The Quest for the Ideal Cafe Chair by Jane Tolbert

The quest for the idea café chair on this side of the Atlantic took on a new relevance when Margaret and I decided that would be the sine qua non of birthday presents for Mom’s outside terrace. Two issues had to be resolved—what criteria determine the ideal chair and where to find it! The ideal chair would have to be comfortable and carry an aesthetic as well as survive the Florida elements. These chairs were in every home improvement store in France. Surely we could find them in Florida.


For years on my back porch I have used the quintessential, white plastic stacking chair, a panacea for low budgets and the Florida humidity. But although this chair met the criterion of comfort, it was too ordinary for a birthday present. Wrought iron chairs are prevalent in the States. But we are tired of balancing on these small chairs that have ivy tendrils or a floral motif that cuts into our backs. Then, no one wanted heavy furniture with cushions (available at all home improvement stores) that could not be left outside. Finally, Mom is very particular about what goes on her outside terrace.




French café chairs come in a variety of styles. The picturesque but uncomfortable with slats serve as décor only. No one sits in these. At least, not for long. The antique with no slats and peeling paint make for great photo opportunities in a design magazine. Finally, the oh-so-comfortable woven burgundy and tan plastic on a bamboo frame in which I could sit for hours (and often did). Unfortunately, these would become a serious mildew trap in Florida. But the light weight aluminum resisted most elements.




French home improvement stores like Castrorama or LeRoy Merlin offer furniture that is compact given that space is at a premium. In contrast, the American counterparts sell mainly massive patio furniture, which requires a McMansion and storage for capacious cushions.

An aluminum café set represented what we imagined to be the ideal birthday present for Mom! It was light and resisted most elements—rain, humidity and many falling objects. And we figured the aesthetic would meet Mom’s somewhat stringent criteria. But finding such a set presented another challenge. No one seemed to sell aluminum café furniture. We debated shipping them from France, but the expense and my June 2008 experience with a strike in the Marseille port made us hesitate. Margaret searched the Internet, finally locating one place in Alabama that sold these. They were on backorder , the sales department explained. . . .


We missed Mom’s birthday by several months, but six chairs and one table did arrive in time for the nice fall weather. And Mom liked them so much, at the first sign of rain, she dragged her new café set inside to protect it from the Florida elements.

Euro Culture by Jane Tolbert

Travel used to be an adventure—I went to Europe to experience métros, small hotel rooms, a Taramisu and even Nutella. I regaled family and friends by returning to the States with suitcases brimming with Panettone, the Italian fruit bread, a special Cantal cheese or even a bottle of walnut liqueur. Today, the Euro has homogenized culture, and airplanes have telescoped distances, making foreign travel less of an adventure and certainly caused problems in terms of gifts to take home.

On one hand, the Euro has offered advantages. Before, I used to spend all of my layover in Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport waiting in the currency exchange line or trying to deliver American products (e.g., a tennis racket or sports clothing) to Dutch friends. Plus, at the end of a European vacation, I had a sprinkling of coins from numerous countries.



Trashcan on Promenade, Juan-les-Pins

Globalization has also given me access to European clothing stores. Although the French catalogue La Redoute no longer has a U.S. base from which we can order, Mango, a Spanish clothing company, has a mail order business in the States (and a store in South Beach). At least I can order reasonably priced clothes that fit without having to travel to Cannes or the Cap 3000.




Mailbox, France

When we think of globalization, the first thing that comes to mind is the way in which McDo and Disney are embedded in French (and other) culture. You can eat burgers or visit the Magic Kingdom without without a transatlantic trip. Like one American friend pointed out, I can experience international flavor by visiting the Epcot foreign pavilions. There are other examples of blending of cultures. Study abroad programs enable students and their classrooms travel to a foreign setting, follow a similar curriculum and in some cases have their US professors. What a change from the old days when you had to know a language or you lived with a foreign family. Furthermore, it’s even becoming more difficult to distinguish nationalities. The French look less French and more like everyone else.



Taxi, Lime Street Station, Liverpool

With all the blending and merging, some icons remain. The French trashcans and mailboxes remain distinctly French (see photos that compare the French to the British). And the British have kept their currency, square taxis and right-hand drive cars.

The advantages of globalization are offset by my more pressing problems. How to find unique souvenirs! I am baffled. Nutella is in American grocery stores, and French t-shirts carry American expressions. What small trinkets can I bring back to show that “I was there.” Maybe I’ll just check out Epcot to see if those pavilions offer something I overlooked while traveling.



Mailbox in Liverpool

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The Elusive Cracker by Jane Tolbert

Everyone is talking about the heat. It’s nearly mid October, and the temperature is still in the upper 80s. We had hoped for a respite with cooler fall temperatures. Is climate change to blame? Or has the change in construction of our homes also affected the way in which we live?

These so-called modern homes, many of which are all electric, seem built on the premise that the outside air is not good for us. The power companies keep us cool—for a price that has an averse effect on our living expenses and, more importantly, on the environment. Our homes appear hermetically sealed. Our windows rarely open. Furthermore, features that could keep the house cooler have been removed. Our shutters do not close but are nailed on the façade for decorative purposes. Our shade trees and natural vegetation have been plowed under to develop communities with names like Castle Gardens, Monastic Oaks, the Cloisters or Caribbean Isles, all evocative of grandeur, meditation, peaceful settings or tropical breezes. Many of these new neighborhoods have replaced what has been termed the Florida cracker house.

Basically these cracker houses had roofs that facilitated air circulation. The wide verandas and overhangs provided shade and prevented the rain from blowing in. High ceilings with fans and cross ventilation kept the house at a reasonable temperature much of the day. Often shutters remained partially closed to retain the cooler morning air.


Home construction has not reflected what we know about climate change. Instead of reverting to the more traditional cracker homes, in the last 20 years many builders have constructed what Mom terms the “bonnet house” (also known as the McMansion) because the roof resembles a large hat placed over the walls. The main point is that most of these homes are hermetically sealed and exhibit few features that would make them comfortable without air conditioning.

We have reasons to modify our lifestyle and, if possible, our residences to address the depletion of natural resources and climate change. And traditional construction with open windows and wrap-around porches (and sometimes sleeping porches) also provided the possibility of communing with nature—to hear wind or rain in the trees, or even nocturnal animals. Those older homes with the wide front porches also offered yet another advantage—a chance to socialize those hot summer evenings. I have memories of sitting on a swing at my grandparents’ house in Culpeper,Va., where neighbors with their dogs would stop for a drink and the news.

Living for years in a modern, all-electric house has made me almost forget the pleasure in sitting outside or letting in fresh air. Although my windows are difficult to open, I do have a wonderful back porch on which I spent much of my days. The mornings are cool, and in the evenings, the breeze is delightful. And when the neighborhood air conditioning compressors are not running, I can hear the night sounds too.

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Anyone have a photo and a story to share? I'd love to hear from you.

Show and Tell, or When Presentations Were Fun by Jane Tolbert

Technology readiness level. Financial projections. The need, or significance, of the study. A phase II report, a white paper. . . . . Friends in academia and corporations talk about presentations they make. “Show and tell,” my sister Margaret commented, comparing those of the grownup world to those presentations we made in elementary school.

Similarities exist. Both grownup presentations and elementary school “show and tell” can be characterized by digressions, interruptions and embellishments. In Miss Ruth Cooper’s class of Anthony Seeger Campus School, second grade students exhibited traits similar to those of long-winded university professors and corporate tycoons. They interrupted: “Let me see.” Or, “I have two just like that.” Others embellished accounts: “From the beaches of Florida, I could see the waves of Hawaii.” Or, “On my tour of the White House, I got to shake hands with the president.” But overall, "show and tell" was pretty interesting and included guinea pigs, Bufferin (a neighbor’s white cat who also starred in at least one of the class theatrical productions), snacks or new toys.

One of the more unique sessions of “show and tell” was led by Margaret, who brought in a plastic bag filled with costume jewelry. Although she planned to tell about the contents of the bag, she talked more about the bag itself. This particular plastic bag had contained several pairs of men’s boxer shorts purchased by my dad, who served at the time as dean of students of the university that supervised Campus School. On other occasions, she brought in a book to share, its pages marked with my dad’s salary check, or she stood before an audience and painted a picture (shown here). When it was my turn, I searched closets and dresser drawers, and likely brought in china horse models with broken legs. And there was that one less successful attempt using a magic trick to make milk disappear so I could throw the empty container into the audience. . . .

At present, everyone cringes at the thought of yet another presentation with numerous PowerPoint slides crammed with chart junk, lengthy agendas and action items that will never be followed. The grownup world would be wise to capture the spirit of those earlier “show and tell” sessions. Although many of today’s presentations would involve sharing a gadget—an iPhone, a digital photo frame or MacBook Air--Margaret said she would still bring her bicycle and her greyhound Fay. As for me, I will have to see what I can find.

La Rue Bijou - The Pear King

NOTE: The typographic pear image is from Robert Justin Goldstein's book, Censorship of Political Caricature in Nineteenth-Century France, 1989. The inkwell portraying Louis-Philippe belongs to me.

Increasingly, activists and dissidents are turning to the new media (blogs, FaceBook, Twitter) to lead grass-roots protest movements often because the mainstream media are government controlled. The “net” is accessible to a diverse crowd, and information delivery takes place in real time. What a change from those earlier days. It took the content of Martin Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses (1517) approximately a month to travel Europe and 17th-century subscription-based newspapers approximately one week to arrive at their destination. How did earlier citizens question official policies in a period of censorship and the Inquisition?

Since the advent of movable type (in the 1450s), journalists and scientists have used the press to criticize. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, officials of the church and state responded by implementing increasingly stringent laws to suppress divergent views in religion, medicine, and astronomy to name a few. There were enough examples of burnings at the stake (Giordano Bruno who wrote a heliocentric and infinite world) and imprisonment or censorship (Galileo who claimed he had proof of the heliocentric world) to make writers cautious. In sixteenth-century France, newspaper copy was submitted to officials prior to publication. In the 17th century, Cardinal Richelieu penned some of the news stories carried by journalist Théophraste Renaudot to ensure the favorable portrayal of French policies. To evade pre-pre-publication screening, some writers used rhetorical strategies such as a retraction (e.g., I am outlining this pernicious theory to make you aware of its dangers). Some writers (including Galileo, the priest Marin Mersenne, and journalist Renaudot in his published conferences proceedings) presented information in the form of a dialogue between three individuals, representing divergent positions characterized by rational, neutral, or specious reasoning. Often these evasive writings seemed reminiscent of a verbal sparring match, pitting the wit of the writer against the intellect of the official. Others used convoluted reasoning, or they relied on a long-winded, verbose style to overwhelm censors and make the author’s position unclear. Still others attributed new points of view or radical theories to the Ancients. Sometimes two different versions of a text appeared—one targeting the censors and the other, a public of savvy readers.





Source: http://blogs.princeton.edu/graphicarts/2009/02/charles_philipons_la_caricatur.html

One of the more creative ways of communicating antigovernment critiques took place in 19th-century France. By this time, the press had been given varying degrees of constitutional protection in the late 18th century. But freedom of the press vacillated with politics and often failed to protect caricature because officials contended these images could create derision and scorn in the public eye. And French kings, who created regimes of abuse and displayed gout-ridden or jowled physiques, became popular targets. In a series of caricatures, Louis Philipon, editor of Le Charivari, represented King Louis-Philippe as a pear in the 1830s. When Philipon faced imprisonment and fines, he protested by using the shape of a pear to print the text of the censorship decree issued by the king.

These earlier activists, limited to the print medium, used creative approaches, approximating verbal or visual repartees to spar with officials. Just think of what they would have done if they had access to blogs or FaceBook. They could post satirical messages on a Louis-Philippe FaceBook fan club. . . . They could use blogs to counter any “whitewashing” that originated with royalist supporters. While pre-internet officials had hard copy with which to contend, with numerous outlets and the potential for real-time communication, perhaps today’s “censors” face a more difficult task.



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