A reporter visits Shortz’s home office in the NYC suburbs and watches him collaborate with the Times digital puzzle editor, a former Shortz intern.
Author: Matthew Westphal
Why Male Crime Novelists Are Now Using Female Pseudonyms
Historically, of course, cross-gender pseudonyms for writers typically went the opposite direction. Now, Sophie Hilbert reports, publishers have found that novels by women writers (real or ostensible) tend to sell better – yes, even crime novels.
Architectural Digest Picks The 18 Most Stunning University Libraries
There are the expected ones (Trinity College Dublin, Wren Library at Cambridge, the Sorbonne), modern marvels (Caltech, U. Chicago), places you might not expect (Oklahoma), and one you’d swear was from the English Middle Ages that is, in fact, in the Pacific Northwest. (So, what’d they miss?)
People Who Enjoy The Arts Are More Likely To Give To Charity And Volunteer, Says Study
“New research into the connections between the arts and ‘prosociality’ – whereby individuals are likely to donate their time or money to charitable causes – found … that [attendance at or participation in] the arts had a stronger connection to prosociality than other demographic variables.”
Playwrights Grapple With Ohio’s Opioid Crisis
“At least five plays about heroin abuse have been produced in northeast Ohio alone in the last year as the state’s residents grapple with the surging epidemic.” The writers and their colleagues are using as a model the theater’s response to AIDS in the ’80s and ’90s.
Seattle Opera Faces ‘Yellowface’ Issues Around ‘Madama Butterfly’ Head-On
“In reality, Cio-Cio San is a sex-trafficked 15-year-old Japanese teenager,” says Seattle Opera’s (Japanese-American) media-relations manager. “Why are we so comfortable with that, to the point of romanticizing it and telling the story over and over?” The company is, and has been, examining that question; Jason Victor Serinus reports on how.
Why We Need To Confront Racial Bias In Dance Criticism
Theresa Ruth Howard: “How can you truly comment on what you are seeing when you have no technical knowledge of a specific genre like African or hip hop? Critics who stand on the outside of a culture cannot write about what they do not know. … The black body on stage is never neutral, and the effects of its inherent politicization as it relates to the subconscious cultural ignorance and biases held by critics is seldom addressed.”
A ‘Little Pompeii’ In France Is Called Most Important Roman Excavation In Decades
“A series of mosaics and a fountain decorated with a statue of Hercules were among the discoveries made when the 5,500 sq. m site [near Vienne, south of Lyon] was examined in preparation for the construction of four apartment blocks.”
Actor Robert Hardy, Known For ‘All Creatures Great And Small’ And The Harry Potter Films, Dead At 91
In addition to his roles as Siegfried Farnon (the grouchy vet) on Creatures and Cornelius Fudge in the Potter franchise, Hardy played Winston Churchill in at least eight different properties on stage and screen (including one in French).
London’s Oldest Pub Theatre Is Leaving Its Pub After 47 Years
“The King’s Head pub theatre in north London has announced plans to move to a £5.6 million purpose-built space. Widely recognised to be the first pub theatre since Shakespearean times, the King’s Head has submitted plans to build a 250-seat auditorium and an 85-seat studio on Upper Street, Islington.”