wednesday september 05
It’s hurricane season once again, with the recent anniversary of Hurricane Katrina serving as a grim reminder. On September 8, 1900, an even deadlier hurricane swept the coast of Galveston, Texas, killing as many as 10,000 people and changing the city forever.
Erik Larson, bestselling author of The Devil in the White City, tells the story of this hurricane and its impact on Isaac Cline, the meteorologist who believed no storm could ever seriously damage Galveston.
Isaac’s Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History combines the science of weather with personal accounts of survivors to track the hurricane from beginning to devastating end. At the eye of the storm are Isaac Cline, the rivalry with his fellow weatherman (and younger brother) Joseph, and the overconfidence of the age, when turn-of-the-century meteorology (and the newly formed United States Weather Bureau) could not prepare the residents of Galveston for a hurricane of this magnitude. By the time they realized evacuation was necessary, it was too late.
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I like baseball, but not nearly as much as the protagonist of Robert Coover's novel The Univeral Baseball Association, Inc., J. Henry Waugh, Prop. The character's name is Henry Waugh, and he is not just a typical rabid Major League Baseball fan. He has taken baseball fanaticism to new heights. In fact, real life Major League Baseball isn't what he is concerned with, but a completely imagined league that is played as a game with dice. And if even this doesn't sound too out of the ordinary, Henry's game is fabricated to such a degree that a whole universe has been created around every possible aspect of the experience. For example, entire generations of players and seasons have already taken place and are established in his mind and all players past and present have fully realized personalities and histories that come to bear on the game itself.
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tuesday september 04
It's back to school time for all but a few lucky kids. What a great time for us "old people" to look back and remember our own school days. For instance, remember filmstrips?
Change Your Underwear Twice a Week brought it all back to me. Suddenly I recalled the filmstrips in their little plastic tubes, always wound backwards and requiring a quick rewind while the class waited. Then there were the old filmstrip projectors, made out of heavy metal and sitting on someone's tiny desk like a World War II battleship. I spent more than a little time sitting in a classroom with the shades drawn while the teacher, (or some
very lucky teacher's pet) waited for the "ding" that would signal them to turn the little dial and advance one frame.
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Anyone who has watched Bravo-TV's Project Runway knows that the name Tim Gunn is synonymous with tasteful criticism and witty critique. So many times I enjoyed his choice of words and delivery, giving aspiring designers the exactly right dose of "Make it work" encouragement...or was that a challenge?
Joy of joys, Tim has written a book for us, A Guide to Quality, Taste, and Style (2007). In it, he expounds on fashion and how to find the right look for each of us. In his learned, cultured, yet approachable and unpretentious way, he forces a look at who we really are and enables us to dress ourselves in a flattering yet totally honest way.
And, happily, Tim Gunn's new television show, Tim Gunn's Guide to Style, will premier on Bravo this Thursday evening.
Fashion is evidently important to the public at large. The fashion magazines are enormous this month! Vogue ("840 pages of fearless fashion!"), Elle (592 pages), and InStyle (618 pages) magazines are thicker and heavier than ever. Unfortunately, so am I. Oh, well! Glorious browsing!
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