Republic — with scant Western reaction.
• A state judge rejected a last-ditch effort by Kari Lake, a Republican, to overturn her defeat in the Arizona governor's race.
• The United States Military Academy at West Point will start removing Confederate symbols, including a portrait of Gen. Robert E. Lee, from its campus.
• Maxi Jazz, the lead singer of the English dance group Faithless, died at 65, The Guardian reports.

FROM OPINION

• Charles Dickens saw Christmas as a time to reflect on the past, lament inequality and embrace magic, Maureen Dowd writes.
• The Jan. 6 committee's final report is out, but the work to avert another Jan. 6 is just beginning, Julian Zelizer writes.
• Miracles, and the systematic study of them, deserve serious consideration, Molly Worthen argues.
• Elon Musk's mismanagement of Twitter is hurting Tesla at a moment when the electric-car industry is becoming more competitive, Farhad Manjoo argues.

The Sunday question: Is the end of China's "zero Covid" policy good for the world?

Ending harsh lockdowns may boost the global economy, Dr. Padmanabhan Badrinath notes in The BMJ. But the abrupt shift, coupled with weak vaccines, is fueling an explosion of cases that could birth dangerous variants, Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel writes in The Wall Street Journal.

Enjoy the complete Times experience today.

The New York Times All Access subscription brings you full digital access to news and analysis, plus Cooking, Games, Wirecutter and The Athletic. Subscribe today at this special rate.

MORNING READS

Merry "Sismas": A jewelry designer's holiday bash mixed hip-hop and "Bridgerton."

Saint Nick's secrets: "People think it's easy, but it's a tough job," according to a Santa at the Mall of America.

Wirecutter gift guide: It's not too late! Many of these great gifts can land in an inbox within seconds.

Sunday routine: The auctioneer Nicholas Lowry visits "doggy Disneyland."

Festive quiz: Listen. Can you guess these Christmas movies?

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BOOKS

Publishing kingmaker: Jenna Bush Hager offers authors a path to the best-seller list.

Popularity contest: Writers want Shakespeare and James Baldwin at their dinner parties.

Editors' picks: "Blaze Me a Sun," a murder novel by a Swedish crime writer, and eight other books.

Times best sellers: Colleen Hoover made the list of the holiday season's most popular books.

THE SUNDAY TIMES MAGAZINE

On the cover: TikTok conquered the planet — and now the U.S. is threatening to shut it down.

Deep division: Was the Civil War inevitable?

Recommendation: Keep a dream journal.

Ethicist: What obligations do we have to friends who are struggling?

Read the full issue.

THE WEEK AHEAD

• Today is Christmas. Governments, financial markets and many businesses will remain closed tomorrow, too.
• The Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race, one of the most difficult and acclaimed sailing competitions, begins on Monday.
• The Kennedy Center Honors air on Wednesday. This year's honorees include George Clooney, Gladys Knight and U2.
• Barry Croft, who was convicted in the plot to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, is scheduled to be sentenced on Wednesday.

This time of year, you're likely to have lots of guests and little patience. So Emily Weinstein picked five weeknight meals that are fast to make but fancy enough to serve to loved ones. There's roasted salmon with miso cream, which has a special-occasion feel; a one-pot vegetable biryani; and Melissa Clark's porchetta pork chops, which can be ready in under 30 minutes.

NOW TIME TO PLAY

Here's a clue from the Sunday crossword:

49 Down: Animal whose name comes from the Narragansett word for "twig-eater"

Test your knowledge of the faces that defined 2022.

Here's today's Spelling Bee. Here's today's Wordle.

Thanks for spending part of your weekend with The Times.

Lauren Hard, Lauren Jackson, Claire Moses, and Tom Wright-Piersanti contributed to The Morning. You can reach the team at themorning@nytimes.com.

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