Oddities 7 Back Cover

Cubist-inspired art by "Placid" -- I think he (or she) was French, but don't recall how the artist came to send the piece to Roman.

I hope at length to post the issues of Oddities that haven't yet appeared -- issues One, Two and Five, I believe.

All the Kingdoms of the World

When voyaging, one of the cheesiest, most obvious things a human can do is to plot the trip to, then ascend, a skyscraper or tower and survey city or country. I always gravitate toward these places nonetheless, and a colorful memory palace can be built of these past images. When in Berlin, the Bundestag/Reichstag glass dome involved too long a wait. But after circling the viewing platform atop the Fernsehturm, I attempted to visualize the ground as it would have seethed if you could turn the clock dial back to April 1945 (the attempt not entirely successful). The Round Tower in Copenhagen had an alchemical North Sea storm lashing its brim, preventing full absorption of the surrounding spiral towers and cobbled alleys. The detail seen from an Empire State Building or Tokyo Tower can challenge recollection with its complexity: From the World Trade Center, the streets of Manhattan surged like blood in silver veins.

And I will not mention the matter of natural eminences.

The Bund in Shanghai -- I didn't know what it was until I got there.