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Oct. 15th, 2006
Meanings of Origin
By GRÉGOIRE BOUILLIER
When I was a teenager and went out at night, my mother always used to say the same thing at our doorstep: “Don’t do anything I’ll have to read about in the paper.” It was her way of telling me not to do anything stupid. She knew what she was talking about: when my mother met my father, she was 16. He was 18. It was 1956, and they were at a dance party on the outskirts of Paris. My father was playing drums in a little jazz band; my mother helped him with the dishes; within a year they were married and my brother was born. More
By GRÉGOIRE BOUILLIER
When I was a teenager and went out at night, my mother always used to say the same thing at our doorstep: “Don’t do anything I’ll have to read about in the paper.” It was her way of telling me not to do anything stupid. She knew what she was talking about: when my mother met my father, she was 16. He was 18. It was 1956, and they were at a dance party on the outskirts of Paris. My father was playing drums in a little jazz band; my mother helped him with the dishes; within a year they were married and my brother was born. More
Vanity Publishing?
Oct. 15th, 2006 01:45 amThe original Joy of Cooking was self-published in 1931 by Irma S. Rombauer, a St. Louis housewife who began collecting recipes as a form of comfort after her husbands suicide -- and as a means of supporting her family. More
Now we got Garrison Keillor hawking cars?
Oct. 15th, 2006 08:59 amA Love-Hate Relationship Bears a 50-State Diesel
By KEVIN CAMERON
By KEVIN CAMERON
ASSIGNMENTS this juicy are rare in the career of an automotive engineer: the opportunity to develop a new generation of high-efficiency diesel engines that would lead a major company into a fuel-sipping low-emissions future.
It was a challenge that Kenichi Nagahiro, whose portfolio as a Honda senior engineer included Formula One racing engines and the company’s VTEC variable valve timing technology, should have relished. Instead, he turned it down.
Mr. Nagahiro eventually relented, agreeing to head the program — but only if he had a free hand to design an engine that would overcome his disdain for the noisy, smelly diesels previously on the market.
The initial product of the program — the first diesel engine designed entirely by Honda — was introduced in 2003 to power a European version of the Accord. A British advertising campaign played off Mr. Nagahiro’s reluctance, asking, “What if a diesel engine was built by someone who hates them?” Television commercials featured Garrison Keillor singing a tune called “Hate Something, Change Something.” More
I must down to Earthsea again,
Oct. 15th, 2006 09:30 amThe Son of the Anime Master Begins His Quest for Honor
By CHARLES SOLOMON
KOGANEI, Japan
By CHARLES SOLOMON
KOGANEI, Japan
FOR Goro Miyazaki the summer ended on a bittersweet note. This 39-year-old filmmaker had the pleasure of seeing his first movie, the animated feature “Gedo Senki,” or “Tales From Earthsea,” blossom into the biggest hit of the summer in Japan, as it rose to the top spot and took in more than 7.3 billion yen (about $61.4 million) by the end of September.
But even his success brought inevitable reminders that he is, after all, the other Miyazaki. His Oscar-winning father, Hayao, regarded by many critics as the greatest director working in animation today, has earned much more with his own hits. Ursula K. Le Guin, author of the popular “Earthsea” novels, on which the new film was based, went out of her way to make the distinction on her Web site, calling the father “a genius of the same caliber as Kurosawa or Fellini.” She went on to complain about the liberties Goro and his new film took with her work.
“Of course a movie shouldn’t try to follow a novel exactly — they’re different arts, very different forms of narrative,” she wrote. “There may have to be massive changes. But it is reasonable to expect some fidelity to the characters and general story in a film named for and said to be based on books that have been in print for 40 years.”
So the younger Mr. Miyazaki can be forgiven a bit of weariness. “Sometimes I wish hadn’t entered the same profession as my father,” he said, speaking through an interpreter during an interview at Studio Ghibli, headquarters of the Hayao Miyazaki and the director Isao Takahata, in this suburb of Tokyo. “I realized for the first time how difficult it is to be the son of Hayao Miyazaki. If I weren’t involved in animated filmmaking, I would just have a simple, quiet, normal life.” More
Coat of varnish on the bathroom door... that's the third coat. It's ready to go back up the stairs. I striped the back, but ended up pickling it by adding white paint to the poly. It's a one hundred year old door, and it's had a few events in its life. Plus, snugging up beside the chimney, the house has moved one side down a wee bit more than the other. I'll see how it looks, and then if I don't like it, I can still always paint it white...
Put the "new" light on the porch. It matches the ones in the back yard. And unlike the brass carriage lanterns, I can take the frigging glass globe off and run it through the dishwasher. (Would I ever do that? Hell yes.)
Finished striping paint off the risers and side of the basement stairs. Some left to do, but all the backs are fairly paint free. Still want to replace the treads after the landing. The smell of one hundred year old paint coming off one hundred year old wood...
Haircut at 3:30
Dinner sixish...
Put the "new" light on the porch. It matches the ones in the back yard. And unlike the brass carriage lanterns, I can take the frigging glass globe off and run it through the dishwasher. (Would I ever do that? Hell yes.)
Finished striping paint off the risers and side of the basement stairs. Some left to do, but all the backs are fairly paint free. Still want to replace the treads after the landing. The smell of one hundred year old paint coming off one hundred year old wood...
Haircut at 3:30
Dinner sixish...