Stories

Only connect: "The strongest predictors for people to maintain their happiness and health throughout the course of their lives were people who described their relationships as having satisfying levels of quality and warmth." - NPR

Without Iron Man, there's a leader-shaped hole at the center of all of the various stories. Is Paul Rudd really supposed to fill that hole? - The Guardian (UK)

Schnee's "ebullient fabric designs and avant-garde home furnishings store in the heart of Detroit introduced midcentury modernism to baffled and delighted Midwesterners" - and changed the look of contemporary houses for good. - The New York Times

The problem?"If you aren’t in a lactation closet, you’re at home." - LitHub

It's Cate Blanchett, no doubt. Then things get a bit complicated. - Washington Post

Itinerant artist and poet Ser Serpas says that "Parisian trash is sturdy." The 27-year-old, "like, many of her peers, she favors objects that bear the marks of use, as if, having inherited a sorely used world, she’s making stanzas from its leftovers." - The New York Times

The list of those testing positive and missing Sunday's Critics Choice Awards, a few days after the Golden Globes, included nominees Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson, "head cheerleader" Jamie Lee Curtis, and planned presenter Michelle Pfeiffer. - The Hollywood Reporter

The star of Everything Everywhere All at Once says, "But the only way we can keep this going is by getting the right storytellers, having the studio executives understand and keep putting it forward." - HuffPost

For instance: You might be feeling like a crambazzle thanks to winter - so it might be time to get some snerdles in your hibernacle. - CBC

Natalie Murray Beale says, "We looked a lot at the physical aspects, ensuring she would not be too reverent of the conductor’s podium, because after all it’s just her workplace." - The Observer (UK)

Six producers of potential Oscar contenders explain why they did it anyway. Says the producer of Banshees of Inisherin, "Your aim is to be invisible and make sure that nothing interrupts" the director's process. - Los Angeles Times

Bad news for writers and artists: As AI improves, the plagiarism will become less apparent. "There’s no quick technological fix to these issues. As has been the case for nearly all instances of bad information spreading online, readers and editors will again have to figure this out themselves." - Slate

Emmons - her obit is in today's Boston Globe - "was furiously busy in the months leading up to her death," including publishing two novels in September, sending her final novel to her agent hours before she died, and writing a popular blog about having ALS. - Los Angeles Times

Blame the loss of the Catskills incubator for city dancers on, what else, the pandemic - and donor priorities. - The New York Times

But, alert, the trade-offs may be worth it. - The Atlantic