2. Three columns from The Houston Post, 1986 and 1987:
Author’s Note: These book evaluations demonstrate
the immense difficulty of “reviewing” lengthy published works of the
anthological variety within a stringent word limit. Covering a single
volume in one short column is hard enough, but trying to do three books
in one (“Evoking the Essence…”) proved to be a particular challenge. One
could only try for cogency, not detail or revelation. It will seem
strange that my “treatise” on appreciating and getting the best out of
the Mapleson cylinders doesn’t say a word about any of the individual
singers or their performances. That’s because a companion article of
equal length, “The Sounds of Yesteryear” by William Albright, appeared
side-by-side with my “how to” effort and handled the artistic appraisal
perfectly. The original last word of my piece, by the way, was bog,
as in “…like diamonds peeking out of a bog.” The editor thought the ‘o’
was a typo, and “corrected” me accordingly. Perhaps I was being too
cute by half in the first place, but the image still appeals to me more
than that of the bag. Final comment: the titles are not of my choosing.
