Blog

Who Stole Ancient Bible Fragments And Sold Them To Hobby Lobby?

This week investigators accused professor Dirk Obbink, one of the most celebrated classics professors in the world, a Nebraska native and MacArthur “genius grant” recipient who had long directed — and allegedly looted — Oxford’s Oxyrhynchus Papyri Project, a collection of centuries-old literature recovered from an ancient Egyptian garbage dump in 1896. – Washington Post

Netflix And Director Ava DuVernay Sued For Defamation By — Wait, Who?

In the 1940s, John E. Reid and Associates developed a commonly-used, and now-controversial police interrogation method called the Reid Technique. That method is mentioned once, briefly, in When They See Us, DuVernay’s recent Netflix series about the Central Park Five; based on that mention, Reid and Associates argues in its court filing that its reputation has been damaged by the script’s mischaracterization and false assertions. – Variety

‘My Actual Goal Is To Be The Anthony Bourdain Of Theatre’: Helen Shaw, New York Magazine’s New Critic

“I want to say to readers: You have no idea that you want to go to this weird corner and eat these spicy noodles, but trust me, you’ll love it. If I could do one millionth of that for theatre, I’d be happy.” (On the other hand: “I love theatre, but I am not a fan. I don’t feel like a fan. And I do get very, very angry at things.”) – American Theatre

Harold Bloom, Bestselling And Controversial Literary Critic, Dead At 89

“From a vaunted perch at Yale, he flew in the face of almost every trend in the literary criticism of his day. Chiefly he argued for the literary superiority of the Western giants like Shakespeare, Chaucer and Kafka — all of them white and male, his own critics pointed out — over writers favored by what he called ‘the School of Resentment,’ by which he meant multiculturalists, feminists, Marxists, neoconservatives and others whom he saw as betraying literature’s essential purpose.” – The New York Times

San Antonio Gets Its First Contemporary Art Museum, Thanks To A Hot-Sauce Heiress

Shortly before she died in 2007, philanthropist Linda Pace had a dream in which she saw a shining red counterpart to the Emerald City in The Wizard of Oz which would hold her art collection and make it available to the public. A dozen years later, Ruby City has opened, with a building (yes, it’s red) designed by David Adjaye. – San Antonio Current

Musician John Cohen Of New Lost City Ramblers Dead At 87

“[He] was distinguished in at least three fields. As a photographer in the 1950s and ’60s he made memorable images of contemporary American writers and painters, and of the young Bob Dylan soon after the singer’s arrival in New York. As a film-making musicologist he documented traditional arts in the American South and in Peru. And as a musician, particularly as a founder member of the New Lost City Ramblers, he had an incalculable influence on the American folk revival and all that followed.” – The Guardian