Category: people

“Noam Chomsky is the man who revolutionised linguistics. Since he wrote “Syntactic Structures” in 1957, Mr Chomsky has argued that human language is fundamentally different from any other kind of communication, that a “linguist from Mars” would agree that all human languages are variations on a single language, and that children’s incredibly quick and successful learning (despite often messy and inattentive parental input) points to an innate language faculty in the brain. These ideas are now widely accepted.”

“Previously unpublished documents have revealed the scale of a plot by the media mogul William Randolph Hearst to discredit Orson Welles and destroy Citizen Kane, the 1941 film about the rise and fall of the fictional newspaper proprietor Charles Foster Kane.”

“And then I looked at the empty seat next to me and it dawned on me. My seatmate for the next six hours was going to be the man whose hair style I had tried to copy through most of high school, with much hair mousse and little success. The man I wanted to be if I ever grew up, because he made people laugh while he told them the truth, which, back in the late eighties and early nineties, was still a novelty.”

“He was perhaps the leading exponent of the small subgenre in which shotguns and shoe leather play a far greater role than balsamic reduction.”

“Books she edited won a staggering 23 Governor-General’s Literary Awards, four Man Booker Prizes, and six Scotiabank Giller Prizes, more than any other editor in Canadian history. She guided the careers of countless young writers, as well, and brought the work of many heralded international writers to Canada.”

“The New York socialite and amateur opera singer Florence Foster Jenkins was a popular joke in her own time, but more than 70 years after her death she has earned her place in the cultural pantheon as the inspiration for at least two successful stage shows, and this spring, two rival films.”

“Malik Taylor, the rapper known as Phife Dawg whose nimble, clever rhymes helped launch A Tribe Called Quest to both commercial and critical success, died Tuesday at the age of 45 from complications resulting from diabetes. Rolling Stone has confirmed the rapper’s death.”

“There was nothing dilettantish about Moores’s commitment. His tastes were discriminating and his knowledge extensive – particularly in the field of opera – and he was personally involved in every funding decision.”

Ms Rankin’s published will has shown that she has asked for the bulk of her £2,848,368 estate to be set aside for the trust, which was created to help fund productions during the event, which currently relies on around £5m of public funding.

After a mediocre career as a Major League Baseball player, “Garagiola called games at NBC for a quarter-century and served as a host on the Today show from 1967-73 and 1991-92. The likable St. Louis native sat in at times for Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show and hosted a number of game shows, including Joe Garagiola’s Memory Game, Sale of the Century, To Tell the Truth and Strike It Rich.”