Bookish

February 17, 2010

The most amazing untrustworthy reading chair ever

My dad had a special chair where he read the newspaper every day.

The Eames lounge chair and ottoman.

It was a black swivel lounge chair with a matching swivel ottoman. My sisters and I took turns draping our bodies, stomach-down, over the ottoman. We used our hands, which dangled down to the floor, to push off sideways, spinning the ottoman as fast as we could. Occasionally, my dad looked up from the Democrat & Chronicle, his green eyes framed by square, wire-rimmed glasses. We were spinning so fast he was just a pleasant blur.

Decades later, covering home design for the Chronicle, I discovered that my dad's reading chair was a knock-off of a famous chair built by Charles and Ray Eames in the mid 1950s. The Eames lounge chair has long been a fixture in architectural offices. You can still by new ones from the original manufacturer, Herman Miller, but they'll cost you: $3,000-plus. I could never afford one, I thought.

But after I published a story about the chair in the newspaper, a couple emailed to say they'd bought an Eames lounge chair in the 1980s -- one with black leather cushions and a dark, Brazilian rosewood frame -- and we're looking to sell it. Did I know anyone who might want to buy it?

Well, me, of course. I had always wanted a chair like my dad's. He had died a few years earlier and buying the chair for a mere $1200 seemed like a sweet tribute and a wise design investment.

The first mistake I made was putting it in the family room, where it got a lot of traffic. Everyone wanted to sit and spin in it. Four year-olds, 75 year-olds, everyone. One night, a very sweet babysitter sat down and broke it. She was devastated. And we were, too. We had never spent so much money on a chair. All we asked in return was that it hold us -- and our guests -- in a sitting position.

It had failed us.

And then glue failed us. My husband and I tried numerous glues to fix the part of the frame that had broken off. Way back when, the Eameses had designed a special machine to heat and bend layers of wood, which helped create the curved bodies of some of their signature furniture pieces. But we didn't have this machine. We had Gorilla Glue from Home Depot. And drilling holes into the wood simply wasn't an option. That would be like mending a tear in the Mona Lisa with duct tape.

We tried to glue the chair back together every few months. We'd get excited when it seemed to work, and then our moods would crash along with our bodies when the frame gave way and sent us tumbling to the ground. Then we'd shove it in an upstairs closet and forget about it for awhile.

But last weekend, we glued it with a special epoxy usually used for boats. It stuck. We brought the chair and ottoman upstairs to my study, where it wouldn't see so much sitting and spinning. My sister and her husband and kids, who were spending a few days with us, encouraged me to try it out. I was paralyzed by laughter and fear. It felt like a set up. Maggie sits down, chair breaks, Maggie falls, family laughs about it for 40 years.

But eventually I sat. And it didn't break. And it didn't break after the men lounged around in it. And it didn't break when each of the kids sat back and gave it a whirl.

So there my reading chair sits, untrustworthy but beautiful. And beckoning. I've got a date with it later, when I plan to start one of two books I must finish by the end of the weekend.

How long before l sit back without hesitating?

How long before I crash to the ground?

Continue reading "The most amazing untrustworthy reading chair ever"

Posted by Maggie Galehouse at 03:09 PM in Tangents | Comments (2)
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February 16, 2010

What is your belly button saying?

Fotolia

We speak with more than our mouths.

In a fascinating new book on body language -- You Say More Than You Think, by Janine Driver with Mariska Van Aalst -- the authors argue that even our belly buttons can give us away. In their words:

The Belly Button Rule: Our first relationship with another human being is marked with a tiny little circled scar in the center of our body ... The direction our belly button faces reflects our attitude and reveals our emotional state. When we suddenly turn our navel toward a door or an exit or simply away from someone, we subconsciously send the signal that we want out of the conversation and perhaps even out of the interaction. (Call it "navel intelligence.")

Belly Button in the Boardroom: Let's say you're sitting round a conference table, having an intense discussion about strategy. Suddenly you see one of your employees angling his/her navel in a new direction during a discussion about revenue numbers. That shift may indicate a hidden emotion, a difference in opinion, or a lack of interest - thus yielding you a perfect Probing Point.

Belly Button in the Barroom: If you are looking to approach someone new, check the position of his/her belly button to gauge openness. When two people have parallel belly buttons, this suggests they want to keep their conversation private. On the other hand, those angled away from each other - even if their heads are facing each other - are open to others joining them.

Posted by Maggie Galehouse at 12:00 AM in Tangents | Comments (1)
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February 14, 2010

Willie Mays: The Life, the Legend

Reviewed by Conrad Bibens

If Jackie Robinson opened the door for pro baseball and eventually helped the rest of U.S. society to integrate, Willie Mays made sure the door stayed open for African-Americans.

A graphic illustration of Willie Mays by Ken Ellis, of the Chronicle.

Robinson's courage and integrity are well-known but author James S. Hirsch believes Mays hasn't got his due for being a similar pioneer. Mays didn't look for confrontation in his struggles with racial injustice but he wore down prejudice simply by being what he was -- perhaps the best baseball player in history and certainly one of the most influential in how the game should be played. Plus, he was just plain fun to watch.

Willie Mays: The Life, the Legend attempts and largely succeeds in defining his legacy on and off the field. Hirsch, author of a biography of boxer "Hurricane'' Rubin Carter, has produced a strong book that is as much a history of American race relations as it is a sports story.

When Mays came to the New York Giants in 1951 as a 20-year-old, major league baseball was usually played in a lumbering manner without much action as the conservative teams waited around for a slugger to bash a homer. Mays, as well as Robinson, helped change that.

Sure, Mays could clobber the ball a long way but his speed on the base paths caused havoc and terror for the opposing team. He was equally aggressive on defense, going all out for the ball when other fielders would play it safe. Though always committed to winning, he loved to entertain the paying customers with a flashy style -- he wore his cap a little loose so it would fly off his head as he scampered around the field.

Mays also was a human search engine for baseball knowledge, memorizing the strengths and weaknesses of his opponents so thoroughly that he appeared to have ESP about what they'd do next. When he had a few years in the league, he essentially became a coach on the field.

First among the many mentors for the young Mays was his father, Cat, a steel worker and later a railroad porter who was a good baseball player himself. He was "an irrepressible optimist, with a deep faith that truth and goodness would prevail. ... Despite the economic turmoil and institutional racism, Cat Mays seemed immune to the world's ills.''

Hirsch says that optimism helped father and son persevere in the harshly segregated Alabama of the mid-20th century. The younger Mays made many white friends in his youth. Being a great athlete helped, but so did having the likable personality he inherited from his dad.

Yet Mays was willing to fight when insulted by white racists. His father told him to turn the other cheek. "I would say, 'I'm not gonna turn no other damn cheek.' And he would say, 'Nah, the only way you're gonna get ahead is to make sure you downplay it. We need you to play baseball. We need you to do things the right way, and the right way is to take whatever they dish out, and take it strong.'''

Mays grew up wanting to be as good in major league baseball as his idol, Joe DiMaggio, and thanks to the fortitude of Jackie Robinson and several other black players in the late 1940s, he got the chance. His talent and enthusiasm made him an immediate hit with nearly all fans and turned racism on its head. "He unbigoted a lot of bigots,'' said one fan from the era.

Some critics, including Robinson, thought Mays didn't do enough for civil rights and was subservient to white management. He's denied such accusations, though Mays has always tried to avoid controversy. He didn't want anyone feeling sorry for him and he's allowed few to know his private feelings. As Mays grew older and his fame became overwhelming, he became less affable and more guarded, trusting only "baseball players, children and household pets.''

Hirsch writes that it took him nearly a decade to win Mays' trust to write this book. It's an "authorized'' biography, which ordinarily should make a reader suspicious that it will gloss over the failings of its subject. In Mays' case, there have been plenty of ups and downs but not many failings. He's not a perfect man but he's a good one -- he doesn't smoke or drink -- who's made a point of avoiding scandal.

Hirsch says the only change Mays sought after he read the author's work was to tell readers that after a scuffle with a teammate, they soon patched things up.
An advantage to the "authorized'' label is that a lot of people were willing to be quoted about what Mays meant to them, including Bill Clinton, Hank Aaron, Sandy Koufax, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Woody Allen.

Even Barry Bonds, who until the steroid shadow fell on him came close to supplanting Mays as the best-ever baseball player, was happy to talk about how his godfather helped him and challenged him as a young man. One wishes Bonds had some of the charm Mays had as a youth. Mays has stayed loyal to Bonds during the scandal, though this loyalty is a weakness in his biography, as its subject has next to nothing to say about the controversy.

Mays now is nearly 80, dealing with his glaucoma and the Alzheimer's of his wife. He's still active, however, and his career is still an example of how good and classy American sports can be.

Conrad Bibens is a business copy and wire editor at the Houston Chronicle.

Posted by Maggie Galehouse at 12:00 AM in Chronicle Book Reviews | Comments (0)
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Local Book Events: Feb. 14-20

• Heather Brewer will sign and discuss Eleventh Grade Burns, part of her vampire series for grades six and up, 5 p.m. Monday (Feb. 15) at Blue Willow Bookshop, 14532 Memorial. Information: 281-497-8675. To get a signed copy of the book, you must purchase it from Blue Willow.

• Erin Chase discusses The $5 Dinner Mom Cookbook: 200 Recipes for Quick, Delicious, and Nourishing Meals That Are Easy on the Budget and a Snap to Prepare, 6-8 p.m. Monday (Feb. 15) at the Houston Public Library, Central Branch, 500 McKinney. Information: 832-393-1313.

• David R. Dow will read from his new book, The Autobiography of an Execution, 7 p.m. Monday (Feb. 15) at Brazos Bookstore, 2421 Bissonnet. Information: 713-523-0701.

• Mo Willems reads from his new books for young children, including Cat the Cat Who Is That? and Let's Say Hi to Friends Who Fly, 5 p.m. Wednesday (Feb. 17) at Meadow Wood Elementary, 14230 Memorial. Information for this Blue Willow Bookshop event: 281-497-8675.

• Bill Minutaglio will read from his biography, Molly Ivins: A Rebel Life, 7 p.m. Wednesday (Feb. 17) at Brazos Bookstore, 2421 Bissonnet. Information: 713-523-0701.

• Alan Michael Parker will read his poetry, 7:30 p.m. Wednesday (Feb. 17) in the Dishman Art Museum Lecture Hall, Lamar University, 211 Redbird, Beaumont. Information: 409-880-8415.

• Ally Carter, who writes books for young adults, will sign and discuss her first art-heist adventure, Heist Society, at two locations this week: 6:30 p.m. Thursday (Feb. 18) at Murder By The Book, 2342 Bissonnet. Information: 713-524-8597; and 7 p.m. Friday at Blue Willow Bookshop, 14532 Memorial. Information: 281-497-8675.

• Ben Fountain, author of The Texas Itch and Brief Encounters with Che Guevara, kicks off the Montgomery County's Writers in Performance series, 7 p.m. Thursday (Feb. 18) in the Library at Lone Star College-Montgomery, 3200 College Park Drive, Conroe. Information: 936-524-6537.

• Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project, will read as part of the new LifeChanger series (books that will change your life), 7 p.m. Thursday (Feb. 18) at Blue Willow Bookshop, 14532 Memorial. Information: 281-497-8675.

• Connie Willis will discuss Blackout, 6:30 p.m. Friday (Feb. 19) at Murder By The Book, 2342 Bissonnet. Information: 713-524-8597.

• Dr. Jeff S. Chimenti will sign and discuss his latest novel, The Edge of Forever: Brink of Extinction, 2 p.m. Saturday (Feb. 20) at Barnes and Noble, 1201 Lake Woodlands, The Woodlands. Information: 281-465-8744.

• Craig McDonald will sign and discuss the third Hector Lassiter novel, Print the Legend, 5 p.m. Saturday (Feb. 20) at Murder By The Book, 2342 Bissonnet. Information: 713-524-8597.

Posted by Maggie Galehouse at 12:00 AM in Local Book Events | Comments (0)
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February 12, 2010

Abe's Latest Author: Bill O'Reilly

Ted Anthony/AP The Lincoln Memorial.

This just in from AP. I'll let you draw your own conclusions.

By HILLEL ITALIE

AP National Writer

NEW YORK (AP) -- Meet the latest Abraham Lincoln biographer: Bill O'Reilly.

The Fox News host and best-selling author is working on Killing Lincoln, a history book that will take readers "into Ford's Theater and into the mind of Lincoln's assassin, John Wilkes Booth, and on the manhunt to find and bring to justice the killer of one our greatest presidents," according to a statement issued Thursday by Henry Holt and Company.

Kristie Bull/AP Bill O'Reilly.

Killing Lincoln is scheduled to come out in the fall of 2011 and will be co-written by Martin Dugard, whose previous works include The Training Ground, an account of the Mexican War and such future Civil War generals as Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee.

In a recent interview, O'Reilly said he got the idea after learning about Lafayette C. Baker, a 19th-century detective and spy who led the investigation into Lincoln's murder and helped track down Booth. Baker claimed later that he had possession of Booth's diary and that someone had "cut out eighteen leaves." Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, to whom Baker had turned over the diary, was accused of taking out the pages and was suspected of being involved in the assassination plot.

"The more I heard the more exciting and more interesting it became, and I said, 'Look, I can do a good book on this,'" said O'Reilly, who added that "Killing Lincoln" will also provide lessons "for today, for contemporary America," but declined to be more specific.

"I want to keep that as a surprise," he said.

Many of O'Reilly's books, including Culture Warrior and A Bold Fresh Piece of Humanity were published by the Random House Inc. imprint Broadway Books. But after his publisher at Broadway, Stephen Rubin, left to run Holt, a division of Macmillan, O'Reilly decided to work with Holt on the Lincoln biography.

"I know Steve will be able to publish this book in a very effective manner," said O'Reilly, who added that he had not made a long-term commitment to Holt or to any publisher.

Posted by Maggie Galehouse at 03:45 PM in New Books | Comments (0)
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