Piece Description

"Sand, Still in My Shoes" A LINER NOTES SPECIAL FOR LABOR DAY. In summertime we are not ourselves. Thank Goodness. We fall in love. We rediscover the ocean, trashy novels and the hot fudge sundae. We travel to places that restore our strength, replenish our souls. Then, on Labor Day, the fulcrum of the year, we find ourselves teetering, nostalgic about summer, excited by or frightened of the fall. Labor Day is the real New Year. Labor Day is bittersweet. On Labor Day, 2008, Liner Notes captures the mood, speaking to millions of us who reluctantly let go of our summer selves and get ready for the regular rhythms of work, school, and home. Host Paul Holdengraber, Artist Maira Kalman (Principles of Uncertainty) and Investigative Humorist Henry Alford (The Big Kiss) offer their takes on summer and its inevitable end. Henry teaches us how to put sunscreen on our backs even though we are alone. This involves a door frame. Maira marvels at how one is praised in summer, condemned in winter for the same thing: spending the whole day in a hammock, reading. In a portrait of the swanky Hamptons, Manhattan's summer playland, flamboyant ad-man and restaurateur Jerry Della Famina recounts how he and Martha Stewart were both crowded out of his own restaurant, and wound up cooking a better dinner at home. Famed Neurologist Dr. Oliver Sachs reveals why he must swim; author Roger Benner (Camp Camp) describes summer camp as "Lord of the Flies" meets "Fantasy Island", and reflects on the golden summers of the 70's through the early 90's; Diane Ackerman, author of The Natural History of the Senses, reveals our heightened summer senses, as well as summer mating habits and the evolution of kissing; the world's most distinguished travel writer, Jan Morris, explains "the Trieste Effect." Paul Holdengraber and Jan Albert (Film Blogger and Host of "Behind the Screen") explore summer movies such as "The Summer of 42", "To Kill a Mockingbird", and "Do the Right Thing". Labor Day is when the balance tilts. It is for each of us, our own personal equinox. It is still warm but summer is no longer. Our tan is still there but will only fade. There is no sand in sight, but it is still in our shoes.