Back in 1647, Christmas was banned in the kingdoms of England (which at the time included Wales), Scotland and Ireland and it didn’t work out very well. Following a total ban on everything festive, from decorations to gatherings, rebellions broke out across the country. While some activity took the form of hanging holly in defiance, other action was far more radical and went on to have historical consequences. – The Conversation
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A Historian Concludes Systemic Civilization Failure
“If you have a discussion among the crew about which way to turn, you will not turn in time, and you hit the iceberg directly. The past 10 years or so have been discussion. That sickening crunch you now hear—steel twisting, rivets popping—is the sound of the ship hitting the iceberg.” – The Atlantic
Touting It Up: Public Radio’s Diversity Audit
Public radio has a problem. In 2019, NPR’s newsroom was more than 70 percent white. The same year, 83 percent of the voices heard on its national shows were white, too. According to the most recent State of the System report by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, in 2018, just 23 percent of people working at member stations identified as people of color. That’s almost a full percentage point decrease from the previous year. – Columbia Journalism Review
Disney+ Now Has 73 Million Subscribers
That marks a leap from the 60.5 million paying subscribers that Disney Plus had when Disney last reported earnings in early August. Hulu now has 36.6 million total paying subscribers, up from 35.5 million in late June, while ESPN Plus has grown to 10.3 million subscribers, up from 8.5 million reported last quarter. – Variety
How London’s “Pleasure District” Became The West End And A Model For Theatre
It was the mid-19th century that really established the modern West End. The taverns around the Strand in the 1830s and 1840s helped develop the song and supper evenings that became Victorian music hall. The bazaars and arcades of the West End evolved into a distinctive form of retail: the department store. Shows at the theatres on Leicester Square, such as the Alhambra, became known for their exuberant spectacle. The West End was therefore a laboratory of mass entertainment that has shaped notions of luxury and fun ever since. It also confirmed London’s status as a capital city. – History Today
Sell Tickets Or Raise Money?
People buy tickets because they want to see a performance and rate that transaction by that experience. People donate because they want to manage/share in/support what the company does. Those that choose to donate large amounts to a select few organizations – the right-thinking group described above – gain power in that kind of relationship. – LinkedIn
Money Pit: The Case Of The Buried Anglo-Saxon Treasure And The Men It Sent To Prison
In June of 2015, a pair of hobbyists carrying metal detectors came upon a hoard of extremely rare gold coins and jewelry, in astonishingly good condition, that came from the old Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia and had almost certainly been buried by the marauding Vikings who plundered it. Great Britain has fair but strict laws governing the discovery of ancient treasure — laws that these gentlemen had skirted when they stumbled on the hoard and flouted after they found it. As Rebecca Mead reports, the men came to a predictably bad end, but much of the treasure is still missing. – The New Yorker
Why Pianists Know So Little About Their Pianos
“Why are pianists at such a loss when it comes to understanding the mechanics of their own instrument? This lack of knowledge separates them from almost all other instrumentalists. Not only can violinists, clarinetists, harpists or flutists tune their instruments, and even bend pitches in performance, they also, by and large, know much more about how their instruments work.” – The New York Times
What Alex Trebek Achieved Is More Amazing Than We Realize
“It’s easy to forget to appreciate the freak ubiquity of Jeopardy! One of the most popular, longest-running television shows of all time is a trivia gantlet that, by design, casts bookish obsessives. … It’s a miracle that the show is so exciting to watch. This is due almost entirely to Trebek. … He led one of our last wholesome routines — a celebration of facts, from the arcane to the accessible — with a kind of tangible enthusiasm. … [And] one got the sense that Trebek wanted the contestants to thrive.” – The New Yorker
A Shortage Of Printed Books This Winter?
Large printing companies in the U.S. are under financial strain, made worse by shutdowns due to the pandemic and subsequent reopenings with fewer employees. Fewer books printed means fewer books going to distributors — who themselves have had pandemic-related issues with staffing their warehouses. Add in a paper shortage, and a publishing schedule in flux because many spring/summer books were pushed to fall, and you have a perfect storm of supply-chain gridlock. – Seattle Times