Nortre-Dame Cathedral on Fire

The New York Times

The New York Times:

Notre-Dame cathedral, the iconic symbol of the beauty and history of Paris, was scarred by an extensive fire on Monday evening that caused part of its delicate spire to collapse, bruised the Parisian skies with smoke and further disheartened a city already back on its heels after weeks of violent protests.

The cause of the fire was not immediately known, said André Finot, a spokesman for the cathedral, and officials added that no one had been killed or wounded in the blaze. But even three hours after the fire began, the authorities were still scrambling to contain it — and warned that they were not certain they would be able to.

Khalid’s ‘Free Spirit’ Tops the Charts

Khalid’s Free Spirit is the number one album in the country this week:

Khalid notches his first No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, as his third release, Free Spirit, opens atop the tally. The set, released on April 5 through Right Hand/RCA Records, starts with 202,000 equivalent album units earned in the week ending April 11, according to Nielsen Music — the fourth-largest week of 2019 for an album. Of that sum, 85,000 were in traditional album sales.

Review: Elevated: The Global Rise of the NBA

Elevated: The Global Rise of the NBA

Now that the NBA Playoffs have begun, Elevated: The Global Rise of the NBA arrives at the perfect time. The book takes a look at the history of the league through the lens of the New York Times writers who have covered the sports over the decades, as edited and annotated by Harvey Araton. Due to the nature of the book, you won’t find one specific writing style throughout. Although, there’s a high level of quality to the writing and you get a look at how the writers have changed their approach to covering the sport as new things like social media came into play.

Since I’m someone who doesn’t have a subscription to the New York Times, I otherwise would not have been able to read many of these articles. It’s an excellent chance for NBA fans to get a look into how devoted one publication was to covering a variety of teams, not just the ones in the New York area. You’ll find articles from the 1970s, to ones as recent as 2018, and everything in between. However, don’t expect the story to unfold in chronological order.

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