ICON Magazine

The intersection of art, entertainment, culture, nightlife and mad genius.

Since 1992 215-862-9558 icondv.com

And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle by Jon Meacham

The Divider: Trump in the White House, 2017-2021 by Peter Baker, Susan Glasser

Fresh Pasta at Home: 10 Doughs, 20 Shapes, 100+ Recipes, with or without a Machine by America’s Test Kitchen

PUBLISHER & EDITOR Trina McKenna trina@icondv.com

ADVERTISING Raina Filipiak filipiakr@comcast.net

PRODUCTION Paul Rosen Joanne Smythe Margaret M. O’Connor

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS A.D. Amorosi Ricardo Barros Robert Beck Pete Croatto Geoff Gehman

Susan Van Dongen Grigsby Fredricka Maister David Stoller Keith Uhlich

PO Box 120 New Hope 18938 215-862-9558

IReproduction in whole or in part without written permission is strictly prohibited. ICON welcomes letters to the editor, editorial ideas and submissions, but assumes no responsibility for the return of unsolicited material. ICON is not responsible for claims made by advertisers. ©2022 Primetime Publishing Co., Inc.

Marshall Allen, trumpeter in the Sun Ra Arkestra. Photo: Michael Weintrob. Page 16

a thousand words

TIP TOP

I’VE WANTED TO PAINT in Tip-Top Shoes from the first time I walked through the front doors. Few places shape New York’s Upper West Side identity as this store does.

Tip-Top is a shoe person’s shoe store. The salespeople have been there forever, and not only do they know style and construction, they know feet. And they are really nice—pleasant, helpful, and patient. I painted during the early afternoon, supposedly their slowest time, and they were still busy. Nobody stopped moving, and I had to decide how to incorporate some of the staff in uncharacteristic static poses. They enjoyed watching the image emerge, and I made a bunch of friends.

Robert Beck is a painter, writer, lecturer and ex-radio host. His paintings have been featured in more than seventy juried and thirty solo gallery shows, and three solo museum exhibitions. His column has appeared monthly in ICON Magazine since 2005. www.robertbeck.net

STORY

exhibitions

Pyrrha Jewelry Heart of the Home 30 W. Bridge St, #3, New Hope, PA 215-862-1880 & 33 Race St., #1, Frenchtown, NJ 908-628-0347

HeartoftheHome.com

Pyrrha creates sustainable jewelry that holds personal significance for those who wear it. People connect with symbols and their meanings, and the individual way they resonate with their personality, ambitions, struggles or source of joy. The intention with their talismans is to offer inspiration, connection, or simply a bit of comfort. They’re a B Corp, a member of both the Responsible Jewellery Council and 1% For the Planet, and they handcraft the jewelry from start to finish in their certified Zero Carbon Vancouver studio using only recycled sterling silver, 14k gold, and bronze. Come in to see our collection today.

Jennifer Hansen Rolli: Bluish Silverman Gallery of Impressionist Art Route 202, just north of PA 413 4920 York Rd., Holicong, PA 215-794-4300 Silvermangallery.com Opening Recep. 12/10, 5-8 & 12/11, noon-4 Open W-Sat. 11-6; Sund., 11-4; and by appt.

Silverman Gallery of Bucks County Impressionist Art will feature a collection of recent paintings from this award winning regional artist. Jennifer Hansen Rolli’s newest exhibit, Bluish, is rich with sky and water and bloom—images that evoke open space as well as serenity and calm.

Blue is a consistent color in Rolli’s work, ranging from the indigo of “Blue Hydrangeas in Creamer” to the moody blue of a snowy night in “Midnight Blue.” Rolli is quick to point out the distinction between bluish, and blue. There’s a sense of joy and freedom in her current work—a nod to the newest phase in her own life. With all three of her children now grown and living in different parts of the country, Rolli still feels a deep connection to them, but also sees it as a new start for herself.

Quotidian Images: Contemporary Street Photography Matias Aguilar, Peggy Anderson, Rob Macdonald

Lafayette College Art Galleries Williams Center Gallery 317 Hamilton St., Easton, PA Galleries.lafayette.edu

January 23-March 5, 2023

Artist Talk and Reception 2/9/23

Three photographers offer their contemplation on public spaces. The rich tones of Matias Aguilar's work reveal in a moody, even romantic sense a shared bond and personal connection with a neighborhood that has historically mostly fallen off the radar. Yet, the backdrop of underrepresentation in his work Little Manila, Woodside, Queens, NY is neutralized by his faith that the pictures of this neighborhood are rather to be seen and felt, than explained.

Peggy Anderson is captivated by the passing of time through the layering of posters and advertisements in Parisian metro stations. Her work focuses on the enigmatic space created with the peeling and pasting of marketing assets that plays with depth perception. Rob Macdonald’s wandering eye captures hidden moments during his travels. Cities become color-field images that spark memories of a place while simultaneously mesmerize by a disorienting spectacle.

Bue Hydrangeas in Creamer, 10 x 8 inches, oil on canvas.

Peggy Anderson, from the series Paris Metro Posters, iPhone photos, digital prints, size variable. (detail)

the art of poetry

He Saw Eggs in Dark Windows

People liked his work, Scene paintings, merry-go-rounds …

Then one day he stopped — He saw eggs in dark windows, Ovoids that appeared In desolated structures,

Like sentient spirits, Pilgrims on a restless quest.

I knew a fellow Who sneaked chocolate kisses After hours from unguarded desks —

Seeking some kind of salvation, I suppose … Until he was finally caught, Wrapper still stuck to his lip.

Charles Holbrook Carter (1904-2000) painted this work in his eighties, having enjoyed a sixty-year career as one of America’s preeminent artists — and undoubtedly the most important of the Cleveland School artists of his day. Over the course of his career, he evolved from an exceptional American scene painter (for which he remains best known) into an abstractionist with an intensely surrealistic bent. Beginning in the mid-sixties, he abandoned representational painting, and created over the rest of his life an extraordinary body of work, much of it featuring the ovoid shape of the egg, a potent symbol for his later work. Born and raised in southern Ohio, he moved to New Hope after World War ll, and painted right up to his death at the age of 96.

David Stoller has had a career spanning law, private equity, and entrepreneurial leadership. He was a partner and co-head of Milbank Tweed and led various companies in law, insurance, live entertainment, and the visual arts. David is an active art collector and founder of River Arts Press, which published a collection of his poetry, Finding My Feet

DAVID STOLLER

Clarence Holbrook Carter in his studio with Icon Concentric Space. Photo by Michael Bergman. From Clarence Holbrook Carter, first published in the U.S. in 1989 by Rizolli International Publications, Inc., with a foreword by James A. Michener.

Pat Keck

What do we see when we look at a photograph? Like everything else, an initial scan places the image within the context of our personal history. What cubby hole does it slip into? The photograph will receive little attention if we think we completely understand what we see. If the image conjures a meaningful experience, we conflate our emotions of that with our feelings about the photograph. Alternatively, if we perceive no structure in its composition nor commonality in its subject, we dismiss the photograph entirely. Or, if the photograph provokes our curiosity, we may probe to find out why. There are countless possibilities.

For a photographer, I think this question highlights two significant concerns: relevance and responsibility. The first has to do with why the photograph matters. Why should it be of interest to anyone besides its author? The second has to do with delivering the goods. A shiny object may attract a viewer’s attention, but the shine alone can’t hold it. The photographer is responsible for what the photograph says. Or, at the very least, for having an opinion or serving up a point of view for the audience’s departure. To this end, I believe all artists must be fluent in the vocabulary of their medium. We are all responsible for how we string our words together and the messages our sentences convey. If we aspire to be relevant, we must move the conversation forward.

Pat Keck is a meticulous, focused, organized sculptor and craftsperson. When I arrived to photograph, her studio was spotless. It would have been easy to make a classical portrait of an artist sitting at a workbench with her tools. But Pat’s work is macabre. Her sculptures are provocative. She pokes fun at our expectations. Signaling we were on the same page, she laughed at my suggestion and encouraged me to manufacture chaos. Then she grabbed her chainsaw to complete this portrait.

AND

Ricardo Barros’ works are in the permanent collections of eleven museums, including the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. He is the author of “Facing Sculpture: A Portfolio of Portraits, Sculpture and Related Ideas.”

the list VALLEY

— GEOFF GEHMAN

My love of Christmas music was pretty much ruined by ten years of reviewing 400-plus Christmas CDs, an amusing act of egotism/masochism. Slogging through so many awful versions of great songs reduced my holiday spirit to moldy fruitcake. Two decades later I’m sane enough to endorse two seasonal musical shows. “Home for the Holidays” (Dec. 8, Musikfest Café) teams Karla Bonoff and Livingston Taylor, well-seasoned singing, song-writing storytellers equally tuneful and tuned in. Taylor’s tune Christmas Is Almost Here was christened by Carly Simon, ex-wife of his brother James. Bonoff’s holiday CD, Silent Night, contains “In the Bleak Midwinter” and Joni Mitchell’s “River,” both cheerfully melancholy evergreens. On Dec. 18 The Wizards of Winter will rock the State Theatre with rocket-powered sleigh rides performed by allstar alums (bassist Greg Smith sang with Ted Nugent; John O. Reilly drummed with the Trans Siberian Orchestra). Originals include “The Arctic Flyer,” a zooming ride inside a snow globe; original adaptations include “The March of the Metal Soldier.” Proceeds from the latter number funded the Wounded Warrior Project, a natural cause for a band started to help a depleted food pantry.

Everything seems grander at the State Theatre, a plaster palace opened in 1926 for movies and vaudeville acts. The Wizards of Winter blast harder on a diorama-like stage ringed with mythic characters in relief. Jose Carreras sounds more operatic when you’re sitting under

Geoff Gehman is a former arts writer for The Morning Call in Allentown and the author of five books, including Planet Mom: Keeping an Aging Parent from Aging, The Kingdom of the Kid: Growing Up in the LongLost Hamptons, and Fast Women and Slow Horses: The (mis)Adventures of a Bar, Betting and Barbecue Man (with William Mayberry) He lives in Bethlehem. geoffgehman@verizon.net

CITY

— A.D. AMOROSI

Most social critics and politicized writers around this month will rant about how bad the year 2022 was and how worse the year 2023 will likely be. My take is that you are alive and free to write as you choose — as we choose — and get over it. Because social critics and politicized writers probably said the same thing in 1865, 1917, 1944, and 1968. So just put up your Christmas tree, watch the New Year ball drop, and shut the fuck up.

Besides, if you really want misery, you can always start your December with An Evening with Morrissey at the Met Philadelphia. Yes. Meat is still Murder. Yes. He is forever “Disappointed.” Yes. He will forever live on “Maudlin Street, where every Hairdresser is on Fire.” And he will surely show films of vivisection behind him on stage. It is an Evening with Morrissey. What did you think would happen?

For snits and giggles, I suggest you book a room along Philadelphia’s North Broad Street because you will be back at the Met shortly following Morrissey for the twonight toast of New Hope, PA’s formidable return — that of Dean and Gene Ween, psychedelic pop’s Abbott & Costello — on December 8 and 9. Sure, both founders are nearing

A.D. Amorosi is a Los Angeles Press Club National Art and Entertainment Journalism award-winning journalist and national public radio host and producer (WPPM.org’s Theater in the Round) married to a garden-to-table cooking instructor + award-winning gardener, Reese, and father to dogdaughter Tia.

Morrissey Dean and Gene Ween

Livingston Taylor

film roundup

The Fabelmans (Dir. Steven Spielberg).

Starring: Michelle Williams, Gabriel LaBelle, Paul Dano. Co-written with frequent collaborator Tony Kushner, Steven Spielberg’s knotty cine-memoir lightly fictionalizes his own upbringing during which familial discord and movie love became inextricably intertwined.

Sammy Fabelman (Mateo Zoryon Francis DeFord in the early scenes, Gabriel LaBelle for the rest of the film) is Spielberg’s stand-in, a boy caught between a flighty mother (Michelle Williams) who encourages him to dream big and a practical father (Paul Dano) who keeps trying, at least at an adolescent

glance, to keep his head and heart firmly close to earth. Everyone familiar with the Spielberg biography knows divorce is on the horizon, much of it prompted by Dad’s best friend (Seth Rogen) who Sammy (in the film’s best scene) unwittingly catches in the act of seducing his mom. The movie feels like a therapy session reconfigured as spectacle, and that’s not necessarily a criticism given how deft Spielberg is at making emotive inner turmoil at once palatable and provocative. This is a film, like its teen protagonist, caught fascinatingly between extremes. [PG13] HHHH

Keith Uhlich is a NY-based writer published at Slant Magazine, The Hollywood Reporter, Time Out New York, and ICON. He is a member of the New York Film Critics Circle. His personal website is (All (Parentheses)), accessible at keithuhlich.substack.com.

Babylon (Dir. Damien Chazelle). Starring: Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Jean Smart. Silentera Hollywood was debaucherously beyond belief if we’re to take Damien Chazelle’s latest manic whatsit at face value. This is a film that begins, after all, with an elephant defecating in extreme close-up before segueing into an orgiastic all-night party where the three principals — box office sensation Jack Conrad (Brad Pitt), starlet in the making Nellie LaRoy (Margot Robbie), and pie-eyed motion-picture obsessive Manny Torres (Diego Calva) — converge like comets on a collision course. They’re on top of the world, as well as mountains of cocaine, until sound comes in

The Fabelmans

conversation

Space Will Forever Be the Place for the Sun Ra Arkestra & Marshall Allen

A.D. AMOROSI

“Sun Ra told me when I met him, ‘I KNOW EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT MUSIC,’ which was apparent,” Ray said. “When I moved into the Sun Ra Institute, it was a 24/7 proposition. RA WOULD KNOCK

MY

ON

BEDROOM

DOOR AT 3 AM, asking me to play a line or a song that he had just composed minutes prior.”

IF YOU HAD TO pick what period would be a 98-year-old man’s busiest decade, you would not normally choose the most recent five years of his time on Earth. And yet, here is Marshall Allen — the leader of the Germantown-based Sun Ra Arkestra who picked up the baton when its originator departed from this hemisphere in 1993 — readying a hometown show for the Arkestra on December 19 at the Kimmel Cultural Campus’ namesake hall, mere weeks after the saxophonist, reed man, kora player, flutist, and electronic wind instrumentalist (EWI) played a solo, last minute concert date at Ars Nova Workshop’s new live showcase venue, Solar Myth, in South Philly.

Then again, this is the Arkestra maestro who has made more than his fair share of work outside the Arkestra, with fellow jazz improvisers such as Hamid Drake and Trevor Dunn in the past and, as recently as 2020 as part of the Flow States ensemble with Roscoe Mitchell, Scott Robinson, and Milford Graves. In January 2023, Allen’s duet album with bassist Tyler Mitchell — Sun Ra's Journey Featuring Marshall Allen — a spare, innovative reworking of Sun Ra Arkestra classics, recorded live at Smalls Jazz Club, will be released.

As for that which occupies the majority of his time, the Sun Ra Arkestra, this large-scale ensemble was finally nominated for a Grammy for its 2021 studio album, Swirling, before the Allen-led Arkestra jumped back into Germantown’s Rittenhouse SoundWorks Studio to record an ever-newer album for its even newer label — Living Sky on Omni Sound — and dropped the fruits of its labor in October 2022, with a fresh batch of Allen’s new songs to go with ensemble familiars such as “Chopin,” the first studio recording of Sun Ra’s elaboration of “Prelude in A Major” from Chopin’s “Miniature Opus 28 No. 7.”

“It seems as if Marshall Allen is just getting started,” says longtime Arkestra trumpeter Michael Ray, who, on Living Sky, works out the

loudest solos within the spaced-out “Marshall’s Groove,” all but one of the leader’s new compositions among countless others.

“There were always bags of music, arrangements, and notations at the house when Sun was around — he kept them in the walls, in dresser drawers, in the refrigerator,” says Ray when discussing the Ra House at 5626 Morton Street (also known as the Arkestral Institute of Sun Ra) which was listed as a historic landmark

in the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places. “There were cassette tapes and reel-to-reel tapes in the refrigerator, no exaggeration.”

Having played under Allen’s Arkestra direc-

Sun Ra. 1973 Impulse Records and ABC//Dunhill Records. Photographer uncredited on the publicity photo itself most likely Francis Ing.

Marshall Allen, Moers Festival 2019.

CHRISTMAS CITY, USA

Bethlehem, the Christmas City, has a rich holiday heritage that dates back to the 18th century, when the Moravians who settled the city christened it “Bethlehem” on Christmas Eve, 1741. From guided walking tours of the city’s Historic Moravian District, one of the finest collections of 18th Century Germanic-style architecture in the nation, to Christkindlmarkt and Christmas Carriage rides thru the city. There are dozens of attractions and activities for all ages.

THE ICE RINK AT STEELSTACKS

Thru Jan. 1, presented by Lehigh Valley Reilly Children’s Hospital. ArtsQuest, 645 East First St., Bethlehem. Celebrate the magic of the season on the outdoor ice skating rink at the base of the blast furnaces. Fun for all ages. ChristmasCity.org

TREES OF HISTORIC BETHLEHEM

Thru Jan. 8, 2023. Visit website for days, times. 1-800-360-TOUR, HistoricBethlehem.org

CHRISTMAS CITY STROLL

Thru Jan. 8, 2023. Visit website for days, times. Stroll through downtown and discover the story of its unique beginning in 1741. Tour leaves from the Historic Bethlehem Visitor Center, 505 Main St., Bethlehem. HistoricBethlehem.org

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

Thru Dec. 17. 19th St. Theatre, 27 N 19th St., Allentown. The holiday tradition returns to the Civic stage for the 31st year. Join us for a journey through Scrooge’s Victorian London. (610) 4338903 Civictheatre.com

CHRISTKINDLMARKT AT STEELSTACKS

Thru Dec. 18. SteelStacks, ArtsQuest, 645 East First St., Bethlehem. Twice recognized as one of

the best holiday markets in the U.S.A. by Travel + Leisure and USA Today. The holiday event features aisles of handmade works from more than 150 of the nation’s finest artisans. (877) 2122463, ChristmasCity.org

CHRISTMAS CITY FOLLIES XXIII

Thru Dec. 18, Thurs.-Sat. 8 PM, Sundays. 2 PM. Touchstone Theatre, 321 East 4th St., Bethlehem. For 23 years Touchtone has been ringing in December with this show of music and merriment. (610) 867-1689 Touchstone.org

HISTORIC BETHLEHEM LIVE ADVENT CALENDAR

Thru Dec. 23, 5:30 PM. Free. The only one of its kind in the country. Visitors gather outside the door of the Goundie House at 5:30 PM, where a visitor will be selected to knock on the door, a special guest will appear and surprise the crowd with a treat. 501 Main Street, Behtlehem. For more information visit HistoricBethlehem.org.

A CHRISTMAS CAROL Dec. 9, 7:30 PM. Charles Dickens enchants audiences the world over with its message of holiday joy. State Theatre, 453 Northampton St., Easton, PA. 1-800-999-7828 Statetheatre.org

CHRISTKINDLMARKT AT STEELSTACKS

Thru Dec. 18. SteelStacks, ArtsQuest, 645 East First St., Bethlehem. Twice recognized as one of the best holiday markets in the U.S.A. by Travel + Leisure and USA Today. The holiday event features aisles of handmade works from more than 150 of the nation’s finest artisans. (877) 2122463, ChristmasCity.org

EVERY CHRISTMAS STORY EVER TOLD (And Then Some)

Dec. 9-18, A fast, furious and irreverent look at holiday traditions and classics, including A Christmas Carol, will be playing across the street. Theatre 514, Civic Theatre, 514 N 19th St., Allentown. (610) 433-8903 Civictheatre.com

BACH’S CHRISTMAS ORATORIO PARTS 4, 5 & 6

Dec. 10, 4 PM. First Presbyterian Church, Allentown and Dec. 11, 4 PM in person and livestreamed, at First Presbyterian Church of Bethlehem. 610-866-4382 ext. 115 or BACH.org/tickets

TOP OF THE WORLD, A CARPENTERS

TRIBUTE FEATURING DEBBIE TAYLOR

Dec. 11, 7:30 PM. State Theatre, 453 Northampton St., Easton. 1-800-999-7828 Statetheatre.org

WINTER CONCERTS, STEELSTACKS

ArtsQuest, 101 Founders Way, Bethlehem, PA (610) 297-7100 SteelStacks.org

Dec. 11, Soultown to Motown featuring the Sensational Soul Cruisers Holiday Show Dec. 14, Pam Tillis: “Belles & Bows.” Dec. 18, The David Bromberg Quintet Dec. 20, Jonathan Butler’s “Oh Holy Night,” with special guest Grace Kelly

NUTCRACKER! MAGICAL CHRISTMAS BALLET

Dec. 13, 7 PM. Featuring stars of Ukraine ballet live in theaters for the 30th Anniversary tour. State Theatre, 453 Northampton St., Easton, PA. 1-800-999-7828 Statetheatre.org

CHRISTMAS CLASSICS MATINEES

Frank Banko Alehouse Cinemas, SteelStacks, ArtsQuest, 101 Founders Way, Bethlehem, PA (610) 297-7100 SteelStacks.org Dec. 14, How the Grinch Stole Christmas Dec. 15, Christmas in Connecticut Dec. 21 & 22, National Lampoon’s Xmas Vacation

Dec. 30, The Rocky Horror Picture Show

WESTMINSTER CONCERT BELL CHOIR Dec. 16, 7:30 PM. Packer Memorial Church, Lehigh University, 18 University Dr., Bethlehem. Comprised of students at Westminster Choir College at Rider University. Free shuttle from parking garage. 610-758-2787. Zoellnerartscenter.org

SCOTT BRADLEE’S POSTMODERN JUKEBOX: A VERY POSTMODERN CHRISTMAS

Dec. 17, 7:30 PM, Baker Hall, Zoellner Arts Center at Lehigh University, 420 E. Packer Ave., Bethlehem. Classics and pop hits with vintage doowop, Motown to create ultimate jingle jangle speakeasy concert vibe. 610-758-2787. Zoellnerartscenter.org

CHRISTMAS WITH THE CELTS

Dec. 18, 5 PM. Zoellner Arts Center, Lehigh University, Baker Hall, 420 E. Packer Ave., Bethlehem. Irish music wit pop music and originals. 610-7582787. Zoellnerartscenter.org

THE WIZARDS OF WINTER Dec. 18, 4 PM. State Theatre, 453 Northampton St., Easton, PA. 1-800-999-7828 Statetheatre.org

PEEPSFEST®

Dec. 30 & 31, Chick Drop at 5:30 PM. Presented by Just Born Quality Confections. SteelStacks, ArtsQuest, 645 East First St., Bethlehem. Ring in the new year with this sweet celebration. The annual two-day New Year’s Eve festival celebrates the fun and excitement of the PEEPS Brand. PEEPS ®Chick Drop, a 4’x9” tall, 400lb. lit PEEPS chick that descends to commemorate the beginning of a new year. The event is held outside with familyfriendly activities and fireworks following the drop. Tickets and additional details can be found at steelstacks.org/PEEPSFEST

film classics

Au hasard Balthazar (1966, Robert Bresson, France/Sweden) With Jerzy Skolimowski’s loose remake/homage EO now in theaters, the time is right for a rewatch of Robert Bresson’s masterpiece in which a mistreated donkey stands in for the ills of society, and perhaps transcends them. The animal Balthazar comes of age alongside the village girl Marie (Anne Wiazemsky), whose life in a rural French town is one of increasing emotional and physical brutalization. Balthazar is witness to many of these soul-sapping events, though the divide between man and beast is such that any anthropomorphizing (does the donkey feel for his human owners or is that a ludicrous impossibility?) is constantly called

into question. What the film seems most interested in is unearthing our feeling for a creature who is decidedly not like us, something the thornily moving final scene takes to a reverential apex. (Streaming on Criterion Channel.)

The Sacrifice (1986, Andrei Tarkovsky, Sweden/France/United Kingdom) The final film from Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky is one of several he made in exile from his home country. Ingmar Bergman regular Erland Josephson plays Alexander, an aesthete whose ideas are very earthbound and eschew the celestial. Then a seeming nuclear war breaks out, upending his life, and driving him

toward both God and madness. Though it wasn’t intended to be Tarkovsky’s last effort (he died of cancer soon after completing post-production), The Sacrifice does have the feel of a summing up of the writer-director’s career-long concerns about mankind: its destructive technological advancements, its spiritual and emotional devastation, and its still-evident possibilities (exemplified by a tree planted at the beginning of the film that visually rhymes with one captured in the opening shot of Tarkovsky’s first feature Ivan’s Childhood). The climax, in which Alexander burns his own house to the

KEITH UHLICH

Erland Josephson and Sven Wollter in The Sacrifice (1986)

tion since Ra’s death, Ray knows well that the new leader still pulls Ra compositions from drawers and refrigerators while peppering their shows and new recordings with freshly written tunes.

“Marshall has just as much music, from his past and from new writing sessions that he’s working on daily. He has so much music in him; it seems as if he’s finally coming into his own and blossoming through all of his compositions, old and new. We’re just beginning to touch on his compositions on Swirling and Living Sky — he’s got hundreds that we haven’t begun to play yet, and at 98 years old, he’s still coming up with new ones all the time.”

When it comes to new music and new visions — be it the Arkestra’s patented mix of New Orleans’ parish parade funk, spacy free jazz, and cartoon skronk, or some of its more recent gentle soul songs — Allen himself once told NPR that “Imagination is the magic carpet. It will take your soul to distant lands. And outer space.”

The saxophonist was talking, then, about how he met Ra in 1958 and fell immediately into the Afro-Futurist avatar’s Saturn trance through Sun’s conversations about the Bible, ancient Egypt, and the Space Age. “I’m really not a man, you see. I’m an angel,” Sun Ra once said during an interview before his transference into another dimension. “If you’re an angel, you’re a step above man.”

Ra’s talk of bringing the ancient to the future rivetted Marshall Allen and drew the saxophonist into the pianist’s web like a fly to a spider’s lair.

“There was something about him that I

couldn’t get away from — like a magnet,” Allen told NPR. “He draws you right in, and it changed my whole destiny. Ra told me, ‘We’re

which was apparent. When I moved into the Sun Ra Institute, it was a 24/7 proposition. Ra

gonna play this music for the 21st century’ — which was about 50 or 60 years away. And I was thinking to myself, I gotta wait that long?”

Trumpeter Michael Ray also felt Ra’s magnetic pull.

In 1978, when Ray had just joined the R&B band Kool & the Gang (with whom he continues to play), the Trenton-born brass man didn’t know Ra’s music when he attended one of Sun’s famed, epic Germantown concerts in Vernon Park.

“I was confronted with Ra’s sound and image all at once,” said Ray. “You looked at the members of Ra’s Arkestra on the bandstand then, and every one of them had stacks upon stacks of sheet music piled high under their chairs. Not like the regular thing where you have all of the music on a stand in front of you. This was stacked high like phone books because Ra had so much stuff broken down by his own genres: standards, stomps, Fletcher Henderson material, Jimmy Lunceford stuff. There were more stacks dedicated to his arrangements — very singular — as every song he wrote had very particular structures. All I could think was, ‘Wow, how do these cats keep all that music straight?’ But they did because the music was amazing.” Add to the Arkestra’s sonic display, two fancifully adorned drum kits, fire eaters, dancers, and chanters running around, singing “space is the place,” and Ray was hooked.

“Sun Ra told me when I met him, ‘I know everything you need to know about music,’

would knock on my bedroom door at 3 am, asking me to play a line or a song that he had just composed minutes prior. And Marshall is the same way, the same creative genius. Marshall would wake me up the same way. ‘Play what you don’t know.’ That was a favorite of Marshall’s that he got from living in the Ra house long before I got there.”

Quick to praise the making of new albums such as Swirling and Living Sky, Ray said, “There’s always been a push for new music, especially since Marshall has been playing around with the kora and the EVI. The sound of his kora alone is gorgeous. Marshall is my roommate when we go on the road, and his songs on the kora are lullabies as they put me to sleep every night.”

For Ray and Sun Ra, the tradition continues. “That was our instruction from him — bring it all into the future.”

The same is true of Ray and Marshall Allen. “It’s the same continuum that goes from the ancient to the future and back again. And that interplanetary arc is its crescendo.” n

Solution to SEASONAL DOWNTURN

Michael Ray. Photo: Michael Weintrob

Sun Ra. Photo: Baron Wolman.

TIP TOP / CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5

One salesperson, Harold, has taken care of my wife for years. She first noticed him when he was demonstrating a fancy step to a customer. She asked if he was a dancer, and they ended up doing the cha-cha on the aisle near the Birkenstocks. My wife has bought many pairs of walking shoes and gorgeous heels from Harold. She’s not just an excellent dancer. She’s a shoe person.

A strong sense of place in a painting will tell a story by itself. It doesn’t have to be true, just accurate, or maybe vice versa. You sense that things happen in this place because it feels like you’ve been there, and that’s the bones of an engaging narrative, written or painted. I call it a heartbeat. A lot of places are lifeless and forgettable. Everybody who comes here has a memory from Tip-Top.

I love painting in places that evoke that sensation. I get to stand and feel for a few hours. Revisit things forgotten or just not seen anymore. Watch them unfold and make them mine. I don’t have to buy anything or look like I have a reason to be there. I craft my description as I go, investigating the events swirling around me, picking from things that catch my attention. Not describing a hundred little subjects, but one: what it’s like to be in Tip-Top Shoes, 72nd and Broadway. There is nothing in the image that looks much like a shoe. I’m painting the place, not the shoes. I don’t need them—just the heartbeat.

daylight pours in through the front doors and windows from the city outside after having bounced off the buildings and streets, shifting in intensity, blocked and reflected as people and trucks pass by. The light casts off the walls, floor, columns, and cases, picking up colors and decaying a little each time, and each time adding to our understanding of the space we’re in.

It’s not always practical to set up in some businesses, especially in Manhattan. Real estate is often at a premium. There are some specialty shops, like where they make keys and repair shoes, which are squished impossibly between their larger-but-not-all-that-big colleagues. The tiniest of them have waiting areas that are smaller than my easel. Tip Top was tight, but I’m good with tight.

It’s also not always easy to gain access to some places (You want to do what?), but some owners like the idea of there being an artistic record of the business. Third-generation owner Lester Wasserman did, and he gave me the green light with no hesitation. Then it was up to me to select an iconic view of the interior that had a place to set up and didn’t put me in anybody’s way, including the customers.

I opted to set up back past the counter by the socks. I quickly became part of the landscape. Customers walked by, testing how the shoes felt on their feet. Most stepped around me as if they negotiated artists and French Easels in stores every day. People stopped to look at the painting and talk to me while I worked. I like that. I was just another part of a good-feeling place. The owner got his father from the back room to see the painting. The father held his phone in shaky hands to take a photo. The manager was pleased that I put him in the image. Harold laughed that I got his bald spot. n

new books

The Passenger Box Set: The Passenger, Stella Maris by Cormac McCarthy Knopf, $56

The Passenger 1980, Pass Christian, Mississippi: It is three in the morning when Bobby Western, a salvage diver, zips the jacket of his wet suit and plunges from the boat deck into darkness. His dive light illuminates the sunken jet, nine bodies still buckled in their seats, hair floating, eyes devoid of speculation. Missing from the crash site are the pilot’s flight bag, the plane’s black box, and the tenth passenger. But how? A collateral witness to machinations that can only bring him harm, Western is shadowed in body and spirit—by men with badges; by the ghost of his father, inventor of the bomb that melted glass and flesh in Hiroshima; and by his sister, the love and ruin of his soul.

Stella Maris 1972, Black River Falls, Wisconsin: Alicia Western is twenty years old when she arrives at a psychiatric facility with forty thousand dollars in a plastic bag. A doctoral candidate in mathematics at the University of Chicago, Alicia has been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, and she does not want to talk about her brother, Bobby. Instead, she contemplates the nature of madness, the human insistence on one common experience of the world; she surveys the intersection of physics and philosophy; and she introduces her cohorts, her chimeras, the hallucinations that only she can see. All the while, she grieves for Bobby, not quite dead, not quite hers.

Tom Clancy Red Winter (A Jack Ryan Novel) by Marc Cameron G.P. Putnam’s Sons, $29.95 1985. A top secret F117 aircraft crashes into the Nevada desert. The Nighthawk is the most advanced fighting machine in the world and the Soviets will do anything to get its secrets.

In East Berlin, a mysterious figure contacts the CIA offering invaluable details of his government’s espionage plans in return for asylum.

It’s an offer they can’t pass up…if it’s genuine, but the risks are too great to blindly stumble into a deal. With the East German secret police closing in, someone will have to go to behind the Berlin Wall to investigate the potential defector. It’s a job Deputy Director James Greer can only trust to one man—Jack Ryan.

And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle by Jon Meacham Random House, $40 Lincoln tends to be seen as the greatest American president—a remote icon—or as a politician driven more by calculation than by conviction. This illuminating new portrait gives us a very human Lincoln—an imperfect man whose moral antislavery commitment, essential to the story of justice in America, began as he grew up in an antislavery Baptist community; who insisted that slavery was a moral evil; and who sought, as he put it, to do right as God gave him to see the right.

This book tells the story of Lincoln from his birth on the Kentucky frontier in 1809 to his leadership during the Civil War to his tragic assassination in 1865: his rise, his self-education, his loves, his bouts of depression, his political failures, his deepening faith, and his persistent conviction that slavery must end.

The Divider: Trump in the White House, 2017-2021 by Peter Baker, Susan Glasser Doubleday, $32

“Well-paced and engagingly written...the most comprehensive and detailed account of the Trump presidency yet published.” The Washington Post

The inside story of the four years when Donald Trump went to war with Washington, from the chaotic beginning to the violent finale, told by revered journalists Peter Baker of The New York Times and Susan Glasser of The New Yorker —an ambitious and lasting history of the full Trump presidency that also contains dozens of exclusive scoops and stories from behind the scenes in the White House, from the absurd to the deadly serious.

Fresh Pasta at Home: 10 Doughs, 20 Shapes, 100+ Recipes, with or without a Machine by America’s Test Kitchen America’s Test Kitchen, $29.99

Whether you use a hand-crank machine, electric machine, extruder, or rolling pin and elbow grease, you can make incredible pasta from scratch using ATK’s rigorously tested techniques.

More than a dozen doughs: Pasta doughs made with eggs, semolina, whole grains, vegetables, and even gluten-free flours are proportioned for perfect results whether you’re using a machine or not.

Strand pasta: Spaghetti al Limone; Tagliatelle with Artichokes and Parmesan; Bucatini al Fuoco

Hand-shaped pasta: Orecchiette with Broccoli Rabe and Sausage; Fileja with ‘Nduja Tomato Sauce; Gnocchi with Fontina Sauce. And more.

Demon Copperhead: A Novel by Barbara Kingsolver Harper, $32.50

Set in the mountains of Appalachia, Demon Copperhead is the story of a boy born to a teenaged single mother in a single-wide trailer, with no assets beyond his dead father’s good looks and copper-colored hair, a caustic wit, and a fierce talent for survival. Relayed in his own unsparing voice, Demon braves the perils of foster care, child labor, derelict schools, athletic success, addiction, disastrous loves, and crushing losses. Through it all, he reckons with his own invisibility in a culture where even the superheroes have abandoned rural people in favor of cities.

Charles Dickens wrote David Copperfield from his experience as a survivor of institutional poverty and its damage to children in his society. Those problems have yet to be solved in ours. Dickens is not a prerequisite for readers of this novel, but he provided its inspiration. In transposing a Victorian epic novel to the contemporary American South, Kingsolver enlists Dickens’ anger and compassion, and above all, his faith in the transformative powers of a good story. n

60 and should not sound as pre-pubescent boyish as Ween still does 40 years into its creation. But, hey, everybody needs money and should earn as much from doing what they do best for as long as they can.

Nothing marks a great Christmas season better than the big dramatic films that open only in theaters that come just in time for Oscar voting. And what spells seasonal holiday viewing more than a tale of decadent sex and cocaine use in the Hollywood of the 1920s with Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie (Babylon, opening Dec 23), dystopian existential crisis after a chemical crises from a mind-bent Don DeLillo novel starring Adam Driver (White Noise, opens Dec 2), Brendan Fraser and Darren Aronofsky’s heart-wrenching film about a 600-pound shut-in (The Whale, opening Dec 9), and Women Talking and its story of trauma and recovery with Frances McDormand and Judith Ivey. Noisemakers start tooting.

Do you like spoken word poetry? Me neither. Still, if you are going to check it out, Instagram-based, Canadian-Indian scribe Rupi Kaur has a flair for fanciful language, what with iconic books such as Milk and Honey and The Sun and Her Flowers. The Kimmel Cultural Campus will host Kaur live, on December 8 at its Miller Theatre space.

If you find deep, millennial foodies as annoying as I, you will truly get a headache from the Martha Stewart/Rachael Ray of the 21st Century, self-taught home chef Deb Perelman. Along with being the creator of smittenkitchen.com blog for those who like to eat and cook food without complicated methods, Perelman penned a bestselling

main branch December 6 to further irritate fine diners and trained chefs with tales of ordinary madness from her new Smitten Kitchen Keepers: New Classics for Your Forever Files

Charles Dickens’ socially commentating holiday rhetoric is overplayed and overwrought during this time of year. Some are great, like when Philly’s Tony Lawton acts out the entire script himself, and some are dreadful and corny and buried in amber.

Luckily, author Katie Leaman has come to the funny, punny rescue by twisting the words of Dickens into a tight, contemporary humorous package wrapped in a goofy bright bow with the Peter Pryor-directed A Christmas Carol Comedy at Hedgerow Theatre, onstage in Media, PA until December 24 with two of Philly’s best actors playing all its parts. The Greater Tuna-ization of the holidays start here.

And by the way, The Nutcracker. No. Just no. n

Smitten Kitchen Cookbook and will appear at Philly’s Free Library’s

Adam Driver in White Noise.

A Christmas Carol Comedy

Deb Perelman and daughter.

with the premiere of The Jazz Singer (1927) and they suddenly aren’t. The rise-and-fall narrative, and several of the more tense sequences, are lifted wholesale from Paul Thomas Anderson’s Boogie Nights (itself a carbon copy of better films past). And as in his overrated musical La La Land, Chazelle’s larger aim is to offer up a facile love-of-the-movies argument that comes off more propagandistic (for a rose-tinted idea of Hollywood and its output that has long since dissipated) than it does sincere. [R] HH

Guillermo de Toro’s Pinocchio (Dirs. Guillermo del Toro and Mark Gustafson). Starring: Gregory Mann, Ewan McGregor, Ron Perlman. This year’s second attempt at retelling the classic wooden-boy-longing-to-be-human fable — after Robert Zemeckis’ not uninteresting, yet highly uneven effort for Disney — is, aside from some visually compelling stop-motion animation, a repository of bad ideas. Cowriter and director Guillermo del Toro updates the Carlo Collodi perennial to WWII Italy, at the height of Benito Mussolini’s fascist government. (Il Duce even makes an ill-advised comic cameo.) Grieving the loss of his son in an air bombing, drunken woodcutter Geppetto (David Bradley) builds the title character (Gregory Mann) as a companion who is soon brought to life by a Blue Fairy-esque wood sprite (Tilda Swinton), one of two emissaries from the world of the dead. He embarks on a series of dark adventures with the semi-wizened Sebastian J. Cricket (Ewan McGregor) as his conscientious comrade. The

whole production smugly riffs on our familiarity with the tale; for one example, re-setting the Pleasure Island sequence at a fascist youth training camp (children turned into asses of a different sort). It’s all in jaw-dropping bad taste, and that’s not even considering the horrendous songs (oh yes, it’s a musical!) that recall Don Bluth’s horrendous Rock-a-Doodle in their tunelessly inept brevity. [PG] H

The Whale (Dir. Darren Aronofsky). Starring: Brendan Fraser, Sadie Sink, Hong Chau. The much-missed Brendan Fraser and a game supporting cast give their all to Darren Aronofsky’s film adaptation of Samuel D. Hunter’s stage play about a morbidly obese man, Charlie (Fraser), with a remorse-laden death wish. Yet as is often the case with Aronofsky productions, this is more a spectacle to gawk at than a story to be moved by. Fraser is buried under tons of practical and digital prosthetics and photographed in such a way that he comes off, despite the actor’s considerable efforts, as a pitiable monster. Stranger Things’ Sadie Sink plays the vituperative teen daughter who Charlie is trying to reach, and Hong Chau (the best performer of the bunch) finds some actual resonant humanity in her role as Charlie’s devoted caretaker. There are feints in the tale toward a larger spiritual significance (also an Aronofsky staple) though — as shown by the protagonist’s obsession with Melville’s Moby Dick, for one — in the most melodramatically hamfisted and narratively on-the-nose sorts of ways. [R] H1/2 n

Margot Robbie in Babylon.

an operatic chandelier. K.D. Lang soars higher while listening in a box resembling a Spanish-galleon bow. I’m very fond of the State, which this season will host The Book of Mormon and Jay Leno. I saw films there when it was spookily dilapidated; wrote newspaper stories about its extensive renovation; reviewed everyone from Aretha Franklin to Ellen DeGeneres. My favorite experience was singing sea chanties in the deserted balcony with my father, whose strict Mennonite minister

Bethlehem; archieproject.org; thefriendsofjohnston.com).

The Joint has an out-of-joint location. The coffee/tea house almost hides in a corridor under an apartment co-op, reachable only by two

dad forbade him from entering a den of sinful entertainment to play tag with Satan. (453 Northampton St., Easton; 610-252-3132; statetheatre.org)

Housenick Park is a unique union of nature and human nature. The 91-acre property was the estate/farm/laboratory of Archibald Johnston (1864-1948), a Bethlehem Steel executive who served as the first mayor of Bethlehem’s united north and south sides. He and his wife Estelle commissioned a splendid 22-room Georgian Revival mansion on a bluff over the wild Monocacy Creek, which Archie tamed with stone embankments and a concrete ford for washing cars. A charitable group, The Friends of Johnston, have created a magnetic conservation area from land donated by Janet Johnston Housenick, Archie’s greatgranddaughter. The partially restored “big house” leads to a tennis court turned jungle, a new bird blind by a marsh, and a concrete bridge splintered like bones. Another trail passes lime kilns, a spring, a pump house and railroad tracks for freight trains. A new macadam path winding through a panoramic prairie completes a soul-satisfying pilgrimage through a soulful reclaimed ruin. (3811 Christian Spring Rd.,

alleys and an alley-like street. For 13 years I’ve been guiding newcomers to a compact, cozy place with a funky neon sign, cool chalkboard walls, and a hip, new-age hippie vibe. Six robust blends are made by Homestead Coffee Roasters, headquartered in a general store in a former barn along the Delaware Canal tow path in Upper Black Eddy. Specialties include a brew aged 30 days in bourbon barrels and a carmelized café con leche inspired by the Puerto Rican grandmother of owner Tito Negron. Flavors range from lavender syrup to jitter-calming C.B.D. oil. Drinks are made and chocolate-raspberry croissants served by the super-efficient, super-friendly Cynthia, Juliet and Tod, who works next door in Electric Cheetah Tattoos. They’re just as welcoming to our four-legged companions, handing out treats like they’re running a doggy daycare center. (Sun Inn Courtyard, 77 W. Broad St., Bethlehem; 610-419-9237; thejointcoffee.com)

Slinkies slinking down steps like steel caterpillars. Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots knocking off blocks. Knob-twisting Picassos Etch-aSketching. These indelible toys highlight “Let’s Play!,” a delightfully playful survey of four centuries of domestic recreation. One room holds an army of “Star Wars” figurines, which launched the first boom in movie merchandising. Another room chronicles the 1918 Bethlehem Steel Baseball League, where Babe Ruth, Shoeless Joe Jackson and other major leaguers dodged the draft by working and playing for a crucial military industry. Shelves inside a glassed-in storage area are lined with miniature cast-iron vehicles and miniature Santas evolving, or devolving, into eggs. Interpretive placards offer lively trivia (the phrase “action figure” was designed to attract doll-hating boys) and livelier controversies (Cabbage Patch Dolls chewed plastic food and non-plastic fingers). (Through Jan. 31, Kemerer Museum of Decorative Arts, 427 North New St., Bethlehem; 610-868-6868; historicbethlehem.org) n

The Wizards of Winter

The Joint

ground as an attempt at some kind of atonement, is one of Tarkovsky’s most visually and thematically resonant setpieces, as profound a vision of destruction and rebirth as any artist has gifted us. (Streaming on Filmatique.)

Barry Lyndon (1975, Stanley Kubrick, United Kingdom/United States) Stanley Kubrick adapts William Makepeace Thackeray’s novel about the rise and fall of the eponymous Irish rogue (Ryan O’Neal) in 18th-century England. From the start, the milieu is as alien-seeming as anything in the director’s own 2001: A Space Odyssey, a slow-burn symphony of constricting period garments, eerily low-level lighting (cinematographer John Alcott pioneered several techniques to shoot scenes with only flickering candles), and hypnotically stilted line readings. Emotion is kept consistently at bay as Barry ascends the social ladder, eventually marrying well above his station and becoming a despotic tyrant before his ruination commences. Only near the end of the three-hour-film — when Barry is challenged to an epochal duel

by his disgruntled adopted son Lord Bullingdon (Leon Vitali), and his tormented wife Lady Lyndon (Marisa Berenson) shows of flicker of feeling in a climactic close-up for the ages — does the glassy spell cast by Kubrick’s classic finally, and spectacularly, shatter.(Streaming on HBOMax.)

Survival of the Dead (2009, George A. Romero, United States/Canada) In what would prove to be horror movie maestro George A. Romero’s final feature, the writerdirector transposes a tried-and-true zombie tale (his specialty) onto a Western template. The third in an unofficial modern trilogy that also includes Land of the Dead and Diary of the Dead, Survival of the Dead follows the soldier antiheroes of the prior entry as they cross paths with a group of survivalists not only warring with the undead but with each other. It’s the Hatfields vs. the McCoys (here the O’Flynns and the Muldoons)…with zombies. The flesh-rending gore, as always, is prevalent, but so is Romero’s pointed sense of humor, here turned toward internecine conflicts that never die, even when the peo-

ple fighting these useless wars do. Romero’s endearing affection for the genres he’s min-

Survival of the Dead.

ing to his own ends show up in visuals as disparate as a cowboy zombie riding a horse and a corker of a final image (a great closer to Romero’s career) in which two of the undead have a pointless gun duel in front of the rising moon. (Streaming on MUBI.) n

Barry Lyndon (1975)

harper’s FINDINGS INDEX

Astronomers created a detailed map of all the stars ever to have died in the Milky Way. A report of stars in the sky during the solar eclipse of July 19, 418, at Constantinople allowed Japanese astronomers to remap the path of totality. The sarcophagus of Ptahemwia, treasurer to Ramesses II, was found inscribed with emblems to Nut, who was likewise found in art uncovered at the temple of Esna, which also depicts the gods of the sun and the moon in the other world. Fifteen falcons, most of them headless, were found buried in a temple at Berenike along with a stele whose inscription reads it is improper to boil a head in here. Confusion over a hapax legomenon in an Old Hungarian runic inscription led to its being misread as i love you sexually eniko˝, my eniko˝ rather than as i love you eniko˝, my eniko˝! In the Liang Tebo cave in Borneo, archaeologists found evidence of the earliest survived amputation, from 31,000 years ago. Violent deaths were more common than previously thought among So. American mummies. Underweight and normal weight human bodies, but not overweight ones, increase the bacterial diversity of the soil in which they decompose.

9

Shock collars can compel grazing cattle to create firebreaks in the scrublands of the American West. The Great Salt Lake is becoming saltier. Physicists described the salinity staircase of the Arctic Ocean, where glass microspheres will only further melt sea ice, and where the number of rainy days is predicted to double by 2100. Refreezing the poles was estimated to be possible at an annual cost of $11 billion, while the net economic benefit of decarbonizing the world’s energy grids by 2050 was estimated to be $12 trillion. Cleaner air is reducing the warming-mitigation effect of air pollution. A study of leaf temperatures determined that atmospheric warming will compromise the carbon uptake of forests. Hateful tweets in the U.S. increase by up to 22% when temperatures rise above seventy degrees Fahrenheit, and a temperature-racist-tweet response curve was discovered in Europe. The largest organism on earth is beginning to break apart. 9

Blue whales can tell when the wind is changing. A new species of octopus was discovered at the Dongshan Seafood Market Pier. The California two-spot octopus attacks using its second arm on either side. Marine biologists described the strange attractor of narwhals’ apparent diurnal chaos. Declines in amphibian populations may be tied to malaria outbreaks among humans, zoo bears are fed too much protein, and a two-decade observation of apes found evidence of enduring relationships between gorillas and chimpanzees. Hotel guests prefer female robots. Cornell computers anticipated the moves of volleyball players with 80% accuracy. The consciousness of ICU patients can be tracked algorithmically, and music may temper the delirium of elderly, mechanically ventilated ICU patients. Wakeful mind-blanking is structurally similar to deep sleep. Chemists were close to completing a marijuana breathalyzer. The lead author of a study on toxoplasmosis infections in humans explained that “the most ‘sexy’ takeaway from our study is that our political views are also shaped by biological factors, including parasitic infections,” which were recently found to make humans sexier. Dehorning black rhinos does not hurt their sexual prospects. The pandemic led to a shortfall of three million American pet neuterings. Dogs can smell the lingering presence of stress. A green puppy was born on a lavender farm. n

Portion of congresspeople who are older than 70: 1/4 Who traded stocks between 2019 and 2021: 1/3 Min. number they or a relative traded stocks associated with a committee they served on: 97 Ratio of Americans who gambled online to those who traded cryptocurrency last year: 1:1 Portion of adults aged 18 to 44 who have gambled more since the start of the pandemic: 1/4 Number of slot machines on American military bases overseas: 3,141 Estimated revenue these generate annually for the Department of Defense: $100,000,000 Minimum number of active-duty U.S. soldiers who have a gambling problem: 56,000 Amount for which Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s gavel was sold at an auction this year: $20,400

For which a birthday card from Elon Musk was sold: $17,000 Min. number of Leonard Cohen songs owned by a private equity firm as collateral: 278 Portion of American adults who say they have gone viral: 3/10

Factor by which more American women than men name true crime as their favorite genre: 2 Portion of Americans who say they consume true crime content at least once a week: 1/3 Who think the genre helps solve crimes that wouldn’t otherwise be solved: 3/5

Percentage of Republicans who say they are in a militia or know someone who is: 25 Of Democrats who say this: 32

Republicans who say it would be unconstitutional to declare the U.S. a Christian nation: 3/5 Who are in favor of doing so: 3/5

Percentage of U.S. adults who believe God learns and adapts to different circumstances: 51 Who do not: 32

Percentage of American evangelicals who deny original sin: 65 Who deny the divinity of Jesus Christ: 43

Percentage by which religious people are more likely than non-believers to be satisfied with their sex lives: 35

Estimated year by which Christians will no longer constitute a majority of the American population: 2050 Minimum percentage of grocery store employees who left their jobs last year: 48

Portion of shoppers who say they have stolen something while using a self-checkout machine: 1/3

Percentage of retailers that have invested in additional security equipment this year: 52

That are using or planning to use facial recognition software to deter theft: 12 That are using or planning to use license plate recognition software: 19

Percentage increase since 2019 in the number of “actively disengaged” U.S. workers under the age of 35: 50

Portion of remote workers under the age of 35 who don’t know what their employers expect of them: 3/5

Portion of HR professionals who have discovered employees working outside of their home state or country: 2/5

Who are “very confident” that they know where most of their workers are: 1/2

Portion of Americans who say they have traveled less or canceled a vacation because of inflation: 1/6 Portion of U.S. workers who remain concerned about COVID-19 exposure at work: 1/3 Who expect infections to increase: 2/3

Portion of U.S. dating app users who say it’s important to put one’s COVID-19 vaccination status in one’s profile: 1/2

Estimated portion of COVID-19 patients who report “brain fog” six months after the initial infection: 2/5

Projected portion of the global population that will be myopic by 2050: 1/2

SOURCES: 1 Congressional Research Service (Washington); 2,3 New York Times; 4 National Council on Problem Gambling (Washington)/Pew Research Center (Washington); 5–8 National Council on Problem Gambling; 9 Bonhams (NYC); 10 RR Auction (Boston); 11 Hipgnosis Songs Fund (London); 12 OnePoll (NYC); 13–17 YouGov (NYC); 18,19 Stella Rouse, University of Maryland (College Park); 20–23 Lifeway Christian Resources (Nashville, Tenn.); 24 Nitzan Peri-Rotem, University of Exeter (England); 25 Pew Research Center; 26 FMI, The Food Industry Association (Arlington, Va.); 27 My Favourite Voucher Codes (Bath, England); 28–30 National Retail Federation (Washington); 31,32 Gallup (Washington); 33,34 Topia (San Francisco); 35–37 Gallup; 38 Pew Research Center; 39 Sung-Min Cho, Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore); 40 American Academy of Ophthalmology (San Francisco).

SEASONAL DOWNTURN

ACROSS

1 Targets of the NASA missions Star dust and Stardust-NExT 7 Field workers? 11 Army of the Potomac commander George 16 Waits on tracks? 19 It has a beaver on one side of its flag 20 Avian declaration of territory, perhaps 21 “Nuh-UH!” 22 Double ___ (drink) 23 “Explorer” network 24 Initial stake 25 Changed direction like lightning (or like five answers in this puzzle) 27 Gained energy, say 28 *Bygone alternative to Teen Vogue 30 Metal detector? 31 Romantic suspense author Kennedy 32 Tear 33 Cyberpunk hero 34 Withdrawal devices 36 *Courtroom hotshots 38 Battle cry 40 Removes, as sheets 43 Presidential promises 46 Costa ___ 47 Bamboozle 48 “The ___ on the Train” (Paula Hawkins novel) 50 World Series-winning manager Piniella 51 Major gesture 52 Rapidly growing trees 55 Level at a stadium? 56 Golden birds, at times 58 Sheets spot 59 “The Long Goodbye” author Meghan 61 *“Mother of the Blues” played by Viola Davis in a 2020 film 63 Backs (away) 64 Errors of comedy? 66 Fixes with a pin, say 68 “Should it be true ...” 72 Unpleasant eye rhyme? 73 Accepts punishment 75 Marine mollusk 77 When Juliet says “Romeo, I come! this do I drink to thee” 78 Napoleonic Wars marshal Michel 80 Expanded 81 Defense org. seen in Santa Barbara? 84 *“It can’t be done!” 86 Cry of musophobia

by EVAN BIRNHOLZ

88 They’ll give you a raise 89 French Revolution-era assassin Charlotte 91 Ceramic vessel, maybe 92 *Method of reading someone’s fortune on their hand 94 Feta cheese source 95 Fictional graduate of Springfield High School during the 1970s 96 Leading the standings 98 Second film release 101 Something you can’t read on a poker face 103 Far 105 “¿Cómo ___?” 106 Recipe verb 109 Recipe verb 110 Artistic spirit 113 Business offering 115 Tax 116 Drink “for One” in a Led Zeppelin song and “for Two” in a Vincent Youmans song 117 Predictions about seasonal changes 119 Media critic Johnson who co-hosts the podcast “Citations Needed” 121 “Doesn’t matter which” 123 Be financially obligated 124 Swift response? 125 Checkerboard ___ (Zion National Park landform) 126 Cling 127 Colleagues of DOs 128 Vocally harsh 129 MSNBC host Wagner 130 Secured, at a marina

DOWN 1 He wrote a “New York Times” op-ed titled “O’Brien Flops!” on the day of his “Late Night” premiere in 1993 2 Go on before a crowd 3 Climate change topic? 4 Loco moco ingredient 5 Steel reinforcement for a work boot, say 6 Haughty folks 7 “I’ve figured out this puzzle’s trick!” 8 All alternative 9 All-out 10 Auto installation 11 Puzzle solver’s network 12 Jannings who won the first Oscar for best actor 13 They’re right at 90 degrees 14 Jury count, often

15 “When do you plan to show up?” letters 16 Little big cat 17 Free time after a cancellation, say 18 Ticked off 26 “Find Your ___”(song from “Spamalot”) 29 Example of 69 Down? 35 Clubs, but not bats 37 Example of 69 Down? 39 Natural alternative to artificial turf 41 Protect against loss 42 Prune 44 Avocado ___ (mock symbol of luxury) 45 Gold medal-winning figure skater Sarah 47 Aquamarine’s weight unit 49 Flips (through) 51 Fluctuates 52 Habitats for frogs, salamanders and turtles 53 Eurythmics hit “Sweet Dreams (___ Made of This)” 54 Untrustworthy 57 Features of graphs and grids 60 Cause to be euphoric 62 Example of 69 Down? 65 Street-racing path? 67 Like a cliff face 68 Taking the place (of) 69 Autumn conditions, and a hint to reading the answers to the starred clues 70

74 1974, 1976 and 1981 Wimbledon champ Chris 76 What’s played at a gig 77 Company whose in-house newsletter was called The Gospel According to St. Pong 79 Trip around the sun 81 Desires deeply 82 City where people may have struck gold 83 Tall woodworking projects 85 Example of 69 Down? 87 Artist whose last name is a homophone of an art class material 90 Raison ___ 93 Example of 69 Down? 96 Burdens 97 ___ party 99 Its water is collected from a watershed 100 Affirm one’s commitment 102 Malcolm X House Site city 104 Deliver high pitches? 107 Maker of TerrainCut vehicles 108 Provoked, as on the playground 111 ___ dancing 112 Ashley Hatch of the Washington Spirit won one for Best National Women’s Soccer League Player in 2022 114 Substance with a pH level between 7 and 14 118 “Born on the Bayou” band, for short 120 Largest figure, for short 122 Nevertheless, for short