“Sid Caesar is a mysterious and complex man who seems to have been singled out by the gods to set two all-time records, one of dubious and unenviable distinction: to have set the high-water-mark for sustained comic brilliance over a long period of years, and to have ingested enough booze and pills to kill the Lippizaner stallions.”
Tag: 02.12.14
Weight Shame and Eating Disorders in Ballet – It Hasn’t Gotten Better
Katie Colombus: “I so wanted to say that times had changed. … I thought back to those days, when at least one in four of the girls in my institute were either anorexic or bulimic, and the rest had fairly serious aspirations of joining either side. … But I don’t think we have moved forward.”
Maggie Estep, Slam Poet Of Post-Punk Feminism, Dead At 50
“An East Village bohemian when the neighborhood contained more discarded syringes than million-dollar condos, Ms. Estep became a regular at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, one of the incubators of the slam poetry movement.”
Beautiful British Columbia – Where They’re Killing The Band
“Every single step that they [the board and the school administration] have taken is counterproductive to music education,” he says. “It was like an abusive relationship. You only take so much for so long and then you ask, “Why am I killin’ myself here?”
Amazon’s Secrecy Problem (And It Really Is a Problem)
George Packer: “Perhaps a sector that monetizes information is more likely to become obsessed with protecting it than if the product were oil or cars. But even in this atmosphere, Amazon is reflexively, absurdly secretive … From Amazon’s point of view, there might be nothing to be gained from greater openness … But I would argue that a culture of secrecy is bound to end up harming the institution itself.”
Publisher Recalls All Copies in India of Controversial Book on Hinduism
“Penguin India has agreed to recall and destroy all remaining copies of a book on Hinduism by a leading American academic … Wendy Doniger’s book The Hindus: An Alternative History had been the subject of a legal challenge claiming the text was offensive to Hindus.
Sex, Lies and Hinduism: Why A Hindu Activist Targeted Wendy Doniger’s Book
“Dinanath Batra has arm-twisted … Penguin India into recalling and destroying American scholar Wendy Doniger’s book, The Hindus: An Alternative History. Here’s why he has a problem with it.”
If There Is a Cure for Love, Should We Use It?
“Breaking up is hard to do. If drugs could ease the pain, when should we use them, asks neuro-ethicist Brian D. Earp.”
Director of Sacramento Philharmonic and Opera Resigns After Seven Months
“Recently hired general director Rob Tannenbaum has resigned as head of the Sacramento Region Performing Arts Alliance – the merged organization formed out of the Sacramento Philharmonic and Opera … for ‘personal and professional reasons’.”
Researchers Attempt To Quantify “Cool” (It Ain’t What It Used to Be)
The overarching concept to which the word “cool” once referred is no longer what the colloquial usage of the word “cool” now refers.