Colors
When I grew up, I thought the old world (pre-I Love Lucy) was black and white. I knew, of course, that there was color before The Wizard of Oz, but when I thought about how things must've been like, my mind intuitively fell into shades of grey. I watched old movies in black and white, so I just kinda visualized old scenes in black and white, especially when thinking about the old-time baseball stars, like Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth and Wee Willie Keeler (baseball history was one of my favorite areas of youthful study).
The advent of colorization helped me immensely. Some people really recoil at the colorization of classic films (my best friend at law school, a self-professed libertarian, said it should be illegal). But I've enjoyed it.
I'd really like to see pictures like the ones in this new book: New York in Color: "Believe your eyes -- that's Mulberry Street, on the Lower East Side, teeming with immigrant New Yorkers. In 1900. In color. It's part of a new coffee-table collection, New York in Color, cultivated by photo historian Bob Shamis." Link.
Hangovers
You want to get rid of a hangover? Hunter Thompson gave this advice: "12 Amyl Nitrites (one box) in conjunction with as many beers as possible." That might seem a little extreme, but so's dying. On a few occasions, I wasn't sure I was going to make it and, twice, I almost went to the hospital emergency room. I found out later that it was intense gastritis, but it was still pretty scary. I know one guy, though, who was flying back from Nevada after a heavy night of drinking and gambling. He was so hungover, he thought maybe he was dying. He said it took all his will power not to ask them to bring down the plane early because he thought he was having a heart attack. That story slayed me.
More Hunter Thompson nuggets of wisdom.
This post is kind of a dud. My apologies. I was flying solo this week (wife out of town), so I had to blog with one brain tied behind my back. She's back now.
