of cat-heads and catenaries

[Wilson Gray]

On Fri, Sep 17, 2010 at 10:22 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
>
> I'm pretty sure I've never used the word "catenary" and barely if
> ever encountered it before this week's thread.

The same is true for me. If I hadn't grown up in Saint Louis, where
Saarinen's Arch is a big deal, of course, it's unlikely that I would
be familiar with the word. It took me a while to understand the
description. Like, WTF? How is an arch standing up like a chain
hanging down? Impaired sense of spatial relations, I reckon. I've
since understood.

Thanks and a tip of the hat to Victor, with whom I am also in complete
agreement. I once worked at the library of Harvard's School of Design
and, though I recall such oddities as a photograph of the Los Angeles
Dept. of Water & Power's Harbor Steam Plant, I can't recall coming
across "catenary."

-Wilson Gray

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