This is the bronze head of the Roman emperor Augustus with eyes of glass and stone. An act of vandalism and desecration saved it.
Saved By Decapitation at the British Museum
Blog
Me, Myself, and Eye: Researching London 2016
I have been in London for the past few weeks updating my Frommer’s guide for the 2016 edition.
The Stain Runs Deep: Remembering Indiana and the Klan
There is no route to the present except through the past. Indiana’s recent history is, in a word, sordid. Its past record of “religious freedom” movements should burn in memory.
‘The Fantasticks’ Earned Investors a More-Than-24,000% Return
The Fantasticks is closing in New York City. For good this time. It’s not hard to have a personal relationship with a show that has been playing more or less consistently for 55 years—a lot of people were involved in presenting it over these nearly six decades. In the 1990s, I was one of them…. Read more »
A soldier who loved his sweetie to the bone
Here’s a delightful anecdote: A Civil War soldier had his leg amputated, and while he recovered in the hospital, he carved this pin for his sweetheart out of his own leg bone. Who’s this lucky gal Lizzie, you ask? Well, we will never know, because he died of infection before he could tell the nurses…. Read more »
The world’s most expensive selfie surfaces after four centuries
It’s Van Dyck’s self-portrait, from the late 1630s. Now the world’s most expensive selfie is one of its oldest.
“But how do you pay for your travels?”
There are steadily tweeting travelers who are quick to count the countries they have seen and flout their upgrades, but who confesses the dollars that made it happen? Sure, we all want to visit Yap and Bhutan, and it’s very nice to see that Instagram shot from that Grenada all-inclusive, but be honest: Do I really stand a chance of seeing it, too?
Letter from freed slave Jordan Anderson to his former master
I didn’t write this. It’s a by a man named Jordan Anderson, who with one letter achieved more for blistering satire than an entire bookshelf of Hitchens or Vidal. It’s a blast of sarcasm so well-contained it could give you goose bumps. I love it. It’s a simple setup. Former slave owner Colonel Patrick Henry Anderson returned to… Read more »
‘Cabaret’: The Menace is Fading Because Berlin’s So Cool Now
The current revival of Cabaret on Broadway is a perfect copy of the revival that opened in 1998. Back then, a mostly unknown actor named Alan Cumming instantly made his career by emerging from darkness to play the Emcee, and Natasha Richardson was his Sally Bowles. The show played in a ruined theatre, the Henry Miller’s,… Read more »
How much do the Sharks make per episode? The Sony hack revealed it
Leaked emails between Mark Cuban and his negotiators reveal how much ABC offered to pay him per episode.