I'm working my way through "The Devil in the White City" by Eric Larson. It's good, real good. Obviously the man parsed every document and all available datum to research the book ... and the characters, like Dr. H.H. Holmes, fascinate. The period draws me in too. It is set in the early 1890s, a time when Benjamin Harrison was President. Yeah, no one remembers that dude, but it's when America grabbed hold of it's burgeoning industrial might and started to create things: big cities, corporate empires, skyscrapers, mass-produced electricity.
The time reminds me of where China stands today, still a backwater -- like we once were to Europe -- but scary in the scale of both its ascent and possibilities. In America we've taken for granted that we're No. 1, that we lead, that we are where everyone looks for approval, fads, fame, fortune. But that might be changing. Our standard of living is stagnant, our binge of credit wrecked a blooming economy, our failure to halt a ruinous war has left us more divided, indebted and fragile than we were that day the jetliners streaked into our buildings and burned the image of hate into our hearts.
While in New York we walked past a firehouse. Engine Co. 16 and Ladder Co. 7 memorialized their eight dead on 9-11-01 with bronze plaques on the exterior wall. We stopped a moment and read each one, pausing on our escapade tp pay a brief tribute to their last.
wow, enough of that.
So, I went to work and amid the regular drudgery I interviewed two Philadelphia Eagles cheerleaders. Maxim magazine selected one for it's hottest cheerleader lineup -- that's her in the pic to the right. All in all, a day well done.
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