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Thursday, September 11, 2003

Eternal gratitude is hereby expressed to Rob Salkowitz at Emphasis Added for providing a link to a site with Richard Drew’s photo of the Falling Man, as well as more thoughts from the mind of a great photojournalist. There, as in the Los Angeles Times OpEd, Drew discusses the great corn flakes dilemma:   There are two newspapers that have had their ombudsman write stories about the picture, explaining why they used the photograph. The Memphis Commercial Appeal and the Fort Worth Star Telegram. They received a lot of complaints, and that is only two I know about that were complaining about the picture. Our readers e-mailed and phoned, and complained that they didn't want to see this over their morning corn flakes.   I can appreciate that sentiment. With corn flakes, my palate demands pictures of multi-colored cartoon roosters. No matter what happened the previous day, the basic rules of ambiance and complementary flavors must never be forgotten! If you’re going to have pictures of people choosing death by falling over death by fire for breakfast, you’ll probably want to choose a rich and hearty red wine, heavy with tannin, best used as a chaser for a bottle of absinthe, another of retsina, and capped off with a mainline shot of pure Mexican brown heroin. Never allow circumstance to intrude on your pomp, I always say. 6:35:03 PM    comment []

The loudspeakers came on at cue, at 8:46 AM EDT. The voice said "Today is the second anniversary..." I was the first to speak, damn me. I said, "Oh, was that today?" The loudspeaker voice, which usually speaks in secret messages like "Group E Code A Building 305 Location Charlie Foxtrot 1-OH-niner" trailed off "...with a moment of silence." A few sarcastic gestures, a "boo!", but none of it genuinely disrespectful, just rebellious to authority. I thought it was an hour early because the computer I was working on had the wrong time. I had missed my cue. Like last year, I wanted to listen to the Mozart Requiem through headphones, cuing it at 8:46 as my private expression of respect. Instead, it began at 8:48. Listening to the Requiem, I identify with the victims. The ones that are most troubling to me, as they are to Joshua Micah Marshall (of Talking Points Memo), are not the falling bodies but the rows of people at upper story windows, arms outstretched. They make you want to be able to go back in time, to do whatever it takes to prevent the inevitable. Especially now, that the full depth of the tragedy has begun to sink in - not only of those deaths, but the thousands more predestined by invoking the date. When I hear the "Dies Irae," sometimes I imagine the initial impact and at others the moment of collapse. But more and more, the image that comes to mind is of incredible evil birthed into the world, like a monstrous reptile that suddenly appears and stalks abruptly across a barren landscape strewn with smoldering beams and a sky colored by distant fires, indifferently squashing anything that gets underfoot. Evil is not so easily contained once it is released, as Pandora learned. The most ironic part of her lesson is that hope was also released along with all the evil and that's called "a positive thing" in mythology. There was hope in those outstretched arms 2 years ago; those who jumped knew that hope was the greatest curse of them all. 11:21:09 AM    comment []

Star Anise Advisory WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday advised people to avoid teas containing star anise, a flavoring ingredient that has been linked to illnesses in the United States and Europe. Over the last two years, 40 people, including some 15 children, have had problems ranging from seizures, to vomiting and jitteriness, the FDA said in a statement. All recovered without complications. Star anise is also an ingredient of Five-spice, which contains cinnamon, cloves, fennel seeds, star anise and Szechuan peppercorns. No advisory on that, which "logically" would contain only Chinese star anise which is considered "safe" (and would normally be used smaller amounts than in a "tea"): The FDA is concerned that Chinese star anise, which it generally recognizes as safe when used as a spice or flavoring, may contain Japanese star anise, which is believed in many countries to be toxic and should be used only as a decoration. Since Japanese star anise in its dried or processed form cannot be distinguished from the Chinese type by looking at it, the FDA said it is evaluating chemical analysis methods and would monitor imports entering the United States. 6:19:36 AM    comment []