Found objects — objets trouvés, if you opt for high-toned Gallic terminology — have always appealed to artists. Recently read about a scavenger who’s harvested bushels of discarded paper shards, selections from which will be…
Posts published by “Erik S. McMahon”
Every fortnight, the San Francisco Chronicle publishes something it deceptively brands a “magazine.” Before they achieved their monopoly, said pamphlet was a weekly — go figure. Overall, we’re talking sorry product, particularly in a city…
This summer’s extraordinary rescue of nine trapped Pennsylvania coal-miners verged on miraculous. Scarcely noted was the hellish nature of everyday conditions below. Those who work down there seldom live long, or well. Like many horrific…
It was right around 2:56pm PST, and the Post Office closes — or, at any rate, bars new entrants — promptly at 3 on Saturdays. There were perhaps 40 folks fidgeting in line; five vacant…
So, why is baseball wonderful? Certainly, not because George Will and George W. pretend to be fans. Not on account of any of the hackneyed reasons (absence of time-clock; actual strategy and thinking involved). Sure,…
Ten or twelve of the usual suspects were making party noises downstairs in the dining room, the kitchen, and the pantry. Banished hours earlier but lurking on the landing, I heard one voice rise above…