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Sull'Autore

Tony Hiss is a visiting scholar at the Taub Urban Research Center at New York University.

Comprende il nome: Anthony Hiss

Opere di Tony Hiss

Opere correlate

The Best Spiritual Writing 2012 (2011) — Collaboratore — 27 copie
Toward the Livable City (2003) — Collaboratore — 26 copie
Manhattan in Maps 1527-2014 (2014) — Prefazione, alcune edizioni17 copie

Etichette

Informazioni generali

Data di nascita
1941-08-05
Sesso
male
Nazionalità
USA
Luogo di nascita
Washington, D.C., USA
Relazioni
Hiss, Alger (father)

Utenti

Recensioni

While not all of the essays here are top-notch (I could do without the Contessa, for example), there are a handful in this volume that are, in fact, top-notch, like the last run of the 20th Century Limited. Frimbo (Rogers E.M. Whitaker) must have been entertaining to listen to.
 
Segnalato
EricCostello | 1 altra recensione | Jul 27, 2019 |
This should probably be 2 stars for it's mind numbingly opaque writing, but it's loaded with interesting ideas and perceptions.

This guy is an intelligent, thoughtful and perceptive individual but his writing is as convoluted as the worst academician. He should find a good writer with whom to collaborate.
 
Segnalato
altonmann | 1 altra recensione | Jan 24, 2018 |
 
Segnalato
BmoreMetroCouncil | Feb 9, 2017 |
E. M. Frimbo is the pseudonym of Rogers E.M.. Whitaker, perhaps the most avid passenger railroad train fan ever (well, maybe, if you exclude myself.) His interest originated in childhood. His father traveled for business often and the young Whitaker would plot out the best route for his parent, soon accumulating stacks and piles of schedules. Before long, riding the rails had become an obsession and he set a goal of riding every passenger rail conveyance in the United States - he even included interurban rail lines, which at that time were virtually everywhere. He finally accomplished the feat in June of 1957. To fund these excursions, he wrote as a sports and travel writer for The New Yorker. This book is a collection of those pieces.

Having completed his goal, he decided to ride all the passenger routes in the world! To provide some perspective on what that meant: during 1965 he covered 104,745 miles by train, 7,812 by air, and 3000 by ship - and I thought i enjoyed traveling. He would create fan groups whose members would alert each other to obscure or soon-to-be-extinct rail lines. A group trip might then be organized to ride that particular route. One such bizarre line he discovered in 1945. It was run by the Nevada Northern Railway and consisted of one engine and one car running weekly to haul mail and express from the mines to Ely, Nevada (a current stop on Amtrak's California Zephyr route, a train ride that everyone should experience - truly gorgeous scenery). This train had space for periodic revenue passengers and Frimbo learned he was the first such passenger in two months. The car they used was a little gem, having been converted from an old business or dining car (it was trimmed in inlaid mahogany) and the scenery, albeit desert, was starkly beautiful.

Admittedly, this book will probably appeal only to the railroad-challenged folks like myself. Tough! I liked it. Where else can you find such treasures as the rationale behind the names of Pullman cars? The name denoted the arrangement of the accommodations within. All Imperials (imperial Vale, Imperial Empire, etc.) had four compartments, four double bedrooms, and two drawing rooms. A name ending with Rapids indicated six double bedrooms and ten roomettes. Creeks had double rooms and Imperial Empire, etc.) had four compartments, four double bedrooms, and two drawing rooms. A name ending with Rapids indicated six double bedrooms and ten roomettes. Creeks had double rooms and single duplex rooms. When Pullman built a series of cars with only single bedrooms for businessmen they wanted to create a series name that contained the word "night.' "Nightingale" worked nicely but when they got to "nightshade" and someone looked it up in the dictionary the idea was scrubbed. The Pennsylvania Railroad ordered so many of the Imperial design that they began to run out of ideas.
… (altro)
 
Segnalato
ecw0647 | 1 altra recensione | Sep 30, 2013 |

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Statistiche

Opere
14
Opere correlate
3
Utenti
512
Popolarità
#48,444
Voto
3.9
Recensioni
6
ISBN
29
Lingue
1

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