Michael Bierut visits James Biber’s “Book Cube” and talks with Biber about the books that have interested him and inspired him—from those that helped Biber decide to become an architect to the guidebooks he takes with him when visiting Rome.
In 1972, the NYPD instituted an experimental new program called “Women in Patrol.” Meet retired Detective Lucille Burrascano, who was one half of the first pair of female partners—along with retired Police Officer Kathaline Salzano—to patrol the streets of New York in a radio car.
In her youth, Sergeant Margarette Gulinello showed promise as a ballerina. When her life took a different turn, she traded her ballet shoes for police boots and joined the NYPD. Now, nearly 20 years later, she’s rediscovering her passion for dance and applying the same discipline she learned as a cop to her ballet practice.
When new energy-efficient lights were installed in the Wolf diorama at the American Museum of Natural History, they created new shadows that weren’t consistent with the scene—a moonlit December night on the southern shore of Gunflint Lake in northern Minnesota. Here, Museum artist Stephen C. Quinn adds various pigments to the “snow” to re-create the illusion of shadows that would result from the Moon casting its eerie blue light on the wolves and surrounding trees.
After 74 years of crafting violins, 98-year-old violin maker Joseph Rashid forms a foundation to keep his collection intact. Scottish fiddler Alasdair Fraser pays a visit to Rashid and tries out some of his prized violins. “You know, I am being seduced by the tone,” Fraser says, bow in hand. “I like a violin that pushes back at me.”
Part of a package that was published in The Union Newspaper, the story won a California Newspaper Publishers Association Award for Feature Writing in 2008.
Michael Bierut visits James Biber’s “Book Cube” and talks with Biber about the books that have interested him and inspired him—from those that helped Biber decide to become an architect to the guidebooks he takes with him when visiting Rome.