Areas of Unrest

27 February 2000 - Door County

QOTD: "TV ads always show detergents getting out blood stains. I say if you have a T-shirt full of blood stains, maybe laundry isn't your problem." - Jerry Seinfeld

Reading: Laurell K. Hamilton, Circus of the Damned

Listening to: Ali Farka Toure with Ry Cooder, Talking Timbuktu

I like those little books of questions they often have near bookstore cash registers. They remind me of times when various roommates and I used to make up lists of meaningful questions to ask potential dates, judging their worthiness by such trivia as what order they read the newspaper in and what they'd do if confronted by a UFO. They also come in handy when I don't feel like writing about what's been going on. Face it - a weekend spent primarily procrastinating on housework is far from fascinating.

The question which caught my eye was what shape I'd make the door to my house if it couldn't be a rectangle. This isn't that weird a question, since I love doors. There are some cities that have wonderful doors, doors worthy of photographing or painting, doors that you could spend days just wandering around staring at. The best doors in the world are in Zanzibar, ornately carved Swahili wood doors, with designs that always include a stylized fish, some fish having morphed into pineapples or vases of flowers, but always recognizable as fish if you just know the secret.

But those doors are basically rectangular, with the interest coming in the carving. Still, they take one towards Islamic architecture, full of pointed arches. I'd want a long entranceway corridor, full of arches. Maybe a hallway topped with fan vaulting, like a 14th century cathedral. Or maybe not fan vaulting - it must be awfully hard to clean. The Islamic arches can stay, though.

I like sharp edges - better a pointed arch than one of those rounded European ones. Straight lines just seem cleaner to me, providing better definition than curved surfaces. They're not as graceful, perhaps, but simplicity and grace are probably not compatible.

I also wonder what shapes other people would choose. Beyond the entrance to an igloo, could you even have a circular door? A semicircle is feasible, I guess - but that's not that far from the Roman arch. How would you hang a triangular door? You could do a right triangle, I suppose, but the engineering would be tough for other shapes. My imagination just can't run to a door without at least one right angle.

All of this is a moot point, of course. Even if I could afford the eccentricity, I don't think I'd want the exterior of my house to be so conspicuous. And, nowadays, most communities have all sorts of rules to encourage conformity.

But just wait and see what the interior doorways look like!