Soon bodice-rippers, the gothics, the romance novel advanced from paperback to hardback, from supermarket racks to book club selections.

According to Vanity Fair, it's the venerable game of poker - especially the deceptively simple but nerve-wracking version known as Texas Hold 'Em, the so-called Cadillac of poker, with buy-in requirements as high as $10,000 per player.

[Ben Quilty's] art is characterised not by a heavy morbidity but an ease and facility, a vitality that has seen figurative painting remain important in Australia in a period when it was dismissed as washed-up and conservative while conceptual and Instagrammable installation art had become de rigueur; …

Five kneecappings have been reported this month.