Category: people

“[His] life took him from segregated Georgia, where he grew up in poverty as the son of an alcoholic father, to Harvard Law School during the social upheaval of the 1960s. Uninspired by the legal professional, he became a writer … He published no book for 20 years after the announcement of his Pulitzer for his 1977 collection, Elbow Room.”

“Khan’s films included The Street Player (1984), The Wife of an Important Man (1987) and Dreams of Hind and Camilia (1988) – all of which were named among the ‘100 Greatest Arab Films of All Time’ by the Dubai International Film Festival.”

“Each year, Americans spend billions of dollars on self-improvement books, CDs, seminars, coaching, and stress-management programs to become better, more sociable, effective, compassionate, and charismatic versions of themselves. But beneath theories on what drives people to change, there’s a more fundamental question debated by psychologists: Can personality even be changed in the first place?”

He was, after Sibelius, “the most famous and popular of Finnish composers … In an output running to over 150 compositions, with dozens of orchestral pieces, Rautavaara’s eight symphonies are one of his important contributions to 20th-century music.” The Seventh, titled Angel of Light, “marked a new breakthrough for Rautavaara to a newer, wider audience, his music no longer the preserve of the critics and cognoscenti.”

“Police said the 23-year-old man told them that he was in the bathroom when security made a final pass, and found himself locked inside the landmark cathedral when he went to leave on Monday night. He decided not to create alarm and spent the night on the spired rooftop, reporting himself to authorities when they reopened on Tuesday.”

“Indulging in undirected positive flights of fancy isn’t always in our interest. Positive thinking can make us feel better in the short term, but over the long term it saps our motivation, preventing us from achieving our wishes and goals, and leaving us feeling frustrated, stymied and stuck.”

“Mr. Nederlander transformed what was a regional theatre business based in Detroit into a New York powerhouse when, in the 1960s, he set his sights on New York City and began buying Broadway theatres. The Nederlander Organization now has holdings [in New York] second only to the Shubert Organization … [as well as venues in] Chicago, Tucson, Detroit, Los Angeles, San Diego and London.”

“A versatile pianist who skillfully merged the bebop style of the East with the laid-back sound of the West, securing himself a seat in the cool L.A. jazz scene of the ’50s, … [Williamson was a] club musician, vocal accompanist, studio player, band leader, trio player.”

“Each era remakes the condition in its own image, reflecting its medical, technological and cultural developments, as well as its fears. Dangerous precisely because it keeps us from action, exhaustion has for centuries done double duty as a sign of weakness and a badge of honor.”

“Understandably his sexier accomplishments, like painting the Mona Lisa and inventing the deep-sea diving suit, overshadowed his time as a wedding planner. But wedding plan he did – from approximately 1489 to 1493 – and like everything else da Vinci put his mind to, it was with gusto and moxie.”