Some people take an extra day or so for the Easter holiday as they try to get the house and yard ready for warm weather, watch the kids on Spring break, and do family things. The Grouch has some book suggestions for those who might be strolling around their bookstore, or shopping online for somebody, and be seized by the desire to get something for themselves, for a change. You could start with some, any, of the late Arthur C. Clarke’s SciFi novels….Childhood’s End, Rendezvous with Rama, Imperial Earth, or any of the various collections of his shorter stories. Clarke was also a graceful essayist, so some of his non-fiction collections might please as well. The folks at Barnes and Noble or Borders will be glad to help. Or, how about a novel about Tesla? You know, alternating current, eccentric-living-in-a-hotel-room-and-talking-to-pigeons-Tesla? Samantha Hunt’s The Invention of Everything Else should do nicely for you then. The Christian Science Monitor gave it a good review. If you feel a little bit guilty about playing hookey, and want something meatier, try: Built by Animals: The Natural History of Animal Architecture. Mike Hansell. viii + 257 pp. Oxford University Press, 2008. $29.95.

Hansell is the author of Animal Architecture, which was written for a more professional audience. The new book takes some of the same topics, but aims the treatment at the “intelligent reader”, and there are few enough books written by good authors on interesting topics, so let’s welcome one when we can. And finally, for the seriously dedicated, we are pleased to note that 2007 was the tricentennary not only of Linnaeus and Euler, but also of Buffon. The Chevalier de Buffon enjoyed an enormous reputation in his time, but his star has not shone so brightly since, a fate shared pretty generally by the pre-Darwinian biologists. But things may be about to turn around, since Buffon’s works are being re-issued:

Georges-Louis Leclerc de Buffon OEUVRES
Edited by Stéphane Schmitt and Cédric Crémière
1,677pp. Gallimard. £65.

Georges-Louis Leclerc de Buffon OEUVRES COMPLÉTES, I
Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière, avec la description du Cabinet du Roy – Tome I (1749)
Edited by Stéphane Schmitt and Cédric Crémière
1,367pp. Champion. 150euros.
That should do it. Happy Easter.

Postscript: The TLS has a very interesting and informative essay on Buffon and his place in the history of Biology from which I quote:”The finest pen of his age, a giant of natural history, geometry and art: Buffon deserves to be restored”. Buffon worked 14 hours a day, and published 36 volumes of his Histoire naturelle in 39 years, and 8 more volumes appeared after his death. He also ran the royal museum and dabbled in math, in fact more than dabbled; “Buffon’s needle” is an important conjecture in probability theory. I read the story on Arts and Letters Daily.
Buffon

Who? Ben What? Well, cheer up. The Grouch didn’t know either until it was revealed that the late Mr. Chapman was the human figure behind, or I should say, underneath the iconic
Creature from the Black Lagoon makeup in the movie of the same name. In a long life, Mr. Chapman was and did many things, but few of them gave him as much fun as being The Creature. He got a bang out of appearing at cult film festivals or other gatherings of enthusiasts and doing the autograph bit. Chapman had to don a very heavy makeup scheme, which took a couple of hours to prepare and a couple of hours to remove. Between takes he would platz in the water to keep cool, since the only part of the rig that was easily removable was the critter’s head, so he would pass the time between takes by hiding in the pond and leaping up out of the water at passing studio folk. It doesn’t sound like much now, but I guess you had to be there. I can think of some Hollywood types that I wouldn’t mind scaring the bejeezus out of, but never mind.
Creature was an interesting venture, and it stands up rather well when viewed today. It caught the ambiguity the public felt toward science in the post WWII era, and what it came up with as it pushed back frontiers: penicillin, the Bomb, creatures from black lagoons.
The creature is supposed to be some kind of amphibious fish-man, and the scientists are after it because of its evolutionary importance. It, or he, also has an eye for the ladies, proven by his interest in the toothsome Julia Adams. Another actor did the underwater scenes and Chapman lumbered around on deck or on land. The story was set on the Amazon, but in part shot in a Florida swamp or bayou or whatever, and rather convincingly too.
In another example of British eccentricity, The Economist, of all rags, had a very nice obit:
Lagoon
You can also read an interesting story about the movie in Wikipedia;
Black