“As he once put it to me, ‘For the last 14 years, I’ve not gone a day where I go outside and don’t have someone tell me how much they like what I do. I’m really very, very lucky.’ Never mind that Chuck Close is a partial quadriplegic and largely confined to a wheelchair.”
Category: people
The Battle For Nietzsche
When the philosopher died in 1900, his mind and body long ravaged by syphilis, two strong individuals struggled over how to preserve his legacy: the urbane and charming diplomat Count Harry Kessler, and Nietzsche’s sister Elisabeth, with whom he had had a deep and vexed relationship.
Why Woody Allen No Longer Stars In His Movies
“For years I played the romantic lead and then I couldn’t play it anymore because I got too old. It’s just no fun not playing the guy who gets the girl. … I like to be the one that sits opposite them in the restaurant, looks in their eyes and lies to them. So if I can’t do that it’s not much fun to play in the movies.”
Bob Saget On Aggressive Comedians
“I’ve been doing this for more than 30 years, and I’ll come out on stage and attack a helpless person for no reason. Just to set the tone. Andy Kaufman would do the same thing, in a jazzy-mime sort of way. He would attack someone, and then apologize. And then attack again. That is the genetics for a lot of people who take the stage.”
If You Were James Joyce’s Grandson, You’d Become A Pain In The Neck, Too
“After too many scholars and writers took glee in unearthing family secrets, including the madness of his own mother, the madness of his aunt (James’ daughter Lucia), and the filthiest love letters ever sent between two people, who just happened to be his grandparents,” Stephen Joyce “became resentfully litigious, suing small productions of readings from Ulysses for copyright violations and refusing to grant reprint rights.”
Why Dr. Seuss Charms America (But Not Elsewhere)
“It’s striking how strongly adaptations of the anapaestically adroit Doctor’s work have performed in the US as opposed to the rest of the planet.”
Herbert Vogel, 89, Postal Worker Who Became Great Art Collector
“Unlike many collectors, the Vogels were not wealthy people. They lived and collected their entire lives on their salaries and their pensions. Mr. Vogel worked nights sorting mail at New York post offices, and his wife was a reference librarian in Brooklyn.”
Children’s Author Margaret Mahy, 76
“Winner of many of the world’s major children’s prizes, including the prestigious Hans Christian Andersen medal, … [her] first picture book, A Lion in the Meadow, was published in 1969, and Mahy went on to expand her repertoire to encompass fiction for younger children and then for teenagers. In 1980 she became a full-time writer, with more than 100 books to her name today.”
Palestinian Grocer Settles $115M Slander Suit Against Sacha Baron Cohen
“In the movie [Brüno], Ayman Abu Aita, a Christian peace activist, escorted Cohen’s alter-ego Brüno, a gay fashion journalist trying to make peace in the Middle East, to a Lebanese refugee camp. Abu Aita was identified in a caption as ‘Terrorist group leader, Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade’.”
Alexander Cockburn, 71, Writer And Fierce Critic From (And Of) The Left
“Cockburn had, at various times, regular columns in ideologically disparate publications like The Nation and The Wall Street Journal and became known as an unapologetic leftist, condemning what he saw as the outrages of the right but also castigating the American liberal establishment when he thought it was being timid.”