Another day spent staring at the screen. Maundy Thursday, right? I always liked to say that, although as a child, I mainly recall Holy Week as a series of going to church and not liking it very much. Especially Good Friday, when I was expected to sit quietly in my room or elsewhere in the house from noon to 3 p.m. and contemplate the suffering of Christ. (I didn’t.)
In Fort Wayne, the public library closed from noon until 3 p.m. on Good Friday. A public library. I wrote a column about it. The director said it would likely never be changed because it was an employee benefit, and benefits are hard to take away.
Of course, that was years before the great recession, when we all learned how easy it is to take benefits away.
But now it’s the end of the week, and the beginning of the weekend, and lordy, am I ready. So much to do over the weekend — write another piece, shop for a Mad Men dinner party, go to Toledo for Easter brunch, jump down turn around pick a bale of cotton. And on and on it goes until they plant you in the ground.
Maybe I need a vacation. A real one.
In the meantime, I need a bit of bloggage.
Of course, if Mad Men is firing up again, so are Tom & Lorenzo and their essential Mad Style blog entries. Here’s an introduction for you newbies. Sometimes I think they overreach, but mostly? Dead on.
The Hoosier Fiasco reaches a climax as the compromise on the IRFDA basically turns into a total skinback of the stupid bill. Two amusing asides, both passed along by friends there: “Mike Pence has done more for the LGBT community than any politician ever in Indiana,” and “I predict when Pence is out of office, no one asks him to head up a university. Maybe the Montana School for the Tall.” Yup.
If it’s Easter, it must be time for….PEEPS. Enjoy. And happy egg-hunting, y’all.
Dexter said on April 3, 2015 at 2:27 am
I remember two Good Fridays, one when I was a kid with a paper route and I utilized the day off school to collect from my customers, when one old lady pulled up alongside my bicycle and chastised me for not being in church, didn’t I know poor Christ was suffering for me that very moment? I was not quick enough to ask her why she was in a damn car and not a hard church pew.
Another, was Good Friday, 1968. I drove my trusty Ford Galaxie 500 to Montpelier, Ohio, and got good and drunk on 3.2% Pabst Blue Ribbon…ah, sweet memories. One year out of high school, pockets full of folding cash, car, beer just across the state line, ogling the mini-skirted girls of the day and night, night-clubbin’ on Friday and Saturday nights…way before responsibilities like the goddam military draft , marriages, hard work, all the *blah blah blah* 🙂
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Dexter said on April 3, 2015 at 2:37 am
I finally watched the Coens’ “Inside Llewyn Davis”, which a lot of critics panned, but I loved it. To each his own, I know. Here it had been hiding OnDemand for a long time and I found it just before it was to be pulled down from Showtime. So I heartily recommend it. Also, I just cannot shake “Life Itself”, the heartbreaking and uplifting doc abut the life and times of nn dot c fave the late Roger Ebert. I am currently in physical therapy, trying to restore a little freedom from hip pain, and I’ll never complain about the therapy pain because I saw what Mr. Ebert went through the last years of his life, and it was not a cakewalk, it was difficult just watching it. I only began loving what made Roger Ebert tick after I read his account of his drinking life and his subsequent life post-1979 as a sober member of Alcoholics Anonymous. In his hay-day, I always sided with Gene. 🙂
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MichaelG said on April 3, 2015 at 3:32 am
Sorry to skip a couple of days. There have been bus tours and stops at wonderful places but I don’t have the time to recount all. Also I’ve been shopping. I bought my granddaughter a pair of pearl ear studs and my grandson a Bultaco watch at the Moto Meseu. I thought about kid stuff and suddenly realized that maybe it was time to start treating them like real people.
I got my (Ex) wife a Miro print that cost a few bucks but really not that much. It is lovely and not signed. I have pictures from a book and a bunch of other stuff to attest to the fact that it really is a Joan Miro print but without the signature and the number and total it’s basically worthless next to other signed prints from the same series. Those were going for E5,000 to E7,200. I have to give the gallery props for selling me the print for a couple of hundred Euros when they could have easily faked it up to seven grand.
God, this reminds me. There are a lot of lingerie stores in Barcelona. Don’t call it “Barca”. That’s the football club. The city is Barcelona. Like Frisco and San Francisco. Anyway, I used to shop in lingerie stores and buy stuff for my wife who was (still is, for that matter most eminently qualified to wear sexy lingerie. Years of very serious bicycle riding do wonders for a 60 year old woman’s self.) Now I would just be a creepy old guy peeping the store.
I went to the Castel Mont Juic today. It’s pronounced Mont Jew-ick. Yeah, they say some Jays here. It’s a big old masonry fort with a ton of history on top of the highest point in Barcelona. I’ve seen a bunch of old masonry forts and, looking from a contemporary standpoint they are sure stupid and tend to be rather similar. The Castel here is larger than average and well preserved but the real treasures are the views of Barcelona. Wow.
I took a taxi up there and took the aerial tramway down.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montju%C3%AFc_Cable_Car
Beautiful views, a fun ride and absolutely worth the cost.
I boarded at the top and there was no line. I paid my $10 and walked right on to a car. They don’t stop, they just slow down. At the bottom there was a humungous line waiting to go up. Lesson: Taxi cost $10. Take one to the top and skate down. The line going up looked to be a good 45 minutes. Either way, $10 up and $10 per person down.
I had dinner in a wonderful restaurant this evening. It was in an ancient stone building. My table was on a mezzanine that was constructed some time in the last X number of years. The place was perfectly lit with stone walls, tile floors, ancient beamed ceilings and a ton of atmosphere. None of this was artifice. It simply was what it was. It was also very sympathetically decorated. I wished I could have shared the experience with a lovely woman. The food and service were superb. Wine? By the bottle only. Hic. Screw it. I’m on vacation and not driving. I paid E20 for a bottle of Rioja that was simply excellent. I drank almost all of it without feeling any of the bloat or drunkenness one might feel after consuming that much wine. I’ve noticed that before when drinking the very best quality stuff.
It started off a bit rough. My fault. A place like this may not be ready for a crotchety looking bald headed old man wearing Levi’s, an untucked plaid short sleeved shirt and a khaki windbreaker. I guess they have higher expectations. I had to sort of talk my way into the place. Basically I played dumb as they gently tried to throw me out.
It all worked out. They gave me a table. I showed them I knew how to behave in a nice place. By the time I left we were all grinning buddies. The place truly was stunningly beautiful and the food and service were first class. There was a couple at the next table. The woman was very attractive but I thought she was a little old for her escort. We all finished at about the same time and I heard the word “Mexican” a couple of times.
It turned out that they were Mexican, from Vera Cruz, spoke excellent English and were familiar with Sacramento. We chatted for a moment. The lovely woman was the mother of the young man who accompanied her.
One last thing. In Barcelona, when paying with a credit card, there is no provision for tipping which means you have to leave cash. It was several minutes after I paid that I left and I forgot to leave a tip. Shit, I really feel badly. I have to go back tomorrow and make it up.
Bathrooms in bars and restaurants are very clean here. In fact, the whole town is very clean. Especially for a major city. The air is very clean here as well. OK, I’m nattering on. Ciao.
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alex said on April 3, 2015 at 6:44 am
Sounds like a wonderful experience, MichaelG. Amazing how when you’re in an unfamiliar place, the details of everything make so much more of an impression. Which makes for a spellbinding travelogue. For which thank you!
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adrianne said on April 3, 2015 at 7:01 am
Even though Law360 has an unbelievable number of paid holidays, Good Friday isn’t one of them, so I’m headed into work soon. Since Passover begins tonight, I expect a bare minimum of reporters and editors to show today. Hope lawyers are still filing lawsuits to give us something to write about!
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alex said on April 3, 2015 at 7:27 am
I get a half day. And a casual day. Woo-hoo! Right now guzzling coffee in preparation for an early meeting.
Here’s an essay on growing up queer in Indiana by a fellow Fort Wayner now living as a refugee in NYC.
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Heather said on April 3, 2015 at 8:18 am
Never was a Peep person. Cadbury mini eggs–those are my crack.
MichaelG, in Europe you generally don’t tip–maybe round up or leave some change. So don’t worry about it. Continue enjoying Barthelona!
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Judybusy said on April 3, 2015 at 8:49 am
Michael, thanks so much for the tour! The restaurant sounds so wonderful–what is the name? I know I’ll be Barcelona-bound someday, so might as well start getting the list of must-dos together. Next year, our youngest niece graduates from HS, and we’ve taken each of the girls on a trip for graduation. I think her first pick remains Spain. We go to her family’s tomorrow to celebrate her 17th birthday, and will chat with her….
I have been gratified by all the backlash to the RFRA.There really has been a culture shift.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on April 3, 2015 at 9:16 am
Lovely storytelling, MichaelG. Again, thanks for taking us with you. Dexter, I’m glad there’s someone else out there who “liked” “Inside Llewyn Davis.” It was sad and awkward and painful and I’m not in a hurry to watch it again, but I’m sure I will. It did something for me, on the basis of “it was real” and “it was well crafted.” The closing payoff was somehow perfect . . . I figure Davis ends up a manager of a drop-in center for the mentally ill, finally gets a BA, starts an LISW program but never finishes it, and ends up a director of a county United Way in New Jersey who retired a few years ago and moved to Florida with his third wife.
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MichaelG said on April 3, 2015 at 9:53 am
Lots of people don’t tip. I feel compelled to do so. The restaurant was El Pintor in the Bario Gotic near Placa de St. Jaume. Sorry, I don’t have the address. I’ll get it if I can.
When I first started working for the State back before the earth cooled, we got a half day off on Good Friday. Then some Jewish woman sued because Christians got a special day off. Everybody was like “You stupid idiot, it’s not about religion, it’s about getting Friday afternoon off.” Sure enough, the State and the court agreed that they would just rescind the day off. We all hoped she was happy.
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BethB said on April 3, 2015 at 10:04 am
MichaelG, I take it you were traveling alone, and it sounds like you are having a wonderful time; you’re very brave. I never had the guts to travel alone expect one time I was in London (arriving from Frankfurt where I taught at an international school in a nearby town), and my sisters and niece weren’t arriving from the States for another day. This was in 1987. I checked into our little hotel and then took a bus to the Leicester Square area to walk around, shop a little, and eat “Mexican” food at a Chi-Chi’s near there. (Not much of that in Germany, and I was really hungry for it. I wasn’t a very sophisticated diner back then–still not–and I was fine at a place most would scoff at.) Anyway, after dinner, I walked the two miles back to the hotel at about 7 in the evening. It was late June, still very light outside, and I wasn’t frightened at all. Wouldn’t even think of doing that today. Of course, there was no sign of my MS then, only the residual annoyance of a badly sprained ankle from late January, so walking that far was not a problem, even for me–not much into physical fitness then.
I like my Peeps yellow and slightly stale. I open the cellophane on the package to let in air and then wait a week or so before eating–so nice and chewy.
Judybusy, what an outstanding gesture for your nieces. Those trips will be a highlight of the memories of their youth.
Going to church Sunday for the first time since last year, and please don’t talk to me about being a hypocrite. It’s 25 miles away and a pain to make the effort of getting ready, getting there, getting into and out of the huge church, etc., so I usually stay home. I go for the music and the pleasant feeling of sitting with my sisters and niece in the church we’ve attended all our lives (although very infrequently for me). I really like our current pastor, however. He usually has something pertinent to say, so I listen to the sermon, too. No hellfire and brimstone.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on April 3, 2015 at 10:29 am
BethB, if anyone gives you any snark for attending on Easter after a long absence, just smile sweetly and say “Bless your heart.” And if you want, lean in and whisper gently to them “Pastor Jeff says to stuff it, okay?”
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Deborah said on April 3, 2015 at 10:31 am
I haven’t been to church in well over a year, except for when a wedding takes place in one, which is rare these days. I maybe attend church once every other year. I like high church with all the ceremonial trappings, good music. I always listen to the sermons much more intently than when I was a regular church goer, prior to 1987. The
denomination I generally am drawn to now is Episcopalian, because they seem to have more traditionally high church services. I really can’t stomach the mega churches with “rock” music and videos, yuck.
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Bob (not Greene) said on April 3, 2015 at 11:18 am
MichaelG is right, that restaurant looks great (sorry for the long link): https://www.google.com/maps/uv?hl=en&pb=!1s0x12a4a2f84b9e427f:0x8b7267a77f5f2744!2m5!2m2!1i80!2i80!3m1!2i100!3m1!7e1!4shttps://plus.google.com/104802210326883885310/photos?hl%3Den%26socfid%3Dweb:lu:kp:placepageimage%26socpid%3D1!5sEl+Pintor+in+the+Barri+Gotic+-+Google+Search&sa=X&ei=864eVZS6EMfUoASx4oCgBA&ved=0CIwBEKIqMA8
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Bob (not Greene) said on April 3, 2015 at 11:22 am
In case you wanted to see the menu http://www.gruptravi.com/en/el-pintor/
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BethB said on April 3, 2015 at 11:42 am
Jeff (TM-MO), I love it! Believe me, I get all kinds of, “Oh, have you been OK, we haven’t seen you in ages” comments, but most people just shake my hand or hug me. They know I have health issues, and they also know that I haven’t attended regularly since I graduated from high school. When I would be in town on Sundays, my dad would always get teary and say, “It’s so wonderful to have all my girls here.” He got so emotional in his 90s. BTW, today would have been my dad’s 100th birthday. He died in December, 2009.
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brian stouder said on April 3, 2015 at 12:18 pm
Beth – a lovely post, indeed.
And, here’s to your dad’s 100th
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Dexter said on April 3, 2015 at 1:43 pm
I never tip. These waitresses make minimum wage, don’t they? I’ve been here for a long time and she only filled my coffee cup three times. To get a tip, she has to fill my cup six times. You don’t tip at McDonald’s, do you? So what’s the difference. I ain’t kicking a buck…fuck her…I ain’t tippin’. It’s not my fault she works here.
I left a lot out, but I remembered a little, OK? 🙂 NSFW— extreme language w/ a dash of anti-Semitism:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-qV9wVGb38 RESERVOIR DOGS, a film by Quentin Taratino
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jcburns said on April 3, 2015 at 2:06 pm
Maundy Monday. Can’t trust that day.
Maundy Monday. Sometimes it just turns out that way.
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Dexter said on April 3, 2015 at 2:31 pm
Oh gawd…now “adrianna” “HotBabe27” has replaced the vixen “adrienne” This new one, on the message title, claims to be a hot blue-eyed 21 year old. On the plus side, just a few more minutes, JC…we’ll get you off that cross in just a half-hour or so.
Off to Columbus at dawn’s crack…gonna go see that little three year old granddaughter. We bought her huge choco-bunnies and jelly beans and ever-thang. I’m a little “off” today cuz…yes I did…I got into a bag of jelly beans and I can’t stop at three or thirty…I had to eat about 50. 🙁
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Judybusy said on April 3, 2015 at 2:42 pm
Bob (Not Greene) Thanks–El Pintor looks wonderful.
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BethB said on April 3, 2015 at 3:36 pm
Thanks, Brian.
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Sherri said on April 3, 2015 at 4:28 pm
Jeff(tmmo), I listened to your podcast, and found it fascinating. I love stuff like that. Write the book! Is the article mentioned at the end available online?
On a different topic, something that has been bugging me about the whole brouhaha over RFRA and same sex weddings is the claim by some Christians that they want don’t want to be forced to “participate” in same sex marriages. I just find that weird. I didn’t think of the florist as “participating” in my wedding, or the shop where I bought my dress, or the person who made my cake. The only people that I think of as having participated in my wedding were my husband and me, my father-in-law (an ordained minister who performed the ceremony), my maid of honor, and my husband’s best man (we didn’t have any other attendants.) I guess I could include my father, since he walked me down the aisle. There were others, of course, who attended the wedding, but to think of yourself as participating in someone else’s wedding seems sort of like wearing white to a wedding to upstage the bride: it’s not about you.
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ROGirl said on April 3, 2015 at 4:56 pm
Peeps…ick. But I love the Wapo Peeps contest. Hilarious and thought-provoking, pointless yet profound. A lot of time is devoted to this thing.
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Kirk said on April 3, 2015 at 4:59 pm
Upper Arlington (Columbus suburb where I live and Nancy grew up) schools were off for spring break last week. I was taking my walk by the high school Thursday afternoon about 1:30, and all the kids started streaming out and heading home. I guess Good Friday Eve is a thing. Of course, they’re off today, Good Friday. And the schedule says they’re off Monday, too. So glad they take education so seriously. And, of course, the people across the street with three school-age kids didn’t come home until Wednesday. Who cares whether they’re missing school?
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Deborah said on April 3, 2015 at 5:08 pm
We saw some people on pilgrimages today in Santa Fe. We live a few blocks from Our Lady of Guadalupe church and there were quite a few people walking there. I’m sure the main cathedral in the plaza area, St. Francis of Assisi was busy today. I love the architecture of that one, it’s at the end of a street and it’s lovely, meets all of the requirements for good urban design, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathedral_Basilica_of_St._Francis_of_Assisi, built by Archbishop Lamy, of Willa Cather, “Death Comes for the Archbishop” fame.
Good point Sherri, about the “participation” in weddings by florists and bakers and whatnot. I’m going to remember that.
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Sherri said on April 3, 2015 at 8:21 pm
The wonderful (as always) Dahlia Lithwick takes a look at RFRAs and same sex marriage: http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2015/04/gay_marriage_supreme_court_briefs_and_rfras_the_arguments_exclude_gay_people.html
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on April 4, 2015 at 7:31 am
Sherri, unfortunately the longer 2000 article Brad and I wrote together for “Timeline,” the OHS glossy magazine (a low-rent NatGeo, if you will), is not available online. This is an overview of sorts:
http://www.ohioarchaeology.org/articles-and-abstracts-2008/the-newark-qholy-stonesq-the-social-context-of-an-enduring-scientific-forgery.html
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on April 4, 2015 at 7:40 am
If you want to see an overview with some of the wider context — but full disclosure, this is a guy who believes that the Decalogue Stone, at least, is of great antiquity, and that archaeologists are hiding/evading/not disclosing the real story… http://www.econ.ohio-state.edu/jhm/arch/decalog.html
There are three main constituencies for “truthers” on the Holy Stones, with some odd and interesting overlaps. There are Christian creationists of the young earth variety (think Ken Ham and The Creation Museum), there are Mormons of the “Heartland theory of the Book of Mormon” who hold to an Indiana/Ohio/New York state locale for the events of Joseph Smith’s novel/discovery/translation, and there are people who just enjoy saying “what everyone knows is wrong, and I and a very few others like me know better.” I think Hu, the creator and manager of the website linked in this post, is in the third category. Some are in one and three or two and three, but a few are purely enjoying being able to say “those archaeologists aren’t as smart as they think they are” and push pre-Columbian discoveries and accounts with blithe disregard for the racialist roots of some of those 1800s era claims now being used as “proof” that the Smithsonian et alia are hiding giant skeletons in the basement, or the evidence that Welsh prince Madoc explored the Tennessee Valley and became ancestor of the Shawnee, et cetera et cetera ad nauseam.
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beb said on April 4, 2015 at 10:35 am
People on Twitter can look up #thingsjesusneversaid for good laughs. I found it on Raw Story, which posted some good jokes:
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/04/twitter-nails-conservative-christians-with-thingsjesusneversaid-and-its-hilarious/
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susan said on April 4, 2015 at 10:37 am
Brian – Have you read about these stereoscopic photos from pre-, during, and post-American Civil War of Northern Aggression (urp)? Yes, I suppose you have, but I hadn’t seen them on-line before.
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MichaelG said on April 4, 2015 at 4:13 pm
I went to check out the Casa Mila today. It’s a beautiful place and the proportions are just right. I took pictures, which is a feat in its own right, but didn’t get in line for the tour whatever it does or wherever it goes. The Casa Mila is located on Passeig de Gracia, one of the most exclusive streets in Barcelona. Like Michigan Ave. in Chicago or the Via della Spiga in Milano. As with everything Gaudi, the Casa was mobbed. It’s a big place, seven stories or so (who knows about elevators) but I wouldn’t want to live there. Talk about being under siege. Another thing, if you look at pictures, you’ll see that you won’t be setting your drink on the balcony rail any time soon.
Passeig de Gracia is a hugely wide street with exclusive hotels and apartments and featuring every high end boutique you can imagine. Hugo Boss, Cartier, Prada, Gucci, Buvgari, Dolce etc – each and every one of all the big famous names. You know the names. I can’t remember many of them now. I dropped into a couple of them. The prices are eye watering. I must admit that when I passed La Perla, I walked very slowly and my eyes lingered on the window displays. Brian’s would too.
I like to look at all the different cars there are to see in Europe that one doesn’t see at home. Two I was looking at today come right to mind. Alfa Romeo and Range Rover. The Alfas (I’m talking about their range of sedans, here, not sports cars) are simply beautiful. In a time when cars all seem to have fallen out of a Hot Wheels box, in a time when manufacturers seem to be competing to see whose car is the baddest looking, when they are striving to produce the largest, ugliest fish mouth front end, the Alfa is a throwback to the days when designers tried to make pretty cars. What a refreshingly beautiful ride.
The Range Rover on the other hand is – butt ugly. Their designers have totally swallowed the Hot Wheels cool aid. A vehicle that should be classy and elegant is miles from either. They have totally embraced the scrunched up, folded, stupid looking bad ass look. Too bad.
I love going to markets. There are any number of them in Barcelona, Boqueria for the most famous example. I like the Santa Caterina market. It’s smaller and not packed with tourists. Here the fish and seafood are surprisingly fresh. Maybe not surprisingly. Everything is very fresh and the seafood area has no fishy aroma. The meat all looks excellent as well, though they cut a lot of stuff differently. The only criticism I really have is that the beef seems rather lean looking. The produce is also excellent. I saw the most beautiful baby artichokes. The best I have ever seen. I also hate markets like this because I want to take all that stuff home and cook it and I can’t.
Last night there was a big procession at the Cathedral. The place was very crowded. It was dark and there were candles and torches. Groups of maybe a dozen men carried what amounted to floats with religious artifacts on them. I really don’t know what it all was or what it meant. There was lots of incense and smoke from incense. There were men carrying crosses and there were bands, brass and drum heavy, playing medieval sounding music. There were scary looking guys marching in black robes with their faces covered and wearing very high pointy hats. All marched at a slow, measured pace. The whole thing was eerie and kind of creepy. What came to mind was the inquisition and all the awful, scary things that one associates with it. It seemed all about the dark side of the Church and not at all about Jesus and His Good Friday sacrifice.
This is a big holiday weekend here. Most of the stores will be closed Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I’m just glad I got my shopping done before Friday. Pure luck. I’ve gone on long enough. Later.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on April 4, 2015 at 6:27 pm
Sounds like Penitentes, but I didn’t think of them as Catalan.
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Sherri said on April 4, 2015 at 8:03 pm
I really like this idea, sort of an modern day take on Lady Bird’s beautification project: http://www.wired.com/2015/04/roadside-utility-corridor-habitat/
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Sherri said on April 4, 2015 at 8:18 pm
Forget Oprah. Forget Jennifer Weiner. Now, Jonathan Franzen has pissed off the Audobon Society: https://www.audubon.org/news/friends-these
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Deborah said on April 4, 2015 at 10:35 pm
MichaelG, I totally agree with you about the ugly fish mouth front ends on stupid, scrunched up, bad ass cars. As I’ve said I’ve been looking at car profiles for my playground project and there are some butt ugly ones out there. And I’ve been to Casa Mila when it was under renovation inside. It’s very spectacular.
Today we drove out to Abiquiu again for a fundraiser for a chamber music festival that we have had season tickets to for the last couple of years, and on the way driving north on State highway 84/255, also the way to Chimayo was lined with cautions signs for Santuario Walkers, we only saw one single person and a few miles further we saw a family of four walking. These are the people making the Holy Week pilgrimage to Chimayo. This is the first time I’ve seen so many caution signs for the event. There probably were more pilgrims walking earlier in the day, we left later in the afternoon, most people probably walk the 20+ miles or so earlier in the day. Little Bird and I decided we are going to try to walk it next year. We just have to find someone to pick us up in Chimayo because we sure aren’t going to walk back.
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Deborah said on April 4, 2015 at 10:48 pm
Sherri, the design firm I worked for before I retired had a project on South Michigan Ave that I was tangentially involved with. It was the design of a new glass facade on an existing building with a former brick facade, that was in a bird migration corridor. We went to great lengths to design a fritte pattern on the glass that birds can see to keep them from killing themselves. I retired before the project was complete and I haven’t asked how it’s working, but your link reminds me to ask when I get back to Chicago in a couple of weeks. As I’ve said before, it’s amazing what you can learn while doing design projects. I’m sure you journos have this thought all the time when you do research for your assignments.
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Deborah said on April 4, 2015 at 10:50 pm
Not that it matters but it’s State Highway 84/285 not 84/255 like I said. Only Jeff tmmo probably knows the difference, so I thought I’d make the correction for his sake.
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Deborah said on April 4, 2015 at 11:02 pm
Sorry to post so many comments in a row but Sherri, you are hitting all of my buttons today. Your link about plantings that attract pollinators along highways etc is cool. In the playground we are designing we are surrounding it with plants (milkweed etc) that attract monarchs because the town where it will be located is in an important monarch corridor.
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David C. said on April 5, 2015 at 7:04 am
The idea of integrating nature habitats on highway right of ways and other public areas is so sensible, but from what I’ve seen, three is always a huge push back. We have milkweed in out garden and it works. We get tons of monarchs. Our city (Oshkosh, WI) encourages native plantings. Just a few miles up the road in Neenah, a homeowner who planted milkweed was threatened with, if I remember correctly, $100 a day fines until it was removed for violating the city’s weed ordinance. Even here, a native planting in a park along the lakeside has some local residents in a froth because they say it ruins their view of the lake. Back when I lived in Michigan, a state law was passed preventing the highway median from being mowed during certain times of the year to prevent destruction of ground nesting bird nests. The head of the road commission in our county had them mowed anyway. Since it was a law without enforcement or penalties, he treated it as a suggestion and got away with it. In fact he used it in his election efforts. Lots of I stood up to the environmental lobby crap and of course the rubes lapped it up. He’s probably still road commissioner. I hope the monarch corridor idea takes off, but it’s going to be an uphill battle.
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Deborah said on April 5, 2015 at 9:48 am
Happy Easter and Passover!
I’ve been meaning to say this for awhile, but Nancy (and probably JC had something to do with this) I think it’s lovely that your blog uses a font with old style numerals. When I typed 84/285 and then submitted the comments up thread I was reminded of how much I like the way the numerals look. For those who don’t know what old style numerals are: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Text_figures
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Deborah said on April 5, 2015 at 9:49 am
David C, so true, but headache inducing. It’s amazing what people find to crab about.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on April 5, 2015 at 6:18 pm
Deborah, I hope you find that ride. Sounds like a lovely mother-daughter plan.
Happy Easter and Passover blessings, everyone. Or at least: opening day at Wrigley Field rejoicing!
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brian stouder said on April 5, 2015 at 9:07 pm
Susan – thanks for the great link to the photos. Ken Burns made a whole career out of documentaries that lovingly linger on the details of magnificently ‘busy’ photographs.
And Michael – indeed, some things are simply universal. As I became an old guy, I’ve tried to shift to ‘appreciating’ beautiful women, rather than simply ogling them….or at least, that’s my story, and I’m sticking to it!!
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brian stouder said on April 5, 2015 at 11:17 pm
…and I forgot to say, ‘the assasination of Peeperham Lincoln’ has given me nightmares!
It’s sort of a cross between the Chuckie movies and Sponge Bob Square Pants
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Dexter said on April 6, 2015 at 6:09 am
Back already from Columbus. See, we leave our cat here with extra food and water bowls in case by chance one might get knocked over, but I love cats as much as the “Bubbles” character in “Trailer Park Boys” or the “Derek” character in Ricky Gervais’ Netflix show by the same title. I couldn’t sleep worrying about the cat and just got up and drove home…of course he was fine but very glad to have me to jump on my chest and stare at me, demanding petting. To maximize time with our granddaughter, my wife stays about a week at a time, knowing I am the dog-and-cat master. Pogo the Labbie and Noelle the Jack Russell Terrier had a great time with the family. We met our grandson’s fiancee, they are in their early 20s, young love and all that stuff, ya know. She brought her high school age brother along, a very intelligent wrestling athlete; he was about the most knowledgeable and just plain smart kid I have met in years. Why is it that some kids, all exposed to the same learning environment, can’t answer a simple question and some can pontificate on current events, sports, business, everything?
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Dexter said on April 6, 2015 at 6:14 am
…and, we had ham 🙂 It was the best meal my daughter ever cooked; everything was perfect, the vegetables, the choice of cheesey potatoes or potato salad, the apple pie, the great coffee, the Boston baked beans (new recipe for us)…some recipe she found in an ancient cookbook utilizing powdered mustard and all sorts of other spices and baked in an earthenware (I think that is what it was) crock.
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Dexter said on April 6, 2015 at 6:25 am
Kirk: we were probably less than five miles from you, in the southern part of Hilliard just north of Renner Road by I-70. I think they have been there 13 years now. I know every mile of the road down there and back so well I could sleep-drive it. But I was wide awake tonight…slugged down a few Coca Colas.
And for any baseball fans , I had to laugh at the claims Cub fans are making about winning the flag in 2015. Opening night, Wrigley Field, Cubs shutout and playing horrible defense while the hated Cardinals rolled over the Cubs…when St.Louis scored in the first inning I knew it was over. Another long season for Cubbie fans. 🙁
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Kirk said on April 6, 2015 at 10:26 am
Dexter,
One of these times you’re down here and can slip away from the family for a while …
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