Elizabeth b prelogar

John Hollander , a virtuosic poet who breathed new life into traditional verse forms and whose later work achieved a visionary, mythic sweep, died on Saturday in Branford, Conn. He was 83. The cause was pulmonary congestion, his daughter Elizabeth Hollander said. As a young poet, Mr. Hollander fell under the influence of W. H. Auden, whose experiments in fusing contemporary subject matter with traditional metric forms he emulated. It was Auden who selected Mr. Hollander’s first collection of poems, “A Crackling of Thorns,” for the Yale Series of Younger Poets, which published it in 1958 with an introduction by Auden. Mr. Hollander’s wit, inventiveness and intellectual range drew comparisons to Ben Jonson and 17th-century Metaphysical poets like John Donne. The poet Richard Howard, in the book “Alone With America: Essays on the Art of Poetry in the United States Since 1950,” praised “a technical prowess probably without equal in American verse today.” Early on, Mr. Hollander … [Read more...] about John Hollander, Poet at Ease With Intellectualism and Wit, Dies at 83

J. D. McClatchy, an American poet known for work whose cool formal sheen belied the roiling emotion below its surface, died on Tuesday at his home in Manhattan. He was 72. His death, from cancer — an illness that had been grist for poems in recent years — was announced by Random House. The author of eight volumes of poetry, Mr. McClatchy was considered one of the country’s foremost men of letters. He was also a prolific editor, anthologist, translator and critic, as well as the author of a string of acclaimed opera librettos, among them “Our Town,” for Ned Rorem’s setting of Thornton Wilder’s enduring drama of village life, and the Metropolitan Opera’s condensed English-language production of Mozart’s “Magic Flute,” designed by Julie Taymor . Mr. McClatchy’s poems and essays appeared frequently in The New Yorker, The New York Times Book Review, The Paris Review and elsewhere. From his first book of poetry, “Scenes From Another Life” (1981), to his last, “Plundered … [Read more...] about J.D. McClatchy, Poet of the Body, in Sickness and Health, Dies at 72

As London Fashion Week picks up steam this weekend, with all its traffic, sharp elbows and celebrities, one woman is going to come in for unusually serious scrutiny: her every facial twitch parsed, outfits obsessively chronicled, show schedule observed. Tanned and lithe, with a close crop of mahogany curls, she is Yasmin Sewell, the 40-year-old Australian-born, London-based fashion director of Style.com , Condé Nast’s multimillion-dollar foray into e-commerce. You couldn’t have picked a better poster girl if you’d Photoshopped her from Vogue. The former wife of a movie star (her last name is thanks to a brief marriage to the British actor Rufus Sewell in the 1990s), she has more than 100,000 followers on Instagram and a social circle of fellow street-style stars like the editors Caroline Issa and Laura Brown, not to mention the designers Roksanda Ilincic and Jonathan Saunders. Ms. Sewell lives in the London Fields section of Hackney with her husband, Kyle Robinson, and … [Read more...] about Style.com Bets on a Street Style Star

A software update at Kaiser Permanente’s Colorado division threw off its system that calculates how much members have paid toward their deductibles, and thousands of them will receive refund checks. Elizabeth Whitehead, spokeswoman for the insurance and health care system, said members won’t receive any additional bills because of the computer error. Insurance plans cover a larger percentage of people’s health care bills after they’ve paid enough to hit the deductible, and cover everything once they reach the out-of-pocket maximum. Many people never reach that point, though those who use expensive drugs or were hospitalized sometimes get there in the first months of the year. About 7,600 people paid too much and will either get a check or a credit against any outstanding bills they still have, Whitehead said. It’s possible some others could receive a refund, but they’ve gone through the majority of members’ records, she said. The average refund is less than $50. “We … [Read more...] about 7,600 Kaiser Permanente customers in Colorado to get refunds following software error

Malcolm McLaren, an impresario, recording artist and fashion designer who as manager of the Sex Pistols played a decisive role in creating the British punk movement, died on Thursday in Switzerland. He was 64. The cause was mesothelioma, a cancer of the linings around organs, said Young Kim, his companion of many years. She said he had been under treatment at a Swiss hospital. He lived in Paris and New York. Mr. McLaren, a former art student, found an outlet for his ideas about fashion, music and social provocation in the inchoate rock ’n’ roll scene of London in the early 1970s. Operating from the clothing boutique Sex, which he and the fashion designer Vivienne Westwood ran, he brought together four obscure musicians, called them the Sex Pistols and provided them with an attitude suited to Britain in decline: nihilistic rage, expressed at high volume in songs like “Anarchy in the U.K.” and the vitriolic anti-anthem “God Save the Queen.” Mr. McLaren was a keen student of … [Read more...] about Malcolm McLaren, Seminal Punk Figure, Dies at 64

Correction Appended "THEY keep finding new ways to celebrate mediocrity," grumbles Bob Parr, once known as Mr. Incredible, the patriarch of a superhero family languishing in middle-class suburban exile. He is referring to a pointless ceremony at his son's school, but his complaint is much more general, and it is one that animates "The Incredibles," giving it an edge of intellectual indignation unusual in a family-friendly cartoon blockbuster. Because it is so visually splendid and ethically serious, the movie raises hopes it cannot quite satisfy. It comes tantalizingly close to greatness, but seems content, in the end, to fight mediocrity to a draw. By "they" Bob means the various do-gooders, meddlers and bureaucrats -- schoolteachers, lawyers, politicians, insurance executives -- who have driven the world's once-admired superheroes underground, into lives of bland split-level normalcy. "The Incredibles," written and directed by Brad Bird and released under the mighty Pixar brand, … [Read more...] about Being Super in Suburbia Is No Picnic