In Brief: Advent 4 Edition

Here is your regular Sunday selection of links to good things in Blogville and Beyond.

• Schoolkids in Racine, Wisc., singing the "Trololo" song. You know you want to watch it. [Omniscient Mussel]


• Tyler Cohen has a quote about the intersection of economics and ballet: John Maynard Keynes. [Marginal Revolution]


• Five thousand donors came together in response to a call from the Louvre, raising one million euros to help the museum reach the price tag to acquire Lucas Cranach's Three Graces. [Le Monde]


• The French experimental writing group Oulipo -- or Workshop of Potential Literature -- was founded 50 years ago. [The Literary Saloon]


• The death of modern art? French artist Saâdane Afif, winner of the 2009 Prix Marcel Duchamp, has created a coffin meticulously carved like the famous exterior of the Centre Pompidou (image). It is made of wood, 2 meters long and 1 meter wide, painted blue, white, and red. [Le Monde]


• Want to live like a king? Well, at least like a French nobleman? The French government has authorized a Belgian company to turn the Grand Contrôle, an hôtel particulier built by Hardouin-Mansart in 1684, into an exclusive luxury hotel. The building is located on what is now the Rue de l'Indépendance-Américaine, at the edge of the grounds of Versailles. [Le Figaro]