Tower of power

Like many fans of the Bay Area, I've had a long-time fascination with Sutro Tower, the huge structure perched on Mount Sutro and visible from most parts of the city. With some free time one afternoon a while back I finally did something I've wanted to do for a long time: climbing up to the darned thing. Turns out you can walk right up to the fence at the base. Here's the proof:

Carnival!

Carnival just started in Rio and the samba schools have been marching. And where do they march? In the Sambadrome, that's where! What other venue has a name as cool -- and apt -- as the Sambadrome? (Or, if you prefer, the Sambódromo.) And designed by monster centenarian of Brazilian architecture Oscar Niemeyer, natch.

Bibliaroma

I recently had a chance to visit the Beinecke Rare Book Library at Yale. It's a fascinating building -- a central multistory glass tower housing the books is surrounded by a windowless outer shell composed of thin, translucent marble panels. The large and unique interior space features displays of Gutenberg Bibles, first-edition Audubons, and other bibliographic goodies.

All very cool, but it turned out to be an interesting olfactory experience as well. As I walked in, I noticed a distinct odor. Now, I've been in lots of libraries, used bookstores, and other manuscript collections and I recognize the smell of old, musty books. But this was different. It was evocative and mysterious -- complex, slightly acrid, but not unpleasant. I've never really smelled anything like it. Perhaps it was just the cleaning solution they use on the marble combined with old book smell, but I'd like to think it was something more romantic.