Art program in Boston hospitals helps with healing

Kes: apologies for the wonky formatting, I'm too zombified today to fix the margins.

Hoping That Art Helps With Healing
Gretchen Ertl for The New York Times
Published: March 14, 2012
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/15/arts/artsspecial/using-art-to-help-young-patients-in-hospitals.html?_r=2

CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL BOSTON, inside this city’s warren of top-notch hospitals, is a temple of
pediatrics,
drawing patients and families for some of the country’s best medical care. But it is probably not where they come expecting to find technical art instruction.

On a recent afternoon, however, Jason Springer, an educator from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, was here to provide just that, leading a group of patients
and their visitors in the making of Chinese lanterns.

“So, this is your brush, this is your inkwell, this is your ink stick,” said Mr. Springer, indicating sticks of sumo ink scattered across three tables in
the hospital’s patient recreation center. “The more you rub it, the darker the ink is going to be.”

Behind Mr. Springer, a projector showed images of Chinese and Japanese brush paintings from the museum’s extensive collection of Asian art. “Take some inspiration
from the mountains and the trees,” he said.
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The Three Evangelists by Fred Vargas, a sort of review

So, there were these three historians: a medievalist, a prehistoric historian, and a World War I historian (I'm sure there are jokes which begin like this, but all I could think of was one which began: "There were three engineers...", so if any of my historian friends know historian jokes, please post so I can address this sad oversight in my education).

Anyway, like a lot of historians, their studies have gained them much knowledge but little in the way of monetary riches, so they decide to share a house together. When their next-door neighbor disappears, the historians, who are very good at doing research and digging up obscure clues, decide to get involved.

And then it's as if the three musketeers decided that this time, rather than doing yet another adventure story with basically the same plot, they said, fuck that, this time we're ditching the poofy hats and doing a mystery!

I'm not sure that Fred Vargas intentionally rewrote _The Three Musketeers_ as a mystery, but once the idea occurred to me, I kept finding parallels. I'm not going to share them here, because they would be spoilers but, needless to say, there is a very evil cold-hearted woman who is working against them.

If you liked Arturo Perez-Reverte's _The Club Dumas_, I would recommend this book If you don't know who Perez-Reverte is, I would recommend this book anyway. If you have a thing for historians (swoonswoon), I would definitely recommend this book.

I've been averaging one Fred Vargas book a day for most of this week and, sadly, I'm almost out of Fred Vargas books, but I lovelovelove her novels. Before she wrote mysteries, Vargas was a historian and archeologist, so I'm thinking most of my friends would like her books.

I have one last Vargas mystery left and, oh look, it's supposed to be a rainy day tomorrow, so I won't even have to save it.