Daily Archives: January 9, 2022

Since the first theatre performance in Chicago in 1834, the Chicago theatre community has experienced various obstacles from auditorium fires to the cancellation of in-person performances due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Among all of these challenges, something has remained constantthe community. Stuart Hecht, a professor in Boston Colleges theatre department, believes theatre is about community, and nowhere, he claims, is this more apparent than in Chicago.

One question I had is simply why is it that theres 300 theaters in Chicago, Hecht said.

Now, he knows the answer.

It has to do with the demographics and has to do with the way of life and values of the community and habits that were formed with money and ambition and boosterism in the city, he said.

In the 1970s, approximately 140 years after the emergence of theatre in Chicago, Hecht began studying this vibrant past, present, and future community.

Hecht grew up playing the trumpet and piano without the intention of pursuing a passion in theatre. Hecht said his interest in theatre began quite accidentally, as he joined his high schools theatre group on a whim after a close friend in high school started acting.

After graduating from high school, Hecht attended the University of Michigan. But, he did not begin his undergraduate career with theatre on his radar.

Originally, I was going to be a psychologist, but, you know, I took a psych class my freshman year, and I went, Oh God no, he said.

Hecht then thought he would become an attorney and began studying American history. It was through the girlfriend of one of his RAswho was the president of the University of Michigans student theatre groupand a stumbling across of the English departments drama major that theatre once again ended up on his agenda. He then abandoned the idea of attending law school, and after receiving his bachelors degree in 1977, he pursued a Ph.D. in theatre at Northwestern University, one of the top graduate schools for studying theatre in the U.S., he said.

At Northwestern, Hecht dove headfirst into the Ph.D. program. At the same time, he became a volunteer on the artistic staff at Goodman Theatre and soon began teaching part-time at Loyola University Chicago. Hecht earned his doctorate degree in 1983, but when the university cut his funding for teaching soon after, he knew it was time for a change.

And I said, you know, What do I really want to do? Well, I want to teach, Hetch said. So, I put myself on the job market. There was actually a job in Boston, and I thought, Wow, thats really cool, and it was at this place called Boston College.

When Hecht began working at BC in 1986, the theatre major was part of the English department, and it had few students and faculty. Not only did the school want a theatre professor, Hecht said, they needed someone to build a theatre program.

It was hard, but thrilling, he said.

In 1992, Hecht became the founding chair of the theatre department, and later that year, the theatre department officially became its own department. Hecht held his position as chair for 13 years and stepped down in 2005. During his time as chair, with the help of a few dedicated colleagues, he built the program from the ground up. When he started the department, it had three faculty members, three classes, and around 33 total majors, he said. By his last year as chair, there were over 146 majors, and the department now boasts seven full-time faculty members and offers over 25 classes. Hecht attributes this shift to his directing class which, at the time, united BCs two opposing theatre clubsthe Dramatics Society and Contemporary Theatre.

After two semesters [in the class], they really knew what they were doing directorally, Hecht said. They had all the skills and knowledge and analytical abilities. Both kids from the DG [the Dramatics Society] and CTG [Contemporary Theatre] were in my class and, instead of looking at each other in terms of which group are you in, [there was a shift to] the material itself and that solved everything.

Despite the joy Hecht found in this work, he said he stepped down in 2005 because he had little time to focus on his own research. Although he continued to teach at BC, Hecht was then able to work on other projects.

He became editor-in-chief of the New England Theatre Journala position he still holds almost 25 years laterand published his book Transposing Broadway: Jews, Assimilation, and the American Musical in 2011. But he was far from done. Hecht had stayed involved in the Chicago theatre scene throughout his career, continuing to write, research, and contribute to conferences and panels.

Four years ago, after a panel about Chicago theatre, Hecht and two colleagues began to compile essays on the history of theatre in the city. Their work recently culminated in Hechts latest publicationMakeshift Chicago Stages: A Century of Theater and Performance, which was published by the Northwestern University Press in 2021. In the book, Hecht, along with Megan E. Geigner from Northwestern University, Jasmine Jamillah Mahmoud from Seattle University, and a host of other theatre historians who contributed essays, details the stories of where theatre was practiced and performed throughout the cityoften makeshift places, including parks, taverns, living rooms, and storefronts. In doing so, Makeshift Chicago Stages puts a spotlight on the racial dynamics, neighborhood distribution, and atypical locations that influenced the aesthetic and practice of Chicagos art scene over the last century.

Hecht highlighted three key aspects of the story this collection of essays tells.

First, Hecht said it talks about the power of theatre in bringing people together.

Its the story of a community that has found true theatrea vehicle both for entertainment and for the examination and exploration of often difficult social issues, he said.

Next, he said the book broadens these ideas to the arts as a whole having the ability to initiate social change.

Its the story of a community that has often struggled with issues of boundary and racism and statusin some ways brutally, he said. And yet we find many instances of using the arts for purposes of boundary crossing and finding commonality of experience and concerns.

And finally, its about the writers, he said.

Megan, Jasmine, and I represent different generations and different cultural backgrounds, Hecht said.

Yet, the three had a shared vision, and their different viewpoints come together to make the book all the more compelling, he said.

Just as artists throughout history would collaborate, the three editors emulated a similar process in creating the book. Hecht describes in the book how all different types of artists, from actors to dancers to sculptors, have worked together to improve their art, and he said he was honored when, near the end of the book, his co-authors pointed to his own ideas.

[There] really is that notion of people in different disciplines, you know, and the poet writes a poem about the painter who then paints [them] in turn, Hecht said. Were doing this too. We were all sitting around together, comparing notes and each of our experiences and backgrounds, and learning from each other. I really do think I learned so much from them.

Geigner, one of Hechts co-editors and prior mentees, shares a similar sentiment.

It was really collaborative, and it was very supportive, but we also really challenged each other, Geigner said. Everybody was engaged in it on the same level and cared about it in the same way.

Geigner expressed her admiration for Hecht, who has been her teacher, colleague, co-author, friend, and fan.

Hes such a nice guyhes kind of unassuming, he wants to help everybody outthat I think people forget what a giant in the field he is, Geigner said. He is the original Chicago theatre historian of our generation. It was such a boon for Jasmine and I to have Stuart working with us because he kind of legitimized the project in some ways. He didnt always have the time to write [about all his experiences], so I think people forget that he has this deep knowledge.

The introduction that Hecht wrote for the book focuses on surviving fires and the history of coming back that has long been a theme in Chicago theatre history. Because the book was in the writing process during the onset of COVID-19, Northwestern University Press turned to the authors with a request that they include current events in their book, Hecht said. So, the three added sections on the pandemic, the #MeToo movement, and other social issues affecting the worldand the success of Chicago theatretoday.

One notion Hecht made in the book is that Chicago theatre has been resilient in the past while enduring obstacles, and that might be the best indicator for its future re-emergence, he said.

[Its about] looking closer and seeing that theres recurring themes over time, Hecht said. Thats the pointthat we learn from the past and can see the patterns leading up to the present. And maybe even have, hopefully, some glimpse of the future.

Hecht carries a similar notion outside of his work, as he believes the arts can help young people with various issues, such as mental health, he said.

I believe [in] the power of the arts in general, and theater in particular, to address and help heal so many of those troubling, impersonal dynamics, Hecht said. It has to do with a group of people in a large room, together, without distractions, sharing, observing, participating in a performance experience, where they can laugh as one or gasp as one and then go off and talk together after each without judgment and considering not only that you dont have to be perfect, but nobody is. And thats our shared humanity, and thats our strength.

In addition to his other work, Hecht has now directed more than 20 productions at BC, supervised 70 student productions, and overseen 50 independent student projects.

Not only is he doing this work where hes doing all this research and hes writing it up and hes mentoring young scholars, but hes also making the community at [the] Boston College theatre department what it is and directing shows and working with undergraduate students who have dreams of being actors and designers and directors, and mentoring them too, Geigner said. So I think that makes him a really important figure for you all at Boston College, even beyond the kudos for writing this important scholarship.

Featured Graphic by Annie Corrigan / Heights Editor

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Hecht Spotlights Chicago Theatre's History in New Book - The Heights - The Heights

Issued on: 09/01/2022 - 10:44Modified: 09/01/2022 - 10:42

Poznan (Poland) (AFP) Curators combing through a vast historic archive of Freemasonry in Europe amassed by the Nazis in their wartime anti-Masonic purge say they believe there are still secrets to be unearthed.

From insight into women's Masonic lodges to the musical scores used in closed ceremonies, the trove -- housed in an old university library in western Poland -- has already shed light on a little known history.

But more work remains to be done to fully examine all the 80,000 items that date from the 17th century to the pre-World War II period.

"It is one of the biggest Masonic archives in Europe," said curator Iuliana Grazynska, who has just started working on dozens of boxes of papers within it that have not yet been properly categorised.

"It still holds mysteries," she told AFP, of the collection which curators began going through decades ago and is held at the UAM library in the city of Poznan.

Initially tolerated by the Nazis, Freemasons became the subject of regime conspiracy theories in the 1930s, seen as liberal intellectuals whose secretive circles could become centres of opposition.

Lodges were broken up and their members imprisoned and killed both in Germany and elsewhere as Nazi troops advanced during WWII.

The collection was put together under the orders of top Nazi henchman and SS chief Heinrich Himmler and is composed of many smaller archives from European Masonic lodges that were seized by the Nazis.

It is seen by researchers as a precious repository of the history of the day-to-day activities of lodges across Europe, ranging from the menus for celebrations to educational texts.

- 'Mine of information' -

Fine prints, copies of speeches and membership lists of Masonic lodges in Germany and beyond feature in the archive. Some documents still bear Nazi stamps.

"The Nazis hated the Freemasons," Andrzej Karpowicz, who managed the collection for three decades, told AFP.

Nazi ideology, he said, was inherently "anti-Masonic" because of its anti-intellectual, anti-elite tendencies.

The library puts some select items on show, including the first edition of the earliest Masonic constitution written in 1723, six years after the first lodge was created in England.

"It's one of our proudest possessions," Grazynska said.

The oldest documents in the collection are prints from the 17th century relating to the Rosicrucians -- an esoteric spiritual movement seen as a precursor to the Freemasons whose symbol was a crucifix with a rose at its centre.

During the war as Allied bombing intensified, the collection was moved from Germany for safekeeping and broken up into three parts -- two were taken to what is now Poland and one to the Czech Republic.

The section left in the town of Slawa Slaska in Poland was seized by Polish authorities in 1945, while the others were taken by the Red Army.

In 1959, the Polish Masonic collection was formally established as an archive and curators began studying it -- at that time, Freemasonry was banned in the country under Communism.

The collection is open to researchers and other visitors, who have included representatives of German Masonic lodges wanting to recover their pre-war history.

It is "a mine of information in which you can dig at will," said Karpowicz.

2022 AFP

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Archive amassed by Nazis sheds light on Masonic history - FRANCE 24

For the last five years, its been a tradition at Greenville ISDs New Horizons High School to ring a large antique bell that sits prominently in its foyer whenever a student completes their requirements for graduation.

When the student being recognized dons their red graduation cap and gown and rings the bell, its a signal to the rest of the student body and staff to step outside the classroom and join in the celebration, which is sort of a mini personal graduation ceremony.

Once they ring that bell, theyre ready to go out and do the best they can and accelerate, said New Horizons Principal Mark Loya. It just gives them so much to look forward to and know theyre celebrated.

It means so much to them and so much to us, Loya said.

This school year so far, 14 seniors have had the bell rung in their honor, but the history of the 600-pound antique bell is something of a mystery with only bits of its past being known.

The bell was relocated from Greenville High School (where it was only occasionally used for decoration and never rung) to New Horizons in spring 2017 at the request of Greenville native and active resident Pud Kearns, who is the niece of the man who originally donated the bell to GISD in the 1940s.

My uncle, Jack Horton, was a scrounger from the time he was a child, Kearns said. There are unique characteristics that come with being a Horton hoarding wait, lets call it collecting odd things and turning them into interesting things.

We certainly have a quirkiness, a sense of creativity, Kearns added.

During one of his scrounging expeditions while he was still a high school student himself, Horton discovered four large, old bells at a scrap yard and bought two of them for 1 cent per pound.

He managed to get somebody to help haul them home, Kearns related. He brought them home and said to my grandmother, Im going back for the other two.' Then, my grandmother said, "Not on your life! Two, thats it. Were stopping at two.

Horton then donated the bell to Greenville High School. Over the intervening decades, the bell traveled around the high school campus, from the metal shop to a display case, then it was covered in tinsel to be used as a Christmas decoration, and then decorated in school colors for Homecoming, but it never rang.

Years later, while serving on the New Horizons Advisory Committee, Kearns thought of the bell when then-principal Chip Gregory recalled the movie, Its a Wonderful Life, and the well known line, Every time a bell rings, and angel gets his wings, and thought it would be a nice gesture to mark the graduations of NHHS students in a similar way.

After that meeting, Kearns worked at getting the bell moved from Greenville High School to New Horizons.

I called Heath JarvisGreenville High School principal at the timeand I said, This is Pud. I want my bell back. I want it to go to New Horizons, Kearns said.

The bell arrived at New Horizons that afternoon.

This is where it was supposed to be, Kearns said. When the first graduate rang the bell that spring, I was crying I was so proud.

This bell has waited 80 years to ring. Literally, it had never rung to speak of, and now it has a purpose.

In the years since its been a tradition for each New Horizons graduate to ring the ball, it has become a major part of the campus culture of community spirit and cooperation, as they seek to support students and families who choose the school for a variety of reasons.

For example, New Horizons smaller class sizes can be beneficial for high school-aged students who are new to Greenville ISD and who are just beginning to learn English.

Similarly, the smaller student-to-teacher ratio can work well for students in need of credit recovery, who have, for whatever reason, fallen behind in satisfying their graduation requirements and need to catch up.

The more self-paced aspect of New Horizons has also attracted a few students who wish to graduate early.

Whatever their reason for choosing New Horizons, completion is always a

I knew I was going to ring it one day, and it just made me feel really good, said Arriana Aportella, who was the 13th student to complete their graduation requirements this year. Now Im going to study to be a flight attendant and travel and see the world.

I want to see whats out there and meet new people, Aportella added. But, Ill never forget this, and I was surprised by how heavy the bell was and how loud it was in my ears. It was a big deal for me.

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Used to celebrate graduations, New Horizons bell has rich history - Herald-Banner

Harold Beal loved few things more than perching on a stool while he ran trains for folks who stopped by his Jonesport home to see his elaborate and intricately detailed model railroad display.

The Maine Central Railroad cars wended their way over bridges and through tunnels, from the West Quoddy Head Lighthouse to the western mountains. They traveled past paper mills, downtown streetscapes, and tiny replicas of author Stephen Kings Bangor home and the tidy blue house where Beal and his wife, Helen, spent 20 years building their diorama of Down East Maine.

He loved to see the expression on their face when theyd come through the door, Helen Beal said of her husband, who died in 2012 at age 75. A lot of people would almost holler. Some people would say Oh my word and I cant believe this. The expression on their faces, most of the time it was a big smile.

The model railroad display is believed to be one of the largest in Maine built in HO scale (which is 1:87, or 3.5 mm to 1 foot), but it has not been on public display for the last few years. That will change when it is moved to the Seashore Trolley Museum in Kennebunkport, which will construct a new building for the display of the coupleshundreds of buildings and more than 400 train cars and engines.

The acquisition is a unique one for the 82-year-old museum, which specializes in preserving and restoring trolley cars. The fact that it is happening at all is attributed to the unique bond of rail enthusiasts and a bold move by the museum to ask for financial help to make the move possible.

A BENEFACTOR STEPS IN

The Wyss Foundation, a private charitable foundation based in Washington D.C. dedicated to empowering communities and strengthening connections to the land, will give the museum an estimated $2.6 million to pay for the new building, relocating the model railroad and 10 years of operating costs. It is the largest gift the museum has ever received.

The unlikely connection to the Wyss Foundation came through Hansjrg Wyss, a Swiss billionaire businessman who started the foundation and lives in Wyoming. Years ago, he was driving through Maine on his way to Canada and stopped to visit the railroad display after spotting a sign near the Beal home.

Like many visitors, Wyss was wowed by the layout and became friendly with the Beals.

Harold Buz Beal was born and raised in Jonesport, then served 26 years in the Coast Guard. After retiring as a chief boatswains mate, he went to work at Dexter Shoe Co., where he met Helen. Both came from railroad families: Her father and two brothers worked for Bangor and Aroostook Railroad; his grandfather worked on the Canadian Pacific Railway.

We sure had train blood in us, said Helen Beal, who will turn 88 next month.

After they settled back in Jonesport, the Beals decided to try their hand at building a model railroad layout together. He had built one at age 12 and she had wanted one since she was a child. They recruited his nephew, Harry Fish, to help with the wiring. But Harold Beal didnt like how their first try turned out and scrapped it.

BUILDING DOWNEAST MAINE

They started over again, and Helen Beal said she never imagined their model would grow to fill anoutbuilding next to their home on the outskirts of the Washington County fishing village. They spent countless hours together in their den constructing small buildings from basswood, modeling many after post offices and train stations that Harold photographed in Bangor, Jonesport, Machias and other towns in Down East Maine. He painted the interior walls of the outbuilding with landscapes to complement the train display.

Helen Beal said she didnt think people would be that interested in their model, but they opened their doors anyway. They put up signs near their home and their display was later featured in magazines and visitor guides. Each summer they were open, 75 to 80 people would stop by to watch Harold Beal run the trains. Visitors filled three guestbooks with their signatures and pinned their hometowns on a world map hung on the wall.

Oh dear Lord, weve had visitors even from Africa, Germany, Russia, all over the place, she said. They never charged admission, but accepted donations to help cover the cost of heating the building.

Helen Beal continued to run the trains for visitors for a few summers after her husband died, but she wanted to find a new permanent home for the display so it would be preserved for others to enjoy. The family tried to find a museum or club that could take the model railroad, but at 40 feet by 50 feet it was too big for any of the organizations to handle.

Thats when Wyss, who had stayed in touch with Helen Beal, stepped in to help and told a fellow rail enthusiast about the situation. Years before, his friend had commissioned the Seashore Trolley Museum to build a replica of a trolley car for his estate in Florida. He suggested Wyss reach out to the museum.

ITS NOT JUST ABOUT THE TRAINS

Like those other groups, the Seashore Trolley Museum didnt have enough available space to display the model railroad the museum is already short of space for its current collection. But the museums leaders were intrigued by the possibility of bringing in the Beals display. They spent months researching how they could move the layout while keeping it mostly intact, and what type of structure they would need to house such an artifact.

It was quite an opportunity, said Jim Schantz, the museums president and CEO. We think it adds another major attraction to the museum. People come to see and ride full-scale trolleys. We think people find model railroads really interesting, especially one like this with a great deal of accuracy put into the Maine features.

Herb Fremin, an architect and friend of the museum, designed a building to display the model train that includes a workshop, conference room, retail shop and a mezzanine viewing gallery that could be used for community programs. He also spent time figuring out how to adapt the model to meet local building codes and make sure the facility would comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. The museum has since hired a construction manager, Steve Berg, to navigate the construction process.

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A model railroad full of Down East history is heading down the tracks to southern Maine - Press Herald

So high have the stakes been set by Russia over the future security architecture of Europe, and so imminent is the threat of war in Ukraine, that the three separate meetings arranged between Russia and the west this week are drawing comparison with some of the great western-Russian exchanges of the past, from Yalta in 1945 to Paris in 1960, over the future of Berlin, and Reykjavk in 1986.

Vladimir Putin, with his keen sense of his place in Russian history, would probably revel in these comparisons. Indeed, the very scheduling of the three meetings a bilateral security meeting with the US on Monday, a rare meeting of the Nato-Russian Council on Wednesday and an Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) meeting on Ukraine on Thursday is seen by some as a mistake.

Franoise Thom, a historian of Russia based at the Sorbonne, said: There is nothing more dangerous than these summit exchanges, which, whatever one may say, inevitably feed into Russian ruling elites either paranoia or delusions of grandeur and intoxication with power. If the west is firm, the Kremlin concludes that it wants to destroy Russia; if the west offers concessions, the Kremlin concludes that it is weak and pressure should be increased.

Very often the best policy with Russia is that of silence and distance: do nothing, say nothing and stand your ground. Clinging to dialogue at all costs, especially when Moscow keeps us at gunpoint like a madman holding a hostage, only shows our weakness and encourages the Kremlin to escalate.

But Joe Biden has clearly taken the view that with allied self-discipline and unity, the risks of being seen to be rewarding Putin are outweighed by the need for dialogue, and diplomatic reconnaissance.

Not to talk would be to feed the Russian narrative that the west is not prepared even to listen. Besides, it is billed as a dialogue, not a negotiation, officials say.

The specific agenda of each meeting next week is subtly different, and while the west will want the discussion to focus on the sovereignty of Ukraine, and missile placement, Russia will want a response to its threefold formal demands set out last month in draft treaties: the withdrawal of US nuclear weapons from Europe, the removal of Nato forces close to Russian borders, and the legal permanent renunciation of Nato membership for Ukraine and Georgia, as part of a commitment to end Natos enlargement.

One way or another, these have been the permanent demands of the Russian political elite for the past 20 years. Putins demands bear comparison with Dmitry Medvedevs largely ignored European security treaty proposal in 2009, but this time the demands are being presented in a more peremptory fashion. Indeed, some western officials fear they have been packaged to be rejected.

In Ukraine there is concern that dialogue with Russia on the future security architecture of Europe, under threat of blackmail and without a formal presence of the EU bloc, will be taken as vindication by Putin. From Putins perspective, he has already made progress, and can make more. Russian thinktanks such as IMEMO are claiming, for instance, that the meeting shows the ice has already broken.

It is the bread and butter of diplomacy to judge whether to parley as Churchill put it with an adversary either in the open or through a back channel, or instead to sit tight and wait. Never is that judgment more acute than in the case of Russia.

The cold war US diplomat George Kennans contention was that Moscow is a special case. It saw security only in [a] patient but deadly struggle for total destruction of [the] rival power, never in compacts and compromises with it. He said the Soviet Union under Stalin was a master at distorting bromide American offers of dialogue, for example over the future of Berlin in April 1949, into a full-scale offer to redraw the map of Europe. The solution was patience and containment.

Henry Kissinger for a period was to argue that the state department was populated by naive men who believed well-constructed argument could persuade Russia. The whole idea of signing treaties with Russia was to misunderstand the mentality. Russia, it was said, operated by probing for weaknesses, by kicking all the doors and seeing which fell off their hinges.

Alexander Cadogan, the UK Foreign Offices wartime permanent secretary, made a similar point in his diaries about asymmetry in talking to Russia: Everything favours the evildoer. Any honest government fights (in peacetime) with two hands tied behind its back. The brilliant blatancy of the Russians is something that we can admire but cannot emulate. It gives them a great advantage.

By contrast, most politicians instinct is often to parley, or seek a reset or trust personal charm. Churchill once said all the worlds problems could be solved if only he could meet Joseph Stalin once a week. John F Kennedy argued it was better to meet at the summit than at the brink, something the US attempted more regularly after the shock of the Cuban missile crisis. Famously at the 1986 Reykjavk conference a personal rapport between Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev led them to the brink of abandoning nuclear weapons. George Shultz, the US secretary of state, recalled that in advance there was a unique sense of uncertainty in the air Nothing seemed predictable. Gorbachevs surprise plan, nearly taken up by Reagan, showed the value of dialogue, even if Margaret Thatcher later confided her despair with Reagan to Robin Butler, her cabinet secretary: He knows nothing, Robin.

Reagans successor, George HW Bush, promised no more chaotic Reykjavks, but at a summit in Malta in 1989, the first meeting since the fall of the Berlin Wall, he too was captured by Gorbachevs sense of history unfolding (the United States and the USSR are doomed to cooperate for a long time) and by his plea that we have to abandon the images of an enemy. In reality, Gorbachev was betrayed at a dinner the next evening in Brussels where Bush gave Chancellor Kohl the green light for Germanys unification, opening the long argument about the terms of Natos expansion eastwards, starting with East Germany.

With Gorbachev crushed by events, the Bill and Boris show ensued. Bill Clinton and Boris Yeltsin, tasked with integrating Russia into the international system, met face to face 18 times, often clashing about Nato expansion, leading Yeltsin to describe a cold peace. The apogee may have been the summit in Birmingham in 1998, when relations were so intimate they exchanged their respective confidential briefing cards. That relationship probably collapsed in a phone call of uncontrolled fury over the Nato bombing of Serbia a year later. It showed that when fundamental interests conflict, as they did over Nato, personal relations take you only so far.

Thereafter the era of two men sitting alone to solve the world was over. Barack Obama signed a new strategic arms control treaty, Start, in April 2010 with Medvedev, but the return of Putin to the presidency in 2012 saw the reset fizzle out.

In essence the dispute about the wisdom of dialogue comes down to whether Russia is seen to be driven by insecurity or imperial expansionism. In policy terms that meant choosing between an emphasis on arms control or Nato expansion.

But there is also a professional diplomats aversion to unstructured large-scale gatherings, whether they involve Russia or not. Harold Nicolson, after a long diplomatic career, argued in the Commons in 1935: It is a terrible mistake to conduct negotiations between foreign ministers international negotiations were best left to the professionals. Diplomacy is not the art of conversation. It is the art of the exchange of documents in a carefully considered and precise form and in such a way that they cannot be repudiated later Diplomacy by conference is a mistake.

The worry for the professional diplomat is that in the emotion of the moment, resolve dissipates and pre-set red lines are rubbed out, and allies betrayed.

With the Biden administration, the expectation is this weeks discussions will be far more structured, predictable and scripted. In theory, since neither of the principals Biden and Putin will be present in Geneva, there should be no rush of blood to the head by men of goodwill, but instead a staking out of familiar positions.

The US messaging, bolstered by the UK, has been carefully framed, and seems well coordinated with Europe. Expansion of Nato was inherent in the Nato-Russia Founding Act signed by Boris Yeltsin in 1997. No country can determine another countrys foreign alliances, as Russia agreed in the Helsinki Final Act 1975, and again in the Budapest memorandum in 1994. In the words of Sauli Niinist, the Finnish president, in his striking new year address: Spheres of interest do not belong to the 2020s. The sovereign equality of all states is the basic principle that everyone should respect.

But the test, according to Evelyn Farkas, a former US deputy assistant secretary of defence for Russia, will be whether Putin sees this weeks talks as a piece of political theatre, a moment to issue an ultimatum, or whether he sanctions Russia getting into the weeds, and starts to negotiate. Few hold out much hope for the latter.

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Is it good to talk? A history of the wests summits with Russia - The Guardian

Mercy Whitney, the wife of Kauai missionary Samuel Whitney, wrote the oldest record of a formal dinner on Kauai.

Her host was Prince George Kaumualii, the son of Kauais last king, who served the princely fare at Waimea on July 25, 1821.

The dinner consisted of fried fish, baked pork, salt beef and boiled chicken, onions, sweet potatoes and several varieties of fruit.

Another recipe that was recorded was for scotch cake, written in the late 1800s at Eliza Sinclairs Makaweli House, high in the hills above Pakala.

Its ingredients were flour, butter and white sugar, mixed, kneaded and baked to a golden brown.

Sinclairs grandson was Eric Knudsen, a rancher who hunted wild cattle in Kokee when few people went there.

After a hunt, Eric and his guests would meet at Halemanu, his summer home in Kokee, at the place where Hawaiian bird-catchers had camped long ago.

Lean beef ribs, laid on an iron grill over a bed of coals, served with red Hawaiian salt and poi, proved good eating after a day outdoors.

Hale Nani, the estate of another rancher, William Hyde Rice, was a grand place for visitors.

It was located in Lihue adjacent to what is now Rice Street between Waa Street and Kalena Street.

Its most famous guest, Queen Liliuokalani, stayed there in 1891, and was royally entertained by Rice and his wife, Mary.

On the day of the queens arrival, hundreds of children passed before her.

Later, scores of people brought gifts in her honor at a hookupu (ceremonial gift-giving), followed by a performance of the Royal Hawaiian Band.

A farewell luau in her honor was attended by 2,000 people at Kalapaki, Rices home on Nawiliwili Bay where the Royal Sonesta now stands.

Perhaps the greatest luau ever held on Kauai took place at the Keapana Valley mansion of sugar-planter Col. Z.S. Spalding in September 1912, on the day of his 75th birthday. Three thousand people came to celebrate, many of them arriving by plantation train. Sixty-two tables were laden with food and drink and a band played sweet melodies.

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ISLAND HISTORY: Historic vignettes of good food and good times on Kauai - Thegardenisland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio Geese come in gaggles, deer in herds, fish in schools or shoals.

So whats the correct collective noun for butterflies?

A new display in the revamped exhibit wing at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, scheduled for completion in December 2024, seems destined to raise that question.

The display will sandwich dozens of translucent, high-resolution photos of butterflies and moths between 10-foot-high sheets of glass standing in front of a floor-to-ceiling window framing views of the museums Thelma and Kent H. Smith Environmental Courtyard, which was overhauled at the end of 2020.

A new rendering of the exhibit shows how sunlight will flood through the window, creating a luminous experience blending natural beauty and the exacting science of species classification. Beyond that, though, there will be that pesky question about how to refer correctly to butterflies, plural.

And the answer, according to the website animalsandenglish.com, is that groups of butterflies may be referred to as a flight, a flutter, a kaleidoscope, a rabble, a shimmer, a swarm, and a wing.

All of this is a slantwise way of introducing the notion that the latest designs for revamped exhibits at the museum, released to cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer, show that the project is intended to evoke wonder and delight in multiple ways.

Chiefly, the new exhibit areas are designed to show off selections from a collection of 5 million specimens in spaces that are flooded with light and connected to the natural world outside. The goal is to keep visitors curious, comfortable, engaged, and eager to spend time.

The dynamic is not going to be what a lot of people remember of old natural history museums as dark, dusty places, said Patrick Gallagher, president and founder of Gallagher & Associates, a design firm with offices in three U.S. cities and Singapore. This is going to be a bright, living environment.

In an update, museum staff and members of the design team provided a new snapshot of the institutions evolving, 17-year, $150 million project to renovate and expand its complex on the west side of Wade Oval in University Circle.

The Cleveland Museum of Natural History's expansion and renovation includes the already completed Ralph Perkins II Wildlife Center & Woods Garden Presented by KeyBank.Courtesy Cleveland Museum of Natural History

Conceived in 2007, the multi-part project has included the construction of a 300-space garage, the new Ralph Perkins II Wildlife Center & Woods Garden, completed in 2016, and the completion in late 2020 of Gateway projects worth $8.9 million that included a re-do of the Smith Courtyard, and a renovation of Murch Auditorium.

The overall project is intended to modernize an institution that expanded 10 times since it moved to the west side of Wade Oval in University Circle in 1958.

A series of architecturally nondescript additions over the years led the museum to become a dark, inwardly-focused place with exhibits that looked more and more like musty throwbacks.

The renovated Thelma and Kent H. Smith Environmental Courtyard at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History centers on a meandering path and a paved area with a relief map of Northeast Ohio watersheds.Courtesy Cleveland Museum of Natural History

Sonia Winner, the museums president and CEO, said it has raised $108 million for the project, up from $89 million a year ago.

In June, the museum broke ground for the biggest single component of the expansion and renovation, a $47.8 million phase that includes a new exhibit wing north of the institutions main entrance, and the renovation of older exhibit areas to the south.

Both will be joined by a new central Visitors Hall connecting the main entrance off Wade Oval to the parking garage on the north side of the museum complex.

Designed by DLR Group | Cleveland, the new wing will occupy the old site of the Perkins Wildlife Center, just north of the Shafran Planetarium & Ralph Mueller Observatory, a shiny cone of copper-colored metal.

The DLR design, destined to open up the museums presence on Wade Oval, is intended to evoke the natural history of Northeast Ohio through visual references to the glacier that covered the region until the end of the last ice age, about 10,000 years ago.

A rendering by DLR Group Cleveland depicts new landscaping around the future expansion and renovation of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.Cleveland Museum of Natural History

The new exhibit wing, plus a new lobby and caf and the central Visitors Hall will be covered by a curving, snow-white roof made of cast concrete panels with flowing shapes like those of a glacier.

Large areas of glass will admit sunlight directly into exhibit areas. Landscapes around the building will be designed to resemble those of a glacial moraine, where vegetation takes root on contours smoothed by receding ice.

Inside, the new wing will house exhibits related to the origins of the universe, the history of Earth and the emergence of life.

Visitors will find exhibits recounting the emergence of elements in the periodic table through the heat and compression of supernova starbursts. Theyll be able to use specially designed scopes that will narrative views the outside world. And theyll walk past dinosaur skeletons will appear to jog in front of the big wings big windows..

Two lab areas within the new wing will enable the museums staff scientists to engage the public in scheduled programs about ongoing museum research.

A third new space, the Ames Family Curiosity Center, will be located at the entry to the new wing, just off the new central Visitors Hall.

The Ames Family Center at the natural history museum will center on an interactive display.Cleveland Museum of Natural History / Gallagher & Associates

Inside, a staff scientist will be on call to answer questions about scientific phenomena in the news, such as earthquakes, tornadoes, or climate change. Visitors may also bring in specimens to discuss or examine.

The Ames Center will center on an interactive display resembling a circular tabletop, which will be connected to video displays projected on a circular display overhead.

South of the Visitors Hall, existing exhibit areas will be revamped to focus on Biological Processes such as evolution, the diversity of life, mankinds impact on the natural world, and Northeast Ohio flora and fauna.

The biological exhibits will fit within older portions of the museums footprint that cant be opened up to daylight like the new exhibit wing to the north. That makes them ideal for light-sensitive specimens, such as taxidermy displays, and for immersive environments with projected imagery.

Exhibit areas devoted to "Biological Processes" at the natural history museum will include video displays and light-sensitive specimens.Cleveland Museum of Natural History / Gallagher & Associates

Exhibits in the biological area will include a panoramic display of taxidermy specimens from the arctic to the equator, backed by projected images of landscapes instead of traditional painted dioramas.

Also on view will be an animated video of the ferocious Dunkleosteus terrelli, a terrifying shark-like creature, recently named the Fossil Fish of Ohio.

Senior exhibit designer Jenny Lilligren, a member of the Gallagher team, said that she and her colleagues took inspiration from the glacial motifs and flowing shapes in the DLR design.

Among other things, the designers looked at the famous glacial grooves carved into a limestone outcrop on Kelleys Island, and the ways in which meltwater ripples over layers of eroded shale in Northeast Ohios many creeks.

Accordingly, the designers envisioned the new exhibit areas with pathways flowing around crystalline display cases acting like boulders in a stream.

The new display cases will be designed to enable specimens to be viewed from all angles, and to make them appear to float on nearly invisible mounts, or supporting armatures.

One of the interiors proposed for the Cleveland Museum of Natural History expansion and renovation.Cleveland Museum of Natural History / Gallagher & Associates

White ceilings and walls will reflect abundant daylight in the new wing, where displays of rocks and fossilized dinosaur bones can be exposed to full daylight without harm.

Accent colors and large-scale graphics and throughout the museum will be set within shapes that have smoothed, rounded edges, as if they were carved by a glacier or flowing water.

Overhead, a system of hanging battens, or strips of wood, will be organized in wave patterns designed to reinforce the main pathways through exhibits, while subtly referring to the idea of rippling streams.

Lilligren said the design team chose the fonts, or typefaces used for signs and text panels, with special care.

Large-scale thematic titles for exhibits, placed high up on walls, will use Museo, a font with gently rounded serifs, or flourishes at the ends of letters, a style that Lilligren called friendly and approachable.

A display at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History will scan taxidermy specimens arrayed against a digital backdrop rather than a traditional diorama.Cleveland Museum of Natural History / Gallagher & Associates

The smaller body type used for explanatory labels and texts will use Din, a typeface without serifs that is typically used for traffic signs and technical manuals. Lilligren said the font is intended to look straightforward, honest, and trustworthy important considerations for a museum devoted to science.

At every level, the exhibit designs are intended to shape the museum experience, without drawing attention overtly, Lilligren said.

Its not something you have to think about because weve thought about it for you, she said.

Ease of orientation is also key to the museums new architecture and exhibit designs.

Instead of the current circuitous layout, the museum will be organized around its big new Visitor Hall, which will run like a river or a glacial stream through the center of the museum as a place of arrival and departure.

Here, the designers intend to install a few powerful exhibits to stoke curiosity and provide iconic touchpoints.

Theyll include old favorites, such as the 70-foot-long reconstructed fossilized skeleton of the museums Haplocanthosaurus delfsi, known as Happy.

The reconstructed fossilized skeleton of "Happy,'' a massive dinosaur, will be featured in the new Visitor Hall at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.Cleveland Museum of Natural History / Gallagher & Associates

And theyll include the museums newly conceived display of butterflies, a series of delicate, miniature splashes of life and color.

The Visitor Hall, Lilligren said, really is a space where we want people to come in and be wowed, and say, ' I want to see more. "

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Cleveland Museum of Natural History designers aim to banish darkness from a once-dowdy institution with brigh - cleveland.com

The Dare County Library has announced that a Smithsonian Institution poster exhibition highlighting the unique history of women inventors will be hosted at its Manteo and Kill Devil Hills locations throughout the months of January and February 2022.

The exhibition, which is titled, Picturing Women Inventors, showcases the many breakthroughs, motivations and challenges that American women have encountered while pursuing their goals and ambitions as inventors throughout the 20th and 21st centuries.

The exhibition will be on display at the Kill Devil Hills Library from January 3 through January 31 before making the move to the Manteo Library, where it will be on display from February 2 through February 28.

Presented by the Smithsonian Institution and the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the poster exhibition explores the inventions of 19 highly accomplished American women ranging from astronauts and athletes to engineers and computer pioneers, stated a Dare County press release. Throughout American history, women of all ages and with diverse backgrounds and interests have created inventions that change countless lives every day; however, women havent always had equal opportunities to be inventors or received as much recognition as their male counterparts.

Among the 19 women inventors who are featured in the exhibition are Marilyn Hamilton, who after a hang-gliding accident in 1978 left her paralyzed went on to invent a lightweight and easy-to-maneuver wheelchair, as well as Alexis Lewis, who at only 12 years old in 2011 was inspired to adapt a traditional Native American sled known as a travois by adding wheels in order to create a simpler way for people to transport their children and belongings to camps and hospitals in Somalia.

The Picturing Women Inventors exhibition is presented at no cost to libraries, schools, museums and community organizations by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service in collaboration with the Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation and the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The exhibition is sponsored by Lyda Hill Philanthropies IF/THEN initiative, as well as Ericsson, a provider of information and communication technology.

For more information about the exhibitions upcoming visit to Dare County, visit http://www.DareNC.com/Libraryor contact the Kill Devil Hills Library at 252-441-4331 and the Manteo Library at 252-473-2372.

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Dare County Library highlights history and accomplishments of women inventors - The Coastland Times | The Coastland Times - The Coastland Times

Spider-Man: No Way Home is still breaking box office records.

Sonys latest web-slinging Marvel adventure has grossed $1.53 billion worldwide, cementing its place as the eighth-highest grossing movie ever at the global box office (not adjusted for inflation).

Over the weekend, No Way Home generated another $64 million internationally and $33 million domestically, enough to push the films tally past slots nine through 12 on all-time rankings, which belonged to The Avengers ($1.518 billion), Furious 7 ($1.515 billion), Frozen II ($1.45 billion) and Avengers: Age of Ultron ($1.4 billion). Does it have enough steam to take down the films that stand in six and seventh place, Jurassic World ($1.67 billion) and The Lion King ($1.66 billion)? Thatll be the next box-office test of No Way Homes impressive staying power.

At the domestic box office, Spider-Man: No Way Home has remained a force on the big screen despite the rapidly spreading omicron variant of COVID-19. With $668 million in ticket sales, it is now the sixth-highest grossing movie in history at the domestic box office, surpassing Titanic ($659 million) and Jurassic World ($652 million). In no time, it should take fifth place, which belongs to Avengers: Infinity War ($678 million), and could eventually land in fourth place, where Black Panther ($700 million) currently sits.

Internationally, the newest Tom Holland-led comic book adaptation has collected a stellar $867.5 million since debuting in December. Over the weekend, No Way Home opened in Japan with $11.8 million, which is ahead of ticket sales for 2017s Homecoming by 76% and ahead of 2019s Far From Home by 35% in the same country. Among holdover markets, No Way Home brought in solid receipts in the United Kingdom ($6.2 million), Mexico ($2.5 million) and Indonesia ($1.2 million).

The film has done especially well in the U.K. Hollands birthplace amassing $105.8 million to date. Other top-earning territories include Mexico with $69.7 million, South Korea with $55.8 million and France with $55.2 million. No Way Home isnt playing in China, which is the worlds biggest moviegoing market.

Elsewhere at the international box office, Universals animated musical comedy Sing 2 picked up $17 million from 54 overseas markets. The film, which opened around Christmas, has made $81 million internationally and $190.8 million globally so far.

Another holiday release, Disney and 20th Centurys The Kings Man, added another $13.4 million from 43 territories over the weekend. That pushes the prequel in the Kingsman spy comedy franchise to $49.2 million overseas and $74.3 million worldwide, a lackluster result.

The Matrix Resurrections has also struggled to attract audiences in North America, where it debuted day-and-date on HBO Max, and overseas. The fourth installment in the Warner Bros. sci-fi action series generated $7.7 million from 76 markets, boosting its tally to $90 million internationally and $124.5 million globally. Its a weak result for a film that cost $190 million, a hefty sum that doesnt include global marketing fees. Resurrections opens in China on Friday, which could be a boon to ticket sales or could fail to make a dent. During the pandemic, Hollywood movies havent made much of an impact in Chinese movie theaters and it certainly doesnt help that The Matrix Resurrections came out weeks ago everywhere else.

In fifth place (among Hollywood movies), Disneys musical fable Encanto earned $5.8 million from 36 international territories. The well-reviewed family film, which is currently on Disney Plus, has grossed $123 million overseas and $215 million globally to date.

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Spider-Man: No Way Home Stands as Eighth-Highest Grossing Movie in History With $1.5 Billion Globally - Variety

Welcome, Hubie, to the world of the three.

A brief history of the 3-point shot: It entered basketball in 1961 as the gimmick of a promoter, Harlem Globetrotters impresario Abe Saperstein. He had formed the American Basketball League in the hopes of competing with the NBA and the three would help shape the new leagues separate identity. When the league folded in the middle of its second season it was adopted by the Eastern Professional Basketball League, then, without question, the second-best collection of basketball talent in the world. The ABA incorporated the three when it began operation in 1967. It came into the NBA in 1979, and into college ball in 1986.

What this all means is that any basketball fan under the age of 50 has no serious recollection of a world without the three.

Brad Stevens was 3 years old when the NBA adopted the three. He was 10 when it came into the NCAA. Hes never had anything against the three, especially since his 10-year old basketball-loving Hoosier self was cheering madly as Steve Alford nailed seven threes in the 1987 NCAA championship game to lead Indiana past Syracuse.

With Stephen Curry as its reigning high priest, the 3-point shot has now managed to secure a hostile takeover of the game, the operative phrase being, The worst shot in basketball is the long two. It is generally acknowledged that most nights you live or die by the three.

Given the disproportionate importance of the three in todays game, it is somewhat surprising to learn that the shot hardly took the NBA by storm when it was introduced 43 years ago. In fact, some of the early numbers were somewhat laughable.

Take, for instance, the Atlanta Hawks. In the first year of the rules existence the Hawks were 13 for 75 on 3-point shot attempts. For, yes, 82 games. The Lakers were 20 for 100. The Kansas City Kings 25 for 114. Portland was 26 for 132. The 76ers were 27 for 125. OK, you get the idea.

The Celtics? You know, of course, that Chris Ford made the very first one and that Larry Bird was a highly respectable .406 shooter (58 for 143). As a team, they were 166 for 422 (.384).

Oh, and guess who was coaching those timid Hawks? Hubie Brown, thats who. The simple fact is he just didnt have anyone who could make them with any regularity. He had left Louie Dampier behind.

Cedric Maxwell isnt surprised to learn all this. In the beginning everybody looked at it like it was fools gold, he recalls.

Now, you would think there would be a gradual acceptance of the concept as NBA teams adapted to the brave new world. So I was stunned to discover that after five full seasons with the rule, there were nine NBA teams in the 1984-85 season that took fewer 3-point shots than they did in that first year.

In some cases, such as the Spurs (206 to 202), SuperSonics (189 to 185), Nuggets (255 to 235), and Pistons (219 to 199), the difference was marginal. But after taking a league-leading 543 3-point attempts in the first year, the Clippers dropped to 188 in Year 6. It must be noted that the Clippers Brian Taylor led the league in attempts (239) and makes (90) that first year. The Celtics also had a big dropoff, going from 422 attempts to 309 six years later.

What, I wonder, does this mean? Youd have to ask those coaches, Stevens says.

One of those coaches was Brown, who had moved in the interim from Atlanta to New York. You still went with your strengths, he explained, and in his case his big strength was the extraordinary skill of Bernard King, who was on his way to scoring 32.9 points a game while going 1 for 10 on threes for the season.

But, in time, things would change, and Hubie says it had to do with a specific emphasis on individual improvement and an important rule change. Teams begin expanding their coaching staffs, with full-time shooting instructors bringing in new drills and making sure things would be carried out over the summer.

Equally important in transforming the game was the elimination of hand-checking and a new fear of flagrant fouls.

Look at the Detroit Bad Boys, Brown points out. Michael Jordan was on the floor more times against them in 15 minutes than guys today are in 82 games.

The fact is that Curry never has to worry about such things.

There is no question the players are now aligned very differently. Stevens finds the whole topic fascinating.

When I see those old films, I marvel at the post players of the day, he says. They had so much less space to work with.

Maxwell (1 for 19 lifetime on threes) is the first to tell you he would have had to reinvent himself somewhat in order to keep his job today.

I remember talking to Elton Brand a number of years ago, Maxwell says. I was kidding him about leaving the low post to spend more time outside. Youve gone over to the dark side, I told him.

Speaking of dark sides, what can one say about going an embarrassing 4 for 42 on threes, which the Celtics did Dec. 29 against the Clippers? Shouldnt they have a Plan B when the bombs arent falling?

I couldnt believe that when I saw it, Brown says.

I know the analytics guys might disagree, says Stevens, but I believe when things like that happen you need to get to the basket, get to the rim, and maybe get to the foul line. Its helpful just to see the ball go through the basket.

Like it or not, its the new game and it isnt going away.

Do people really want to see teams taking 40 or 50 threes a night? Brown inquires.

For most of the fans, its all they know. I guess they answer is, Yes.

Bob Ryan can be reached at robert.ryan@globe.com.

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In the history of the NBA 3-pointer, there have been some misses along the way - The Boston Globe