Tag: 09.04.20

Historical Plague Thinking: What We Can Learn

The conditions that made the outbreak possible were thus directly connected to the new social relations flourishing in Europe, Central Asia, and the Far East in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. It was the booming trade in silks and luxury goods, as well as the growth of towns and cities with relatively stable sedentary populations, that laid the ground for the deadly pandemic. – Boston Review

Dorothy Parker’s Ashes: An Odyssey From A File Cabinet To Baltimore To The Bronx

The tale of the author’s cremains, which would likely have amused her as much as irked her, includes appearances by Martin Luther King and the NAACP (to whom she left her estate), Lillian Hellman (more than living down to Mary McCarthy’s opinion of her), activist lawyer and one-time New York City Council President Paul O’Dwyer, and (the hero of the story) a professional tour guide named Kevin Fitzpatrick. – The New Yorker

Hunter College Laid Off Half Its College Art Assistants. The Other Half Is Threatening Not To Work

With an average enrollment of 125 students, Hunter’s art department is one of the largest in the US. The college assistants are usually given one-year contracts, with benefits, and they are responsible for maintaining and running the department’s facilities, equipment, and supplies, in addition to overseeing the use of studio spaces, tools, and training students. – The Art Newspaper

This Manuscript Book May Be The Only Surviving Relic Of Thomas Becket

The elaborate shrine to Becket at Canterbury Cathedral, where he was Archbishop and where he was murdered at the altar by King Henry II’s knights in 1170, was smashed to bits by Protestant iconoclasts during the English Reformation. Every remnant and relic of the man was destroyed. Now an illuminated psalter held at one of the Cambridge colleges has been identified as having belonged to Becket. – Apollo

There’s One Place In Times Square That’s Already Presenting Indoor Broadway Concerts

Thank goodness for liquor-law loopholes, because one of them is the reason that Open Jar Studios, a complex normally used for rehearsals, has become the only indoor venue in New York City presenting live performances. The thorough COVID-safety measures that Open Jar has in place could be a good example of what we’ll see elsewhere before long. – Gothamist

Kennedy Center Spent More Than $50 Million To Present ‘Hamilton’

That amount is almost five times what the complex paid producers to put on the next most expensive show, the Broadway tour of The Book of Mormon in 2015. The price is also more than theaters in other American cities paid, even on a per-performance basis, though higher ticket prices in D.C. made up that difference. Yet the Kennedy Center made back almost all of the money on ticket sales alone, and that’s before the extra revenue from ticket-processing fees, snack and gift shop sales, and new subscriptions. – The Washington Post

Philadelphia Museum Of Art COO To Step Down Next Year (Not At All Because Of This Year’s Scandals)

“[Gail] Harrity, 70, who joined the museum in 1997 as chief operating officer and was named president in 2009” — that is, second-in-command after the museum’s director — “has been on top of virtually every building project of note at the museum for the last 15 years. And there have been plenty.” However, “museum officials said Harrity’s departure was unrelated to the turmoil that has afflicted the institution this year.” – The Philadelphia Inquirer