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In March 2010, while listening to PBS, I heard an obituary of radio writer and producer Norman Corwin.  For years, Corwin has been one of my favorites, chiefly because of (or only) his wonderful On a Note of Triumph. On a Note of Triumph, difficult to describe, better yet heard–but I suppose I can sketch… Continue reading In My Mind, I Will Make Them Dead Already To Soften The Inevitable

I have heard of spite fences.  I have heard of architectural holdouts.  But spite houses are a new thing to me. Spite fences are built by people who want to “spite” their neighbor, building a fence that often blocks the view of the unoffending neighbor or otherwise is designed to irritate him or her. Here… Continue reading Spite House: Is This For Real?

We see this everywhere at some point towards the latter half of the 1960s.  Helvetica font runs rampant.  It’s everywhere:  in the LIFE copy, in the ads.  It permeates other publications, as well, but rarely as much as in LIFE. Not only that, but lower case.  It’s more of that faux humility.  Helvetica is a… Continue reading The Almighty Helvetica

One feature I see again and again from the 1930s to the 1950s is the Gentlemanly Library.  In so many cases, I imagine a permanent set at MGM or Warner’s where actors would sit down for their LIFE feature about Errol Flynn the Distinguished Scholar (or something).  Or at least Errol the scholar when he… Continue reading The Gentlemanly Library that Never Was

This is more about words than it is about nuclear war. But it’s trivia that has been lodged in my brain for years. Herman Kahn Herman Kahn was a well-known military strategist who published On Thermonuclear War in 1960.  Kahn, considered a major spear-rattler in the Cold War, was parodied by Walter Matteau in Fail-Safe.… Continue reading Kahn, Khan, and Thermonuclear War