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August 19, 2005
Map making 
When I worked at Mathematical Reviews in 1989, someone in our office posted regularly to the electronic bulletin board, or whatever it was called. Her posts were full of personal details, of hearing music, going bicycling, cooking and eating—and almost always mentioned doing IT. I knew her personally, and I was also just amazed that she was just posting these, well, posts about nothing more than her life. And the posts were lively, well-written, very very enjoyable.
Six years later, I found David Siegel's online journal. Does anyone else remember those heady times? Wow, you can control web layout with tables! Too cool! (I'm totally thrilled that he still has the old website up)
I'm still feeling sick, but I've made it into work.
...
Perhaps you've read about the 91-year-old Sydney man walking every street in town in Boing boing. This seemed to intrigue Sweetie a quite a bit. If it could happen in Sydney, and London, and Manhattan, and Minneapolis, why not Portland?
At first I didn't take him seriously. This is a joke, right? It might be, I'm not sure. My initial response is that I'd rather do all of Portland's stairways.
Longtime Portland resident Stefana Young wrote the book on this category—literally. She got the idea for her just-published guide, PORTLAND'S LITTLE RED BOOK OF STAIRS, from the "Best Public Stairway" entry in WW's 1994 Best of Portland issue. Young, a self-described "free-lance PR flack," estimates that Portland has 9,000 public stair steps, and she set foot on all of them in the two years it took her to compile the book. Which Portland stairway was completed at the insistence of the late Bill Naito? Which was rescued from destruction in 1951 and relocated to a private house? Which is the most meandering? Young answers these questions and others, surveying more than 150 of the city's 165 public staircases. Pressed to name her favorite staircase, Young makes a "drippingly sentimental" choice: the "Elevator Stairs" between Southwest Broadway Drive and Hoffman Avenue, located near her childhood home.
from Willamette Week's Best of Portland 1997
But... maybe. I just need to figure out why I'd be doing it. It does seem to be a nice intersection of geography & walking. Reading about Phyllis Pearsall, the author of Geographer's A-Z (London) Street Atlas, is really very intriguing.
Phyllis Pearsall was a remarkable woman. Born in 1906 she had already lived a rather bohemian life as a writer, painter and traveler when in 1935 she got lost in London while using a 20 year old street map which was at the time the most recent available. Working from a bedsit in Horseferry Road (in SW1!) and with the aid of James Duncan - a draughtsman borrowed from her father, a Hungarian mapmaker, she began to catalogue the 23,000 streets that featured in the first edition. Working eighteen hour days she walked a total of 3,000 miles in compiling it.
from Phyllis Pearsall, the story of A-Z Maps
Posted at August 19, 2005
Comments
Hope you're feeling better soon! The first blog I ever read was Hollie's "You're gonna run a what?" I was so fascinated with her entries that I decided to start a blog myself, which led me to CompleteRunning.
The dude in Sydney is fascinating, I enjoyed reading this.
Posted by: Jack at August 21, 2005 11:42 PM
My Echo buddy!!!
I miss him!
woof!
Posted by: Jill at August 22, 2005 3:01 PM