“The results can be surprising. The diners’ education levels? No effect on actual ratings. Population of the area? Again, not so much. But reviewers consistently gave worse ratings when it was raining or snowing outside than when it was clear. And reviewers usually liked restaurants better on warm and cool days, rather than very hot or very cold ones.”
Tag: 04.05.14
‘Doctor Zhivago’ and the CIA
“A secret package arrived at CIA headquarters in January 1958. Inside were two rolls of film from British intelligence – pictures of the pages of a Russian-language novel titled Doctor Zhivago” which had been banned in the USSR. Yes, it seems that The Company was instrumental in getting Boris Pasternak’s Nobel-winning novel into print.
Pop Porn – Why Do Pop Stars Have Such A Narrow Idea Of What’s Sexy?
“Let’s at least try to discuss the larger implications of female sexuality on pop culture without shaming each other. There’s more than one way to be a good feminist.”
Savion Glover: Why I Tap
“I don’t tap dance for the sake of applause. I don’t tap dance for the sake of spectacle. I tap dance for equality, I tap dance for the recognition of the man in this country, what we had to go through as a people in order to claim existence in this country.”
Theatre Takes On Privacy: It’s Worth Having The Conversation, Isn’t It?
“I do think it reveals a fundamental shift in the social contract between citizen and state. And it might be fine. We might say, ‘D’you know what, my right and my freedom to not get blown up might be worth a slight shrinking of my privacy.’ We might decide that. But we’ve not been asked.”
Getting The Early Morning Phone Call To Star At The Met (And On Movie Screens Across The Country)
“Ms. Opolais, who said that she would normally be resting her voice after a night singing ‘Butterfly,’ found herself singing her second Puccini opera, and playing out her second Puccini death scene, on the stage of the Met within the space of 18 hours. While she had sung the role of Mimi at the Vienna State Opera and elsewhere, she had never done it at the Met.”
Who Could Ever Love An E-Book?
“You might refer to an e-reader as being neat, but there is no way anyone is going to call it beautiful. … You are not going to caress it in the same way you would a fine binding, or even admire the cover artwork.”
Haul Out Your Dissertation, Because The Internet Wants Everything To Be Published
“As anyone who’s dug through the back stacks of old bookshops, or plumbed the single-copy depths of university libraries, knows: there is so much text out there. We have finally developed the tools to make it live forever.”
An Outlaw Artist Flees New York’s Gentrification – For Europe
“One of the last men who could credibly claim the title of Manhattan’s last bohemian had not only decided he was quitting the city, he also figured he could find a richer existence 4,000 miles away — in the Austrian Alps.”
Texting Is Like Totally So NOT Degrading Our Language
Actually, it’s making us far more polite: “We may not speak with the butter-toned exchanges of the characters on ‘Downton Abbey,’ but in substance our speech is in many ways more civilized.”