1. Painting Lost In Crash Of Space Shuttle "One of the treasured objects lost in the Columbia space shuttle disaster was a painting of the Earth as it might look from the moon, created 61 years ago by a Jewish teenager in a Nazi concentration camp." Los Angeles Times 02/09/03
   
   
2. A Book Reviewer Who Failed To Read The Book... The American book industry is buzzing about a review that ran in The New York Times Book Review January 26 of Whitewater figure (and Clinton friend) Susan McDougal's new memoir. What's amazing about the review, notes Gene Lyons, is that it's quite obvious the reviewer never read the book. "Assuming minimal competence, Lowry simply cannot have done so." MobyLives 02/10/03
   
   
3. 4000-Year-Old Body Giving Up Clues To Stonehenge A man buried near Stonehenge 4000 years ago is giving a number of clues about the monument. "The first scientific results, from a burial already regarded as astonishing, are bewildering archaeologists but give clues which could solve the continuing mystery, despite innumerable theories and experiments, of how Stonehenge's four-tonne bluestones were transported 240 miles from Preseli in the Welsh mountains." The Guardian (UK) 02/11/03
   
   
4. The Age Of Irony Is Post-Modernism dead? No - it's deeply embedded in popular culture. "The increasing influence of postmodernism on pop culture is born of our overfamiliarity with the tricks of conventional storytelling, according to Poe. We now have generations growing from infancy bombarded by TV and film that employ narrative conventions. What used to be necessary storytelling devices - a recognizable chronology, character development, emotional identification with characters and situations - are becoming clichés. Fans of postmodernism think of themselves as too educated and too smart to fall for those clichés. Postmodernism is ironic; it's always winking at the audience and making them part of the game, enlisting them as co-conspirators." Orange County Register (KC Star) 02/09/03
   
   
5. Classic Music At Fire Sale Prices Prices for classical recordings have never been better. "Several factors have brought prices to this nadir. Contrary to any number of reports, the classical recording industry isn't dying. But it's definitely contracting. Far fewer new recordings are being made, so to keep market share, major labels are reissuing older titles when they aren't even old." Some of the deals n classic recordings are amazing... Philadelphia Inquirer 02/09/03