Category: people

“An analysis of 1,000 obituaries from The New York Times finds the average age of death for notable people varies depending upon their occupation. Athletes, performers, and creative types such as writers and artists died younger, on average, while people in business, politics, and the military hung on the longest.”

“Over six decades in which much of Mexico evolved from a mostly peasant society into a modern industrial state, [he] and his collaborators built a series of monuments to Mexican culture, including the National Museum of Anthropology, the Azteca soccer stadium, the Legislative Palace and the Basilica of Guadalupe, all in Mexico City.”

The controversial comedian and 30 Rock co-star earned catcalls and walkouts from audience members, harsh notices from reviewers, and demands for refunds and boycotts – all for a routine at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival that even regular comedy fans are calling hateful, misogynistic and unfunny.

“This is an unpleasant, graphic, charmless 45-minute tirade – brevity being a rare redeeming feature – sharing his baser instincts in putrid detail, and very little humour.” Reviewer Steve Bennett provides some excerpts that we’ll call … unappetizing.

“Musicians, often called elite athletes of the small muscles, suffer repetitive strain injuries from long hours of practice and hectic performing schedules. Like athletes, they turn to physical therapy, ice packs, massage, acupuncture, surgery and cortisone injections for relief. Ms. Taubman thought that such problems could be avoided with a more ergonomic approach, and that such an approach could lead not just to pain-free playing but also to greater artistic results.”

“She has been approached about returning to Broadway before, including for a revival of the musical Mame, but she said she had been afraid of the rigors of the spotlight – eight performances a week, as a character, required real technique, stamina and confidence in the face of audience assumptions about her abilities.”

Who fell for it? An eminent Dickens biographer and (more than once) The New York Times, among others.

“Kennicott, 47, won the award – considered journalism’s highest honor – for articles assessing a photographic exhibit at the Corcoran Gallery, an architect’s work at the National Building Museum and an essay on graphic and violent photographic images, among others.”

The British comedian’s encomium to the late prime minister has received lots of attention – for its thoughtfulness and a measure of grudging respect along with the criticism you’d expect from Brand.