Author: Matthew Westphal

During The Pandemic, Small Local Bookstores Have Gotten More Love Than They Can Handle (And Customers Don’t Love That)

“As the novel coronavirus takes its toll on businesses all over the world, many well-meaning consumers have flocked to local community bookstores. However, increased demand on these small shops has put a strain on business owners. Even worse, some have received backlash from impatient and disgruntled customers for slow shipping or sold out inventories.” – The Washington Post

In Wake Of Sexual Misconduct Accusations, Ballet School In UK Shuts Down Completely

Earlier this month, more than 60 former students at Ballet West, a boarding school in the Scottish Highlands, accused Jonathan Barton, the school’s vice-principal and son of its principal, of pressuring teenage female students at the school to have sex with him and carrying on affairs with some of them. Over the past week, Barton resigned, the police began an investigation, and the teaching accreditations of both Bartons were withdrawn; consequently, Ballet West is now beginning the process of liquidation. – The Herald (Scotland)

When Bat Boy Escaped The FBI And The Alien Endorsed Bill Clinton: An Oral History Of ‘Weekly World News’

“At the height of its popularity in the late 1980s, circulation reached 1.2 million copies per week. Headlines like ‘Bigfoot Kept Lumberjack as Love Slave’ ruled its covers. A team of dedicated journalists filled its pages with satirical fiction. If fact happened to stumble its way inside, it would be adjusted to fit the paper’s mission statement.” Here, from the people who worked there, is the story of everyone’s real favorite supermarket tabloid. – Mental Floss

What Happened To The Lost Colony Of Roanoke Island? Researchers Say They Have The Answer

It’s American history’s oldest mystery: in 1587, 100-odd colonists sent by Walter Raleigh settled on Roanoke Island in what is now North Carolina’s Outer Banks. Within a few weeks, their leader had to go back to England for supplies, and he wasn’t able to return for three years. When he finally did, he found the settlement abandoned — with the word “CROATOAN” carved on a post. No Europeans ever found the missing Roanoke settlers, and there’s been speculation ever since about what became of them. Now a writer working with a group of archaeologists says that the solution to this puzzle has been hiding in plain sight all along. – The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, Va.)

Advertisers And Media Outlets Are Fighting, With Billions Of Dollars At Stake, And Nobody Really Knows How To Fix It

“It’s easy to pin the current squabbles on the coronavirus. Look more closely, and you’ll see evidence of deeper frustrations at play that marketers and media outlets have known about for years but haven’t done enough to fix. … Since the industry agreed to changes in the way Nielsen measures TV ratings in 2007, viewership patterns have grown exponentially more complex — and everyone, it seems, has a different vision of how to calculate the number of people who watch a favorite comedy or drama; a sports event; and a newscast.” – Variety

More COVID Innovation: A Drive-Through Art Exhibition

Leave it to the ingenious Dutch. With both the Rotterdam Ahoy conference and exhibition center and the city’s Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen closed due to the pandemic, the two institutions got together to use the Ahoy’s large space to display video installations that visitors can view from vehicles. Electric cars only; if you don’t have one, you can borrow one on site. – Deutsche Welle

Kenneth Bernard, Playwright Of The Ridiculous, Dead At 90

“By day Dr. Bernard was an English professor at Long Island University, a job he took in 1959 and held for more than 40 years. By night he was a central figure in the experimental theater movement that began bubbling up in the small performance spaces of Midtown and Downtown Manhattan in the 1960s. His works were a favorite of John Vaccaro, the director behind the Playhouse of the Ridiculous, whose assaultive, anarchic productions were part of the stew that gave rise to punk, queer theater and more.” – The New York Times