I spent most of yesterday and all of today rescuing clients from Hurricane Floyd. It wreaked havoc on aviation this afternoon as the eastern coastal airports shut down for a few hours. By nightfall some flights were getting in, though, so I don't expect to have a particularly busy day tomorrow. That would be nice. I need to spend some time following up on boring things like refunds and commissions and incorrect charges to credit cards.
And they said this was a glamorous career.
Plans for the weekend include a visit with Sei and possibly Denise to SFMOMA to view the Cameron photography exhibit. I say possibly because Denise has just started a new job as site photographer at a portrait studio in a mall. She may be thoroughly burned out on crowds at the moment after coping with mid-peninsula power moms (kids and nanny in tow), whereas I am dying for some city pleasures like mingling with the masses at the MOMA. I also want to have a look at the new W Hotel which just opened in San Francisco. I am sure their bar is the place to be seen at the moment. Sei and I will undoubtedly sneak into Williams-Sonoma and lust after specialty baking items. If I get the chance, I would like to find an old favorite architectural supply store over in Jackson Square near all the antiques shops. They used to have the best paper, and large supplies of the German rubber erasers I prefer for carving rubber stamps.
Devoted reader Kim Huett has sent me an intriguing book called Chasing Dirt by Suellen Hoy, subtitled "The American pursuit of cleanliness." It looks at the linking of cleanliness, health, good citizenship, and success as peculiarly American. (I would have thought someone could make a case for the Germans and these sentiments, actually.) I'm looking forward to reading it, not least because of the illustrations. I'm a sucker for old advertisements. I like to work out what was being sold and what the consumer was meant to think was being sold. You wouldn't buy just any old product. You'd buy a product that would cure nerve problems, give you whiter teeth, and provide essential character traits along with doing whatever the product actually did.
For instance, I couldn't figure out the history of the inexplicable motto that appeared in so many Post products like Postum and Grape-Nuts around the turn of the century (gosh, I won't be able to use that phrase very much longer!). The slogan, "There's a reason," seemed so strange and yet so catchy that I wondered what it referred to for a long time. The answer is in my book on the history of coffee, Uncommon Grounds, which naturally covers some of the coffee substitutes like Postum (full name: Postum Food Coffee) and their attempt to capture market share. Apparently, C.W. Post wrote all his own advertising copy, and he just liked that slogan. It actually was inexplicable even then. It was also very popular.
Aries Moon: it's more than just a web journal. Try it today. There's a reason.
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