Today's Stories

How Byron Allen Went From Standup Comic To Media Mogul To Stephen Colbert’s Time Slot

“He was one of the first entertainers to recognize that there was more money to be made in owning your content, rather than just performing it. Over the last three decades, he has built a multibillion-dollar business, Allen Media Group, which now has 2,000 employees across various media properties.” - Los Angeles Times (MSN)

Rex Reed Hated Everything

In my ongoing conversations with him, along with the despairingly pungent emails he regularly sent from his AOL address Rex seemed to interpret the glut of mediocre films he was forced to endure as a highly personal affront to strict standards of taste, decency and class. - The Hollywood Reporter

The Song Company, Australia’s Leading Vocal Chamber Ensemble, Is Closing Permanently

Founded in 1984 in Sydney, The Song Company, which consisted of six to eight singers, regularly performed music ranging from the Middle Ages and Renaissance through the Romantic era up to newly-commissioned works. The ensemble went into receivership in 2019 due to financial difficulties; now it has filed for liquidation. - Limelight (Australia)

Cincinnati Opera Launches Major New Opera Initiative

“Lalovavi” launches Cincinnati Opera’s Black Opera Project, a $6 million three-opera endeavor. The first of its kind, the project aims to tell Black American stories of resilience and joy, written and composed by Black creators. Three new works – one each season – will provide increased opportunities for cast members and artistic teams of color. - Cincinnati Business...

Misty Copeland On Drive and Motivation

What people do not always see is the aspect of drive that is perhaps the hardest to name — the will to keep going in those moments when the path is unclear, when recognition may never come. You stay focused on the work while navigating a life on the public stage. - The New York Times

Highmark Mann Center Opens On A Roll

The Highmark Mann opened five decades ago as the Robin Hood Dell West, the local summer retreat for the Philadelphia Orchestra, and it has evolved into a bona fide arts center that feels both sylvan and city. - Philadelphia Inquirer (MSN)

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Sydney Dance Company Artistic Director Rafael Bonachela: The Exit Interview

“The amount of things that I didn’t get! … We will never get to fulfil the potential of what we want to achieve. There are so many versions of our life.” - The Saturday Paper (Australia)

Why Older People Are Happier, And What We Can Learn From Them

Research spanning 145 countries has identified a U-shaped happiness-age curve, whereby self-reported wellbeing tends to dip in mid-adulthood and peak in old age. - Psyche

Generational Change In Australia’s First Nations Dance

Australian dance is undergoing a generational transfer of leadership. At the same time, First Nations choreography has never been more visible. Yet visibility and authority are not the same thing. - ArtsHub

Publishers Sue Website For Pirating

Fresh off of last month’s victory against pirate web site Anna’s Archive, 13 publishers across all segments of the industry have allied to sue yet another pirate site, WeLib, for copyright infringement. - Publishers Weekly

Theatre In London’s West End To Be Renamed For Judi Dench

“The Shaftesbury Theatre will be known as the Judi Dench Theatre from February 2027. … Dench has a long association with the Shaftesbury, which is one of the largest independent theatres in London.” - The Guardian

Why Movie Production Is Leaving Hollywood

Everything costs more in L.A., starting with labor, due to the high cost of living and elaborate union agreements. Other states and countries have developed crew bases of their own, are more solicitous of producers’ needs and offer more generous incentives. Producers are also under pressure from the audience to deliver ever more spectacular experiences. - Variety

Dance Jumps Into Lincoln Center In A Big Way

In the years since American Dance Theater, the descendants of modern dance have performed at Lincoln Center with varying frequency. But the new festival counts as the center’s biggest commitment since the early years and part of the reason this year’s Summer for the City series is being called Summer of Dance. - The New York...

New Owners Roxane Gay And Debbie Millman Relaunch Online Lit Magazine The Rumpus

“We'll still be covering, with the same rigor and integrity, fiction, essays, poetry, book reviews, author interviews, and so forth,” said Millman. “But we're also going to include more design criticism, art criticism, and overall cultural coverage. The soul of the writing ... will be very similar; topically, it will be different.” - Publishers Weekly

Have New Books Gotten More Expensive? Yes, But …

Hardcovers which for years cost around $20 are now routinely marked at $30 or more. However, both publishing executives and booksellers maintain that the price of new books has not kept up with post-2020 inflation in the economy as a whole (including their own supply chains). - USA Today

Why Fox Bought Roku

Ever since the old Fox sold off most of its entertainment assets to Disney, Lachlan Murdoch — son of Rupert and CEO of Fox Corp. — has been using the money from that deal to rebuild his father’s TV empire for the streaming era. - Vulture (MSN)

The Hague’s Mauritshuis Museum May Keep Its Rembrandts, Rules Judge

Abraham Bredius, museum director from 1889 to 1909, bequeathed the Mauritshuis 25 of his own Old Master paintings — by Rembrandt, Jan Steen, and others — on condition that the works be displayed and not lent out. Because the museum doesn’t display all of them all the time, Bredius’s heirs sued — and lost. - ArtDependence

University Of Texas Fires General Manager Of Austin’s NPR Station

“The University of Texas at Austin has dismissed Debbie Hiott as General Manager of KUT Public Media, ending the tenure of a … public media executive whose public dispute with university officials over the KUT Festival drew statewide attention and raised questions about the relationship between the university and its NPR-affiliated station.” - Inside Radio

Paramount-Warner Bros. Merger Has Become Far More Politically Charged Than Most Corporate Megadeals

“Opponents allege the Ellison family's acquisition of so many media properties — CBS News, CNN and Larry Ellison's stake in TikTok — threatens free speech and democratic society itself. Meanwhile, Paramount insists it's trying to save Hollywood, and that there are untoward political and racial motivations to kill its deal from far-left forces.” - TheWrap (MSN)

Preservationists Sue To Block Trump’s “National Garden Of American Heroes”

“Congress has made clear that the National Mall is … not a personal sandbox for each President to renovate however he likes,” argues the lawsuit. “To that end, Congress has decreed that no new ‘commemorative work’ shall be located within ‘the great cross-axis of the Mall’.” - USA Today

By Topic

Why Older People Are Happier, And What We Can Learn From Them

Research spanning 145 countries has identified a U-shaped happiness-age curve, whereby self-reported wellbeing tends to dip in mid-adulthood and peak in old age. - Psyche

“Teaser” Events Have Become A Powerful Way For Pop Stars To Introduce Their Projects

From a marketing perspective, this approach blends internet culture and storytelling to create a memorable experience for fans. These teaser releases are particularly effective at generating fan theories, sparking speculation, creating memes and helping create stories with fans. - The Conversation

Mathematics And The Tools Of Reasoning That Ai Is Tackling

Understanding is a lively topic for philosophers, but not for the tech industry. In their race to the ultimate prize of AGI, Silicon Valley’s main players instead see the mechanization of reasoning as the main hurdle. For them, mathematics is the supreme AI challenge because it is the purest form of reasoning. - Boston Review

Jurgen Habermas And The Public Sphere

Habermas’s death might mark the end of a mode of main-stage philosophizing that, in the German-speaking world, reaches back, by way of Adorno, Heidegger, Nietzsche, Marx, Schopenhauer, and Hegel, to Kant himself. - The New Yorker

The Aesthetic That Fits Our Times: Tragicomic

This cockroach of forms—adaptive, resilient, unkillable—was named by the Roman dramatist Plautus in the second century BC, enjoyed its heyday in 17th-century Renaissance theater, and was revived in the 20th century to describe a slurry of existential despair and absurd farce. - ARTnews

The Old Are Taking Over America

Samuel Moyn argues that the oldest Americans, because of their retrograde politics and ever-increasing presence, are profoundly reshaping our collective life. - The New Yorker

Highmark Mann Center Opens On A Roll

The Highmark Mann opened five decades ago as the Robin Hood Dell West, the local summer retreat for the Philadelphia Orchestra, and it has evolved into a bona fide arts center that feels both sylvan and city. - Philadelphia Inquirer (MSN)

Preservationists Sue To Block Trump’s “National Garden Of American Heroes”

“Congress has made clear that the National Mall is … not a personal sandbox for each President to renovate however he likes,” argues the lawsuit. “To that end, Congress has decreed that no new ‘commemorative work’ shall be located within ‘the great cross-axis of the Mall’.” - USA Today

Federal Court Orders Kennedy Center To Make A Plan For Staying Open And Offering Programming

“Judge Christopher R. Cooper of Federal District Court in Washington asked for a status report from the Kennedy Center that would include plans for ‘public access and ongoing programming, activities and operations’ should the center stay open past July 4, which the president proposed as a closing date.” - The New York Times

A Professor Despairs Of What AI Reveals About Students

There will always be idealistic, ink-stained people who want to devote their lives to scholarly pursuits—their role to inspire young people to love ideas as they do. But this transfer, more than anything else in the academy, has been increasingly blocked by A.I. in the classroom. - The New Yorker

What We Learned About How To Celebrate A Divided America’s Birthday From The Bicentennial

Philadelphia, as the cradle of American independence, was supposed to be the center of attention 50 years ago. From the beginning, deliberations involved arguably the most important architect of the late 20th century, Louis I. Kahn. - Architecture and the City

Kennedy Center Establishes A New Endowment, One Named After Donald Trump

“(Its) establishment comes less than two weeks after a judge ruled the Kennedy Center's board acted unlawfully in adding the president's name. … A source with knowledge of the plans for the endowment” — called the Trump Kennedy Center Fund — “suggested it will focus on the ‘physical disrepair’ of the building.” - CBS...

The Song Company, Australia’s Leading Vocal Chamber Ensemble, Is Closing Permanently

Founded in 1984 in Sydney, The Song Company, which consisted of six to eight singers, regularly performed music ranging from the Middle Ages and Renaissance through the Romantic era up to newly-commissioned works. The ensemble went into receivership in 2019 due to financial difficulties; now it has filed for liquidation. - Limelight (Australia)

Cincinnati Opera Launches Major New Opera Initiative

“Lalovavi” launches Cincinnati Opera’s Black Opera Project, a $6 million three-opera endeavor. The first of its kind, the project aims to tell Black American stories of resilience and joy, written and composed by Black creators. Three new works – one each season – will provide increased opportunities for cast members and artistic teams of color. -...

Sarasota Opera’s Longtime Artistic Director Writes Op-Ed Explaining Why He Resigned

Victor DeRenzi: “In the last few years, I had begun to realize that I could not develop an artistic future for the opera with the current board. Budgets were approved late, sometimes less than six months before the new fiscal year began." - Sarasota Herald-Tribune (MSN)

Syracuse Orchestra Appoints Music Director

Austin Chanu, a 33-year-old Brazilian-American and a former assistant conductor at the Philadelphia Orchestra, succeeds Lawrence Loh, whose 10-year tenure ended in May 2025. The Syracuse Orchestra is the musician-led co-operative ensemble formed after the Syracuse Symphony folded in 2011. - The Post-Standard (Syracuse)

AI Company Makes Industry-Wide Licensing Deal

David Israelite said the Udio agreement is the first industry-wide licensing deal struck with a major AI music company, and the first to “value songs and sound recordings equally” when it comes to AI training. - Music Business Worldwide

Even In The UK, Music Festival Central, Costs Are Causing Collapse

Womad in Glasgow “is the 20th casualty so far this year as small and independent festival operators enter another tough summer facing myriad challenges, from belt-tightening consumers becoming more picky about how they spend their cash, to soaring energy and labour costs.” - The Guardian (UK)

The Hague’s Mauritshuis Museum May Keep Its Rembrandts, Rules Judge

Abraham Bredius, museum director from 1889 to 1909, bequeathed the Mauritshuis 25 of his own Old Master paintings — by Rembrandt, Jan Steen, and others — on condition that the works be displayed and not lent out. Because the museum doesn’t display all of them all the time, Bredius’s heirs sued — and lost....

The Art Commissioned By The Obama Presidential Library

For the Obama Presidential Center on the South Side of Chicago, Barack and Michelle Obama commissioned original works by 30 artists from diverse backgrounds, a bold move never seen at such scale at a presidential library. - The Guardian

11th-Century Cathedral In Kyiv Set On Fire By Russian Missiles

“A massive Russian missile and drone attack on Kyiv has badly damaged the Dormition Cathedral in the Pechersk Lavra monastery complex, a UNESCO world heritage site and one of Ukraine’s most significant religious and cultural sites.” - The Guardian

Sagrada Familia Might Have Topped Out, But Big Challenges Ahead

"The biggest will be Glory Facade, which is the main facade. Maybe it will take 10 years, but we don't yet have a fixed schedule." - Dezeen

Behold The New Obama Library

After standing in the glow of this new South Side landmark, I admittedly feel like a buzzkill focusing on documents, kind of like visiting the Sistine Chapel and contemplating the plumbing. - The Atlantic

Living ‘FridaMania’ In Kahlo’s Hometown

“Frida died – but she didn’t pass away. She was like a rocket. She just went up and up.” - The Guardian (UK)

Publishers Sue Website For Pirating

Fresh off of last month’s victory against pirate web site Anna’s Archive, 13 publishers across all segments of the industry have allied to sue yet another pirate site, WeLib, for copyright infringement. - Publishers Weekly

New Owners Roxane Gay And Debbie Millman Relaunch Online Lit Magazine The Rumpus

“We'll still be covering, with the same rigor and integrity, fiction, essays, poetry, book reviews, author interviews, and so forth,” said Millman. “But we're also going to include more design criticism, art criticism, and overall cultural coverage. The soul of the writing ... will be very similar; topically, it will be different.” - Publishers...

Have New Books Gotten More Expensive? Yes, But …

Hardcovers which for years cost around $20 are now routinely marked at $30 or more. However, both publishing executives and booksellers maintain that the price of new books has not kept up with post-2020 inflation in the economy as a whole (including their own supply chains). - USA Today

“Graphic Journalist” Joe Sacco Says Penguin Random House India Censored His Book On Sectarian Riots

The Indian subsidiary of the publishing giant has withdrawn Sacco’s The Once and Future Riot, an account of the 2013 street battles between Hindus and Muslims in Muzaffarnagar. Sacco says the publisher sent him a list of edits that amounted to “finding excuses” not to release the book. - The Wire (India)

Are Most Children’s Books “Crud”?

“There are so many bad kids’ books,” Mac Barnett writes, “and kids’ books are bad in so many different ways.” He states that “a big reason for our low opinion of children’s books is simply that lots of children’s books are bad.”  - The New Yorker

The Problem With AI Writing (And The Opportunity For Human Literature)

If, as a French saying has it, “style is the man himself,” what does the style of AI writing tell us about it? For one thing, it has no fixed style, revealing that it has no fixed self. It’s happy to burn tokens saying the same thing in as many ways as you want. ...

Why Movie Production Is Leaving Hollywood

Everything costs more in L.A., starting with labor, due to the high cost of living and elaborate union agreements. Other states and countries have developed crew bases of their own, are more solicitous of producers’ needs and offer more generous incentives. Producers are also under pressure from the audience to deliver ever more spectacular...

Why Fox Bought Roku

Ever since the old Fox sold off most of its entertainment assets to Disney, Lachlan Murdoch — son of Rupert and CEO of Fox Corp. — has been using the money from that deal to rebuild his father’s TV empire for the streaming era. - Vulture (MSN)

University Of Texas Fires General Manager Of Austin’s NPR Station

“The University of Texas at Austin has dismissed Debbie Hiott as General Manager of KUT Public Media, ending the tenure of a … public media executive whose public dispute with university officials over the KUT Festival drew statewide attention and raised questions about the relationship between the university and its NPR-affiliated station.” - Inside...

Paramount-Warner Bros. Merger Has Become Far More Politically Charged Than Most Corporate Megadeals

“Opponents allege the Ellison family's acquisition of so many media properties — CBS News, CNN and Larry Ellison's stake in TikTok — threatens free speech and democratic society itself. Meanwhile, Paramount insists it's trying to save Hollywood, and that there are untoward political and racial motivations to kill its deal from far-left forces.” -...

California’s Next Big Tax Incentive For Movie Industry Will Target Post-Production Workers

“Assembly Bill 2319, which passed the California State Assembly and is awaiting a vote in the State Senate, would establish a $100 million budget allocation that would give productions that do their post work in the Golden State a base tax writeoff equivalent to 35% of qualified spending,” - TheWrap (Yahoo!)

Lehigh Valley Public Media Acquires Lehigh University’s Radio Station

“The National Public Radio affiliate WLVR, which broadcasts at 91.3 FM, has been sold outright to LVPM by the university, which announced the transfer on Thursday. LVPM, which has operated the station since entering into a partnership with Lehigh in 2019, will purchase the Federal Communications Commission license.” - The Morning Call (Allentown, PA)...

Sydney Dance Company Artistic Director Rafael Bonachela: The Exit Interview

“The amount of things that I didn’t get! … We will never get to fulfil the potential of what we want to achieve. There are so many versions of our life.” - The Saturday Paper (Australia)

Generational Change In Australia’s First Nations Dance

Australian dance is undergoing a generational transfer of leadership. At the same time, First Nations choreography has never been more visible. Yet visibility and authority are not the same thing. - ArtsHub

Dance Jumps Into Lincoln Center In A Big Way

In the years since American Dance Theater, the descendants of modern dance have performed at Lincoln Center with varying frequency. But the new festival counts as the center’s biggest commitment since the early years and part of the reason this year’s Summer for the City series is being called Summer of Dance. - The...

Trying To Improve The Pointe Shoe, Whose Customers Are Resistant To Change

“Ballet is an art form bound by tradition, with limited financial resources to support forward-thinking change. But that hasn’t stopped artists and artisans from trying. And recently, some manufacturers have made waves with nontraditional designs that incorporate very 21st-century technologies.” - Dance Magazine

As The Knicks Win, All Of New York City Becomes A Dance Stage

“Of all the joy blooming throughout the Knicks championship run, the most visible has been the jubilant transfer of energy from body to body.” - The New York Times

National Center For Choreography-Akron Marks 10 Years

“For (a decade NCAAkron) has supported research and development of new work by over 800 dancers from around the United States through dancing labs and residencies. ‘As nobody questions when a scientist goes into a lab, that’s what we believe is possible for a choreographer going into the studio,’ said director Christy Bolingbroke.” - Signal Akron

Theatre In London’s West End To Be Renamed For Judi Dench

“The Shaftesbury Theatre will be known as the Judi Dench Theatre from February 2027. … Dench has a long association with the Shaftesbury, which is one of the largest independent theatres in London.” - The Guardian

As It Struggles Financially, San Francisco’s Magic Theatre Tries A Three-Leader Management Structure

“Actor and former Magic Theatre board member Sarah Nina Hayon, who also founded New York's 24SevenLab, is artistic director; actor Daniel Duque-Estrada is producing director; and video designer Joan Osato … is director of sustainability and growth.” - San Francisco Chronicle (Yahoo!)

Alan Cumming’s Theatre In The Scottish Highlands Will Present Its Own Mini-Version Of Edinburgh Fringe

Pitlochry Festival Theatre’s five-day event — called “Edinlochry” — won’t be as chaotic as the actual Edinburgh Fringe can be, mainly because it will be curated rather than open-access. - The Edinburgh Reporter

Could You Memorize All Of Shakespeare’s 154 Sonnets?

This actor did, though he adds, “When I first had the idea, oh, yeah, I'm going to learn them all. I … I did not realize how much work it actually was.” - NPR

Let’s Talk About How Sondheim Made Order Out Of Chaos In Sunday In The Park With George

Or more specifically, in one song: “Sunday.” - The New York Times

There Are Now Plans For A New Black Box Theatre In Seattle

The plan - after extensive renovations of the now unprepossessing building - is for ExoArts to “offer six six-week blocks a year at subsidized sliding-scale rates that can be rented by outside theater companies to perform full-scale production” and to have its own programming as well. - Seattle Times

How Byron Allen Went From Standup Comic To Media Mogul To Stephen Colbert’s Time Slot

“He was one of the first entertainers to recognize that there was more money to be made in owning your content, rather than just performing it. Over the last three decades, he has built a multibillion-dollar business, Allen Media Group, which now has 2,000 employees across various media properties.” - Los Angeles Times (MSN)

Rex Reed Hated Everything

In my ongoing conversations with him, along with the despairingly pungent emails he regularly sent from his AOL address Rex seemed to interpret the glut of mediocre films he was forced to endure as a highly personal affront to strict standards of taste, decency and class. - The Hollywood Reporter

Misty Copeland On Drive and Motivation

What people do not always see is the aspect of drive that is perhaps the hardest to name — the will to keep going in those moments when the path is unclear, when recognition may never come. You stay focused on the work while navigating a life on the public stage. - The New...

Film Critic Gene Shalit Dies At 100

Shalit started on Today in 1970, according to NBC's report on his passing, and became its arts editor in 1973, interviewing celebrities and reviewing books as well as films. His role on the show was reduced in his later years and he retired at age 84 in 2010, saying, "It's ​enough already." - CBC

Jazz Pianist Abdullah Ibrahim Dead At 91

“In an extraordinarily accomplished career that spanned eight decades, Ibrahim helped bring bebop stylings to South Africa, and he bonded with Duke Ellington, who produced one of his early, influential recordings. In his later years, he became an idol and an inspiration to new generations of jazz pianists.” - NPR

Jane Yolen, Award-Winning Author Of Some 450 Books, Has Died At 87

"Yolen never encountered a genre she didn’t like; among her early books was a history of kites. Yet running through almost all her writing was a strong through-line of deep psychological insight and a sense of wonder.” - The New York Times

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Reporting to the Chief Philanthropy Officer, the Deputy Director of Development (DDD) is a key strategic leader and the second most senior position on the

What We Learned About How To Celebrate A Divided America’s Birthday From The Bicentennial

Philadelphia, as the cradle of American independence, was supposed to be the center of attention 50 years ago. From the beginning, deliberations involved arguably the most important architect of the late 20th century, Louis I. Kahn. - Architecture and the City

Why The Art Workers Coalition Still Resonates Across The Art World

“Among their demands were a section of the museum dedicated to Black (and, in a later, amended statement, Puerto Rican) artists, an artist committee granted curatorial power, a ‘rental fee’ paid to artists for the exhibition of their work and free admission for all.” - The New York Times

Building A Jazz Trilogy Based On Black British History

Renell Shaw: “Our story is of growth, and it’s a love story, too. I mean, my grandmother came over here from Jamaica looking for work, and my grandfather came over to chase my grandmother!” - The Guardian (UK)

They Just Had To Take That Man’s Name Off The Kennedy Center From Behind A Curtain

After blowing the deadline and begging for more time - and being denied - workers took Donald J. Trump’s name off the Kennedy Center on Friday night. But “a spokeswoman for the center, said the institution was … evaluating ‘legal options.’” - The New York Times

Washington National Opera Sues Kennedy Center

“The Washington National Opera (WNO) filed a lawsuit Thursday, alleging that the Kennedy Center failed to return more than $17 million in donations made to the organization after its split from the venue earlier this year.” - The Hill

David Hockney, 88

“Over a seven-decade career, Hockney explored and reimagined classical portraiture, landscape painting and pop art, working in painting, collage, photography and digital drawing. … One of the most popular and critically lauded British artists of his” — and perhaps any — “generation, his works sold for record prices at auction.” - AP

Boston Symphony CEO: Yes, We Handled The Nelsons Thing Poorly. No, We’re Not Changing Our Minds.

Chad Smith: “I can see that it was an abrupt announcement externally. It didn’t represent abrupt decision-making, though. It was a very considered conversation that has been going on for some time. … Our intention was to have a joint statement, but that wasn’t agreed to.” - The New York Times

Photographer Duane Michals, 94

“In a career that spanned six decades and crisscrossed artistic and commercial contexts, Michals challenged photographic convention and innovated new forms; he is best known for building sequential, frame-by-frame narratives that pair photographs with handwritten text to poetic effect.” - Frieze

The “Middleware” Problem: How Do You Find Classical Music?

“For decades, the relationship between artists and audiences was heavily mediated and nurtured by newspaper critics, classical radio hosts, record-store owners, etc. — They made the music findable and meaningful. I call that layer the civic middleware of culture, and over the past twenty years it has largely collapsed.” - Bachtrack

At The Tonys, Schmigadoon Wins Best New Musical; Liberation Wins Best New Play

Schmigadoon! winning might give it an economic boost, though Liberation has closed. Other big winners are Ragtime and Death of a Salesman. - The New York Times

Who’s Going To Win At The Tonys Tonight?

Can Jellicle Ball beat out the universally loved Ragtime? Will Lesley Manville’s British chops beat out Susannah Flood’s incredible performance in Liberation? Find out soon! - Vulture

A Century On, Martha Graham’s Modern Dance Vision Still Matters Intensely

“Her choreography landed like a bomb in a landscape where vaudeville and ballet ruled the day.” - The New York Times

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