
PJ Grisar is a Forward culture reporter. He can be reached at [email protected] and @pjgrisar on Twitter.

PJ Grisar is a Forward culture reporter. He can be reached at [email protected] and @pjgrisar on Twitter.
50 films would have been a nice, round number for Woody Allen to quietly end his career with. But it looks like we’re getting another anyway. Following ongoing litigation with Amazon Studios over breach of contract on a four-picture deal spurred in part by Allen’s comments about Harvey Weinstein and revived allegations that Allen molested…
In the early years of the American republic, cities were different. Most of the young nation lived outside of urban areas, and at the turn of the 19th century, the now-sprawling metropolis of New York City contained a mere 60,000 souls mainly clustered at Manhattan’s southern tip. A modest city meant a modest form of…
Stanley Tigerman, the prickly and inventive Chicago architect known for designing the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center died Monday, June 4. The 88-year-old passed from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in his Chicago home, Architect magazine reported, citing his widow and work partner, Margaret McCurry. In his nearly 60-year-career, Tigerman designed over 450 buildings and…
The Bible may be the most-recognized book in the world, but its origins remain obscure. We can’t say with certainty who wrote much of it, when the bulk of it was composed or even where. But we now have a handy primer to the most significant theories about those questions in John Barton’s “The History…
On Sunday, June 2 the 64th Annual Drama Desk Awards honored a diverse season both on and Off-Broadway, but revivals, transfers and familiar names won the evening. Leading the winners with four awards each were Anaïs Mitchell’s folk musical, “Hadestown;” “The Ferryman,” Jez Butterworth’s play of the Irish troubles; and “Tootsie,” David Yazbek and Robert…
On the night of Sunday, May 26, a public art installation in Vienna featuring portraits of Holocaust survivors was slashed with a knife by an unknown assailant. It wasn’t the first time. The installation by the German-Italian artist Luigi Toscana, called “Lest We Forget,” includes 70 blown-up photographs of survivors printed on eight-by-five foot weather-proof…
In June of 1979, 40 years ago, the world of picky eaters experienced a total game changer. That month, McDonald’s went national with a cardboard clutch containing a choice of hamburger or cheeseburger, a small drink, cookies, a small bag of fries and — of course — a toy. The Happy Meal, like the fast…
In 1637, a craze for hybrid tulips brought the Dutch economy to its knees. The flowers were overvalued, creating the first speculative bubble on record. The phenomenon, called “Tulip Mania,” ended in financial ruin for many. Some 380 years later, a film called “Tulip Fever,” set during Tulip Mania and produced by Harvey Weinstein, also…
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