"Fleeting
Memories," is a web
book by Park Slope poet Michael Ruby with
many
pictures
about
forgetting and
remembering
and
parenting
in
the
period
around
9/11.

It is featured
on
the
website
of
acclaimed
Brooklyn
publisher
Ugly
Duckling
Presse:
http://www.uglyducklingpresse.org/

Here is Michael Ruby from the introduction: "This is a collection of memories that popped into my mind over a period of seven years at work, as a copy editor at The Wall Street Journal, across the street from the World Trade Center. As far as I can tell, the memories came from nowhere, with no relation to the mostly political articles I was editing about the Republican takeover of Congress, the government shutdown, Monica Lewinsky, the Starr Report, the downfall of Newt Gingrich, impeachment, Florida or Bush v. Gore. Many of the memories are glimpses of places, a street corner and nothing more, as if a major function of the mind were this continuous global positioning, this continuous murmuring, ”Right now, I’m at the corner of 10th Ave. and 64th St.” The places are distributed fairly evenly over the course of my life, with a somewhat disturbing precedence given to the streets around my childhood home at 251 Montrose Ave. in South Orange, N.J."

I urge OTBKB readers to take a look at this incredible web
book. It is certainly of
broad
interest
to
the
"Turning
50"
and
parenting
crowds
in
Park
Slope,
as
well
as
to
anyone
who
lived
through
9/11.

Michael Ruby, a poet and journalist who lives in Park Slope, is the author of two poetry books, At an Intersection and Window on the City, and the editor of Washtenaw County Jail and Other Writings by David Herfort. He’s currently working on several new books of poetry: The Mouth of the Bay, based on pre-Socratic propositions; Close Your Eyes, transcriptions of what he sees with his eyes closed; and American Songbook and The Star-Spangled Banner, two related works using lyrics from 20th century American popular songs and the national anthem. He’s also slowly writing a historical memoir about the families of his eight great-grandparents in Eastern European shtetls and the U.S. between 1850 and 1950. A graduate of Harvard College and Brown University’s writing program, he works as a copy editor at The Wall Street Journal and lives with his wife and three daughters in Park Slope.