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The Schmooze

Out and About: World’s Oldest Actress; Heart of Harold Bloom

  • Israeli Hanna Maron has become the world’s longest performing actress after 83 years on stage.
  • William Deresiewicz explains why Harold Bloom is much like Conrad’s Mr. Kurtz.
  • A new collection by Shel Silverstein is coming out this month, 12 years after the author’s death.
  • Can Mel Gibson actually be good for the Maccabees?
  • Oxford’s Bodleian Library has put its manuscript of the Rambam’s Misnneh Torah online.
  • Unpious talks to Shalom Auslander about leaving Orthodoxy.
  • VH1 salutes Eli Valley’s tribute to Amy Winehouse.
  • After 31 years, R.E.M. has called it quits.
  • Sara Marcus appreciates music critic Ellen Willis in the Los Angeles Review of Books. Read my own review here.
  • London’s Whitechapel Gallery is highlighting the relationship between Mark Rothko and Britain.
  • Geoffrey Edelstein is reading Joshua Cohen’s “Witz” for the second time, and letting us know how it goes.
  • Elif Batuman takes note of our piece on Odessa’s Isaac Babel Monument.

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