In passing:
A charming entry at Crooked Timber on footnotes and literature, with references & annotations.
[Would that I were not too busy to follow up on all of them immediately, due to an emergent, local reference-wrangling situation. -Ritstj.]
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The Crooked Timber post also transgresses into a discussion of reference books, so why not mention mine here. This summer, all I'm reading is Roadwork: Theory and Practice, by Arthur Wignall, Peter Kendrick, Roy Ancill, and the incomparable Malcolm Copson. This fourth edition of RW is, I've been told, a must-read for all interested in the deeply philosophical arguments that have come to shape urban road construction. It surpasses even the famous -- and scandalous! -- second edition, in which Copson, in that infamous signed editor's note, theorized that whiplash-type injuries would decrease significantly if "Yield" were replaced by "Watch Out!," a construction that psychologists had proven, he said, would resonate more firmly with a populace out-of-touch with such Ivy League-locutions as "Yield" and "Deer X-Ing" (a particular pet-peeve of Copson's.)
Well, we all remember the furor that edition caused, splitting the academy along those all-too-familiar divisions -- between the New School and the aptly named Strict Constructionists. It was no wonder that the subsequent third edition of RW, to which Copson was barred from contributing, felt so dry in comparison, a text in which much of the argumentation centered on such trivialities as the best base-shape of orange emergency cones ("Is Rounder Sounder, or the Squarer the Fairer?") and the optimum reflectivity of Botts Dots.
But Copson's back for number four, and so far -- I'm only on page 57 -- this book seems much the livelier. In the very first sentence, we see the adrenaline of Copson's politics: "It is our position," the text begins, "that vibrant American road design is dead." Talk about holding no punches!
It continues: "With its many minor squabbles and considered and re-considered and still re-re-considered Five Year Plans, the academy has sunk into the kind of do-nothing disrepute that has been the end of so many vital professional organizations in our country. This was the road, remember, down which the Steelmen, the Breadmen, the Boltmen, the Butter-Knifemen and the Dustjacketmen met their end. It is a road potholed with in-fighting and indecision. While vital questions await our experts' considered study -- Should we use all-synchronized traffic lighting?, Should we allow men to meter maid on the front lines? -- the experts appear to be asleep at the wheel."
"Bravo!" I say. I can hardly wait to get to Chapter Seven: The Supremacy of White -- The Case for Ditching Yellow Lines.
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