Had a little bidness yesterday at the Guardian Building. I’d admired its Deco exterior from the street a time or two, but was unprepared for the glories of the lobby. It’s Deco, but colorful; if Deco were a force in Mexico, it would look like this, the vaulted lobby ceiling:
There’s a lot of vaulted-ness, in fact, which contributed to the building’s nickname — the Cathedral of Finance. People forget that in the ’20s, Detroit was Silicon Valley. Hustlers, dreamers, entrepreneurs, sharpies looking to get rich quick and working men just looking for a good day’s wage poured into the city and in large measure, they all got what they wanted. In the bargain, Detroit got some of the world’s finest pre-Depression architecture (although Chicago got more).
I like architecture of this period because it suggests a world where nothing existed but possibilities. You don’t find much public-space art like this anymore:
That mural is called “Michigan” and ignoring the obvious slight — Hey, where’s the U.P.? — it suggests a place where we knew how our bread was buttered. On the southeast corner:
And over in the southwest:
Farther north are nods to mining and fishing. Is that a full-strength economic-development package, or what? No wonder that goddess in the middle is holding two horns of plenty. There was enough to go around. (Not reported: Sometime before this mural was painted, rapacious timber tycoons clear-cut the towering white pines that covered entire state. I mean, denuded it. It was an environmental disaster befitting Russia in the 20th century or China in the 19th. Beware, Pacific Northwest. On the other hand, that pine rebuilt Chicago after the fire, and provided the seed money for the auto industry. I wish they’d left a little behind, however.)
At the bottom of the Mitten is the state’s motto: Si quaeris peninsulam amoenam, circumspice. If you seek a pleasant peninsula, look about you.
And that, really, was the highlight of yesterday. So let’s do the bloggage, segueing smoothly from the Guardian building to the Guardian newspaper, and its report on yet another eating disorder: orthorexia.
Which is? An obsession with eating only “pure” food, to the point of obsession and mental illness:
Most orthorexics, would, like Hackney, find it difficult, if not impossible, to visit an average restaurant. They spend hours each day thinking and talking about food, making meal plans, scanning the latest food research on the internet, visiting organic farms for “perfect” produce and slowly preparing, serving and chewing their food. One orthorexic I came across in California hadn’t eaten out in years and consumed nothing but grains: primarily popcorn. Another was so obsessed with organic food that she spent hours in the healthfood shop, arguing with the assistants over which foods were packaged using organic paper and adhesive and were therefore “uncontaminated.”
There are so many ways to be crazy in our culture, it’s a miracle anyone’s sane, isn’t it?
Now I’m out to rake leaves. As I do, I will comfort myself with thoughts of how pleased I am to be living in a country with a mature, long-sighted president whose diplomatic skills are second to none and will surely guide us through the current North Korea maybe-nuke crisis with the sort of genius he’s shown so often in the past.
I mean, speaking of crazy.
brian stouder said on October 10, 2006 at 9:22 am
thoughts of how pleased I am to be living in a country with a mature, long-sighted president whose diplomatic skills are second to none and will surely guide us through the current North Korea maybe-nuke crisis with the sort of genius he’s shown so often in the past.
well, at worst, the Decider is gone from the scene in two years; and in fact he may well have at least one house of Congress (and possibly both) controlled by the high-minded, far-sighted opposition party in the next few weeks…whereas Kim Jung mentally ILL will apparently natter on (with the occasional blinding flash of light and seismic rumble) until the Chinese pull the plug, or some upstanding colonel dispatches him
Speaking of ‘Decider’ – I could go for a tall cool glass of the stuff about now
787 chars
John said on October 10, 2006 at 9:23 am
Mural is reminiscence of Thomas Hart Benton. Very nice.
56 chars
Connie said on October 10, 2006 at 10:21 am
I believe there are two, maybe 3 remaining stands of virgin white pine in the state. One on Mackinac Island, another in a state park.
Back in 4th grade Michigan history we learned about the logging being a powerful force for economic good and community development. Northern lower Michigan is filled with quiet small towns that owe their existence to the lumber boom. Manistee for example, was once a wealthy boom town filled with lumber barons. Even the smallest coast towns, such as Empire, near our Sleeping Bear area cottage, still show signs of their lumber history. Remains of old docks mark the towns that provided lumber to fuel the Great Lakes steam ships.
In 1871 great fires swept the upper Midwest, not only Chicago, but much of northern Wisconsin, and big chunks of Michigan coast including Holland and Manistee. The last logging boom years served to rebuild the midwest from those fires.
913 chars
brian stouder said on October 10, 2006 at 10:47 am
We once spent a few days in Ludington and then on the trip home went east and then south through the Manistee national park. As we swept around a big right-hand curve, in a heavily forrested area outside of Baldwin (if I recall correctly) – Pam exclaimed “there’s a naked woman in a convertible!!”
I never saw that sight, though, as I was ‘had my hands full’ (so to speak) swerving to miss a Chevy pickup truck that was coming right at us, while the fellow who was supposed to be driving it craned his neck to see the woman in the convertible.
I caught sight of a bar on the right – at the apex of the big curve – that had a parking lot that was literally carved out of the wilderness.
(such a tableau might make for a nice addtion to the mural, I suppose)
766 chars
nancy said on October 10, 2006 at 11:03 am
The most interesting logging stories, to me, are the ones about unintended consequences. Like…did you know logging wiped out the native grayling from the Au Sable river? They floated so much timber down the river that it destroyed their nesting areas, and now the only native grayling live in Alaska.
Also, in recent years, the recovery of submerged logs near the mouths of some of these rivers, logs that were either too large or otherwise didn’t make it onto the barges headed for the mills. They’ve been sitting in cold water for a century, but when they’re hauled up, it turns out the wood is still good (and very expensive).
I should add, Connie, that at some point fretting over some horrible thing that happened 100 years ago becomes a colossal waste of time. It’s like the hindsight condemnations of Christopher Columbus, a man who didn’t even have the vaguest inkling of how his descendants would judge him. He was just getting by a day at a time, like the rest of us.
985 chars
brian stouder said on October 10, 2006 at 11:44 am
It’s like the hindsight condemnations of Christopher Columbus, a man who didn’t even have the vaguest inkling of how his descendants would judge him.
Agreed – and this is the metric by which I think Thomas Jefferson is the most vulnerable to a serious critical revision. He assiduously burnished his legacy (as a small-d democrat) for future generations – even as he lived his life as the southern aristocratic slave-driver that he really was.
457 chars
mary said on October 10, 2006 at 12:14 pm
Thank goodness Bush discontinued that inefficient way we were dealing with the North Koreans when Clinton was in office. Things are going so much better now, aren’t they? It is interesting that two out of three of the “axis of evil” countries have nukes now, and we’re at war with the one that doesn’t and never did.
317 chars
Julie said on October 10, 2006 at 12:26 pm
Terrific photos, Nancy. Thanks for posting them.
49 chars
Danny said on October 10, 2006 at 12:56 pm
Now I’m out to rake leaves. As I do, I will comfort myself with thoughts of how pleased I am to be living in a country with a mature, long-sighted president whose diplomatic skills are second to none and will surely guide us through the current North Korea maybe-nuke crisis with the sort of genius he’s shown so often in the past.
You know, if Iraq falls out good in the end, Bush could end up being looked at as a long-sighted president. We will all just have to wait and see.
But something I note about the current North Korean situation: there is a big difference here between the number of countries that are pissed about it and are willing to join the sane crowd in doing something about it. At least, it seems that way, so far.
And Iraq could have been over with by now if other countries had not pursued their own inactive navel gazing policies. The Russians and everyone had the same WMD (dis)information. It seems the reason that the French, the Russians and most of the rest of the U.N diplomatic corps did not ultimately support the invasion and rebuilding effort was that they were up to there eyeballs in nefarious diplomatic dealings with Iraq and did not want to be embarrassed (e.g. oil for food scandal). If those a-holes had lent a hand, Iraq would be established by now, Iran and Syria would be in line and the Middle East would be well on its way to a more stable future.
So to all of you who want to bitch about W; remember, everyone had the same faulty information and the world community let us all down.
1555 chars
Jim from FL said on October 10, 2006 at 1:22 pm
Yeah. Everyone had the same faulty information. At the time, there were people in Iraq who’s job was to confirm Saddams compliance with the UN resolutions. Some of us proposed that it might be wise to let these people complete their mission. For that, we were called traitors.
276 chars
brian stouder said on October 10, 2006 at 2:57 pm
Some of us proposed that it might be wise to let these people complete their mission
Honestly, NK having the bomb worries me less than the thought of W trying to do something about it. (yes yes – I voted for the guy….so shoot me!*)
(*the remark ‘so shoot me’ is NOT directed at Kim Jung Il)
And now I go back onto nn.c suspension, for nattering on too much (but the tags ARE closed!)
401 chars
mary said on October 10, 2006 at 3:36 pm
Danny
We are not in a position to “wait and see.” We are killing people and getting killed. We have a president who wants a freer hand to use torture, and has outsourced our torture jobs. We’re in a war we created for reasons that were lies, and the Taliban is regaining strength. We are active participants in making things worse.
334 chars
Joe Koibiela said on October 10, 2006 at 9:24 pm
Were those the same people that Saddam refused to let into the suspected nuke places?? Also I seem to remember Clinton selling the North Korean’s the technology to build the nukes with nothing but a PROMISE to use it in peacful ways.
Joe
239 chars
basset said on October 10, 2006 at 10:40 pm
if the building is, as according to the wiki, getting renovated and fixed up… why is there no Pewabic tile portrait of Bob Seger?
131 chars