Outside Lies Magic

[Silverback Steve Shepard is the creator of The Natural Curiosity Project, our podcasting partner here in The Jungle. We feature new episodes as they appear, but there’s also a rich past catalog that is well worth exploring. This one is so good that I’m breaking it into two parts. In the first, SB introduces us to a fellow named John Stilgoe. Tomorrow, we’ll learn about what turned SB Steve into such an admirer. We’ve conferred Honorary Silverback status on Stilgoe. SB SM]

by Steve Shepard

I’ve just closed the back cover on John Stilgoe’s book, “Outside Lies Magic.” This is at least the fourth, perhaps the fifth, time that I’ve read it, and I enjoy it just as much or more each time I do.

Stilgoe is the Robert and Lois Orchard Professor in the History of Landscape at the Visual and Environmental Studies Department of Harvard University. His work is unique and hard to qualify. In “Outside Lies Magic,” he asks readers to get out of their cars, hop on a bike—or even better, walk—to discover their communities. But I mean, discover them, because we see so much more when we walk around. I’ve tried it, and he’s right. He points out all kinds of things in the book that we don’t notice when we’re in a car. For example, what do those metal numbers and letters mean that are nailed onto telephone poles? Why are there mailboxes–they’re
usually green—that have no place to put mail? What are standpipes for? And what is actually in those silver metal boxes that are on street corners in cities? The answer will surprise you. I have a passion for word origins (perhaps because my undergrad degree is in word origins?), so, when Stilgoe dedicated most of a chapter to words that have to do with land use, I was hooked.

[More on this in tomorrow’s episode. Today is just to introduce Stilgoe. Here’s a nice profile that appeared on Sixty Minutes. By the way … I’d never noticed the arrow in the Fedex logo. Once you see it, you can’t miss it. Tick-tock, tick-tock. SB SM]