Oyster and I.D.Reilly analyze John Barry’s latest Op-Ed piece in USA Today: “A City Worth Saving.” You must remember Barry as the author of 1998’s Rising Tide, a title that served as inspiration for an eponymous conference that occurred not too long ago. To give you some idea of the prescient and compelling quality of Barry’s book, several friends who don’t usually read too many books have read this one and forced me to do the same after the deluge. This led to many an “I Told You So” moment, which should only lend more steam to a national literacy initiative. They hide this kind of information in books, you know.
Meanwhile, Alan consumes Disaster by our newest buds, Chris Cooper & Robert Block.
We are fortunate to have our neighbor Texas, which dispatched more resources to Louisiana than FEMA, which was absent three days after the storm. We are fortunate for the intervention of Wal-Mart, which brought necessities to the National Guard at the Convention Center, when FEMA could not.
I’ve compiled a Google spreadsheet of books related to Hurricane Katrina – here is the HTML version (simply copy and paste in your favorite program). If you’re interested in editing or adding to the list or simply want the spreadsheet for your records, let me know and the document is yours via the neato “share” functionality.
[Update: This why they call it Google Spreadsheets BETA. The latest link to the HTML version of the spreadsheet leads you to a Google login/registration page. Once in, you get … a blank page. Oooops! Like I said, if you can’t see the spreadsheet, let me know and I’ll share it with you via Google. That seems to work.]
The two books from the list I haven’t read and in which am interested are There Is No Such Thing As A Natural Disaster and Breach Of Faith. Also, why would Rod Amis write a book entitled Katrina & The Lost City Of New Orleans, in which he compares New Orleans to Pompeii and Atlantis? Earth to Rod, there ain’t no ash or gills on this woman with a home and internet access.
Dune: The Butlerian Jihad awaits me. The book was cracked open around this time last year and put away thanks to You-Know-What. My brain craves some escapist Herbert-ian science fiction these days.
These spreadsheets aren’t working for me for some reason…
Ditto.
I’ve just sent out a mass invite for people to view the spreadsheet. That should work mo’ betta.
“We’re sorry. The spreadsheet at this URL could not be found. Make sure that you have the right URL and that the owner of the spreadsheet hasn’t deleted it.”
:(
Breach of Faith is good. I mean, good in the sense — well, you know what I mean.
Also, speaking of pleasant escape-y diversions, I have my ticket to watch the Wolverines stomp the Badgers here in Ann Arbor, Sept. 23. ;)
The Wolverines couldn’t do it on Sept. 24, 2005, they can’t do it now. Go Big Red!
http://martinbrownart.wordpress.com/2006/08/31/idols-a-classic-diva/
this is Maitri on her next flight
Thanks for pointing out the Berry piece, and Oyster’s and I.D. Reilly’s posts about it. I can’t seem to keep up with the anniversary media, and I probably would have missed this one. I’ve been pushing it on my out-of-town family and friends, because I know that now and then they get the “why should New Orleans get rebuilt” question from someone who’s not just being snide and rhetorical, and this is such a good example because it highlights not just why to rebuild, but why most of our vulnerability isn’t due to some kind of local idiocy. I really wanted to send a certain pissy distant relative a link to it titled “this ‘fish crib’ [his words] died for you,” but thought better of it because he doesn’t really read as far as I can tell, like so many others who think they know what’s good for us.
But I like to read – can you forward the spreadsheet invite to me?
PS – Dune was one of my escapes about a year ago today, give or take. Nice to worry about being too dry for a change.