Word: barnumism
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Just for kicks, imagine New York City, 1868: The bustling center of American culture abounded with theaters, P.T. Barnum-esque museums of curiosities, and the middle and upper classes whose sensibilities these entertainments are offended. British burlesque star Lydia Thompson and her sensual troupe, the British Blondes—short skirts and satirical skits in tow—stepped off their ship and into a foreign country teetering on the cultural waves of a nation in flux...
...they're people. There are not, to my knowledge, any great identical-twin novelists (though I think John Barth has a twin sister), and I have never yet read a fictional account of twinness that I found convincing, with one exception: Darin Strauss's excellent Chang and Eng, about Barnum & Bailey's famous Siamese twins. As Elspeth tells her lover Robert shortly before she dies, "You haven't got a twin, so you can't know how it is." Too right...
...bear out P.T. Barnum's aphorism that there is no such thing as bad publicity. Modern right-wing parties are smart enough to know that every criticism, every scandal, every court case, every article - including this one - is liable to send visitors to their websites, which could help them recruit members and raise funds. "The Obama campaign was brilliant. We learned a lot from it," says Griffin. So much, in fact, that online antiracist campaign Hope Not Hate has turned to Blue State Digital, an Internet consultancy that worked on the Obama campaign, to mobilize activists against...
...groom's last night as a single man. Spartan soldiers held a dinner in their friend's honor and made toasts on his behalf - with, one assumes, a Spartan sense of decorum. Since then, the events have generally grown more raucous. In 1896, a stag party thrown by Herbert Barnum Seeley - a grandson of P.T. Barnum - for his brother was raided by police after rumors circulated that a famous belly dancer would be performing nude. Before his wedding to Gloria Hatrick, Jimmy Stewart's infamous bash at the Beverly Hills hangout Chasen's included midgets popping out of a serving...
...crisis. And we want to be able to provide our content in whatever platform people are going to turn to." Moldow, who is giddy about a potential new way to plug her authors' books ("If you're a publisher and you don't have a little P.T. Barnum in you, you don't belong in the business"), says producing "trailers" is another way publishers have tried to make book publicity more dynamic...