This Old Book: 'Ian Shoales' Perfect World'

I fondly remember the National Public Radio of the 1980s, especially "All Things Considered," because it kept me awake on so many long automobile trips in the wilds of Maryland, Pennsylvania and upstate New York. I must have bought this book after hearing a commentary on the show from Ian Shoales, a member of Duck's Breath Mystery Theater. I'm not entirely sure that it was clear to me at first that he was the fictional creation of Merle Kessler. After a blast of cynical commentary, his trademark sign-off was "I gotta go."  In later years, Kessler has written articles, performed on KQED radio, local theater on the West Coast, kept a blog, and even done some recent podcasting. I can't say that this Reagan-Cold War-era book has aged all that well. So much in our culture, world and society was about to change. A lot of the references seem stale or frozen in time. What might have seemed edgy then has been rendered mild in this age of "The Daily Show," Sean Hannity and The Onion. It is a window on a forgotten era.

This Old Book started as a Tumblr, which is also archived on Palafo.com. These are books that have survived many purges from my shelves over decades, with a few comments about why I have held onto them.

An Update on the Coffee Situation

The Krups Espressaria full automatic espresso machine. 

Earlier this year, we moved to Chelsea, and now live I within in a couple of blocks of Cafe Grumpy. It is among the best, if not the best, place for coffee in Manhattan. That has made me exceptionally lazy about seeking out new coffee shops. When I lived in Midtown, I had no choice but to hop on my bike or the subway to get good beans and a cafe vibe.

A couple of months before we moved, my refurbished Jura machine jammed up in some way, and I didn't have time to deal with it. Half of our stuff was in storage while the real estate agents, lawyers, condo boards and bankers toyed with us.

When the dust settled, I decided to treat myself to a Christmas present, this Krups machine. I like some things about it more than the Jura, but it requires a lot more regular attention and cleaning. The bean and water containers seem smaller.

But the more pressing matter right now is that I am almost out of Heartbreaker.  It's time to head to Grumpy.

Poetry and Prose at Sparks Art Center

My wife, Jane Rosenberg LaForge, and three other writers, Lisa Marie Basile, Britt Gambino,​​​ and Jim Meirose will read their poetry and prose from 7 to 9 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 20, 2012, at the Sparks Art Center, 161 West 22​nd St., in Chelsea. All four read their work there in 2010. Jane is promoting her new book.

The Cat Is Not Amused

I took this shot of our cat, Zeka, to test the Squarespace app for the iPhone. She is a 9-month-old Siberian, still just a kitten. I've also posted a shot of her watching the Olympics openings ceremony.

This Old Book: 'The Straight Dope'

Before Snopes and Wikipedia, before the Web itself, there was The Straight Dope by Cecil Adams, a column of “answers to the questions that torment everyone.” Was it true what they said about Catherine the Great and the horse? Why does hair turn gray? How do they get the stripes into toothpaste? How come you never see baby pigeons? Does water go counter-clockwise down the drain in the southern hemisphere? The column started in 1973 in the Chicago Reader, but I’m pretty sure I first came across it in a local weekly in Ithaca (possibly The Grapevine), and later in the Baltimore City Paper. The copyright page on this paperback is dated 1984. As of this post, the column is still published, and is available on the Web, but in an age when any and all trivia is at our fingertips, it feels a bit beside the point. Cecil did have an engaging and combative prose style that was entertaining, though his true identity remains a mystery. Many, including Wikipedia, suspect the writer is the man identified as his “longtime editor,” Ed Zotti. 

This Old Book started as a Tumblr, which is also archived on Palafo.com. These are books that have survived many purges from my shelves over decades, with a few comments about why I have held onto them.

This Old Book: 'Labyrinths'

No library is complete without some Borges. I obtained this 1964 edition at a used bookshop on the recommendation of a friend who was going through a Borges phase in college. Someone I don’t know wrote an inscription in the cover to someone else I don’t know, dated 1986. A doomed romance or friendship. Upon review, the text seems more oblique than I recall. From a piece called “The Immortal”:

To be immortal is commonplace; except for man, all creatures are immortal, for they are ignorant of death; what is divine, terrible, incomprehensible, is to know that one is immortal. I have noted that, in spite of religions, this conviction is very rare. Israelites, Christians and Moslems profess immortality, but the veneration they render this world proves they believe only in it, since they destine all other worlds, in infinite number, to be its reward or punishment. The wheel of certain Hindustani religions seems more reasonable to me; on this wheel, which has neither beginning nor end, each life is the effect of the preceding and engenders the following, but none determines the totality… Indoctrinated by a practice of centuries, the republic of immortal men had attained the perfection of tolerance and almost that of indifference. They knew that in an infinite period of time, all things happen to all men. Because of his past or future virtues, every man is worthy of all goodness, but also of all perversity, because of his infamy in past or future.

This Old Book started as a Tumblr, which is also archived on Palafo.com. These are books that have survived many purges from my shelves over decades, with a few comments about why I have held onto them.

Time Traveler Needs Cat Sitter

A friend from Pennsylvania forwarded this Craiglist job ad. If you're interested, hurry before it expires. So many questions: What is the business in June 1983? Perhaps a modest investment in Apple Computer. The need for a cat sitter could be avoided by returning on the same day, but perhaps time that passes in the past must be accounted for somehow. A two-day job, then. I have to assume "circumference" of the head was intended. The average circumference of the human head is reportedly 57 cm, based on a Web page I pulled up at random. Do you have to climb through some kind of porthole? Or wear a special helmet? Will you have to lift the time machine? Perhaps to hide it.

Seriously, though, most cats can get through a couple of days alone with a bowl of dry food and water.

Update: There is a similar time traveler ad meme / prank out there, which has now inspired a movie, "Safety Not Guaranteed."

Quick Coffee Notes From Around Town

It was a busy summer and autumn, both personally and professionally, so I suspended my coffee blogging -- but not my coffee drinking. The best bean by far was the (expensive) Honduras Cup of Excellence Lot #4 from Fernández Farm in El Cielito, Santa Bárbara, Honduras, as roasted by Cafe Grumpy. (It's still available: I picked up some today.) The tasting notes: "Red currant aroma. Floral brightness. Sweet notes of aged bourbon & molasses." The Cup of Excellence rewards barista skill, of course, but you have to start with a good bean, and this far exceeded my expectations. I was parceling out beans like bits of gold on mornings with important business. I also returned to a couple of standbys -- Grumpy's Heartbreaker espresso, always right on the money, and the house espresso at Joe the Art of Coffee. In my office, I used the Aeropress to make cups of another Honduran bean, Finca La Tina from Joe, with good results.

I have noticed a few new coffee shops opening their doors around Manhattan, so I hope to try a few new places. Alas, B. Koffie, home of the French press in a cup, closed its doors a while back, so Hell's Kitchen again lacks a boutique coffee experience. (The beans came from La Columbe.)