A new study “found that people were more likely to solve word puzzles with sudden insight when they were amused, having just seen a short comedy routine.” One of the researchers says that “the humor, this positive mood, is lowering the brain’s threshold for detecting weaker or more remote connections.”
Tag: 12.07.10
The Art of Constructing Crosswords
NY Times puzzlemaster-in-chief Will Shortz and a group of puzzle constructors at Brown Univ. talk about how (and why) it’s done. (For instance, “[the] trick with black squares is to put them under letters that often end words, like T’s and S’s.”
What People Get Out of Solving Puzzles
Teller (of Penn and): “I’ve never found puzzles attractive. Why would you deliberately expose yourself to stress and frustration? You put in effort that you could have used to write a novel or cure cancer, and you come out with nothing but the solution to a previously solved problem. What’s the point? Why torment yourself?” (His Thanksgiving tablemates explain.)
How to Keep a Company’s Nutcracker Fresh? Make the Dancers Switch Roles
Says the Joffrey Ballet’s Matthew Adamczyk, “Over the course of the run I think I’ll be dancing 13 or 14 different roles, including the Snow King and the Prince, and, for the first time this year, Drosselmeyer … I’m also responsible for knowing the Arabian dance, the Trepack [Russian dance], the Waltz of the Flowers and five different party scene roles.”
The Turner Prize’s Oddest Year Yet?
“Monday’s Turner prize ceremony was the oddest – and in some ways the most moving – that most regular guests of the annual event can remember.”
Byron Janis On How To Teach The Piano
“Teaching is a great responsibility, no matter what the field. You become instructor, parent, friend, diagnostician and psychologist–trying to understand and cure any problem that might arise.”
The Armory: Reimagining The 21st Century Arts Space
Rebecca Robertson’s “vision for the armory as a 21st-century arts center is hitched to ‘the power of the space.’ It means using that unobstructed drill hall–an area she says is unavailable elsewhere in New York City–to accommodate spectacles like ‘Leonardo’s Last Supper.’ And instead of following the normal practice of focusing on one or more of the performing arts or on the visual arts, ‘We do all of the arts equally,’ Ms. Robertson says.”
Human Beings Are ‘Meaning Machines’
“[P]eople look for the meaning of human life, and would be glad to find it ‘out there’, ready made, a transcendent meaning that surpasses mere animal existence. This is to get things backwards. We are the ones who bring meanings into the world, and then, looking around, find them there.”
Riots in the Square, Protests From the Podium: Opening Night at La Scala 2010
“Police and protesters tonight clashed violently outside La Scala, as the conductor Daniel Barenboim also took advantage of the Milan opera house’s gala first night to protest against cuts in Italy’s culture budget.”
Hugues Cuenod, World’s Oldest Tenor, Dead at 108
His career spanned most of the 20th century and an extraordinary range of repertoire: Monteverdi (under Nadia Boulanger), Machaut, Mozart, Bach, Couperin, Dowland, Schubert, Satie and even Noel Coward. He sang at Glyndebourne 480 times, created a role for Stravinsky, made his Met debut at age 85 and his Wigmore Hall debut at 86, and performed into his 90s.