Wednesday, December 8, 2004
Just before Thanksgiving, I went down to the San Francisco Auto Show, giving up a gorgeous and sunny Sunday afternoon to wander around the cavernous bowels of the Moscone Center. The air was close with that new-car smell, and the hundreds of shiny, shiny cars gleamed as though in some kind of virtual-reality spaceport — like the future was there somewhere, struggling to emerge.
June 2004
It was not until I moved into a house near a ketchup factory that I first perceived the all-encompassing, smothering embrace of our national vegetable. When the night was still, a cool inversion keeping the air low to the moist floor of the Central Valley, the aroma would blanket the town. Sweet stewing tomatoes.
We could walk from our house up to the ketchup factory fence. Through the chain link, we could see the trucks roll in and up a ramp. There, they were grabbed by a sort of harness, and the entire truckbed would be lifted and dumped—tons of bouncing red balls rolling into the maw of a stainless steel industrial facility. (more…)
May 2004
Window Seat decodes the sights to be seen on any flight across North America. Broken down by region, this handy little softcover book features 70 aerial photographs; a fold-out map of North America showing major flight paths; profiles of each region covering its landforms, waterways, and cities; tips on spotting major and not-so-major sights; and straightforward, friendly text on cloud shapes, weather patterns, the continent’s history, and more.
The perfect addition to your carryon bag, Window Seat is a terrific book for kids, frequent flyers, and armchair travelers alike. When it’s possible to “read” the landscape from above, a whole world unfolds at your feet.
