persiflage

could it be more black and white?   

July 30th, 2009

I remember everything, even the dates. But I don't want others to remember the details, just the image.

Gloria Grahame


Classifieds

Attention housecats. You may be eligible for a new Federally funded program re-training housecats as sheepdogs. You must be under the age of seven, physically fit and like working out of doors. Apply at your local Agriculture Canada office for application forms.
For sale: half a clubhouse sandwich previously owned by a guy who once rode in an elevator with James Coburn. $4OBO. Box 98.
NEW Aerosol Ch'I. One spray can dramatically increase your energy and well-being for over a month while warming the environment. Available at all fine Health Food Stores.
The House Project artists finally launch their catalogue this Friday July 31st at Platform Gallery (#121 - 100 Arthur Street) from 4PM to 7PM. Come down for a free catalogue, a drink and perhaps a cracker (or two). It is also a good chance to check out the Clark Ferguson show currently on display there.


Listen to Part Sixteen of

The Mystery of the Lost Lenore

Click on the picture. (2:54)

Or start from the beginning.


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If you were the kind of person who sent emails you might send one to this address:
persiflagemag@hotmail.com
then again you might not.

If
You Wanted to Know Something

If you want to know something and you are under the age of 100, my guess is that you look it up on the Internet. If you can't remember whether Gloria Grahame married her stepson or not or if Caspar is an easy going spirit or the capital of Wyoming or whether capital is spelled capital or capitol or if spelled is spelled "spelled" or "spelt", then you are probably using a "search engine" which is on the "Internet".

In the old days (Monday and Tuesday if we consider Sunday the last or "youngest" day) one (that is me - actually "I" since it is about to be the subject of a clause in this very sentence) had to go (see) see if this information was contained in any of the books contained in one's (my) local library. This often (especially after "The Incident") involved putting on pants.

And putting on pants wasn't the end of it! It was no guarantee (that word never looks right to me) that you would find what you were looking for (©U2).

When one (still me/I) arrived at the library (@library.ca) one (yes) was confronted by rows and rows of books stacked or "shelved" on shelves (surprisingly). These, at first, did not seem organised in any way that would be helpful in your (my) quest for information about Gloria Grahame's odd relationship with her stepson.

The books, however, were organised according to something called "The Dewey System". this was named after Thomas Dewey who, after his humiliating defeat in the 1948 U.S. Presidential election at the hands of Harry S. Truman, was so despondent that he spent all his time in the library sticking little numbers on all the books (it's true - Google it).

In order to find what one (I'm not going to make a parenthetical comment here) was looking for, one had to consult something called a "card catalogue".

This was a dresser made up of little drawers each of which was filled cards (hence the name - and by the way the "one" back there just before the first mention of a card catalogue was still me).

yikes

On these cards were numbers and information about books. If you wanted to find a book (which is where you (you may have noticed that I have dropped the "one" business as my hand was gettig tired) would find (at least theoretically) the information that you wanted) you had to find the number on the card that related to the information that you wanted and then find that number plastered (maybe by Dewey himself!) on the end of a book on one of the many, many shelves in the library. Think you are done? Not even close my friend.

Once you (still you) had the book then you flipped to the back (that's right the BACK!) to some thing called the "Index" (plural - indices, for some odd reason relating to Latin's 3rd Declension). There you would find long lists of stuff with numbers next to each item or topic. These numbers corresponded, more or less directly, to the page numbers of the very book you where holding on which you might find the particular bits of stuff on the long list.

So, say you were holding a book on women in film noir, and in the Index it said something like:
Grahame, Gloria: flight from Marina Del Rey 211, 230, hat size 182, love of soup 199ff., marquetry skill 207, relationship with stepson 201.
You would flip back in the book to page 201 and hopefully the answer to your original question would appear before you there in black and white (assuming the book was printed that way).

What could have been easier?

Hugh Briss