“Haney was working as a photojournalist for the Montreal Gazette in 1979 when he collaborated with Scott Abbott, a Canadian Press sports reporter, to invent Trivial Pursuit. While both were convinced that their new game would sell, they had no idea just how successful it would become.”
Tag: 06.01.10
A New Entry For DSM-V? ‘Hopper’s Disorder’
Dennis Hopper, seen in passing in a corridor, “gave off the most incredible aura of need. … [He] struck me as typifying a malady of our time, which we may name and define thusly: Hopper’s Disorder, the inability to be there, the urgency to be everywhere so desperate that one is effectively nowhere.”
The Vatican Lets An Author Into Its Archives
“Just what the Vatican’s motivation was is none too clear. Scholars have been allowed in the archive since 2003, so long as they know exactly which document they’d like a look at – browsing is not allowed. Certainly, they haven’t always looked kindly on book proposals about the secret archive.”
Aboriginal Painting Of Birds Could Be 40,000 Years Old
“The Genyornis – a heavy bird which had a broad, rounded beak and was about twice the size of an emu – became extinct about 40,000 years ago. If verified, the painting would pre-date rock art from parts of Europe which have been reliably dated to 30,000 years ago.”
Andrei Voznesensky, Poet Of USSR’s Thaw, Dies At 77
“The Moscow-born poet published his first poems in 1958 and became one of the iconic artists of the Thaw, the brief era of liberalism ushered in by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev after the death of dictator Joseph Stalin. In the 1960s, Voznesensky was one of several Soviet poets who gave poetry readings in stadiums and concert halls before huge crowds of transfixed listeners….”
Writing, Dame Agatha’s Included, May Hint At Alzheimer’s
“We can never know for sure if [Agatha] Christie actually had Alzheimer’s. But a separate study out of the University of Minnesota lends support to the idea that there might be signs in our writing of Alzheimer’s disease. And those signs might be there very early on.”
For Miniature Theatre, Auschwitz Remade
“The complete installation, made mostly of plain gray corrugated cardboard, includes barracks, guard towers, crematoriums, gas chambers with buckets of gas pellets, a dining hall for the guards, a train and tracks, and the notorious gateway sign, ‘Arbeit Macht Frei,’ ‘Work Makes You Free.'”
Govt Downplays Reported Dangers At Sydney Opera House
“An engineering report by theatre consultants Marshall Day Entertech warned of ‘multiple fatalities’ in the event of a serious malfunction” of stage machinery. “Sydney’s Daily Telegraph reported the Opera House would be forced to close unless repairs worth $800 million were done. But the NSW government yesterday played down the risks and the cost of work.”
As Jeffrey Deitch Takes LA MOCA’s Helm, A Little Advice
“Change the museum’s operating hours and drop the general admission price, from $10 to zero. Fixing hours and admission could alleviate attendance woes. Both moves require study and planning, but they would begin the long-term process of rebuilding public confidence.”
Adolescent Americans, Learning Their Craft At The Bolshoi
“The ballet pipeline used to run mainly in one direction. Russians — Baryshnikov and Balanchine, Godunov and Nureyev — went (or defected) to the West. But now a handful of young Americans are venturing the other way, apprenticing themselves at the academy here, which has long been the sweat-and-tears training ground for many of Russia’s ballet greats.”