In 2020, a global investment firm bought the company that provides ebooks to nearly all libraries in the US, and quite a few in other countries as well. That is not good news for libraries - or their patrons. - Nine Lives
The Asian American Literary Collective got their "Ghosted World" conference together quickly after the Smithsonian canceled its huge and popular event. One organizer: "This is a healing. It is bittersweet. It is empowering." - NPR
We can't really say "feminism," but if it's feminist to start thinking of your mom as a person when she's 84 years old, then that's what Oprah did for JCO. - LitHub
A writer parent, tasked with teaching her kids in the early days of the pandemic, realizes it's not just that they don't love it - they're dyslexic. And so: "To try and salvage their enjoyment of literature, I divorced the notion of story from the printed word." - LitHub
"Andrade rose from the clubs of Rio, where she performed as a teenager, to forge a six-decade career, recording more than 35 albums as a pioneer of what she came to call bossa-jazz." - The New York Times
Musk yanked @music away without warning. Jeremy Vaught: "It’s been emotional. ... The idea that they’ll just take your account because they want it—I’ve always known that it’s possible. I know that on Twitter there’s nothing I own, they own it, I get it. It still sucks." - Slate
"Writers’ rooms, in fact, were never written into any WGA contract, seemingly based on an assumption that business would continue as usual. But Netflix, perhaps because it was coming from outside the industry, had no interest in business as usual. So it discarded the old norms." - The Atlantic
Look, stone is energy efficient, and some architects are ready for a return. "Solid stone can once again form the walls and structure of building, with benefits for the environment and for the beauty of architecture." - The Observer (UK)
"Foreign film and TV shoots in Canada have ground to a halt. While domestic production continues, union leaders say that eventually many of the concerns driving the U.S. strikes will need to be negotiated here as well, albeit in the context of the Canadian system." - CBC
Hockey romance fans "gravitate to players who remind them of their favorite book boyfriends, and one popular choice is Seattle Kraken center Alex Wennberg. His team initially courted BookTok with posts and hashtags ... and flew out a popular creator for a playoff game." Then things went way wrong. - Washington Post
"The rules of crosswords ... are intimately related to the grammar of language in general. Just as toddlers develop a deep knowledge of different classes of words without being taught what a noun or a verb is, crossword solvers develop strong intuitions about what entries are possible." - The Atlantic
Modern Photography "was as devoted to the technical side of photography as it was to its aesthetics. Ms. Scully focused on the latter, and under her tenure the magazine was instrumental in the emerging recognition of photography as art." - The New York Times
"Barbie’s astounding success puts in a new category, which, until now, had been dominated by the likes of James Cameron, Steven Spielberg, and Christopher Nolan—the richest filmmakers in the world." Next up for her: Narnia. - Fast Company
Why is the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie so much better than the 2007 version? "Since Into the Spider-Verse became a box office hit as well as an Oscar winner, major studios have grown less fearful of animation that diverges from the norm." - The New York Times
