“Fifty years ago this week, video games – as we know them today – were born” at Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island. The first kid ever to play one helps tell the story of how “Tennis for Two” came to be.
Author: Matthew Westphal
Regulating Decorum on Philly’s ‘Museum Mile’
“Nowhere in Philadelphia do rich and poor commingle so awkwardly as on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway… Now, two powerful civic groups are pushing for regulations that will make the area a flash point in the debate over how to manage the city’s homeless population.”
Picasso Sketches Seized by Swiss Customs
“Swiss customs found a book of sketches by Pablo Picasso which could be worth 1.2-1.7 million Swiss francs ($1.06-$1.50 million) in a passenger’s luggage at Zurich airport, the government said on Wednesday.”
Txtng: The Gr8 Db8
Linguist David Crystal’s new book “makes the argument that the idiolect of texting is… the product of basic, ordinary processes found in other forms of communication. The most obvious case is initialism – with AWOL, ASAP, and SNAFU, for example, having long since become commonplaces.”
Amy Sedaris Signs On for New Sitcom
The highly uninhibited actress and cupcake chef will create, write and star in a series for 20th Century Fox TV. “While the show will be scripted, there will be room for the Second City alumna to showcase her improv skills. ‘She is a loose cannon and always adds something when we’re shooting,’ [writing partner Paul] Dinello said.”
In One Corner of the Art Market, the Middle Drops Out
“In ‘Islamic Art’ sales this week, pieces at the top of the market rose to extravagant heights, while the intermediary market is on the verge of extinction.”
National Book Award Finalists Include Jane Mayer’s Dark Side, Peter Matthiesen’s Shadow Country, Poet Mark Doty
Among the other nominees are Marilynne Robinson’s Home, first-time novelists Salvatore Scibona (The End) and Rachel Kushner (Telex From Cuba), and Annette Gordon-Reed’s The Hemingses of Monticello; missing from the list are Philip Roth, John Updike, Toni Morrison and Jhumpa Lahiri.
It Is a Puzzlement – The Real Anna Leonowens
A new biography reveals that the famous teacher at the King of Siam’s court was far from the upright Welsh widow of The King and I. She was actually “a mixed-race Anglo-Indian army brat,” a multilingual con woman who became a popular lecturer and globe-trotting journalist.
Oh, This Is Much Better Than American Idol
“Canada’s Next Great Prime Minister, a competition in which young Canadians discuss political issues in a bid to be named a great political leader, has earned a nomination for an international Emmy Award.”
So Gehry, Foster and Calatrava Are Really Con Artists?
Jay Merrick decries “the sugar-rush appetite for architectural icons” – “Is your town a bit frayed? No problem: just commission a piece of ‘iconic’ architecture. Is your city perceived as not quite remarkable enough? Ditto.”