“For some people, at least, feeling another’s pain is insufficient: You also experience the urge to harm the person they are in conflict or competition with.”
Tag: 09.26.14
What If Procrastination… Is Good For You?
“If procrastination is so clearly a society-wide, public condition, why is it always framed as an individual, personal deficiency? Why do we assume our own temperaments and habits are at fault — and feel bad about them — rather than question our culture’s canonization of productivity?”
The Fight To Save Paris’s Oldest Bookstore
“It’s difficult to imagine the shuttering of a bookstore causing a similar outcry anywhere else—not to mention direct government involvement in the matter of a private lease. This has something to do with what the French call l’exception culturelle.”
Why Is Academic Writing So Dreadful?
“The familiarity of bad academic writing raises a puzzle. Why should a profession that trades in words and dedicates itself to the transmission of knowledge so often turn out prose that is turgid, soggy, wooden, bloated, clumsy, obscure, unpleasant to read, and impossible to understand?”
Carol Ann Duffy: My First Five Years As Poet Laureate
“When Carol Ann Duffy was appointed poet laureate in 2009, the first woman to hold the post in its nearly 350-year history, she set herself several goals that included setting up new prizes, giving support to new festivals and helping to generate commissions for poets.”
Can L’Exception Culturelle Save Paris’s Oldest Bookstore?
“This month, the Librairie Delamain’s lease is up for renewal by the Qatari company Constellation Hotel Holdings, which … plans to double the bookstore’s rent to 100,000 euros per year – nearly a tenth of their annual revenue.” But now the Académie Française and the nation’s minister of culture have gotten involved.
Legal Battle Over Astérix Ends As Co-Creator And Daughter Kiss And Make Up
“It was a dispute as bitter and drawn-out as Astérix the Gaul’s campaign against the Romans. On Friday, however, the illustrator Albert Uderzo … and his daughter … buried the hatchet after a court threw out a case brought by Sylvie Uderzo claiming her father had been tricked into selling off part of the family heritage.”
Longwood Gardens, Near Philadelphia, To Give Its Fountains $90M Upgrade
“With more than one million visitors a year, Longwood – the former estate of the industrialist Pierre S. du Pont, who designed and built the Fountain Garden in 1931 for his own entertainment – is the most popular public garden in the country.” Currently, the fountains’ original plumbing – described as “a network of Band-Aids” – is still in use.
Yes, It’s Time To Admit You’re Powerless Over Netflix And Ask A Higher Power For Help
That is, are you addicted to binge-watching? You can – and should – overcome it by understanding the way TV plots work.
Self-Assured, Genre-Busting Movies On The Rise
“‘Dangerous’ is the word that comes to my mind because these are movies that refuse to settle down or behave properly. They do their own thing.”