Maria Konnikova: “What I found … was that it would be hard work indeed to even begin to approximate the essence of the detective’s approach to the world: his ever-mindful mindset and his relentless mental energy. Holmes was a man eternally on, who relished that on-ness and floundered in its absence.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Dancercise And Moldy Jokes From 1920s Chorus Girls
Antics of Arabella, a comic strip that ran in a New York City tabloid, “featured photographs of Broadway ‘chorus girls’ demonstrating stretches that showed off their bodies while they told mildly funny jokes.”
Women Authors Sweep All Five Categories In Costa Awards
“Mary Talbot’s Dotter of Her Father’s Eyes, which was illustrated by her husband Bryan, a veteran of the comic genre, won biography of the year while Hilary Mantel won the novel award for Bring Up the Bodies; Francesca Segal won first novel for The Innocents; Kathleen Jamie’s The Overhaul came first in poetry, and Sally Gardner’s Maggot Moon was named children’s book of the year.
Ugandan Court Throws Out Case Against Director Of Gay Play
“A Ugandan court has dismissed the case against a British theatre producer who faced two years in jail for staging a play about homosexuality. David Cecil was charged with ‘disobeying lawful orders’ from Uganda’s media council after performances of the play went ahead despite intervention from the regulators.”
Does Islam Prohibit Images Or Not?
“There are strong theological precepts against the creation of likenesses of living things, and above all of religious figures, especially Muhammad. And yet lush vegetation in mosaic form garlands the façade of the Umayyad mosque in Damascus, devotional pictures of members of the prophet’s family are common among Shias, and merchants in the Tehran bazaar sell pendants with Muhammad’s portrait on them.”
Patti Page, 85
“[Her] gossamer voice on ‘The Tennessee Waltz,’ ‘The Doggie in the Window’ and other 1950s hits offered a soothing counterpart to the revolutionary new sound of rock ‘n’ roll.”
ABT Announces Dancer Exchange
“American Ballet Theater and two European dance companies are engaging in a little trans-oceanic swapping” – with Britain’s Royal Ballet and the Royal Danish Ballet.
New York Times Culture Editor To Step Down
Jonathan Landman, 60, wrote in an e-mail to colleagues, “We all know that the newsroom has to reduce its costs. No less urgent is its responsibility to cultivate a new generation of leaders. My continued presence would help accomplish neither. So it’s time to go.”
Homoerotic Paintings Lead To Uproar At Pakistan’s National College Of Arts
When the school’s academic journal published “a series of paintings depicting Muslim clerics in scenes with strong homosexual overtones, prompting threats of violence by Islamic extremists, … [officials] pulled all its issues out of bookstores and dissolved its editorial board.” A court is considering blasphemy charges.
Gay Parents Find Surprisingly Swift Acceptance On Israeli TV
The NBC sitcom The New Normal and an Israeli dramedy series titled Mom and Dads have “won the battle for acceptance. For the most part Israeli society … has reacted to the baby bump and the programs about it with nonchalance. Even the country’s sizable religious segment has merely shrugged at the series.”