“The news that the Broadway musical Rock of Ages will be offering in-seat alcohol during performances will send actors diving for the drinks cabinet. … We’ve only just weaned the general public off the habit of unwrapping half a pound of Dairy Box during the progress of the play. It may just be beer at the moment, but before we know it, they’ll be touting hotdogs and pretzels, and it can only be a matter of time before they’ll be offering patio furniture and quotations on home insurance.”
Author: Laura Collins Hughes
Lead In Children’s Books Isn’t A Big Worry, CDC Clarifies
“Could a vintage, dog-eared copy of ‘The Cat in the Hat’ or ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ be hazardous to your children? Probably not, according to the nation’s premier medical sleuths, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But a new federal law banning more than minute levels of lead in most products intended for children 12 or younger — and a federal agency’s interpretation of the law — prompted at least two libraries last month to pull children’s books printed before 1986 from their shelves.”
Where Are The Black Leads On Network TV?
“On the eve of Barack Obama’s election last fall as the first African-American president, television seemed to be leaning toward a post-racial future. In October two prominent cable networks — CNN and Comedy Central — began new programs that featured black hosts, a development that was notable because so few current programs on cable or broadcast channels have minority leads. Five months later both programs … have been discontinued.”
Orange Prize Longlist Is Rife With Americans
“Nine of the 20 writers named yesterday on the Orange women’s fiction prize longlist were American, including one of the US’s literary titans: Toni Morrison. After Morrison, nominated for her 17th century slave trade novel A Mercy, the best-known are arguably Deirdre Madden for Molly Fox’s Birthday, Marilynne Robinson for Home, and Kamila Shamsie for Burnt Shadows. There was no place for writers such as Kate Grenville, Kate Atkinson, Helen Garner or Zoe Heller.”
Boris Johnson’s Tory Tack: Make The Kids Learn Poetry!
“As anyone who loves poetry will testify, when you learn a good poem, you make a good friend. You have a voice that will pop up in your head, whenever you want it, and say something beautiful and consoling and true. A poem can keep you going when you are driving on a lonely motorway, or when you are trapped on some freezing ledge in the Alps, or when you are engaged in any kind of arduous and repetitive physical activity, and need to keep concentration.”
A New President For Museum of Latin American Art
“The Museum of Latin American Art (MOLAA) of Long Beach has named Richard P. Townsend as its next president and chief executive officer. A museum spokeswoman said the position has been vacant for more than a year.”
This Is Narcissism’s Cultural Moment
“These days, ‘narcissist’ gets tossed around as an all-purpose insult, a description of self-aggrandizing, obnoxious behavior. Unfortunately, the same word is used to describe a quality that comes in three gradations…. Its most extreme form is narcissistic personality disorder, a psychological condition that impairs a person’s ability to form normal relationships and wreaks havoc on those who have close encounters with it.”
On Translating Orhan Pamuk
“What a relief it was to escape into another writer’s world and immerse myself in questions of language,” translator Maureen Freely writes. “But there is, perhaps, a shadow novelist in every dedicated translator. Though she must serve the text, she can recreate the author’s voice only if she gets so close to the heart of the novel that she can convince herself it briefly answers to hers.”
Asbestos At Smithsonian Subject Of Congressional Hearing
“A member of Congress said yesterday that he would hold a hearing to investigate health-and-safety allegations regarding the handling of asbestos at the Smithsonian Institution. … [National Air and Space] Museum lighting specialist Richard Pullman, 53, filed a federal whistleblower claim yesterday with the Office of Special Counsel alleging that the institution retaliated by effectively demoting him for reporting workplace-safety violations.”
For Subway Rescuer, Stage Role Really Came In Handy
Chad Lindsey, who on Monday rescued an injured man who had fallen onto the subway tracks, “said almost everyone seems to be an aspiring actor nowadays, but in this case, it is a critical point to the story: Mr. Lindsey currently appears in an Off Broadway show called ‘Kasper Hauser,’ in a role that requires him to repeatedly lift a character who cannot walk.”