Our Enduring Fascination With the Kennedys

From the New York Times, I'm Rachel Abrams, and this is The Daily on Sunday. Here in Manhattan, downtown in the East Village, there's this tiny Indian restaurant called Pana Tu. It's a bit of a hole in the wall, but like any restaurant that survives, it has its charms. For panna two, one of those charms is that it is filled with Christmas lights. Absolutely covered. Like imagine the most Christmas lights you could fit into a restaurant and then double or triple that. That's how many lights are in Panatoo. I wonder whether your lights are filled. Panatoo has been a novelty for New Yorkers for decades. We lived in the area for, like, a couple years, so we but we've never been in here. But lately, it's been drawing a different kind of crowd. I would suggest I was asking my mom, like, where should we go for dinner? And she was like, you should try, like, you know, the place that was in Love Story. Love Story. The fictionalized retelling of the relationship between John f Kennedy junior, son of a president, one of the most famous New Yorkers of the nineteen nineties He's a big JFK. And Carolyn Bessette, the Calvin Klein publicist whose relationship with JFK junior vaulted her into what the show portrays as an unwelcome spotlight. In the series, JFK Junior takes her to the unpretentious and empty, Pana 2, on their first date. This your go to date spot? Yeah. I'm a sucker for a laminated menu. The show, which ended this week, has been ascending into a real cultural moment. Even if you haven't heard of Love Story, you might still be aware of it or at least know about the kind of texting about, posting about, criticizing, loving. It's impacting fashion, it's impacting people's memories, a lot of people's parents. And suddenly, and this is according to Hulu, it is the most streamed limited series in its history. And the Cravens are the nicest thing to royalty we've ever had in America. Yeah. So I think this is, like, very impactful in the It's got its own center of gravity. So much so that a single scene in a single episode could bring a fresh wave of business to a small Indian restaurant in Manhattan. It motivated us to finally go. Yeah. I don't even care if the food's not that great. Like, I just wanna go for the vibes. So today, we're going to explore why the show has become so popular right now. My colleague, Alexander Jacobs, who writes about culture here at the Times, will join me to talk about nostalgia, the Kennedys, and the eternal allure of Cinderella stories. It's Sunday, March 29. Alexander Jacobs, welcome to the daily. I see that you are wearing a leopard coat and big sunglasses and very simple minimal jewelry. Did you dress perhaps for our conversation today? Not consciously, but I have found that the aesthetic of Carolyn …