SIDE PIECES DEP'T.HAPPY NEW YEAR! And welcome to Volume 4 of Indignity! Greetings to our longstanding returning readers and to the new subscribers who’ve just joined us in the past two days. This newsletter is produced by editor Tom Scocca and creative director Joe MacLeod, who’ve been working together on various projects since we were both at City Paper in Baltimore in the previous century.  Back in October, when we had to slow down our publishing for a while because your editor was in the hospital, we vaguely suggested that "

During the Second World War, the decision was made to locate Britain's principal civil airport at Heathrow. Heath Row had been previously a small hamlet along a minor country lane called Heathrow Road in the ancient parish of Harmondsworth, Middlesex. Heathrow's original buildings were demolished in 1944 for the construction of the airport Here, we're going to take a tour of the old Heathrow hamlet at the time of the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 - I’ll be illustrating this post using an old 1939 map and the photos you'll see here largely date from that time.

The Saenger Theater barely survived Katrina. The basement filled with water; the orchestra pit filled with water; the stage went underwater. It took eight years to restore it. Now it feels old — it was built in 1927 — but also new. The auditorium mimics a 14th-century Italian Baroque courtyard, with terra-cotta columns, painted plaster, Greek and Roman statues, grottoes, urns, and lots of gilding. The ceiling, like a plantarium, winks with stars.

Two featurettes in one week! Three days ago, Affirm Films, the “faith-based” producers of the upcoming Christmas musical Journey to Bethlehem, released a promotional video that introduced us to Mary’s sisters from that film. Now they’ve got a new video that introduces us to King Herod’s oldest son Antipater, who is played in the film by Joel Smallbone of the Christian pop duo For King & Country. You can watch the video here—and be warned, it starts on a spoiler-y note:

☕️ Good Morning: The 2024 rotation has taken shape. Grab your coffee for your morning dose of Mets Fix! Happening now: The Mets added another piece to their rotation on Sunday by reportedly signing left-hander Sean Manaea to a two-year, $28 million contract with an opt out following the 2024 season. Risk-averse: This is the quintessential 2024 offseason s… ncG1vNJzZmismJq6psDRqKeopJmprq960q6ZrKyRmLhvr86mZqlnmJrGbrnAp5iemQ%3D%3D