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Marina Toybina, costume designer

The Masked Singer is an American reality singing competition television series that premiered on Fox on January 2, 2019. It is part of the Masked Singer franchise and features celebrities singing songs while wearing costumes to conceal themselves. The program employs panelists who guess the celebrities' identities. In most episodes, after the last performance, a vote of the panelists and the audience eliminates a contestant, who is then revealed. The costumes were inspired by haute couture and designed in the first six seasons by Marina Toybina (pictured), who won a Costume Designers Guild Award and two Creative Arts Emmy Awards. The first five seasons received the highest Nielsen ratings for a non-sports program in the key demographic of adults 18–49. Its success has been credited to the growth of the Masked Singer franchise and interest in adapting South Korean reality television series and other television formats centered on costumes. The tenth season premiered in September 2023. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Geordie Greep

... that Geordie Greep (pictured) has an accent that has been described as "geographically unclassifiable"?
... that the owner of 130 West 30th Street would have renamed the structure the "Beaver Pelt Building" if it could not be named after its architect?
... that the murder of Jiang Ge led to public debate in China over the actions of Jiang's roommate during her murder?
... that George Willis Pack, a Northerner and Lincoln supporter, financed a monument to Confederate governor Zebulon Vance in Asheville, North Carolina?
... that the painter of The Rape of Lucretia updated the ancient legend by setting the scene in the bedroom of a contemporary Italian home?
... that the projector at the Walter Reade Theater had to be modified to screen Nathaniel Dorsky's short film Triste?
... that Dacrytherium, literally meaning 'tear beast', was named after its "tear-pit"?
... that the construction of the Rajiv Lochan Temple has been variously attributed to two mythical kings and a god?

In the news

The Japan Airlines Airbus A350 involved in the crash

Japan Airlines Flight 516 (aircraft pictured) collides with a Japan Coast Guard aircraft while landing at Tokyo's Haneda Airport, killing five aboard the latter aircraft.
Lee Jae-myung, the leader of the South Korean opposition, is hospitalized following a stabbing attack in Busan.
An earthquake, the strongest mainland event since 2011, strikes the Noto Peninsula of Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan, leaving 57 people dead.
In Nigeria, bandits kill at least 200 people in Plateau State.
A mass shooting in Prague, Czech Republic, leaves 15 people dead.

On this day

January 2: Feast day of Saint Gregory of Nazianzus and Saint Basil of Caesarea (Roman Rite Catholicism, Anglicanism)

Ronald Reagan

1777 – American Revolutionary War: American forces under the command of George Washington repulsed a British attack at the Battle of the Assunpink Creek near Trenton, New Jersey.
1959 – The Soviet Luna 1, the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the Moon, was launched by a Vostok rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome.
1967 – Ronald Reagan (pictured) began his career in government when he was sworn in as the 33rd governor of California.
1976 – An extratropical cyclone began affecting parts of western Europe, resulting in coastal flooding around the southern portions of the North Sea and leading to at least 82 deaths.
2009 – Sri Lankan Civil War: The Sri Lankan army captured the town of Kilinochchi from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, concluding the Battle of Kilinochchi.

William de St-Calais (d. 1096)
Hester C. Jeffrey (d. 1934)
Roman Dmowski (d. 1939)
Norodom Ranariddh (b. 1944)

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Today's featured picture

Le Violon d'Ingres is a black-and-white photograph taken by the American visual artist Man Ray in 1924. One of the best-known works of Surrealist photography, it was first published in the Surrealist magazine Littérature in June 1924. It shows the French model Kiki de Montparnasse from the back, nude to below her waist and wearing a turban. Two f-holes are painted on her back to make her body resemble a violin.

Photograph credit: Man Ray

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