The Egg Did Not Crack
Thursday, August 18, 2016
 |
| September 2014 |
My Rosemary dropped me of today on Burrard and Davie in
Vancouver at 9:35 for my 9:45 appointment to see my urologist for a post operation
chat (I had my prostate reamed in early May). I will not bore readers with any
of the details except that I taught my urologist an expression in Argentine
Spanish – “cero kilómetro”. This expression is used to describe a brand new
(really brand new) car that has zero on its odometer.
As a 74 (just about) man who is obsolete, redundant and
retired (soon to be a hit country song) I can never aspire to cero kilómetro.
Like on my 2007 Malibu my warranty is long expired. The doctor and I decided
that there had been a negligible improvement in my health and to expect more
was not realistic.
From the doctor’s I walked (I could have taken a MacDonald
bus across the street on Burrard that would have left me five blocks from home)
to Granville knowing that I could take any trolley that came my way to get home
except for two, the one that goes on Granville beyond West Broadway and the
Arbutus that almost takes me home. I got off on Broadway and Granville.
I crossed the street and entered the last and only big box
bookstore (Indigo and formerly called Chapters) left in Vancouver proper. I
went upstairs to the fiction section and checked out novels, mysteries and
poetry. I almost purchased a brand new
and very thick volume of Emily Dickinson. I found Jorge Luís Borges’s Labyrinths
(in English, 2007) with an introduction by William Gibson. I sat down at a
lovely and very large wooden table and read the introduction. As expected it
was lovely.
I could not have done years ago what I did today which was
to leave a bookstore without a book.
On Broadway I took the UBC fast bus that dropped me off at
MacDonald and Broadway. I went into the
Kitsilano Branch of the Vancouver Public Library (just half a corner north on
MacDonald from Broadway.
On the used book sale cart I almost purchased an illustrated
(with photographs) Odyssey. I fell for 6 magazines at a quarter each.
In the beginning and early 60s I was an avid reader of
one of the finest magazines then and I must state now, too.
In several of those 60s magazines there was a striking ad
that I could never forget. It showed an airliner with had been propped up from
the tarmac by a very sophisticate hydraulic jack. One of the wheels was resting
(!) on an egg. The egg was not cracked.
The magazine in question is Scientific American which has been published since 1845. I guess it must compete with another American magazine,
Harper’s or is perhaps older.
I have been reading the six magazines all day and I will be
up tonight reading about memcomputing, black holes and the advanced mind
capabilities of Neandertals.
At the end of the magazines I found one of my favourite
former sections called 50, 100, & 150 Years Ago. This one caught my eye:
January 1865
Safety Match
“A Lucifer match is
now in the market that differs from anything hitherto in existence. Upon the
side of each box is a chemically prepared piece of friction paper. When struck
upon this, the match instantly ignites; when struck upon anything else
whatever, it obstinately refuses to flame. You may lay it upon a red-hot stove,
and the wood of the match will calcine before the end of it ignites. Friction
upon anything else that this prepared pasteboard has no effect on it. The
invention is an English one, and by special act of Parliament, the use of any
other matches than these is not permitted in any public buildings. There is not
a particle of sulphur in the composition of the lucifers in question.”
Alas another fave, the puzzle seems to be gone!
I am most tempted to perhaps get a year’s subscription to
this fine magazine.
