A delightful surprise in the mail: the new book Artful Sentences: Syntax as Style, by Virginia Tufte (mother of Edward R. Tufte, author of The Visual Display of Quantitative Information).
"It is syntax that gives words the power to relate to each other in a sequence, to create rhythms andn emphasis, to carry meaning--of whatever kind--as well as glow individually in just the right stuff," writes Tufte. She has collected hundreds of sentences to illustrate how effective writers use specific techniques to create desired effects. She has a whole chapter on appositives and another on parallelism. And I learned what to call one of my favorites: asyndeton, which means omitting conjunctions. (As the previous sentence illustrates, I also like starting sentences with conjunctions, something forbidden by elementary school teachers. They have apparently never read the Hebrew scriptures, where nearly every sentence starts with And.)
The book is delightful on its own merits. But I also like it because it includes four examples from The Substance of Style.
Posted by Virginia Postrel on April 06, 2006 • Comments
The LAT's Richard Verrier reports on a surprising result of the growth of computer animation: increasing demand for foley artists, who create sound effects the old-fashioned way. From Verrier's article:
You might think that [foley artist John] Roesch's profession, which got its start with the birth of the "talkies," would be one of the first casualties of computer-generated cinema. After all, foley artists — whose craft was invented in the 1920s by an enterprising stuntman and director named Jack Foley — pride themselves on being low-tech.
But thanks to improvements in digital recording equipment and the boom in computer animation films that lack ambient sound, foley artists are becoming increasingly important players in movie production.
In the last few years, several Hollywood studios have upgraded and expanded their foley soundstages, known as "pits," to help artists make noise the old-fashioned way. They gleefully stomp on cereal boxes, crush pine cones with hammers, whack car doors with crowbars. Why synthesize a sound, they argue, when you can have the real thing?
In the last 10 years, increasing demand for foley artists has doubled their ranks to about 100, mostly in Los Angeles.
Beyond the "high tech, high touch" angle, the article is simply fun.
Posted by Virginia Postrel on April 06, 2006 • Comments
Thanks to reader Jon Sweet for sending this link to a post on the Passionate Users blog that defends--in fact, advocates--polished, carefully crafted "girl code." Writes blogger Kathy Sierra, "A passion for aesthetics can mean the difference between code that others enjoy working on vs. code that's stressful to look at." Check out the rest of the blog here.
Posted by Virginia Postrel on April 06, 2006 • Comments
I'm as outraged as anyone about Borders bookstores' spineless decision not to stock the current issue of Free Inquiry, because it includes the controversial Danish cartoons. But I also spent long enough as the editor of a magazine with pitifully small newsstand sales to a) be impressed with FI's publicity stunt and b) figure that Borders is doing Free Inquiry a favor any month it stocks the dinky title. Tiny magazines aren't exactly a profit center. (I'm skeptical of FI's claim to sell 7,000 issues on the newsstand, especially if Borders only stocks 1,000.)
So the test case I'd like to see is this: What would Borders do if Vanity Fair, or some equally big title, published the cartoons? Christopher Hitchens, call your editor.
Posted by Virginia Postrel on March 30, 2006 • Comments
Whatever impressions you may have gotten from advocates, there are no exemptions for native-born citizens in the immigration bills' requirements for a national database to verify employment eligibility. Even DAR members will be at its mercy--and we know databases never have errors.
Glenn Garvin's classic 1995 Reason article on the subject infuriated restrictionists with its heart-rending lead. But it's mostly a tough-minded--and still relevant--look at database problems, something nobody's bothering to discuss this time around.
UPDATE: Here's what happened to Lizbet Martinez (via Professor Postrel).
Posted by Virginia Postrel on March 28, 2006 • Comments
How do you balance a continuing sense of place--something people value highly--with experimentation, adaptation, and personal expression--also important values? As I discuss in chapter five of The Substance of Style (excerpted here), that's one of the hardest challenges for anyone concerned with the built environment, whether homeowners, city planners, community associations, architects, or developers.
In my latest contribution to D Magazine, I examine how an extraordinarily successful Dallas mall, NorthPark Center, has managed to find the sweet spot for more than 40 years. Its neighborhood has gone from rural to suburban to urban. Retailers have come and gone, as have styles. Yet NorthPark has stayed NorthPark, without major redesigns. The key, as I suggest in TSOS, is figuring out what features constitute the timeless background and which need to be flexible.
Posted by Virginia Postrel on March 26, 2006 • Comments
It's changing the relationship between entertainment and the entertained. The Manolo explains.
*Instapundit's new book
Posted by Virginia Postrel on March 26, 2006 • Comments
The Dallas Morning News offers an unusually thoughtful perspective on what a sound immigration bill should look like. Best line: "The nation's security is far stronger if we know who's here to frame houses, change linens, bus tables and build microchips--and who shouldn't be here to profit from true criminal activity or worse."
Anti-immigration forces have made great strides politically by cynically conflating terrorists and criminals with dishwashers and construction workers. Any real plan to "secure the borders" should make it easier, not harder, to separate the two. Workers, especially those who want to settle and become citizens (or have their children become citizens), are not threats. They're contributors to American society.
Posted by Virginia Postrel on March 26, 2006 • Comments
Focusing on one particular donor, "James," the Arizona Republic's Kerry Fehr-Snyder reports on local programs that encourage people who want to donate kidneys to strangers.
University Medical Center, which is run by the University of Arizona in Tucson, formalized its non-directed kidney donation program almost three years ago. It has transplanted five non-directed kidneys and is scheduled to transplant a sixth one soon.
Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center began its program almost two years ago and since has transplanted three living kidneys, including the one from James last month.
The hope is that others will follow, that the idea will be less hard to fathom as organ-donation agencies grapple with a shortage of kidneys. Individual U.S. transplant centers maintain waiting lists with as many as 500 to 1,500 candidates, according to the National Kidney Foundation.
Why would someone donate a kidney to a stranger (when there's ample pressure not to donate even to a friend)? Here's one man's motivation:
A few years ago, James read a magazine article about an athlete being offered a kidney from relatives, friends and fans, and he thought it sad that many lesser-known people can't find donors.
He then learned that a close friend's mother in Tucson was ill and needed a kidney. James exchanged e-mails with her for months, offering to donate one of his healthy kidneys.
But she died before he could make the donation.
"She never complained, not once. She was amazing, just incredibly brave, just an amazing individual," James said.
After her funeral, he realized he still wanted to donate a kidney.
"Kind of putting money where your mouth is," he said.
As its name suggests, the website MatchingDonors.com helps to match would-be donors with people who need transplants.
Posted by Virginia Postrel on March 25, 2006 • Comments
Der Spiegel has a nice article (in English) on the shipping container. (Via reader Rod McFadden.)
Posted by Virginia Postrel on March 23, 2006 • Comments