I found this link to a section on Lileks' site on Postwar Church Architecture via a link on Bifurcated Rivets
As there are only a couple examples in this section, I'm hoping it is one that he'll add to, as I enjoyed the ones he displayed with his wry commentary. From his intro page to this section: "Post-war churches faced a dilemma: how to look like a house of worship while looking modern? ....There was no good reason churches had to cast off a thousand years of tradition and start dressing up like bank branches, but that's exactly what they did."
If he expands this section, I hope he might consider including this pinnacle of bemusing modern church archicture: San Francisco's Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Assumption. Built in 1971, this cathedral was designed by the Italian architect Pier Luigi Nervi.
This particular one does not resemble a bank, but you might notice the top of this ultra-modern cathedral rather resembles the agitator piece from the inside of a washing machine. Thus, why the cathedral quickly earned such nicknames as "The Washing Machine Church" and "Our Lady of Maytag."
_________
Incidentally, Fritz Maytag, great-grandson of the founder of Maytag Appliances, happens to be a San Francisco "saint" of sorts. A saint of beer, if you will. In the late 1960s, he bought the historic Anchor Steam Brewery and rescued this steam brewery from going out of business.
No real connection here between the two, except in my heathen mind where I apparently have some mismatched socks in my mental laundry just agitating and brewing here on this particular all saints' day.
The Times UK has a fascinating report on new speculations about Cleopatra's death. The intro:
The death of Cleopatra from an asp bite is one of history's greatest romantic tragedies. But can the verdict of suicide, accepted for 2,000 years, stand up to a modern-day investigation by a forensic expert?
A novel of mine, BOTTLED AIR, is now available for sale on CafePress.
For a few years now, I've had three of my older novels in PDF form available online. They're accessible (for free) by sending me a request. However, I do realize that it is annoying to read a long work online, especially a novel, and some people have told me they wanted to read one of the novels, but they weren't keen on having to do so on a computer screen.
But now, through CafePress.com, I am able to make those three novels available for sale as regular printed books. I am still going to offer them for free in their PDF form as I have in the past, but now I also can offer an alternative for those who'd rather pay a little bit for a real book they can have in their hands.
The other two novels aren't available yet in printed book form, but will be soon. (Descriptions of all three novels can be found here.)
