And Thus Was The Angriest Librarian Born…

“While I never intended to become The Angriest Librarian, a lifelong inability to hold my tongue—and my frustration with the permeating stereotypes of 1950s-era public libraries—seems to have made it inevitable. So, when I was confronted with yet another blowhard who couldn’t see the value his tax dollars were placing right in front of his face, I had no choice. Over the next few days, I picked up 15,000 followers and found myself in a position to become a public face for my besieged profession.”

Albany Symphony Gets Largest-Ever Donation: $7 Million

The late Heinrich Medicus, a philanthropist and a professor at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in nearby Troy, NY, bequeathed the money specifically for the orchestra’s endowment. “The symphony will also be the beneficiary of half of the undesignated residuals from Medicus’ estate, including property and his art collection, part of which is up for sale this weekend at the Stair Galleries auction house in Hudson.”

Some Thomas Hart Benton Murals Have Been Removed From View At Indiana University. Does This Make Any Sense?

“In the controversial panel, Benton painted a reporter, a photographer and a printer into the foreground – an homage to the press of Indiana for breaking the power of the Klan. In the center, a white nurse tends both black and white children in City Hospital (now Wishard Hospital). The sinister figures of the Klan are visible in the background, behind the hospital beds – a reminder, perhaps, that racial progress can always slide backwards.”

Actor Anthony Rapp Claims ‘Sexual Advance’ By Kevin Spacey When Rapp Was 14

“As Spacey’s star began to rise through the 1990s and 2000s — including a Tony Award, two Oscars, a decadelong run as the creative director of the Old Vic theater in London, and six seasons and counting on the hit Netflix series House of Cards — Rapp’s frustration, anger, and incredulity with the sexual boundary he said Spacey crossed with him grew as well. Seeing Spacey now, ‘My stomach churns,’ Rapp said. ‘I still to this day can’t wrap my head around so many aspects of it. It’s just deeply confusing to me.'”

Jane Juska, The Woman Whose New York Review Of Books Personal Ad Birthed A Book About Sex For Older Women, Has Died At 84

The book, A Round-Heeled Woman: My Late-Life Adventures in Sex and Romance, came from a rather literary place: It “grew out of a personal ad Juska placed in the New York Review of Books in 1999. Inspired by an Eric Rohmer film, Autumn Tale, it read: ‘Before I turn 67 – next March – I would like to have a lot of sex with a man I like. If you want to talk first, Trollope works for me.'”

Police And Prosecutors Seize An Ancient Limestone Relief At The European Fine Art Fair In Park Slope

Friday around 2 p.m., “cursing could be heard coming from a London dealer’s booth, breaking the quiet, reverential atmosphere. To the consternation of several art dealers looking on, the police and prosecutors seized an ancient limestone bas-relief of a Persian soldier with shield and spear, which once adorned a building in the ruins of Persepolis in Iran, according to a search warrant.”

Linda Nochlin, The Trailblazing Feminist Art Historian Whose 1971 Essay Changed The Discipline, Has Died At 86

The article “Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?” – which argued quite clearly against the canon as well as against male-dominated notions of greatness – “would have been enough to secure her place as one of art history’s most important writers, but over the course of her six-decade career, she also made formidable contributions to the study of Realism and Gustav Courbet, Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, and numerous contemporary artists.”