– Price of the first oil painting ever sold by Milton Avery, purchased by the violinist Louis Kaufman in 1926: $25

– The same amount in today’s dollars, courtesy of Inflation Calculator: $264.16

(Source: Louis Kaufman, A Fiddler’s Tale )

I found a dimpled spider, fat and white,

On a white heal-all, holding up a moth

Like a white piece of rigid satin cloth–

Assorted characters of death and blight

Mixed ready to begin the morning right,

Like the ingredients of a witches’ broth–

A snow-drop spider, a flower like a froth,

And dead wings carried like a paper kite.

What had that flower to do with being white,

The wayside blue and innocent heal-all?

What brought the kindred spider to that height,

Then steered the white moth thither in the night?

What but design of darkness to appall?–

If design govern in a thing so small.

Robert Frost, “Design” (courtesy of Rick Brookhiser)

I reported on this year’s New York International Fringe Festival (which runs through Sunday) in today’s Wall Street Journal drama column. The most talked-about show I saw was Bridezilla Strikes Back!:

For those who don’t keep up with reality TV, “Bridezillas” is the series that follows a group of increasingly demented brides-to-be as they plan their Must…Be…Perfect Weddings. Cynthia Silver, now a faculty member at New York’s Atlantic Theater Company, was approached to take part in the first season and jumped at the chance for network TV exposure, taking for granted that it was a straight documentary and not realizing that the producers would edit the cinema-verit

I spent an idle hour (yes, I do have them from time to time, every month or two) trolling through “Sites to See,” our blogroll. I added several new blogs and sites that caught my eye in recent weeks, as well as dropping a few old ones that had become inactive or tedious. Our Girl, who writes the blogreviews that appear from time to time in the Top Five module, is doing the same. Our goal, as always, is to make “Sites to See” as useful to you as possible, so if you run across a new or little-known blog that you think we might like, drop us an e-mail.

New blogs and sites are marked with an asterisk. Give them a look–along with any of the old blogs and sites you’ve yet to visit. In the twenty-first century, the ‘sphere is the place to be.

I’m Lester the Nightfly

Hello Baton Rouge

Won’t you turn your radio down

Respect the seven second delay we use

So you say there’s a race

Of men in the trees

You’re for tough legislation

Thanks for calling

I wait all night for calls like these

Donald Fagen, “The Nightfly”

– H.L. Mencken’s weekly salary in 1899 for his first job as a Baltimore newspaper reporter: $8

– The same amount in today’s dollars, courtesy of Inflation Calculator: $177.24

(Source: Terry Teachout, The Skeptic: A Life of H.L. Mencken)

To avoid the clich

The most charming guest blogger perhaps ever is currently starring at Alex Ross’s. I love how the
mere thought of blogging gives her that deer-in-the-headlights stare. I know how you feel sometimes, Maulina, I know how you feel.