London’s National Gallery was the UK’s most popular museum attraction in 2004. “With 5 million people marching through the National Gallery’s doors last year, it was the most visited museum in the country, and the second most visited tourist attraction – pipped only by the perennially popular Blackpool Pleasure Beach, according to figures prepared by the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions.”
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Plans For Hemingway House Rile Idaho Neighbors
Neighbours in the town of Ketchum, Idaho fear that plans to open to the public the house in which Ernest Hemingway killed himself will “bring scores of tourists who will disrupt their peace and clog up their drives. They want to buy the property – which could have a price tag of more than $500,000 – from the conservancy that owns it, and move it down the road. But the plan has run into opposition from the Idaho Hemingway House Foundation, which counts the Hollywood luminary Tom Hanks and the writer’s granddaughter Mariel Hemingway as board members.”
World Book Day – The Power Of Recommendation
Organizers of World Book Day want to harness the power of word of mouth to promote reading. They plan to distribute 8 million postcards which would “enable one in seven people in the British population to recommend a book to a friend, or enemy. The card, due to come tumbling out of virtually every publication in Britain until World Book Day on March 3, are designed by artists ranging from the Guardian’s Graham Rawle to Peter Blake and Simon Patterson. The organisers, whose mission is to raise the profile of reading and book buying and borrowing, call this harnessing the power of recommendation, and are focusing it on a single day.”
Call To Arms: Help Cuban Librarians
Nat Hentoff says jailed Cuban librarians need the help of American libraries. “How inspiring it would be if the world-renowned New York Public Library and its president, Paul Leclerc, would join the small Vermillion Public Library in South Dakota to further circulate stories and songs of freedom by sending books—and encouragement—to the Cuban independent libraries. Many of the multicultural users of New York’s library system would be proud of its flagship center and its lions guarding the freedom to read.”
Central Park Gates Draw Million People
More than a million people have been to Central Park to see the Christo Gates. “An estimated 350,000 people visited the park on Saturday’s opening day; even more – 450,000 – came Sunday. Rain reduced crowds on Monday, the conservancy said, but noted that 200,000 visited on Tuesday, when U.S. First Lady Laura Bush was among those in attendance. By comparison, the park typically receives 65,000 visitors a day during weekends in February. In the spring during the city’s busy tourist season, the park receives about 250,000 visitors a day on weekends.”
Iran Dams Threaten Archaeological Sites
Several dam projects in Iran seriously threaten important archaeological sites. Some of those projects may be delayed so surveys can be completed. Others are out of time…
British Government Knew Queen’s Benin Bronze Had Been “Expropriated”
The British Foreign Office knew back in the 1970s that a Benin bronze head given to the Queen by Benin’s president had been “expropriated” from the Lagos Museum. “The bronze which Gowon gave to the Queen on his [1973] state visit was a sixteenth century piece worth up to £30,000 on the market. It was in the Lagos Museum up to a few days before Gowon left for the UK when, realising he had to come bearing a suitable gift, he sent to the Museum and said ‘I’ll have that one’.”
Please Oscar – A New Stunts Category
“With attention focused on the Academy Awards, less than two weeks away, an alliance of four stunt organizations is petitioning the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to create a new Oscar category, that of best stunt coordinator. At a time when computer effects make ever more outrageous stunts possible, the stunt groups say, recognition is long overdue for the men and women who design and carry out some of the most thrilling moments on the big screen.”
The London Underground – Cleaning Up The Kinsey Poster
Officials of the London Underground have objected to a poster advertising the movie Kinsey and insisted on changes. “When I first heard about the objections, I envisaged a robust image of, say, a youth coupling with a horse; after all, it was Kinsey’s research that revealed 17% of American farmhands had sex with their four-footed charges. But no, it was the naughty words that bothered the Tube censors. They demanded changes to the lettering that runs behind an image of Neeson as Kinsey: whereas once there was the legend “orgasms, masturbation and sleaze”, now the punters merely have to grapple with “pleasure” and “sexually”. Yuck!”
Of Love And Shakespeare – Maybe Science Can Help?
Is their a scientific explanation for the love Shakespeare writes so eloquently about? “Merging art and science, the Royal Shakespeare Company has engaged a psychotherapist to explain the “science of love” to actors rehearsing new productions of Twelfth Night and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. It hopes that they will get an understanding of what is happening in the human brain when one person gazes into another’s eyes and murmurs: I’ll follow thee and make a heaven of hell.”