sentences that open portals to unrelated worlds [this thread is abt BOOKS not yr SOCIAL LIFE]

"One particularly memorable course focused on the lost smells of Christianity" (re Jerry Toner, from [i]A Burglar's Guide to the City]/i] by Geoff Manaugh)

(a companion thread to: http://www.ilxor.com/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?boardid=40&threadid=42731#unread)

peeking thru the portal

cities stank Reminds me that I recently read a long and pungent (and favorable) review of

http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcT3MbSzAocYylx_co-Cq7FppB-iu5TydFyOfeI-8sUDYbcbl5Gb

If can't see it, it's London Fog: The Biography, by Christine L. Corton. The "pea soup" tag came from Fog fanciers. And the enjoyment of/problems with it of course continued long after the sewage system was improved or basically invented, after The Great Stink, when Parliament had to have hung huge curtains soaked in lime.
Also recently heard on The History Guys' Public Radio show that NYC bigwigs became concerned about dead horses and much else *not* floating down the rivers to the sea when began to hope for rich European tourists---before that, it was a stinkman's paradise. Very promising subject--wondering about ancient Athens, Rome, Jerusalem, Atlantis, Alexandria (maybe that's why the library was burned: too many stinkmen in the stacks).

Remember reading -- maybe in a review of this? -- that the fog left this gorgeous coating on everything, that looked dark and rich and velvety and sparkly, as LONG AS YOU DIDN'T TOUCH IT (when it revealed itself to be smeary and sticky and nasty).