Stories

This year’s highlights include the remodeling of a Richard Seifert brutalist ‘corncob’ tower, a celebration of Japanese carpentry and a wearable hot-water bottle. - The Guardian

“Organ tuners make brief records of their visits and often jot down observations, including the temperature and humidity inside the building. Materials within organs are sensitive to climatic changes, which can knock the majestic instruments out of tune.” - The Guardian (UK)

In their own words: Roberta Flack, Diane Keaton, Robert Redford, Rob Reiner, Frank Gehry, and many more. - The New York Times

The Trump administration threatened “to withhold federal funds if it does not submit extensive documentation for a sweeping content review. … It was not immediately clear how much money the White House might try to withhold, from which parts of the Smithsonian or on what authority.” - Washington Post (MSN)

Not ‘To be or not to be,’ but, obviously at this time of year, “Is Die Hard a Christmas movie?” - NPR

In 2023, “Meyers had written a semi-autobiographical rom-com called Paris Paramount. She’d originally written it for Netflix, but they did not want to give her the budget she needed.” And that was all the news - until this weekend. - Vulture

“We didn’t have a lot of information before the show started, and the local authorities were telling our team that the best and safest course of action for everyone present was to proceed with the show and not have large crowds of people out on the streets.” - Boston Globe

And, more importantly, how can creative people destroy the very word? - Happy Dancing

Bari Weiss is said to have spiked the show a few hours before it was supposed to run. "The report … was to have featured correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi interviewing deportees who the Trump administration has sent to the Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (CECOT) prison in El Salvador.” - Variety

In short, they all want to make sure they’re guarding the perimeter. - The New York Times

Hell is other people in a cinema, sure, but Hell - especially for a movie that needs an audience - is also no other people. - Slate

David Walliams, “one of Britain’s most successful children’s authors, was reportedly the subject of complaints that he had ‘harassed’ junior female staff at HarperCollins UK, prompting the publisher to decide it would no longer release new titles by the author.” - The Guardian (UK)

You know the word - the f-word. “A single use of the F-word requires at least a PG-13, while additional uses will elevate it to an R.” - The New York Times

“The museum holds more than 40,000 items from across Africa, many of which were traded, collected, looted or preserved during the era of the British empire. … The names of makers, the cultural significance of objects and the people to which they once belonged are largely unknown.” - The Guardian (UK)

“Ransone was born in 1979 in Baltimore, an advantage in the early 2000s when The Wire, then a little-watched drama on HBO, was looking to cast actors from the city for the show’s second season.” - The New York Times