"Contemporary Americans are relatively inexperienced with infectious disease compared with our ancestors; in search of explanations, many have reached for what seems closest at hand in popular culture and popular history, where the plague has always loomed large." - Slate
Phillips donated £5.8m to the Ukrainian Red Cross Society, and its CEO condemned the Russian invasion. But "those calling for the company to be shunned argue that only a boycott will force its Russian business figures ... to put pressure on the Kremlin." - The Guardian (UK)
Julian Wachner, the high-profile director of music at Trinity Wall Street, "one of New York’s wealthiest and most powerful churches," has been placed on leave after accusations of a 2014 sexual assault surfaced on social media. - The New York Times
Museums may say they're change agents, "but in doubling down on sheer acquisition at the same time, they risk committing themselves to a future that never comes to pass." - The Nation
Stage success was steady and gradual - and then, "somewhere around his 50th birthday, this eccentric, perennial amiable performer became a unlikely favourite of Steven Spielberg." Then an Oscar. Now whatever he really wants. - Irish Times
Sure, some claim mutual devotion, but "power dynamics undermine so many artists’ domestic worlds, particularly when the junior partner, or protege, begins to catch up." - The Guardian (UK)
The shareholders approved the merger, so perhaps DiscoverWarner will actually get off the ground. That means AT&T gets out of the entertainment biz, and HBO, Animal Planet, CNN, and HGTV (among others) will be under the same general control. - Los Angeles Times
The actor, who died last week at 81, spent 44 years starring as Luis, with his character marrying Sonia Manzano's Maria in a massively viewed episode. Delgado also showcased his love of music on Sesame Street and sometimes sang with the group Pink Martini. - The New York Times
After Area 405's building was put on the market in a time of rapidly rising property values or what some might call gentrification (a brewery just opened around the corner), a massive campaign and fundraising effort meant the artists got to kept their space. - Baltimore Sun
Its CEO's sudden death left control of Scholastic to his ex-girlfriend. "The executive suites had already been gladiatorial, people said, with shifting alliances and backstabbing betrayals more suited to Game of Thrones than a wholesome children’s media company." Now it's worse. - Vanity Fair
There's a group at work even during heavy Russian bombardments - “a group of cultural heritage professionals – librarians, archivists, researchers, programmers – working together to identify and archive at-risk sites, digital content, and data in Ukrainian cultural heritage institutions." - Open Culture
Some of us took walks and read books in early to mid-2020. But this now-7-year-old was so determined to learn music that, her dad says, "She went way far by herself, way far away than what we could teach her." - BBC
Yuriko Kikuchi "was a leading dancer in Martha Graham’s company from the 1940s to 1967 and then a keeper of Graham’s flame through her demanding teaching and outstanding revivals of early Graham works." - The New York Times
