Things Noted Here and There

If you can get past the lovely painting by Louis Jean Francois,"Mars and Venus an Allegory of Peace," History Carnival LXXIV is up at Eliza Knight's History Undressed.

Matthew Polly,"From Russia With Blood, Beauty, and Beasts: How St. Petersburg Came To Be So Gorgeous," Slate, 23 February, finds its only explanation in the city's history.

Theresa Tedesco,"The daily life of Conrad," National Post, 27 February, tells how historian Conrad Black spends his days in the slammer.

D. T. Max,"The Unfinished," New Yorker, 9 March, tells of the recovery, after his suicide, of David Foster Wallace's unfinished novel. Wallace,"Wiggle Room," ibid., is an excerpt from the novel.

Isaac Arnsdorf and Victor Zapana,"Yale will fire up to 300 staff," Yale Daily News, 27 February, notes that hard times have come, even to Old Eli.