In Larry Kramer's The Normal Heart, Lily Janiak finds some lines that shed bright, painful light on why some people would refuse a vaccine that demonstrably saves lives. - San Francisco Chronicle
“In folklore, we have this law of self-correction. So if something doesn’t quite fit, you go back to the way you heard it from 15 other people. I might be saying Jeff Bezos. But if three other people are saying Bill Gates, it’s going to be Bill Gates.” - The Guardian
There are several reasons, say researchers, most of which boil down to "Hey, adrenaline is fun when you're not actually in danger!" And watching gory movies in a group can even be a bonding experience. - Salon
You know about the Benin Bronzes, looted by the British from what's now Nigeria and some of which are being returned there. These objects, the Abomey Treasures, were taken by the French army in 1892 from the Kingdom of Dahomey, present-day Benin, where they'll be shipped next month. - AP
So successful was the sitcom that they ended up running out of American scripts to adapt and they soon began writing their own. All told, Schastlivy Vmeste ran for 365 episodes... and the show turned its stars into household names in Russia. - Mel Magazine
Boris Charmatz, a 48-year-old French choreographer, has been appointed to lead Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch as of next September — with a mandate to expand the repertory of the company, which has continued to labor in Bausch's shadow since her sudden death in 2009. - Le Monde (in French)
In the U.S., 40% of internet users listen to podcasts. In Canada a third (32.8%) listen and in Mexico a quarter do (25.8%). But in the Asia-Pacific region the numbers are smaller. In South Korea and Japan 12% of internet users report listening to podcasts. - Inside Radio
"A sprawling villa in Rome containing the only ceiling mural ever painted by Caravaggio is up for sale for almost €500m. The 2.75-metre wide painting Jupiter, Neptune and Pluto was commissioned by Cardinal Francesco Maria Del Monte to adorn the ceiling in his alchemy laboratory." - The Guardian
Gallerists JJ and Anthony Curis have bought the old Good Shepherd Catholic Church in the East Village neighborhood and will reopen it in 2023 as a cultural center with two galleries, a library, workshop space, a sculpture garden, and a skate park. - The New York Times
Zohra, a 35-member women's youth orchestra founded in Kabul in 2016, was shut down as the Taliban returned to power, and many of its members fled the country, leaving their instruments behind. Now the group has reconvened in Qatar. - Yahoo! (AFP)
He became famous for walking to the microphone with a newspaper and riffing on whatever stories he found there. (Time magazine called him "Will Rogers with fangs.") As actor-filmmaker Albert Brooks put it, "Every comedian who is not doing wife jokes has to thank him for that." - AP
By means he won't disclose, a journalist acquired thousands of manuscript pages by Louis-Ferdinand Céline, revered in France for literary craftsmanship but reviled for anti-Semitism and collaborating with the Nazis. That conflict is being rehashed, and a battle with Céline's heirs has arisen. - The New York Times
"The culture sector in England will receive £850m in extra funding from the Treasury in the Budget to be announced this week by Chancellor (of the Exchequer) Rishi Sunak." - The Art Newspaper
For years it has been illegal in France to sell new books at a discount, which has kept bookstores from being undersold by the e-commerce giant. Free shipping is prohibited as well — so Amazon has been offering shipping for one cent. New legislation ends that loophole. - Reuters
