IT’S THE DEMOGRAPHY, STUPID: Number of Births in U.S. Hits Lowest Mark Since 1979.
(Classical reference in headline)
New estimate is 905,000 U.S. deaths from the pandemic so far, 6.9 million worldwide.
- Once When High on Hash (Two Versions)
Baudelaire drew his self-portrait under the influence of hashish (ca. 1842). As for me, 'I wore no topcoat ... / and no comet struck / me from a morbid sky ... '... Read more
If the Author Is a Bad Person, Does That Change Anything?
Blake Bailey, who wrote Philip Roth: The Biography, has been accused of sexual crimes.
Back From The Brink Of Collapse, Australia’s Leading Professional Vocal Ensemble Is Hard At Work
Just two years ago, out of cash, The Song Company entered liquidation bankruptcy; it was rescued by a donor a month later. Then came 2020 and the pandemic, with Australia undergoing unusually strict lockdowns. Those measures worked, and with the country reopening, the ensemble has reorganized itself, started a professional apprenticeship for young singers, and is doing both mainstage programs and “Salon” concerts in small spaces. – Limelight (Australia)
The 1619 Project Book
If you the Author Is a Bad Person, Does That Change Anything?
Blake Bailey, who wrote Philip Roth: The Biography, has been accused of sexual crimes.
What determines the thickness of novels? The 19th century favored lengthiness, the early 20th brevity. Now they’re long again. Why?
Power Of The Press? From Op-Ed To Federal Writers Project Bill In Congress
Like his forebears under Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration, David Kipen rolled up his sleeves and went to work. He started writing letters to lawmakers calling for a revamped program for the COVID-19 era, and last May he wrote a piece for The Times examining that possibility. The article, headlined “85 years ago, FDR saved American writers. Could it ever happen again?,” piqued the attention of Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Torrance). Last summer, the congressman’s office began drafting a 21st century FWP — a grant program that would provide jobs for writers and other “cultural workers.” – Los Angeles Times
Blaming Liam Scarlett’s Death On Cancel Culture Is Just Another Way To Shut Victims Up
Reactions such as choreographer Alexei Ratmansky’s social media post that claimed “Cancel culture is killing” are deeply harmful – they place “a burden of guilt on victims who may have come forward during the investigations, at a time when the ballet world is finally reckoning with the way it has normalized abuse over time.” – Dance Magazine
Naomi Shihab Nye’s Beloved Ode to Kindness, Animated
KINDNESS
by Naomi Shihab Nye
Before you know what kindness really is
you must lose things,
feel the future dissolve in a moment
like salt in a weakened broth.
What you held in your hand,
what you counted and carefully saved,
all this must go so you know
how desolate the landscape can be
between the regions of kindness.
How you ride and ride
thinking the bus will never stop,
the passengers eating maize and chicken
will stare out the window forever.
Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness,
you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho
lies dead by the side of the road.
You must see how this could be you,
how he too was someone
who journeyed through the night with plans
and the simple breath that kept him alive.
Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,
you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.
You must wake up with sorrow.
You must speak to it till your voice
catches the thread of all sorrows
and you see the size of the cloth.
Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,
only kindness that ties your shoes
and sends you out into the day to mail letters and purchase bread,
only kindness that raises its head
from the crowd of the world to say
It is I you have been looking for,
and then goes with you everywhere
like a shadow or a friend.
"Why is the world so enraged by the refurbishment of Boris Johnson's flat?"
UK prime minister Boris Johnson and his partner Carrie Symonds have given their 11 Downing Street flat a makeover, replacing the John Lewis furniture chosen by predecessor Theresa May. Why is everyone so angry about it, asks Michelle Ogundehin? More