Author: Matthew Westphal

12-Year-Old Trips, Punches Hole In $1.5 Million 17th-Century Painting

“Footage released by the organisers of ‘The Face of Leonardo: Images of a Genius’ exhibition in Taipei shows the boy in shorts, trainers, a blue Puma T-shirt and holding a drink walk pass the still life, catching his foot and stumbling over. He looks up at the Paolo Porpora oil on canvas painting of flowers, shown later to have a fist-sized gash at the bottom, and freezes, looking around at other people in the room.” (includes video)

What Too Many Arts Execs Misunderstand About ‘Sustainability’

Too many boards and CEOs have “tried to make their organizations ‘sustainable’ by imposing a simplistic set of solutions to the problem: sharp cuts in the compensation packages of their union musicians and workers, plus an equally sharp reduction in programming. With respect, this is no way to build sustainability. On the contrary, this a recipe for disaster.” Scott Chamberlain proposes a differently way of looking at the concept.

Merl Reagle, Beloved Crossword Author, Dies Suddenly At 65

“‘In the 1980s, a new group of puzzlemakers saw that crosswords were starting to remind them of their worst teachers from grade school,’ Mr. Reagle wrote in a 1997 article for The Philadelphia Inquirer‘s Sunday magazine. ‘Wouldn’t it be more fun and attract more solvers if puzzles were a little more playful? Just a smidge trickier and a lot wittier?'”

Counterrevolution At The Hugo Awards: The Anti-Diversity Coup Of The ‘Puppies’ Backfires Completely

“At the [science fiction prizes’] presentation each August, the [winners] have been joined by … those of other ethnicities and genders and sexual orientations, many of whom want to tell stories about more than just spaceships. Early this year, that shift sparked a backlash: a campaign, organized by three white, male authors, that resulted in a final Hugo ballot dominated by mostly white, mostly male nominees.” But the final voting didn’t exactly work out as planned …

The Most Talked-About Novel In France Is An Algerian Rejoinder To Camus’s ‘The Stranger’

Kamel Daoud’s The Meursault Investigation is told from the point of view of an Algerian named Harun, the younger brother of the Arab man [Camus’s protagonist] Meursault killed. Meursault was a European who killed an Arab. Harun is an Arab who – we learn – killed a European. Harun’s first line? ‘Mama’s still alive today.'”