Rick Steves; body-text fonts, pt. 18: Walbaum

Sometimes, after working all day, Karin is too tired to follow a plot. Then – and only then – she consents to watch Rick Steves’ Europe with me.

Tonight we watched “Southeast England” – Dover, Canterbury, Brighton, Portsmouth. There are some incredible tourist sights in these towns. And, the video makes clear, some incredible numbers of tourists. Thank goodness for YouTube.

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Inspired by Bodoni, first designed around 1800, Walbaum has been redrawn many times. Sometimes it’s heavy, sometimes it’s startlingly light.

The latter passage is set in Monotype Walbaum. This version is what you’re likeliest to come across in body text.

In 2018, Monotype released a large new Walbaum “family” with this heavier font and this lighter one (among others). These are the best Walbaums for body text, but I’ve yet to see books typeset with either of them.

Bailleul, which is free, is, for some purposes, a tolerable approximation.

Austin, or, rather, the Texas Hill Country, pt. 3: LBJ’s ranch

I wished to view something more “Texan” than the hipster city of Austin. And so, on Friday, Ana & David took Karin & me out into the Texas Hill Country. Our destination was the LBJ Ranch.

We drove through Dripping Springs and Johnson City, where LBJ grew up (and which was named after his cousin). That city is now a tourist town. We also passed some wineries. Onward!, I insisted. No wineries! Onward, to the ranch!

Admission to the ranch was free, but each of us was charged $3 to tour the house. Driving through the property, we saw the Pedernales River and large fields with handsome Hereford cattle. We also stopped at LBJ’s airplane hangar and viewed a short movie about the importance of the ranch to the Johnson family and the nation. LBJ spent about a quarter of his presidency on the ranch. He hosted politicians and foreign dignitaries there. (His Secret Servicemen were disguised as ranch hands.) We also listened to an airman tell stories about how LBJ would fly into the ranch at the government’s expense.

The house itself was rather plain. It had eight bedrooms, a swimming pool, and many, many phones and televisions. It was decorated in the Sixties’ style, with vinyl armchairs, lemon-yellow countertops, and popular books from the period. (I was reminded of the Missionary Church Dorm, in Quito.) The best thing in the house, however, was LBJ’s desk chair, made of spotted cowhide. Oh, how I longed to sit in that chair! Alas, it wasn’t permitted.