Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

I think Mike had a cold, but he was game..

If not: Take cover!

In other news today, Stan Lee has passed.

He didn't set out to do it, and I'm sure would have been surprised to hear it predicted, but this one man ultimately created the media world we live in today. You could certainly argue and litigate (and many did) about the percentage of each Marvel hero that was due to Lee, but it was without doubt a large one, and it's hard to think that had anybody else than Lee been in that writers chair, the history of comics, movies & television would have been much different.

I saw him briefly at a Charlotte comic convention some years ago, and at the end of his presentation (about when I arrived) he took several questions from the audience. One of them was "Do you regret anything in life you didn't do?" and his response was essentially that everything in life he wanted to try, he had. It didn't all work out, but he gave it a go. I wonder how many others can make that claim?

Excelsior!

Well, in a surprise to noone, Sears has declared bankruptcy:

Sears Holdings Corp. filed early Monday for bankruptcy protection from creditors, marking the collapse of a company that dominated American retailing for much of the 20th century.

The retailer, which sought chapter 11 protection in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in White Plains, N.Y., reached a deal with its lenders that will allow the 125-year-old company to keep hundreds of its stores open for now.

As part of the deal, Sears is expected to close at least 150 stores immediately, according to people familiar with the matter. Currently, the company operates roughly 700 Sears and Kmart stores. It employs about 70,000 people.

Of course Sears has basically already exited the Midlands, but there are still a couple of Kmart stores hanging on in the area.

Anyway, it's a far cry from the days of "As Solid As Sears", and it didn't really have to happen. If Walmart can do it, and Target can do it, that, at the least, proves it's possible. And one of the ironies is that probably about the time Amazon started to spin up, all the people at Sears who knew how to run a catalog operation were retiring..