Evelyn McHugh (1915-2007)

Maureen’s mom died yesterday.  She talks about it at her blog here.

Every year the New York Times Magazine does an issue on the best ideas of the year: this year’s issue is a peach.  From the biodegradable coffin, above (customizable–you can have your coffin lined with feathers, and have designs silk screened on the exterior) to pollution-eating cement, there are inventions that gave me the same frisson that reading SF did when I was a yout’.  And then there are the ideas: a rationale for the much-maligned appendix;  a plan for defending Earth against killer asteroids; a biological explanation for “cat lady syndrome.”  Many of the objects and ideas in the issue are pie-in-the-sky, but they’re all fun to read about, and some of them (wireless energy, anyone?) are distinctly cool.  Go look.  Have fun.