Culture Watch

The United Kingdom has its first Labor Party prime minister. Five new characters are introduced. Plot threads left dangling from the last season of Downton Abbey, including Lady Mary's courtship contest, Lady Edith's trials as a secret single mom, Thomas's scheming against Bates. A new Mystery! series includes a charismatic young clergyman and Robson Green as the Police Inspector as well as the series, Indian Summers, with Julie Walters more »

P. D. James Q & A: What is the difference between the detective story and the crime novel? The reader can expect to find a central mysterious death, a closed circle of suspects each with credible motive, means and opportunity for the crime, a detective, either amateur or professional, who comes in like an avenging deity to solve it, and a solution at the end of the book which the reader should be able to arrive at by logical deduction from clues presented by the writer with deceptive cunning but essential fairness. What interests me is the extraordinary variety of talents which this so-called formula is able to accommodate. more »

Gender gaps in test scores and grades have been documented across a range of educational settings — in science, collegiate outcomes, and law and business schools. Research shows that Socratic and adversarial teaching styles — common to traditional law school instruction — may pose disadvantages for female students, who tend to participate less frequently than males in larger classes. more »

Julia Sneden has quoted: "When you yourself had borne a child, Kristin, I thought you would understand,' her mother had said once. Now, she understood that her mother's heart had been scored deep with memories of her daughter, memories of thoughts for her child from the time it was unborn and from all the years a child remembers nothing of, memories of fear and hope and dreams that children never know have been dreamed for them, until their own time comes to fear and hope and dream in secret — " more »