January 2011

Ponce offers visitors a full calendar of events, from the traditional pre-Lenten masked Carnival to the monthly street-side jazz and folk concerts. Contact the Puerto Rican Tourist Company (1-800-223-6530) for details on Ponce as well as on island-wide celebrations planned for the year of Columbus (1992-93). In Ponce the best place to stay is the Hotel Meliá, which has remained in the hands of one family since opening around 1900. The genial manager, Nicolas Albors, was dismayed that I hadn’t left time to visit the newly restored Serralles Castle. “It speaks of Ponce,” he said.

An important, recently discovered document casts new light on one of the enduring mysteries of the war … John Lukacs looks at the personal duel between Hitler and FDR … an airman’s sketchbook shares the view from the cockpit of a P-39 … the movie Casablanca helps steel the country to the task before it … the forgotten struggle to name the war … and much more.

On a hot July night about 15 years ago, a young New Yorker on his way out for the evening decided on a quick shave. When he flicked on his electric razor, however, the lights in his apartment went out. From his window, he could see that the lights all over New York had gone out, as well. Standing there in the darkness, the now useless razor still in his hand, the young man was certain, understandably enough, that, somehow, he had personally caused the great blackout of 1977. He hadn’t, of course; he was confusing coincidence with causation.

History is full of such confusions. Probably the most famous is the stockmarket crash of 1929 and the Great Depression of the 1930s. Certainly, viewed from a distance of more than half a century, the market panic appears to have been immediately followed by a failing economy that spiraled downward into the awful abyss whose bottom was reached only in 1933. No wonder many people think the Crash “caused” the Depression.

by Maurie Van Buren; Longstreet Press; 132 pages; $12.95.

There are a lot of reference books on house styles on the market, but this one’s size (7″ by 9″) and format (one style per two-page spread) make it particularly convenient to use. Its illustrations are large and detailed enough to be genuinely helpful.

Styles are grouped in sections headed “Traditional,” “Victorian,” “European,” “Contemporary,” and finally “Familiar American,” which contains some designs so generic-looking (Temple Front, Shotgun, I-house), it’s something of a surprise to learn they have a name. The text is concise and simply written, with occasional insight: Second Empire is the style Americans associate with haunted houses; the Tudor style was so popular during the late 1920s that it became known as Stockbroker Tudor.

The author hopes the book will shed light on houses being built today as well as on the more venerable kind. After studying it, you may find yourself looking at suburban tract developments of the 1950s to 1980s with new understanding, if not with delight.

Fiftieth anniversary The biggest theater North Africa Plus …

The December 1991 issue, which is given over entirely to World War II, will focus on the war we might have lost—that is to say, the early months of the conflict when the success of American arms depended on tenacity, courage, outclassed machinery spread desperately thin, and a good helping of miracle. Among the features:

Capt. Edward L. Beach traces the evolution of the strategy that let us first survive, then prevail, in the Pacific.

Our Army had to learn hard lessons before it could meet Germany on anything like equal terms, and none was harder than the disaster at Kasserine. Peter Andrews tells the story.

Hall

The main room of a colonial house, used for work, relaxation, cooking, eating, and sometimes sleeping.

Parlor

The second room of a typical hall-and-parlor house, the “best room,” used for both sleeping and formal occasions.

Lean-to

The rear part of a hall-and-parlor house, which makes it look like a “saltbox.” Capen’s house doesn’t have one; in his day it was generally an addition, to be used as a kitchen.

Overhang or jetty

The part of an upper floor that projects beyond the floor beneath it.

Summer beam

A massive beam supporting an upper floor, clearly visible in the ceiling of the hall or parlor.

Chamfer

A decorative bevel on a post or beam, generally terminating in a “stop.” Pendant A decorative device suspended from an overhang.

Bracket

September 21, 1846, Dragoon Creek, Indian Territory. Eager drivers, urging their wagons westward, are confronted by a curious sight: two gaunt, weather-beaten young men in fringed buckskins, riding slowly and silently in the opposite direction, bucking the pioneer tide.

“Whar are ye from, Californy?” one driver shouts.

“No.”

“Santy Fee?” another asks.

“No—the mountains.”

“What yer been doing thar? Tradin’?” a third shouts as the two riders continue down the line.

“No.”

“Trappin’?”

“No.”

“Huntin’?”

“No.”

“Emigratin’?”

“No.”

“What have you been doing, then, God damn ye?”