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A new Gardner, plus landscapes, performance art, and RAD

Shapeshifting
Greater Boston's art-museum building boom continues with the debut of an expanded Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in January.
By GREG COOK | December 30, 2011

Revisiting Nixon in China

Grand Opera and Anti-Opera
To celebrate the forthcoming 25th anniversary of the opera Nixon in China , its three creators gathered last Tuesday afternoon on the stage of Harvard's Loeb Drama Center (home of the A.R.T.) to discuss their landmark opus.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | November 22, 2011

After the occupation

#OccupyBoston
From Oakland to New York, city police departments and their elected overlords are crushing lawful Occupy movements in their midst.
By LIZ PELLY | November 16, 2011

By | January 01, 0001

Science fare

The chemistry of haute cuisine
This week, Chang is coming to Harvard to take part in "Science and Cooking: From Haute Cuisine to the Science of Soft Matter," a new lecture series devoted to the science of food that pairs renowned chefs with Harvard scientists.
By CASSANDRA LANDRY | November 14, 2011

Whatever happened to Danville's giant mystery monkey?

Unfinished (monkey) business
The giant monkey of Danville was my symbol, back then, of the fin-de-siècle nadir in media fluffery, thankfully obsolesced in one grim morning.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | August 04, 2011

Big conservative funders are making a new push at universities

Right turn on campus
Funders are working through official university channels to underwrite lecture series, conferences and colloquia, and centers geared for the general-interest student, all carrying university imprimatur.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | July 18, 2011

Review: Heaven + Earth + Joe Davis

Cambridge’s own eccentric trash-spelunker
Joe Davis is the type of character who begs to be profiled.
By CHRIS FARAONE | April 28, 2011

Oh, the Humanities

6,574,357 hours of scholarship
The data contained within the following illustration represents the most common words found in the titles of more than 150 doctoral theses in the humanities and social sciences published in 2010.
By EUGENIA WILLIAMSON | April 27, 2011

Search-term smackdown: Boston rivalries settled with Google Books Ngram Viewer

Golden Ngrams
Two weeks ago, Google chucked a shiny new Web toy down the chimneys of Internet-research nerds everywhere: the Google Books Ngram Viewer, a search tool/treasure hunt that shows you the frequency of specific words in literature going back to the 1500s.
By SHAULA CLARK | December 30, 2010

The velvet rope of prejudice?

Race relations
RACE RELATIONS
By G. VALENTINO BALL | December 08, 2010

Republican congressional class drops out of Harvard

Too cool for school?
For most organizations, getting 26 members of Congress to show up at a soiree would be an impressive feat.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | December 01, 2010

Charles in charge?

Republican Charlie Baker has been ready to be governor for years. But was he ready to be a candidate?
Voters should already have a good idea what they think about the candidates — which is why an increasing number of observers, across the political spectrum, are expressing surprise at how few Bay Staters like Charlie Baker.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | October 07, 2010

Can you love Boston art and still love the Foster Prize?

And what happened to the Morgan Prize?
When I roam Boston galleries or stumble upon Brandon Nastanski's "Unofficial Franklin Park Research Outpost," I feel the buzz of potential.
By GREG COOK | October 05, 2010

BU offers the class of 1970 a second chance at complacency

After School Special
Boston University’s class of 2010 celebrates its commencement this weekend, and BU has invited the class of 1970 to tag along.
By CLIF GARBODEN | May 12, 2010

Harvard virginity conference pops its cherry

Roe v. Wait Dept.
At what moment are you no longer a virgin? When you get a blowjob? Give one? Give 30 ? When someone fingers you? Oral sex? Anal sex? Enjoyment? Orgasm?
By NINA MACLAUGHLIN | May 07, 2010

Meme police

MIT’s ROFLcon, a gathering of the Web’s biggest names, decides what will make you laugh and cry.
I just woke up from some sort of bizarre dream. I was at MIT. There was a weirdo painting nudes of President Obama on a unicorn. Several adults were dressed like domestic animals.
By CHRIS FARAONE | May 05, 2010

Ledge Lessons

We love you, stressed-out college kids! So relax, and remember how good you have it.
As advocates of higher education and living as long as medically possible, we were sad to read that, according to new-media-powerhouse Web site the Daily Beast, Greater Boston is home to not one but five of the most stressful colleges in the United States.
By CHRIS FARAONE | April 28, 2010

Ex–porn star blogs her way sober

Jennie Does Harvard
This past week at the Radcliffe Union of Students (RUS), Jennie Ketcham taught her first class about something besides, er, “dick-sucking.”
By CHRIS FARAONE | April 05, 2010

Wintour tackles weighty subject at Harvard

Ice Age over at Vogue?
Brazilian fashion model Ana Carolina Reston was not the first model to die from an eating disorder, and sadly, she won't be the last.
By ASHLEY RIGAZIO | March 24, 2010

By | January 01, 0001

Cannonball quiets Harvard quad

Time bomb
It’s been awhile since we had to worry about the multi-colored national danger spectrum, but last week, the northwestern quadrant of Harvard Square was put on high alert.
By TOM MEEK | November 04, 2009

By | January 01, 0001

Free speech again quashed at Harvard

RSVPeeved Dept.
It should come as no surprise to readers of “Freedom Watch” that yet another instance of political, intellectual, and academic censorship has sprung up at Harvard, the self-touted pinnacle of higher education.
By HARVEY SILVERGLATE | October 21, 2009

By | January 01, 0001

Hammer swings through Harvard

Ad lib department
When he was known as MC Hammer, the man born Stanley Burrell famously sold consumers Rick James samples and parachute pants.
By CHRIS FARAONE | September 04, 2009

The Gates case isn't about race

Doesn't Matter If You're Black or White Dept.
The weeks-long hubbub over the arrest of Harvard professor Henry Louis "Skip" Gates Jr. by the Cambridge Police Department has centered on race, understandably, for two reasons: 1) the African-American population has suffered inequitably in its relations with law enforcement across this country, and 2) a race story is easier for the media to tell — and to sell.
By HARVEY SILVERGLATE | August 05, 2009

By | January 01, 0001