Category: people

Terborg-Penn didn’t let history departments get away without telling a fuller story than the one they had, for decades, been telling. Her work successfully “challenged the existing narrative that was dominated, and framed, by white activists like Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.” – The New York Times

Matt Zoller Seitz: “These types of guys thrive on attention, and if they can’t get the positive kind, they’ll settle for the negative. ‘Oh, sure, they’ve tried to separate us,’ Spaceywood said, inadvertently speaking for Louis C.K. as he emerged from his alt-right chrysalis and flapped his moth wings in Levittown. ‘But what we have is too strong. It’s too powerful.'” — Vulture

“During a years-long pro bono legal fight, Mr. Begle represented [Ruth] Brown and other R&B artists, helping them claim royalties from past sales, industry-standard royalty agreements going forward, and other benefits in what became known as the royalty reform movement.” — The Washington Post

“The [countertenor] filed the suit earlier this month against Andrew Lipian, who accused Daniels of groping him in 2017 in a federal lawsuit which also alleges that the University of Michigan turned a blind eye to allegations of sexual impropriety.” — New York Daily News

When preparing for construction of architect Jørn Utzon’s design, the Opera House’s original lead engineer could not get his structural calculations for the now-famous roof to work out, and he quit; Zunz took over and used then-new computer modeling techniques to solve the engineering puzzle. And when, during the cost-overrun-plagued construction, Utzon got tired of fighting with politicians and walked away from the project, Zunz saw it through to the end. — The Guardian

Himself a Holocaust survivor, “[Hilsenrath] chronicled the degradations of the ghettos in one novel and dared to turn genocide into satire in another, selling millions of copies and defying critics who said he was too funny, too gruesome and too vulgar.” — The Washington Post

“Merton was a remarkable man by any measure, but perhaps the most remarkable of his traits was his hypersensitivity to social movements from which, by virtue of his monastic calling, he was supposed to be removed. Intrinsic to Merton’s nature was a propensity for being in the midst of things. If he had continued to live in the world, he might have died not by electrocution but by overstimulation.” — The New Yorker

The longtime music critic for Montreal’s La Presse was from a different era, and was not shy to pronounce… – La Presse

He recorded and toured the world as a soloist and chamber musician through the 1960s and ’70s, but he’s best remembered for his 60-year tenure on the faculty of the Yale School of Music, from which he retired only last summer. — The New York Times

Turns out, it’s a time-honored tradition that started about 4,000 years ago with the ancient Babylonians. Beginning with a 12-day religious festival (are we seeing a modern equivalent here?) called Akitu, the Babylonians crowned a new king or re-upped their devotion to the sitting ruler. At this time they also pledged to pay debts and return borrowed goods to keep in good standing with their gods. – Fast Company