COVID-19’s grip on society has relaxed to the point that most people have returned to their pre-pandemic lives. Of course, the virus isn’t gone, but it’s no longer the omnipresent bogeyman it once was, which is an incredible testament to our collective ability to move on. It wasn’t that long ago when it felt like the movie 28 Days Later might have been a prescient warning (the plot centers on a sudden, incurable virus).
What do you get the preeminent medievalist who has everything? A nice tome? A small medieval charter? The question was plaguing the University of Rochester’s Laura Smoller, a professor of history, and Anna Siebach-Larsen, the director of the Rossell Hope Robbins Library and Koller-Collins Center for English Studies.
Before Beatlemania, there was Gilbert and Sullivan.
Between 1871 and 1896, librettist W.S. Gilbert and composer Arthur Sullivan produced 14 comic operas, including The H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance, and The Mikado. These operas, and others produced by Gilbert and Sullivan (G&S) were the theatrical events in England and America during this time.
The first images from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) offer a clearer view of how small and young we are. It’s mind-blowing. To borrow the sentiments of Dr. Jimes Tooper (Eric Wareheim on Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!), it generates butterflies in the stomach, which tickle the spine and create goose pimples that penetrate the mind, and then, PWWOOOO!
The Ask the Archivist column in the Spring-Summer 2022 issue of Rochester Review answered question about the history of the Squealy Gobbler sandwich, and what happened to the original bells of the Hopeman Chime after they were replaced in 1973 by the Hopeman Carillon. You can read the article here.
“But where do they come from?” is a question about fruit flies that people have screamed, presumably since the dawn of time. In the not-too-distant past, answers to questions like these would have been difficult or impossible to find. Now, you ask Alexa, Siri, or a social media circle, where someone is likely to offer snarky assistance.
