1st June 2011 Tabloid City

Pete Hammill was an old glory of New York journalism. He directed the New York Post and the Daily News when the tabloids had not yet reached their present day heights of infamy, and wrote novels on his rare free moments. None of them had been translated into Spanish, as far as I know, but one editor dared to attempt it, and Ramon of 'El Periodico' took on the task, beginning with the latest novel of Hammill, the 'Tabloid City'.

 

Although the book is not specially directed to the sector of nostalgic elderly, or the collectives of the press, no doubt many members would identify themselves and their work, and all that related to it with gratification.

 

It is written in a tone agile, urgent and almost frenetic, which critics with knitted brows would consider, contemptuously, a journalistic style. But the 'Tabloid City' is a vibrant chronicle of New York today, right now, through some characters on the point of nervous breakdown, who ran across one another, got lost, and to reunite again, in the period of one and a half day. All the characters move about in streets Hammill knew well and he described in such an admirable way that, with eyes closed, not only you can see the people and the scenes in your mind, you can smell them.

 

Chronicle of the present, with an eye permanently fixed in the past. 'Tabloid City' is an elegy, a mournful poem dedicated to the city. A city which changes constantly, in which today and yesterday live together in certain harmony. Would you enjoy it more if you are 50 years old? Probably. But anyone who hasn't reached this age yet and not an insensitive beast would understand, enjoy and come to love it. It's just a story in which the characters merge with the setting, to such a point as being incomprehensible the ones without the others.

 

Tags: tabloidcity

Prev: 1st June 2011 Sarcastic Or Funny Thoughts

1st June 2011 Sarcastic Or Funny Thoughts

• A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal.-Oscar Wilde
• Being broke is a temporary situation. Being poor is a state of mind.
• It is not death that alarms me, but dying.
• Grief at the absence of a loved one is happiness compared to life with a

  person one hates.
• England can never be ruined except by a Parliament. - Lord Burleigh
• You're never as good as everyone tells you when you win, and you're never as bad as they say when you lose.
• I tell people that I've now done one decent thing in my life. Albeit inadvertently.
• Trying on pants is one of the most humiliating things a man can suffer that doesn't involve a woman.
• If your parents never had children, chances are ... neither will you.
• Here lies an Atheist: All dressed up and no place to go. - Epitaph
• Every man over forty is responsible for his face. - Abraham Lincoln
• Life is a sexually transmitted disease.
• I know that's a secret, for it's whispered everywhere.
• I stopped believing in Santa Claus when I was six. Mother took me to see him in a department store and he asked for my autograph. - Shirley Temple
• Reading the epitaphs, it seems our only salvation lies in resurrecting the dead and burying the living!
  

 

Tags: funnythoughts, sarcastic

Prev: 1st June 2011 Anti-Gravity Ballpoint Pen

1st June 2011 Anti-Gravity Ballpoint Pen

My mind seems to have stretches of periods concentrating on certain things, then other brief or long moments turning over other subjects or areas. In the last few days it seems to be on novelties based on science. This would be the 3rd consecutive days I write about inventions.

In the 50's the American Paul Fisher came upon the fact that the common ballpoint pen depended on gravity to write. This limits much of it's function, and Fisher decided to develop one that's anti-gravity.

The cartridge of the ink of the space ballpoint pen has pressurised nitrogen that continuously pushes the ink towards the point of the pen. Fisher utilized thixotropic (gel changing into a fluid when stirred or shaken) ink, which is dense and viscose, sort of a bit sticky, so that it wouldn't escape from the pen, and the ink only comes out when pressure was applied.

So these new pens could write in just about any position and almost any surfaces, including on plastic, moist material, snow, even under water. The NASA was so impressed with the design that they decided to use it on their space missions, beginning with the Apollo 7 in 1968.

Over the years, on Christmas, birthday or for no reason at all, I have received gift of very expensive fountain pens, slim and elegant, with my name engraved, coated with gold or encrusted with tiny jewels, and presented in it's pretty velvet lined box but, after showing my gratitude, I have always used any humble ballpoint pens, while the precious ones keep each other company at the back of a drawer which, at this moment, I can't even remember which drawer it was. 

Tags: space, ballpointpen

Prev: 31st May 2011 The 'Incident'