That was Fast

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<a href=”http://www.lauralippman.com “_blank”>Website</a> has been updated.

The contest was won even as I was tweaking my own typos. Still, go read it. To quote Brother Blutarski, it don’t cost nothing.

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10 thoughts on “That was Fast”

  1. Laura – I remember reading that column. I don’t recall any of the specifics of where I was, or what day I read it, and I certainly can’t say I have pondered it since 1985. But when I read the 5th paragraph I instantly knew I had read it before, and been moved by it.

  2. Sean,

    That means a lot to me. I’m very proud of my dad. One of his best columns was called “God on Trial,” which imagined God called as a witness in Scopes II.

    He’s still writing by the way. There’s a link on my previous entry at the site, which goes to a piece my father wrote about how many Iowa caucus winners have gone on to become president. His pronouncements on presidential politics were so well-known that the New York Times once wrote an editorial on Lippman’s Law. Which, I think, Bill Clinton later disproved, although now I’m a little fuzzy on the particulars of Lippman’s Law.

    My dad and I covered the ’88 Democratic National Convention, by the way, although for different newspapers.

  3. That’s a great column, Laura. However, the part about the microfilm fading doesn’t surprise me. I have seen old newspapers that were microfilmed, but the paper was so fragile, it didn’t microfilm well and the printed versions from the readers are almost impossible to read.
    Plus microfilm gets scratched easily…as you have probably seen. (All that almost invisible dust that gets in between the glass pieces.
    Not enough old newspapers (pre late 1930′s) have been digitized. It’s an expensive process from microfilm and won’t work too well if the microfilm is so faint.
    Acid, the enemy of paper, can be removed…another expensive process. But a lot of “paper” has survived for centuries.
    Even when I started out, the chiseling on those stone tablets often became worn off and difficult to read.
    We need a safe way to save our “daily” history through newspapers. Thanks to many groups who are trying it.

    the 2000 year old librarian

  5. Shoot, and I recognized the Elvis Costello allusion, too. HarperCollins has yet to send me an ARC of the new book, and they’re usually good about that.

    I’m so sorry about your brother-in-law, Laura.

  9. I have re-read Mr. Lippman’s moving essay numerous times last nite and today and I still can’t find an allusion to Elvis Costello’s lyrics. Where is it?
    “I want to join the party, but I was not invited”

  10. It’s “yesterday news, which is tomorrow’s fish-and-chip paper.” Not an exact quote, but pretty close.

    Meanwhile, I’m going to post a new contest where neither speed nor Google will favor the winner.

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