Lebanon 3

Above, a picture by Spencer Platt from the conflict last round.

Young Lebanese drive through a devastated neighbourhood of South Beirut, 15 August. After a long morning walking through the rubble of a bombed Beirut and documenting people returning to what was left of their homes, Platt saw the red convertible out of the corner of his eye. His photo won the World Press Photo of the Year 2006, as detailed HERE. (Thanks to Getty Images.)

After that photo ran, Dutch freelance journalist Gert Van Langendonck tracked down its subjects in the car and interviewed them, as elaborated HERE in Photo District News. The photo was, then, the cause for some controversy. Fascinating, read the whole thing.
- James Linville

Lebanon 2

"Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said the unrest was a purely 'internal affair.'"

This might be a good time to consider again the question who killed Hezbo commander Imad Mughniyah.

Terrible again what's happening in that country, and to think what's ahead for it. What began as labor unrest Wednesday appears headed for a major showdown.

Griffith Electric Supplies - Trenton, NJ

Taken with my Motorola phone...

On Travel - Jean-Paul Sartre

It must be such an upheaval. If I were ever to go on a trip, I think I should make written notes of the slightest traits of my character before leaving, so that when i returned I would be able to compare what I was and what I had become. I’ve read that there are travellers who have changed physically and morally to such an extent that even their closest relatives did not recognize them when they came back.

An Ivy-Leaguer's Lament

... and it's all about clothes, but very witty, here, via A Continuous Lean.

G. Bruce Boyer writes:

"When I was growing up back in the late 1950s, the matter of dress for young men was relatively simple. There were basically three types of clothing stores. There was of course the traditional store for the traditional American business look: conservatively cut suits, safe shirts, and discreet foulard or striped neckwear. Then there was the somewhat “sharper” store, a more courant version of the trad store. Finally there was the Ivy League shop.... For most, the subtleties of double-breasted jackets and grenadine neckwear, of suede town shoes, enameled cuff links, covert cloth chesterfields, and cashmere cabled hosiery were not imaginable. But then neither were exterior logos, Italian designers, or microfibers. There also didn’t seem to be the questions of what to wear when. We certainly knew when the occasion called for a tie, and gym clothes were confined to the gym. It was, as I say, a simpler time."

Read the whole thing.