“The average age for the four living members of The Rolling Stones is about two years older than the nine justices of the U.S. Supreme Court.”
Tag: 11.27.12
Greek Police Recover Ancient Greek ArtifactsStolen From Olympics Museum
“Authorities arrested three men after one of the suspects attempted to sell a valuable piece of the stolen haul to an undercover police officer — a Bronze Age ring, more than 3,000 years old.”
Minnesota Orchestra Musicians Say They Cannot Negotiate With This CEO
“The musicians’ statement said that his removal ‘is key to resolving the current lockout.’ The strongly worded statement continued, ‘Henson is the major obstacle between the Musicians and the Board of Directors working out a new contract.'”
$1.4 Million Embezzled From Atlanta’s Woodruff Arts Center
“Woodruff Arts Center officials scrambled to explain Tuesday how an employee defrauded the city’s largest cultural organization to the tune of $1.438 million over the last five years by submitting invoices for unrendered services.”
Dallas Museum Of Art To End Admission Fees
“Beginning Jan. 21, the Dallas Museum of Art will take the unprecedented step of offering an unusual one-two punch: Free general admission and free memberships, making it the first art museum in the country to do so.”
Meet The Man Who Made The Libretto For Handel’s Messiah
Charles Jennens “was a scholar, collector, Shakespeare editor and the man who probably brought the first piano into England, on which Handel performed after dinner. … [He] never asked for a penny for his many libretti for Handel, but helped establish the composer’s immortal fame and popularity.”
London’s St. Pancras Station To Host Series Of Large-Scale Installations
“The English and French artistic duo Lucy and Jorge Orta have been chosen to kick off a major contemporary art commission in London. The artists are creating a gigantic installation for St Pancras International train station, which will … replace the Olympic Rings that were suspended from the ceiling in front of the station clock in the run-up to the London 2012 games.”
The World’s First Declaration Of Human Rights (It’s From Ancient Persia)
“Made shortly after Cyrus of Persia captured Babylon in 539BC, the Cyrus cylinder records how the ruler allowed deported peoples to return to their homelands and ushered in an era of religious tolerance in his new, multiethnic empire.”
The Oscar Wilde Aphorism Infographic
An ingenious chart provides us with the top 50 epigrams and their sources; a Wilde quotability index; quotability comparisons with JFK, Shakespeare, Churchill, and Jesus; and (naturally) erudite footnotes.
When Great Novels Have Bad Endings
Joan Acocella: “After the scalding passion of Catherine and Heathcliff, who cares about the amorous back-and-forths of their uninteresting children? Yet this occupies half of the book. … But the novel with the most shockingly bad ending is our country’s greatest novel, Huckleberry Finn.”