Category: people

Joan Acocella: “What we have here is a painful combination: her sense that she was without beauty, her sense that she could not make the kind of ballets she most valued, her sense that what she did was just a substitute for something else, something more longed-for, which, inexplicably, other people had and she didn’t. Add to this that, however inferior she felt to other people, she also, much of the time, felt superior to other people, and you have an ugly little knot. Which, somehow, relaxed when she picked up a pen.”

“Mr. Broun applied informally to write criticism for The Post in 1998, although he had never published in a newspaper before. His gift for lively and informed prose was recognized immediately, and he was soon covering several concerts a week. [He] had the ability to convey serious musical information with a good-humored twist.”

“They included descendants of famous figures like Dred Scott, the plaintiff at the center of the infamous 1857 Supreme Court ruling, and Solomon Northup, the author of Twelve Years a Slave, … They arrived with photographs, books and rolling bags full of research materials, along with a shared conviction in the importance of taking history into their own hands.”

“It seemed fitting that, when in the 1980s the authorities wanted someone for a pre-recorded radio announcement telling Britain that it was under nuclear attack, they turned to him. It meant, he observed with typical wryness, that he became known as ‘the voice of doom’.”

“The success of Chariots of Fire was perhaps as improbable as that of Mr. Welland, who had once abandoned his dreams of acting to teach art. … Among his other credits was the screenplay for the 1989 film A Dry White Season, … [and] with Walter Bernstein, … the 1979 John Schlesinger film Yanks.”

“She was also his kittykin, his poochums, his mousikins, goosikins, monkeykins, sparrowling, kidlet – since he was not keeping a list he feared he might be repeating himself (he was); he worried he would run out of critters (he did not) – his skunky, his bird of paradise, his mothling, kitty-cat, roosterkin, mousie, tigercubkin.”

“For a long time, her audience has been prepared to forgive her inconsistencies because of the sense of adventure, courage and boldness she brings to the business of being a woman in public. Increasingly, as she has got older, it is what she does – putting herself out there – that is admirable, rather than what she says. It is hard not to have a sneaking admiration for someone who is prepared to expound her ideas with such verve. But some of the ideas themselves are quite disconcerting.”

“Ms. Rhimes has decided to continue her year of yes. One of her biggest takeaways from the experience was learning to have difficult conversations. She now asks employees to speak up about their problems, and in her personal life, she has become more outspoken about her boundaries, such as not wanting to get married. ‘Across the field of difficult conversation lies serenity,’ she says, because ‘whatever the outcome’s going to be, at least you know.'”

“Molinaro, the basset-hound-faced character actor who was known for playing Al Delvecchio, the harried diner owner on the long-running sitcom ‘Happy Days’ — and who recommended a little-known comic named Robin Williams to portray an alien named Mork on a 1978 episode of the show — died on Friday.”

“‘The world of Lucious Lyon is one of art and extravagance and taste, some good and some bad,’ Chaiken said. ‘It’s an over-the-top world, which Caroline totally understands. She gets Lee’s sensibilities and understands how we care about authenticity and provenance.'”