The Foreign Service Journal, January-February 2015

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JANUARY FEBRUARY 2015 15 The Trouble with the Venetian Blinds T he Department of State building is something of a shock for the homecoming diplomat. Whatever else may be said of our embassy buildings abroad, they o er variety and with a few exceptions they are scaled to the human dimension. The mass, the Spartan angularity, the rectangular maze of this New State require some adjustment. It is not a building that caters to human idiosyncrasy, or even to individuality. Elevators go when you don’t want them to, and refuse to go when you want them to, and snort when you interfere with their plans. Venetian blinds can be tilted down, to see the ground, but not up, to see the sky. (This feature is intended to give a uniform appearance from the outside.) The heating system can be made bearable only by adjusting the locked thermostats with a straight- ened paper clip (one of the few small triumphs of the spirit over the system). The unfortunate do not have a window to look out of. The fairly fortunate are permitted to stare out on a prison courtyard, with giant floodlights peering down. Only the very fortunate may look out upon the Lincoln Memorial and one of the more spectacular views available in any capital. —Foreign Service Journal Editorial, January 1965 50 Years Ago From the FSJ Archives This photo of a young Julia Child was one of a number of portraits illustrating the “Behind the Shutter” feature in the January 1965 FSJ . Her husband, then-retired FSO Paul Child, wrote the regular feature, giving tips for taking good photos and showing a few examples of his own photography. In the January 1965 “Behind the Shutter” column he wrote: “In portraits, try to concentrate on the human (or animal) interest. If it’s a person, try to catch your subject before he can get his face set in one of those ‘ideal’ masks—probably learned in front of his mirror—which inevitably make people sti, unnatural and self-conscious. Animals and babies are wonderful, but most grown-ups are a pain in the lens.” FSJ/Paul Child