Stories

Fortnite “customers could ultimately receive $245 million for what the agency called Epic’s use of ‘dark patterns’ to trick millions of players into unwanted purchases. Another $275 million will settle accusations that the studio violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act.” - The New York Times

Dancers at City Ballet go through about 7,000 pairs of pointe shoes every year. - Business Insider

At Montgomery Ward, Robert L. May’s “boss tapped him to write the children’s story and suggested it have an animal protagonist because Ferdinand the Bull, a popular animated short produced by Walt Disney Productions, had just been released.” - Fast Company

“While we can’t claim to know what was going through Callas’ mind as she neared the end, we can nevertheless examine how much the external world referenced in Maria resembles the real thing.” - Slate (MSN)

And why is it so exhausting to find out that, for instance, Cormac McCarthy was a total creep? - LitHub

Sometimes it works (Wim Wenders, possibly Pedro Almodóvar), and sometimes … hm, you get “European art films in American drag.” - The New York Times

Well: “Writers are not content for their talents and their hard work to be used to generate positive publicity for companies who are engaged in deeply harmful activities,” says one climate protest leader. Will the awards survive at all? - The Guardian (UK)

“When a movie has two primary characters, how do campaigns decide who goes in lead and who goes supporting?” - Vulture

And that’s “noodle boys” - young, white, floppy-haired, and un-pumped. “There is clearly an appetite for male stars who don’t look as if they could crush a car with their bare hands.” - The New York Times

In Bend, Oregon, “there have been previous reports of sculptures being decorated with Christmas garb in the past, but the googly eyes are a newer development” - one city officials are begging people to stop. - Oregon Public Broadcasting (KLCC)

Hot Frosty is far from the end of Christmas programming. "It doesn't matter that the audience has seen some version of that story 1,000 times. They're going to keep watching it, keep enjoying it and we — love it or hate it — are going to keep talking about it.” - CBC

Aside from Yunchan Lim and Vilde Frang, a notable (if challenging) development is that “the age of the all-star studio-made opera recording is very much over. DVDs of stage productions now easily outnumber new audio-only opera sets.” - The Guardian (UK)

A £1 charge on tickets to the largest music venue is the way, the town council believes. - BBC

Kohn “devoted his career to decoding, defending and disseminating the work of Hannah Arendt,” ensuring her work was in the public eye even as totalitarian ideas began to rise again. - The New York Times

British musicians Sheku and Isata Kanneh-Mason bought a ticket for Sheku’s cello, but Air Canada said no way. That forced the siblings, who were scheduled for a sold-out concert in Toronto, to cancel at the last minute. - CBC