"Pictures of the city showed gondolas stuck in canals reduced to muddy ditches, revealing the ancient foundations of buildings. ... The problems in Venice are being blamed on a combination of factors — the lack of rain, a high pressure system, a full moon and sea currents." - The Independent (UK)
The rare marble of which the Duomo is built may be lovely, but it's particularly fragile and susceptible to breakage from temperature changes — and that's on top of the usual modern stressors such as corrosion due to air pollution. - The New York Times
"Baldwin still faces one count of involuntary manslaughter, a fourth-degree felony that carries a sentence of 18 months in prison. But prosecutors have removed what's known as a firearm enhancement, a part of the criminal code that extends prison sentences when firearms are involved in the commission of a crime." - NPR
Salman Rushdie spoke out, as did PEN America: "If we start down the path of trying to correct for perceived slights instead of allowing readers to receive and react to books as written, we risk distorting the work of great authors and clouding the essential lens that literature offers on society." - CNN
"By the end of the night," wrote one journalist covering the awards, "when it slowly sank in that every single winner was white, you could practically feel the BAFTA team's heads sink into their hands as they braced for yet another social media storm." They weren't wrong. - BBC
"(She was) known for her voluptuous figure and graceful comic touch in such films as The Nutty Professor with Jerry Lewis and the cruise-ship disaster story The Poseidon Adventure. ... Ms. Stevens became more of a character actress in the second half of her career." - MSN (The Washington Post)
"The news program, which launched in 2008 as an alternative to NPR's Morning Edition, has seen declining carriage and audience, according to leaders at WNYC, which co-produces the program, and distributor PRX. … The show airs on 241 stations, ... (but) carriage has declined by about 13% over the past several years." - Current
AO3 is one of the biggest fan fiction sites today. It’s an open source, multi-fandom archive for transformative fanworks that, as of January 2023, is home to approximately 10.5 million works across over 55,000 fandoms, ranging from big names to the most niche corners of the internet. - Wired
Lord Lloyd-Webber said he wanted his new coronation anthem to reflect a "joyful occasion". A gospel choir will sing and there will be Greek Orthodox music in memory of the King's father, Prince Philip. The music will have a traditional tone with pieces from classical composers. - BBC
As my generation grew up, new age seemed a bit like a lost world—a faerie realm we were promised but never got to go to. Although it’s based on familiar pop structures, the songwriting has an origami quality of folding and unfolding back on itself, creating pockets and planes. - The Atlantic
High expectations aren’t always a bad thing. But if you’re finding yourself flooded with disappointment more often than you’d like, you might consider the case for lowering your expectations and turning to gratitude instead. - The Atlantic
There have now been more than a thousand versions of Monopoly, based not only on different cities but on properties such as “The Big Bang Theory,” “The Powerpuff Girls,” and M&M’s. The message, though, remains the same. - The New Yorker
“It’s a bit like, be as sweaty and dirty as when we’re in the field is actually more trustworthy than if we look like we’ve just stepped out of an awards ceremony or a fine dinner party.” - Deadline
Today, nearly half a billion people qualify as Indigenous. If they were a single country, it would be the world’s third most populous, behind China and India. Exactly who counts as Indigenous, however, is far from clear. - The New Yorker
Although the Barnes & Noble event caters to fans of romance and fantasy, BookTok is vast and multifarious. The community is a constellation of fandoms. - Lithub
