Shut Down Thanks To The Virus, A History-Changing Exhibition Reopens In Spain

Who are the great writers of Spain’s Golden Age? Well, they’re men, of course … or, wait a second, we’ve been missing a whole bunch of information. “Recognition of these women and the ‘almost subversive’ fact of their writing is long overdue. Without them … we have an incomplete canon that tells only half the story of Spain’s Golden Age.” – The Observer (UK)

Why Digression Is Good, In Eating And In Writing

How should food writing work? “On the one hand, it should communicate the demands of craft, expressing the physical skill of cookery with words on a page; on the other, food writing should convey emotional content, the ability of food to carry inside it memories personal and historical. It was crucial for me that neither of these strands should dominate above the other.” – LitHub

The Disturbing Stats About Policing On TV

Why do people tend to think crime has increased or stayed at a high level? Well, perhaps it’s the many cop shows on TV. And those series have some issues. “Of the 26 series from the 2017-18 season examined in the study, 21 had showrunners who were white men. At least 81% of these shows’ writers were white, compared to the 9% who were black. A whopping 20 of 26 series had either no black writers or just one black writer.” – Los Angeles Times

Lockdown Doesn’t Work For Every Writer, But Boy, Did It Ever Work For Pushkin

Quarantined during a cholera epidemic 190 years ago, the poet excelled. “Pushkin, who would never be allowed to travel outside Russia and was now stranded in the countryside amid ‘rain, snow and mud up to your knees,’ leapt across historical epochs, countries and genres—from the medieval French tower in ‘The Miserly Knight’ to Vienna in ‘Mozart and Salieri.’ ‘The Stone Guest’ swept from the gates of Madrid to the balcony of one of Don Juan’s lovers.” And he finished Eugene Onegin to boot. – The Economist

Broadway Wonders When Tourists Will Feel Comfortable Returning

There’s no clarity about it. One responder from Los Angeles: “Without a vaccine or a cure, to attend a performance would not be a rational choice. The issue is not the statistical probability of getting the virus. Rather, it is the anxiety of being infected that prevents devout thespians, like yours truly, from going back.” – The New York Times

Using Lidar To Find Out That Mayan Construction Projects Are Older And Much Bigger Than Anyone Knew

New lidar technology revealed the formerly hidden, at least from the ground, site. The “lidar survey found 21 other monumental platforms, clustered in groups around the region. But Aguada Fenix is by far the largest—in fact, it’s the largest single Maya structure archaeologists have ever found. It took between 3.2 million and 4.3 million cubic meters (113 million to 151 million cubic feet) of clay and soil to build up the platform. That’s a larger volume than the famous pyramids built centuries later during what’s known as the Maya Classic Period. It’s also much older than any other Maya monument, old enough to suggest that the Maya started working together on huge construction projects much earlier than modern archaeologists had suspected until now.” – Ars Technica

New Job For Furloughed And Laid-Off Theatre Workers: Rebuilding Minneapolis

Theatre workers who design and build productions are perfect for this moment, some of them say. “‘For anyone who has arts training, they are taught early on how to collaborate with people. And that collaboration comes with the ability to quickly organize and problem-solve,’ said University Rebuild organizer Daisuke Kawachi, who pointed out the valuable stagecraft skills volunteers are now applying to their community.” – CNN