To Memory Nothing Is Ever Really Lost (Except When It Is)

“For researchers who study memory, the ease with which people forget jokes is one of those quirks, those little skids on the neuronal banana peel, that end up revealing a surprising amount about the underlying architecture of memory. And there are plenty of other similarly illuminating examples of memory’s whimsy and bad taste — like why you may forget your spouse’s birthday but will go to your deathbed remembering every word of the ‘Gilligan’s Island’ theme song.”

Anne Brown, Gershwin’s Original Bess, Dies At 96

“Anne Brown, a penetratingly pure soprano who literally put the Bess in ‘Porgy and Bess’ by inspiring George Gershwin to expand that character’s part in a folk opera that originally was to be called ‘Porgy,’ died Friday in Oslo. … Even after winning the Margaret McGill prize as the best singer at Juilliard, she had no hope in those days of reaching the top tiers of opera,” due to racial discrimination. So the Baltimore-born singer moved to Norway, where she became a citizen.

Danish Museum Resists Italy’s Bid For Artifacts’ Return

“The Italian government has successfully brokered deals with American museums and private collectors for the return of what it says are looted antiquities. But it is finding the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, an art museum in Copenhagen, harder to crack. … At the core of the dispute are Etruscan and Greco-Roman objects that the Glyptotek bought from Robert Hecht, an American antiquities dealer now on trial in Rome….”