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Originally a lawyer and Congressional aide, Belen was chief counsel for the House of Representatives' post office. He apparently liked working with mail: he rose in rank to become the Deputy Postmaster General under President Lyndon Johnson, and was assigned to oversee the automation of the Post Office Department, now the U.S. Postal Service. One of the most visible results of his work was the "Zone Improvement Plan" -- routing codes for cities and towns to speed mail delivery -- better known as "ZIP Codes". As the chief architect of the ZIP Code system, in 1962 he received the Post Office's first Benjamin Franklin Award. He died October 13 in Arlington, Va., from complications of Parkinson's disease. He was 85. From This is True for 10 October 1999 Suggestions for further reading:
 By: Philip Parisi List Price: $50.00 Amazon Price: $37.50 Editorial Review: Walk into any of sixty post offices or federal buildings in the state of Texas and you many be greeted by a surprising sight: magnificent mural art on the lobby walls. In the midst of the Great Depression, a program was born that would not only give work to artists but also create beauty and optimism for a people worn down by hardship and discouragement. This New Deal program commissioned artists to create post office murals--the people's art--to celebrate the lives, history, hopes, and dreams of ordinary Americans, In Texas alone, artists painted ninety-seven artworks for sixty-nine post offices and federal buildings around the state. The artists included Tom Lea, Jerry Bywaters, Peter Hurd, Otis Dozier, Alexandre Hogue, and Xavier Gonzalez. The images showed people at work and featured industries specific to the region, often coupled with symbols of progress such as machinery and modern transportation. Murals depicted cowboys and stampedes, folk heroes, and community symbols such as Eastland's lizard mascot, Ol'Rip. In this volume Philip Parisi has gathered 115 photographs for these stunning and historic works of art--36 in full color. He tells the story of how they came to be, how the communities influenced and accepted them, and what efforts have been made to restore and preserve them. Enjoy this book in the comfort of your living room, or take it with you on the road as guide to the people's art in the Lone Star State  By: Washington PostKenneth W. Starr List Price: $16.00 Amazon Price: $14.40 Editorial Review: The Starr Report contains the complete text of the Independent Counsel's report, the White House's response, and exclusive analysis by the Pulitzer Prize-winning staff of the Washington Post. This historic document, drawing on secret Grand Jury testimony of witnesses including Monica Lewinsky, Linda Tripp, Vernon Jordan, many of the president's closest aides, and President Clinton himself, provides the basis for Starr's allegations of presidential high crimes and misdemeanors. It will become the central instrument in the House of Representatives' investigation that could lead to President Clinton's impeachment. The culmination of one of the most controversial investigations of our time, The Starr Report is essential reading for all citizens concerned about the fate of the presidency and our nation.Here it is--the result of four years of investigative research, at an approximate cost of $40 million. Back in 1994, Kenneth Starr was appointed to investigate a series of investments made by Bill and Hillary Clinton; the Whitewater allegations never bore fruit, but then somebody whispered stories about the president and an intern named Monica Lewinsky into Starr's ear. He and his team of prosecutors sniffed around, and this is what they've come up with: "According to Ms. Lewinsky, she and the President had ten sexual encounters, eight while she worked at the White House and two thereafter." The details are bathetic in their precision: "during many of their sexual encounters," Starr notes, "the President stood leaning against the doorway of the bathroom across from the study, which, he told Ms. Lewinsky, eased his sore back." And yes, as far as we know, that was the president's semen on Monica's navy dress. Whether or not it's the government's job to produce hackneyed narratives about young women who find themselves falling in love with powerful men is for voters to decide, but this story would be rejected outright by readers of Harold Robbins or Jackie Susann were it not for the newsworthy elements. Of course, there's also the second half of the report, in which Starr explains how Clinton's attempts to prevent his relationship with Lewinsky from becoming public knowledge constitute grounds for his impeachment. That's the part of the document that matters most from a political perspective ... but it's doubtful that it'll be the part that lingers in historical memory. (Note: You can also read the Starr report in electronic form for free at a number of locations on the Web, including the Library of Congress site and the commercial sites AOL.com, Netscape Netcenter, and Yahoo!) It's Not TV: Watching HBO in the Post-Television Era By: Marc LeveretteBrian L. OttCara Louise Buckley List Price: $95.00 Amazon Price: $59.85 Editorial Review: It?s Not TV argues that HBO, as part of the leading edge of television, is at the center of television studies? interests in market positioning, style, content, technology, and political economy. Each essay focuses on a specific key term in television studies, drawing on a particular aspect of the "HBO effect" to explore new avenues by which we can write and think about what is happening in the current television climate from radical changes in broadcasting technology to shifts in viewing habits in the wake of DVR, on-demand digital cable services, and DVDs, for example. By taking a number of approaches and focusing on a number of key critical terms, this book will enable students to familiarize themselves with the vocabulary of a burgeoning field, while at once seeing these approaches put into practice via the case studies of popular programs including The Sopranos, Six Feet Under, and Sex and the City. By identifying HBO not simply as a channel, rather examining it as a phenomenon within the larger televisual context ? at the height of its popularity and success ? this collection is taking the pulse of contemporary culture in order to consider how television is created and consumed in the information age. It?s Not TV gives readers a space wherein they will find sustained investigations and varied responses to one of the most important sites of cultural production today. This collection brings together scholars from fields such as media studies, journalism, popular culture, communication studies, urban studies, political science, visual studies, and women?s studies who have examined the phenomenon of HBO in one way or another from within their specific disciplines.  By: John C. Carlisle List Price: $9.95 Amazon Price: $9.95 Editorial Review: In the 1930s the Public Works of Art Project of the Treasury Department started a program "to secure suitable art of the best quality for the embellishment of public buildings." Post offices built under the New Deal were among the beneficiaries of this program. In Indiana, thirty-six of the thirty-seven original murals still exist. The color photography by Darryl Jones, a noted Indianapolis photographer, brings the murals to life.  By: Howard Hull List Price: $12.95 Amazon Price: $12.95 Editorial Review: The United States government got into the art business when it instituted a series of programs to keep artists working during the Depression years. Tennessee received its fair share, and most of the original thirty are still in existence. A few have been moved to different locations, but the author notes that most of the murals ?are still on that same wall in the same small post office in that same small town where they were placed so long ago.? Unfortunately, many people are not aware of these murals?even in the areas where they are located. Written for the purpose of enhancing the knowledge of Tennesseans about the murals found in their post offices, this book will be of interest to artists and historians as well. Hull has included numerous photographs along with his descriptions of each mural and its composition, the mural?s relation to history, and a biographical sketch of each artist. |
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