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Author Hanif Kureishi On Life One Year After The Accident That Rendered Him Quadriplegic

"Left without the use of his arms and legs, the award-winning writer of The Buddha of Suburbia and My Beautiful Laundrette has charted his experience in brutally-honest blog posts. He credits his sense of purpose to his relationship with his responsive readers." - BBC

Ruth Seymour, Who Remade SoCal’s KCRW Into One Of America’s Leading Public Radio Stations, Has Died At 88

When she started there in 1977, it was in a little bungalow in Santa Monica with the oldest radio transmitter west of the Mississippi. When she left in 2010 after 30 years as GM, "KCRW had become a cultural and intellectual trendsetter ... for public radio listeners across America." - Los Angeles Times (Yahoo!)

Why Do Christmas Movies Assume That Being Single Sucks?

Christmas and holiday movies usually tend to centre around a key belief: that people need a romantic partner to live “happily ever after.” - The Conversation

Mezzo-Soprano Mildred Miller, One Of The Met’s Great Interpreters Of “Trouser Roles,” Is Dead At 98

One of the Met's stalwarts of the 1950s and '60s (especially as Cherubino and Octavian), she performed so many male mezzo parts that her young daughter once said, "My mommy is a boy." After retiring from the stage, she co-founded the company now known as Pittsburgh Festival Opera. - The New York Times

Countertenor And Convicted Sexual Assaulter David Daniels Expelled From AGMA

"This week (the union) released a letter of censure dated Nov. 20 in which Daniels was informed he was permanently barred from the guild. … The 57-year-old and his husband, Scott Walters, pleaded guilty to sexual assault of an adult, a second-degree felony, in Houston’s Harris County District Court on Aug. 4." - AP

French President Macron, Failing To Read The Room, Defends Gérard Depardieu

Macron said that the 74-year-old star — facing multiple rape accusations and having been caught on camera sexually harassing a translator and making lewd remarks about a 10-year-old — is "a great actor … (who) makes France proud" and should not be stripped of the Legion of Honor. Predictable outrage has ensued. - BBC

Humorist Dan Greenburg, Who Wrote “How To Be A Jewish Mother,” Is Dead At 87

"A best-selling author, essayist, playwright and screenwriter, (his) satirical prose examined Jewish angst, women and sex, and (he) later produced a series of humorous children’s books." - The New York Times

Man Is Mistaken For A Famous Author, Given An Award, Asked To Speak…

I was in Rimini as a thoroughly marginal person—however fine a speaker, however deserving of my medal, I would surely never have been invited to this conference in my own right, and in that sense had no right to be there—and the marginalized are prone to conspiracy theories. - The Point

“My Small Intestine Nearly Exploded”: Tracey Emin Recovering From Emergency Surgery

"The 60-year-old (artist) was recently in Australia ... and was on her way back to the UK via Thailand when she fell ill. 'Not cancer but horrible complications with my intestines brought on by an infection, scar tissue and made a million times worse by flying,' she wrote." - The Guardian

The Rapid Rise And Even Faster Fall Of Jonathan Majors

"It’s hard to mint a new movie star these days, (so) people in Hollywood were high on Jonathan Majors, … (and) this was supposed to be the year that would turn him into an A-lister." Instead, his career collapsed within minutes of his conviction for assaulting his now-ex-girlfriend. - The New York Times

Seems Like The New Yorker’s Takedown Of Hasan Minhaj Helped His Career Out

"More art than ever leans on the trust and authenticity of journalism, so it’s good for performers to think about the peculiar bargain they have struck with their audience and how to navigate it." - The New York Times

Iconic Chicago Sculptor Richard Hunt Has Died At 88

Hunt was the first Black artist with a solo retrospective at New York's MoMA, and he "recently completed a model for a monument to Till that is to be installed at the childhood home of the civil rights icon." - Chicago Sun-Times

Vera Molnar, Innovator Of Computer Art, Has Died At 99

Molnar "has been called the godmother of generative art for her ... digital work, which started with the hulking computers of the 1960s and evolved through the current age of NFTs." - The New York Times

Michael Bishop, Genre-Busting Author, Has Died At 78

Bishop "was best known for his award-winning science fiction, but ranged far beyond the genre, venturing into realism, noir mystery and even Southern Gothic." - The New York Times

Wier Harmon, 57, Seattle Impresario-In-Chief

“His innate belief that we’re better together — whether that’s through civic discourse, music, theater or any of the magic that happens in the Town Hall building — is the very spirit of Town Hall.” - Seattle Times

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