Fawlty Towers Spared From Bulldozers

This just in from across the pond:

Basil will be delighted: Torbay councillors have turned down a scheme to demolish the hotel that was the inspiration for Fawlty Towers. Developers had sought to demolish the Gleneagles Hotel in Torquay, Devon, and replace it with a block of 25 flats. But the council decided that it would be against its tourism policy to destroy the hotel where Fawlty was born.... John Cleese, Fawlty's creator, stayed at the Gleneagles while filming Monty Python's Flying Circus in 1971 and became fascinated by its owner, Donald Sinclair. Mr Sinclair is alleged to have thrown Eric Idle's briefcase out of a window, thinking it was a bomb, and to have criticised Terry Gilliam for leaving his knife and fork on his plate at an angle, rather than straight. Cleese later described him as "the most wonderfully rude man I have ever met".

File under Stuff That Don't Fit Anywhere Else.

11:10:36 PM    Go ahead, make my day  []  trackback []  

It's A Feeding Frenzy

That's what one of the partners in my former firm would say. At FARK they would just give it the  tag:

"Investors gain little from shareholder suits". Highly critical analysis of the shareholder-suit biz in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch: "Usually, what shareholders get back is some minuscule fraction of their loss, some symbolic payment," said Stuart Greenbaum, dean of Washington University's Olin School of Business. [Overlawyered]

File under The Legal Profession.

10:54:30 PM    Go ahead, make my day  []  trackback []  

Good News For Lincoln Center

It looks like the New York Philharmonic will be staying at Avery Fisher Hall as opposed to moving to Carnegie Hall:

Carnegie Abandons Merger Discussions With Philharmonic. The decision to abandon the 2006 merger was attributed to irresolvable conflicts over which organization would dominate performance time. By Robin Pogrebin. [New York Times: NYT HomePage]

As much as I admire the acoustics of Carnegie Hall, the Philharmonic belongs in Lincoln Center. There really isn't any place quite like it anywhere. I know the orchestra has complained about the acoustics, but I don't believe that there is anything wrong with Avery Fisher Hall that can't be fixed. I also understand that Lincoln Center is going to undertake a major renovation of the hall.

The Philharmonic would've been just one of several "acts" at Carnegie. In its own house, it's the show.

File under Current Events.

12:05:11 AM    Go ahead, make my day  []  trackback []