"Archeologists have discovered what they believe to be the tomb of Saint Nicholas, the (third-century) philanthropic Greek bishop and inspiration behind Santa Claus. The six-foot-long limestone sarcophagus was found within the two-story annex of St. Nicholas Church in Demre, Antalya, Turkey, long considered the final resting place of the Saint. - Euronews
“Booksellers save lives. Period,” Patterson said in a statement released Tuesday through his publisher, Little, Brown and Company. “I’m happy to be able to acknowledge them and all their hard work this holiday season.” - AP News
Just what was Kreskin’s talent? “I am not a psychic, an occultist or fortune teller. I am not a mind reader, medium or hypnotist. I am a scientist, a researcher in the field of suggestion and ‘extrasensory’ perceptions. I perform what I discover.” - The Hollywood Reporter
"In the months since the revelations, I revisited Munro’s stories, spoke with members of her family and tracked down a number of her unpublished letters. Munro’s appalling failures as a mother seem to have been an imaginative incitement, instrumental to her artistic project." - The New York Times Magazine
"A poet of rage and revolution as well as love and longing, (she) emerged as a fiery voice of Black liberation in the 1960s before honing a more tender, meditative style in best-selling books for children and adults." - The Washington Post (MSN)
Chiung Yao "helped shape the idea of romantic love for generations,” with more than 60 novels and short story collections published, and countless movies and TV adaptations from her work. - The New York Times
Bernadette Peters, with whom he often worked, said, "The orchestras loved him. He had a great sense of humor and they respected his musicianship. … He knew what I was going to do before I did it.” - The New York Times
“The golden-haired Ms. Pinal, who collected more than 100 film and television credits in a career that began in the late 1940s, was known for balancing urbane glamour with saucy humor and sensuality” - and for working with Luis Buñuel on the Palme d’Or-winning Viridiana. - The New York Times
Nakayama was “a reigning J-pop star of the 1980s who broke through to become a critically acclaimed dramatic actress and gained international attention.” - The New York Times
In the late 20th century she was seen as an exemplar of well-meaning but extreme ascetic mysticism. Now she's either a prophet of, and antidote for, American political and spiritual malaise or "a mascot for misguided youths seeking to blend a fetishized Catholic ritualism with aestheticized eating disorders." - The Drift
Kevin Killian published over a million words on Amazon, across almost twenty-four hundred reviews, before his death, in 2019. The products he evaluated included DVDs of classic twentieth-century cinema, literary biographies, and experimental poetry collections—but also toiletries, Halloween costumes, and a chestnut tree. - The New Yorker
When cataracts had rendered him almost completely blind, Monet finally agreed to the eye surgery he had been avoiding for years. When he recovered, he evidently gained the ability to see ultraviolet light, and thereby could see colors normally invisible to human eyes. - Artnet
Benson’s path to success was fraught with challenges. Early in SCR’s history, Benson experienced literal starvation for his art, competing with seagulls for morsels of dumpster food near the beach. He survived esophageal and prostate cancer, clinical depression, and the shattering grief of his first wife’s suicide. - CultureOC
"(He) was both observer and narrator during a more than seven-decade career that included books and memoirs, more than 20 years with a coveted back-page column in Time, and, later, time as a contributing writer to outlets such as The Wall Street Journal." - The Washington Post (MSN)
Ashley Benefield, whose marriage to Doug Benefield disintegrated after the ballet company they attempted to launch fell apart, was acquitted of murder but convicted of manslaughter for shooting him during an altercation at her home in Florida in 2020. - CBS News
