Innovations — An XX Interlude.
A few brief thoughts on some remarkable people in history.
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Part of what keeps me going is an interest in learning. I like knowing about different things, keeping tabs on what happens around me. Not merely news, mind you, but the history of the little (and not so little) things we take for granted in our everyday deliberations. For instance, some time ago I submitted a purchase recommendation to my local library and the they actually bought the book I recommended, which I’ve finally finished; no small feat given my mental health of late.
The text in question is called ‘Extinct — A Compendium of Obsolete Objects’ and is a series of short essays on eighty or so material innovations from recent history which are all but defunct, for the most part; items as mundane as the common ashtray or the simple memo, or as complex as an ‘Action Office Acoustic Area Conditioner’, more commonly known as a ‘maskitball’, or the ‘Stanley 55 Combination Plane’ once well known to woodworkers.
