Alumni of San Francisco’s George Washington High School sue the school to keep it from covering up a (supposedly) controversial mural of the life of George Washington. William Murchison argues that even past events poorly remembered are worth remembering.

Venice to tax tourists.

Vinyl is set to outsell CDs for the first time since 1986.

The owner of The Strand bookstore plans to sue the New York city government over landmark status.

An early transcription of The Tale of Genji has been found: “The original manuscript of the story no longer exists, with the oldest versions of the story believed to have been transcribed by the poet Teika, who died in 1241. Until now, just four chapters of the 54-chapter story are confirmed to be Teika’s transcriptions, but now a fifth chapter, which depicts Genji’s encounter with the girl who becomes his wife, Murasaki, has also been identified as Teika’s.”

Essay of the Day:

In Humanities, Patrick J. Geary writes about Columba Stewart—the monk who helps Christian and Muslin communities in the Middle East preserve and digitize their medieval manuscripts:

“The biography of Columba Stewart displayed on the home page of the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library describes his extensive travels through the Middle East, Africa, Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and India in his efforts to help Christian and Muslim communities preserve and digitize their precious medieval and modern manuscripts.

“It mentions his rescue work in Timbuktu and his delicate and often dangerous efforts in war-torn Iraq to help Christian churches there save almost two millennia of religious thought from destruction. It goes on to describe his academic credentials: degrees from Harvard, Yale, and Oxford, fellowships from ‘all the right foundations,’ the grants that he has obtained for the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library, and his distinguished publications on early Christian monasticism.

“But what the biography does not mention, the photo of Columba makes abundantly clear: There he stands, arms folded, dressed in the habit of a Benedictine monk. This monastic identity is the most salient feature of what makes Columba Stewart the man he is, what drives him in his scholarship to understand the earliest history and even the prehistory of monasticism, what gives him the courage to enter combat zones to rescue manuscripts that few people care about and that still fewer can read. Columba Stewart is a monk.”

Read the rest.

Photo: Rigi

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