Gilda Radner, Eugene Levy, Martin Short, Victor Garber, Jayne Eastwood, Andrea Martin, and Paul Shaffer all walked into a theatre. This is a (rollicking) oral history of the experience. "Jesus starts his narration, and we look up and Andrea has a dinner roll in her mouth." - Washington Post
Memorizing can become a highly specialized act, based on regular practice and rehearsal. A singer, though fully capable of performing the role of say Aida, is unlikely to be able to memorize an epic poem that is similarly long. - The Baffler
How can immunotherapy cure a 65-year-old, newly retired man of Stage IV lung cancer, restoring the promise of his golden years with his family, but do nothing for the 55-year-old woman whose cancer robs her of decades of life? We do not know. - LA Review of Books
Many of us find ourselves in the alienating position of using (even relying on) technology companies we distrust and hate, knowing that they are bad for us and for society, but somehow being unable or unwilling to escape. - New Statesman
"Starting out as an informal gathering of local men painting wherever they could find some shade, Papunya Tula has become one of the most respected players in the world of Indigenous art, with two art centers (in tiny desert towns) and an art gallery in Alice Springs." - Smithsonian Magazine
Einstein had been a well-paid man. His Princeton salary of $10,000 – roughly $180,000 in today’s money – was set by the university to exceed that of any American scientist. But his earnings in life were insignificant compared to his earnings in death. - The Guardian
Cambodian investigators have explained to the BBC the routes by which sculptures stolen from ancient temples made it to Britain, and two former looters identified items in the British Museum and V&A catalogues which they themselves had taken during the Khmer Rouge years. - BBC
Computer scientists want to know whether all the problems we hope to solve can be solved efficiently, in a reasonable amount of time — before the end of the universe, say. If not, they are simply far too difficult. - Quanta
Protactile, as the new language is called, started with people (usually sighted) signing ASL into the hands of DeafBlind folks. But many of ASL's signs don't really come across in touch, so DeafBlind people have been gradually developing their own vocabulary and linguistic conventions. - The New Yorker
Why do some people revel in collections of novelty eggcups? Or have so many framed pictures you can barely see the (ferociously busy) wallpaper? And why do those at the other end of the spectrum refuse to have even the essential stuff visible in the home? - The Conversation
Canada’s tidy, modest institutions have lowered the ceiling on its creative professions. There’s also something very stay-in-your-lane about the presumption that a Canadian artist will never get big enough to be one of them. They’d sooner call you dead. So much for assimilation! - The Walrus
To summarize the BeReal user experience: once a day, at a random time, the app sends a push notification to its users, granting them two minutes to snap a two-way photo using their phones’ front- and rear-facing cameras. Only after posting the daily photo can users see what their friends have posted. - The New Yorker
The idea of intelligence without a brain can sound mystical or speculative, but the initiative has attracted quite a lot of human intelligence so I was intrigued. - The New Yorker
So far, of 56 US institutions surveyed, 16 museums are in the process of returning Benin Court artworks, and five more would do so if requested. Added to similar efforts in other countries, there are now more repatriation requests than Nigerian officials can promptly process. - MSN (The Washington Post)
This is not a radical rethinking of copyright. It is regression as a meme, a fart in the wind, an empty and cynical gesture meant for a future fundraising email. All because Disney is the latest punching bag for a Republican party. - The Verge
"During the 1910s and '20s, Millay achieved the kind of fame that was unusual for a poet then and unthinkable now. ... But fame is rarely an unmixed blessing, particularly when it arrives early in life. Like Judy Garland or Britney Spears, Millay had to grow up in public." - The New Yorker
We all know what we're doing in a classroom; we're putting on a class and we all share the same script as to what this is. But what began to happen in 2015—and I now realize it's because of social media—is that it's very difficult to have everyone in the same story. - Persuasion
Dozens of websites, with names like Poetry Ninja or Bored Human, can now generate poems with a click of a key. One tool is able to free-associate images and ideas from any word “donated” to it. - The Walrus
All told, an online auction of 150 of items owned by the late justice raised $803,650 for Washington National Opera, one of the late justice’s passions. - Toronto Star
Joshua Hammer traveled to Lviv to look into the history of the Bohorodchany Iconostasis, a 36'-by-42' wall of delicately painted icons in a lavishly decorated wooden framework, and the dangers it has survived over its 317 years. - Smithsonian Magazine
