How fast is Venice sinking? For at least three centuries it’s been going down at a rate of about 8 inches a century. How do scientists know? By looking at the paintings of 18th Century painter Giovanni Antonio Canaletto. The scientists turned to Canaletto because precise measurements of the city’s sea level only date to 1872, while the artist’s works are from the previous century. Canaletto was so true to detail he even painted the dark algae stains on buildings along canal banks, a detail many artists avoided for aesthetic reasons.”
Author: Douglas McLennan
National Book Award Winners
“The third time was the charm for Robert A. Caro, who finally won the nonfiction prize for the third volume of his majestic Lyndon B. Johnson biography, The Master of the Senate (Alfred A. Knopf). Caro was a finalist in 1975 and 1983. Other winners include: for fiction, Three Junes by Julia Glass; for young people’s literature, The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer; and for poetry, In the Next Galaxy by Ruth Stone.
Confessions Of A Judge
Michael Kinsley ought to have known what was expected of him when he agreed to be a judge for this year’s National Book Awards. “It served me right when the books started rolling in and I realized with horror that I was actually expected to read them: 402 in all. Three FedEx men and our local UPS woman had been retired on full disability by the time all these packages were lugged up our front steps. If you lined up all these books end-to-end, you would just be putting off having to open one and get cracking. Who are you trying to kid?”
Looted Books Still Not Returned
Art isn’t the only thing Nazis looted. Millions of books were also stolen by the National Socialists during their cultural raids. “These are books stemming from the private libraries of Jews, who either were forced to emigrate or deported, but also books from collections that were seized by the National Socialists in occupied regions.” Though many have been returned, too many have not, and the search for rightful owners has been slow.
Kids Online
A new website is putting thousands of children’s books from countries around the world online. And it’s free. “When it’s completed in about five years, the International Children’s Digital Library will hold about 10,000 books targeted at children aged three to 13. ‘There are places in the world where you’re going to find a computer way before you find a library or a book store’.”
Last Days For Salon?
Is the online magazine Salon on its last legs? This week its stock was demoted toWall Street’s Little League. “The San Francisco company has said it could run out of money by Dec. 1, barring an emergency infusion of cash.” In the past two years, Salon has slashed staff and scaled back. “In all, Salon had revenue of $1 million in the last quarter. That is tiny by business standards, the equivalent of sales at two neighborhood gas stations.”
Art Of Familiarity
Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations puts out its first new edition in 10 years. “Massachusetts bookseller John Bartlett first published his book of quotations in 1855 as a literary reference work. Shakespeare still leads everybody with 1,906 of the 25,000 quotes from more than 2,500 people in the 17th edition. The Bible is next with 1,642 entries. The book quotes about 100 new people, among them Mother Teresa and Maya Angelou, Alfred Hitchcock and Hillary Clinton, Jerry Seinfeld and J.K. Rowling, Katharine Graham and Princess Diana.”
$100 Million For Poetry?
“One can but wonder what this will do for that most marginalized literary form. Visibility, for sure, since suddenly there’s lots of 0000’s at the end of the $$$$’s attached to the word poetry. Poets are a quirky lot, and the first, but not lasting, reaction from some was concern, since this peripheral art’s loneliness was seen as part of its strength; the next common reaction was that the idea of connecting money to poetry was somehow unpoetic.”
Communications Bill Introduced
The British government has revealed its communication bill, which will reform the way broadcast media do business in the UK. “The bill aims to promote universal access to media and communications services, and self-regulation for companies in the media industry.”
Playing Games With Race
Judging by a lot of today’s movies, “you’d think race was easy. No biggie whatsoever. Not only that, it’s fun and entertaining.” But Hollywood has a long history of distorting race relations. “If anything, Hollywood is — and nearly forever has been — in the problem-dodging business, and if these movies are only becoming more strident in their insistence that race on-screen isn’t an issue, it’s because off-screen it so clearly, obviously and unsettlingly is.”