“The case, identical to the others in the Grainger Hall of Gems and lit to hold a diamond ring, is part of a new offer by the museum to pop the question there. The $350 fee includes a champagne toast, with optional add-ons.”
Author: Laura Collins Hughes
Joining 20th Century, PBS To Get Weekly Nielsen Ratings
“Most TV executives cannot fathom a time without regular ratings, given that the Nielsen numbers are used to sell commercial time. But for decades, PBS was content to receive monthly reports about its audience.”
Cut Down On TV And — Presto! — Become Less Sedentary
“Overweight adults who cut their viewing in half for three weeks used about 120 more calories a day than a similar group of viewers, who continued watching five hours a day on average, a small research trial has found.”
New Organ Makes Music With Leather, Oak, Lead And Tin
The Craighead-Saunders organ in Rochester, N.Y., “is a nearly exact copy of a late Baroque organ” in Vilnius, Lithuania. “Modern instruments take advantage of technologies that have given organ-makers generations of new tools and materials, like air compressors, composites and the electric circuit. But before all that, the builders did it another way.”
Strolling Buenos Aires On Its Annual Bookstore Night
“The city closes a main avenue, and places sofas and chairs where cars and trucks normally idle. … This is the Noche de Librerias, Bookstore Night, a chance for Buenos Aires’ many bibliophiles to peruse the millions of titles in stock at the dozens of bookstores that sit under the neon glow on raucous Corrientes Avenue.”
Santa And The Tooth Fairy Help Kids Grapple With Reality
“For years, imagination was thought of as a way for children to escape from reality, and once they reached a certain age, it was believed they would push fantasy aside and deal with the real world. But, increasingly, child-development experts are recognizing the importance of imagination and the role it plays in understanding reality.”
Beating Matisse, Raphael Was 2009’s Priciest Auction Artist
“Collectors responded to the financial crisis by selecting the best 20th-century classics, Old Masters, wine and jewelry at international auctions. They shunned investment in some contemporary art as prices dropped by half and sales fell 75 percent. Private transactions increased….”
After Decades Of Fear, Dance Teacher Reveals She’s Jewish
“The 84-year-old woman,” born in Paris and brought to the U.S. as a war bride, “60 years ago founded the renowned City Ballet, teaching generations of Dallas children how to dance.” But her Texan husband said his family mustn’t ever know she was Jewish, so she kept it a secret.
Theatre Fan Begs Newspaper: Please Hire A Drama Critic
“The current melange of reviewers leaves this theater lover heartsick and confused. In a city with a wealth of rich dramatic productions, the Post-Gazette’s lack of a drama critic is unforgivable.”
Kushner’s Latest No Longer Sprinting Toward Broadway
Guthrie Theater artistic director Joe Dowling says Tony Kushner’s “The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide to Capitalism & Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures,” previously on a fast track to Broadway, “is not happening in the spring” in order to ensure “that Tony wouldn’t face another deadline like he had in Minneapolis.”