“The odds list is released each summer after research by a group of specialists, said Alex Donohue, a Ladbrokes spokesman. Sadly, that research does not include holing up in a back office and reading hundreds of great works of international literature.”
Tag: 10.01.13
Why That Rose Does Not Smell As Sweet When You’re Upset
“It’s no secret that smell is intimately tied up with emotions, and things like real estate agents baking cookies in houses they show is an attempt to have the warm feeling produced by that fragrance transfer to the property. … What we’re learning is how physically tied up the two systems – the one that rules emotions and the one that rules smells – are.”
BAFTA Opens Awards To Web-Only Productions
“BAFTA has changed the rules for its television awards in a move that will allow web-based broadcasters such as Netflix to enter for the first time.”
The 19th-Century Writer Behind Jonathan Franzen’s Internet Skepticism
“His new book translates works by Karl Kraus, whose misgivings toward technology mirror Franzen’s own.”
Vladimir Putin Fights Rasputin And The Zombies In New Video Game
“A new video game for iOS and Android called You Don’t Mess With Putin will see the Russian leader battle the undead led by the mystic Rasputin. … It is still unclear if the Russian president will be battling the zombies with or without his shirt on.”
Author Cleared Of Defaming ‘The Pianist’ Wladyslaw Szpilman
“A Warsaw court has thrown out a case against the author and publisher of a book that had supposedly defamed the memory of late Polish-Jewish pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman.” The book quoted without comment a Holocaust survivor accusing Szpilman of collaborating with the Nazi occupiers.
Now Composer Aaron Jay Kernis Quits Minnesota Orchestra
“I admit total bafflement and dismay at what has been done to allow the dismemberment of this superb orchestra at the height of its powers. The tactics of a lock-out have no place in the life of any artistic organization.”
Osmo Vanska Quits Minnesota Orchestra
“The resignation of the Finnish maestro was not unexpected — Vänskä had said last spring that he would quit if planned Carnegie Hall concerts were canceled because of the labor strife — but it fell like a bomb on the beleaguered orchestra that so far has been unable to negotiate a settlement that would return concert music to Minneapolis.”
New York City Opera Officially Shuts Down
The company, which has said that it hopes to be able to reimburse people who have bought tickets to the three productions that had been scheduled for the remainder of the season, sent an e-mail to subscribers Tuesday telling them of the decision to cancel the season and “wind down the company.”
When Venice Invented Opera
A city of some 160,000 inhabitants could boast no fewer than seven full-time opera houses.