John McWhorter: "They miss that their book bans are just as tinny, just as local to petty concerns of our moment and just as, well, unjust. And by revving up its own cancel culture, the anti-woke right is providing the woke left with bulletin-board material." - The New York Times
The economic and enforcement arguments against cash may stack up nicely, but a payment isn’t just an economic or administrative act; it is a social one that depends on the two parties’ common acceptance of a currency and the mode of delivering it. - The Guardian
The story spread by publicists: she was born in Tasmania and moved to India as a young girl. In fact, she was born in Bombay and raised in Calcutta; her father was English and her mother (who later traveled with her, passed off as a maid) was half-Sri Lankan-half-Maori. - BBC
“To be the nation’s ballet company, to be one of the leading arts organisations in the country, we have to not only do a complete arc of work that encapsulates dance in general – and not just classical ballet – but we also have a responsibility to set the bar." - The Age (Melbourne)
It's a much-commented-on phenomenon, and that lack of pleasure is an important marker for distinguishing depression from plain old sadness. What's going on with that? It's all about the dopamine. - Mic
Collecting people in a certain space, at a certain time, on a certain date, in a certain seat, to see an unknown quantity — these mandatory requirements fly in the face of the behavior of the increasingly isolationist consumer market. - Alan Harrison
There has always been salt in the sand and groundwater of central Iraq, between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. But salinity levels are rising and sandstorms are becoming more frequent, eating away at the mud bricks of which the region's historic monuments are made. - The Guardian
“I think this is really to be seen as a hostile action against the musicians more than against me. Now you're undermining the efforts of the musicians to continue live music in San Antonio by doing something like this. It's a very strange message to potential donors and patrons.” - Texas Public Radio
"119 local women and 670 men are being trained in traditional stone masonry techniques using 'Mosul marble' — a kind of gypsum alabaster native to the area — as part of a larger effort by UNESCO to encourage community participation in heritage conservation." - The Art Newspaper
Ashton Edwards, a 19-year-old apprentice at Pacific Northwest Ballet, has been dancing on pointe in class as a matter of course, performs both male and female roles, and will be in the corps of swans in the company's upcoming run of Swan Lake. - The New York Times
"Bouquet appeared in nearly 120 film and television roles" — he was a favorite of filmmakers Claude Chabrol and François Truffaut — "even as he remained active on the Paris stage, taking parts well into retirement age — he starred in a production of Molière's Tartuffe at 92." - MSN (The Washington Post)
"Netflix lost 200,000 subscribers in Q1 and expects to lose another 2 million in the current second quarter, the streamer said in its first-quarter 2022 earnings release Tuesday." The causes, said the company, are password-sharing and the loss of the Russian market due to Ukraine-war sanctions. - Variety
The donations, the largest in each organization's history, come from the estate of H.F. "Gerry" Lenfest, the board chair who oversaw the Museum's creation and opening and the owner of The Inquirer before he transferred it to the nonprofit Lenfest Institute for Journalism in 2016. - MSN (The Philadelphia Inquirer)
