So says a new study of IQ. “People who sat an IQ test at the age of 11 in 1932 were ranked in exactly the same order when they took the exam again at the age of 77, showing that intelligence is stable throughout life. But researchers also found that those with high IQs tended to live longer because they made the right health decisions during their lives.”
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The Highest-Earning Dead People
Being dead isn’t really an impediment to earning lots of money. Celebrities can do very well indeed – this year’s Forbes list of high-earning dead people is topped by Elvis, who earned $40 million in 2003. “Elvis Presley’s estate earns tens of millions of dollars annually, not from music sales–Elvis’ manager famously sold the rights to pre-1973 recordings to RCA (now part of Sony (nyse: SNE – news – people )) for $5 million–but from merchandising and admissions to Graceland.”
Top 40 Not What It Used To Be
“Just 2,000 copies are enough to crack the Top 40. The figure is less than a third of what it would have taken to make it into the chart as recently as six years ago, and is a clear sign of the decline of the singles industry. The number one, long viewed as the ultimate prize in the music business, reached a new low last week when Swedish DJ Eric Prydz had the worst sales ever recorded for a chart-topper.”
Rachmaninoff Manuscript Found
Lost for 100 years, the manuscript of Rachmaninoff’s Second Symphony surfaces. “The first four pages of music have at some stage become detached and are missing, as is a title page – hence, perhaps, the fact that it has remained unidentified for so long. Most of the final page, on which there might have been a date and signature, has also gone astray. But the handwriting, the paper and the manner in which Rachmaninov made corrections – all are as they should be.”
Agent And Pavarotti-Minder
In a world where the pretense of gentility is a rule of thumb, agent Herbert Breslin is, in the parlance of Hollywood (where he would be less distinctive than he is on West 57th Street), a ‘screamer.’ He’s also, as those of us who’ve been on the receiving end of his screams know, inordinately persistent, funny and knowledgeable about the nuts-and-bolts of the classical music world.”
New MoMA Aspires To Culinary Heights, Too
“The better the food, the more intense the museum experience,” says Glenn D. Lowry, director of the Museum of Modern Art. So it should come as no surprise that the new MoMA, reopening Nov. 20, will include restaurants that complement the art, both aesthetically (the tableware can also be seen in the design collection) and in terms of aspiration (the restaurants are created by Danny Meyer). Ideally, people will refuel in one of the dining spaces and venture back into the galleries, refreshed.
U.S. Seizes Nazi-Looted Picasso
“FBI agents have seized from a prominent Chicago art collector a Picasso painting that European authorities say was looted by the Nazis. The government is allowing ‘Femme en blanc’ (‘Woman in White’) to remain in the possession of the collector who bought it nearly 30 years ago until the courts can resolve questions about its legal ownership. The oil painting, valued at more than $10 million, has been in legal dispute since 2002.”
Crisis Over, Pittsburgh Symphony Is In The Black
“The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra finished its 2003-04 fiscal year with a $463,000 surplus, a far cry from the $1.73 million shortfall the year before.” Foundation, individual and corporate giving was up, and operating expenses were down by $2 million, largely due to pay cuts of 7.8 percent for musicians and 10 percent for staffers.
On Writing Prize Shortlist, One Very Familiar Name
Of the writers shortlisted for Canada’s 2004 Governor General’s awards, one is going for her fourth win. “Alice Munro, who has won Governor General’s awards in 1968, 1978 and 1986, was shortlisted once again in the fiction category for Runaway, her 10th story collection, when the finalists were announced yesterday.”
Newfoundland Director Snags Coveted Prize
“Canada’s richest theatre award has gone to an artist from one of its poorest provinces. Jillian Keiley, 34, the founding artistic director of the St. John’s-based Artistic Fraud of Newfoundland, was named the recipient of the 2004 Elinore & Lou Siminovitch Prize in Theatre. The prize comes with a $100,000 cheque, of which the winner keeps $75,000 and gives the remainder to a protégé of her choice: in this case, fellow Newfoundland director Danielle Irvine.”