Sentence of the Day, p. 248

We are just a little past halfway, dear blog readers. So you will not be forever reading about WAR WAR WAR. Self’s next book is Rules of Estrangement, by Joshua Coleman, which is about “broken families.” The angst will be pure.

Without further ado:

• Their plan of attack was significantly different from previous operations, and reflected their growing confidence in their destructive abilities.

The RAF prepares for a fourth wave of bombing raids on Hamburg (at this point, seems like overkill). Once again, the Brits send out a tiny little Mosquito to do recon. The Mosquito takes off at 6:45 p.m. and returns three hours later. Report: Skies “looked relatively clear” but there was “a huge cumulo-nimbus to the southwest . . . moving briskly . . . “

Stay cool, dear blog readers. Stay cool.

Monday Windows: Loft, San Luis Obispo

Took a road trip down the central coast last week.

Self loves windows, just in general.

More about this Photo Challenge:

• Windows are all around us, windows to look into, windows to look out of. This challenge is to look AT windows, photograph interesting ones and share the images. You can either post new photos of windows or dig some out of your archives.

Still Reading

Still July, 1943: 3rd round of RAF bombing raids on the city of Hamburg

A Hamburg family takes shelter from the firestorm in the entrance to a shop. A man hurrying past points out that the shop sells “firelighters,” points to the display in the front window. The family has to scramble to find a different shelter.

— Inferno, p. 239

A Photo A Week Challenge: Unedited

Love this photo challenge from Nancy Merrill’s A Photo a Week.

tbh, ALL self’s shots are unedited. She takes all her pictures on the fly.

Here are a few shots she took last week at the Legion of Honor. She went to see the exhibit Last Supper at Pompeii. On the way in, her attention was captured by these Wangechi Mutu sculptures, and there was no way to take pictures of those without including the bystanders. Not the ideal, but here they are anyway. The man in the blue jacket has a starring role:

Stay cool, dear blog readers. Stay cool.

I had never heard of

the bombing of Hamburg, not until I read this book.

I knew about Dresden. I had read Victor Klemperer’s diaries, decades ago but that kind of thing tends to stay with you.

But why hadn’t I heard about Hamburg? It seems so awful. The attacks were concentrated and relentless: four separate raids. I was amazed the city managed to rebuild.

To be fair, as Lowe points out, the British were only returning the favor. They learned from the Blitz, when the Luftwaffe “rained incendiaries down on London and other British cities, causing huge damage.” The British learned from the Germans that fires did more damage than explosions “and began experimenting accordingly.” For instance, they perfected delayed reaction incendiaries and two-step bombs, the kind that would start a fire and then, when someone tried to shovel it out a window, would explode, killing or maiming whoever was nearby.