Word: mcphee
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...John McPhee...
...been nearly 25 years since John McPhee struck out for areas relatively unknown, to prove by deft reportage that anything can be interesting if it is presented well. He has written arrestingly about subjects as mundane as oranges and as momentous as high-energy physics and the geologic forces that shape our planet. The three pieces that constitute his 20th book, Atchafalaya, Cooling the Lava and Los Angeles Against the Mountains, deal with the power of determined people to tame water, fire and earth...
...McPhee's heroes are not content to go with the flow, be it the Mississippi River's wanton meanderings, the angry surge of molten rock from an Icelandic volcano, or the periodic slide of real estate in California's San Gabriel Mountains, where waterborne debris can roar down hillsides and turn million- dollar dream houses into nightmares for owners and insurance companies. McPhee's strength is the odd detail of natural disaster: "The house became buried to the eaves. Boulders sat on the roof. Thirteen automobiles were packed around the building, including five in the pool . . . The stuck horn...
Unsurprisingly, accounts of expensive residences becoming kindling, or descriptions of boots bursting into flame as perspiring Icelanders combat the creep of lava that threatens their fishing village, are fundamentally more dramatic than the mysterious workings of southern Louisiana hydrology. Yet all three elemental battles recounted by the masterly McPhee are unified by the most uncontrolled and stubborn of all forces: human nature...
With the bases loaded, freshman Nick Del Vecchio doubled to leftcenter off Princeton hurler Gary Waslewski for three RBI. The Tigers brought in Dan McPhee, but he didn't bring them any relief. After walking his first batter, McPhee met Crimson shortstop Dave O'Connell, who greeted him with a two-run single. McPhee dug himself out of the inning, but the Tigers couldn't dig themselves out of their hole...