Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

for a Road Trip?

Yep, it's that time of year again! I've got my house sitters lined up, and the car almost packed.

Posting will probably be nonexistent for the next 3 weeks or so, though I will try to keep on top of the spam and comments. Get out there and enjoy some of this Southern Summer!

But I swear I never let him off the leash!

Have fun, hold some truths self evident!

It could be worse.

Appropos to a discussion on the future of newspapers that I was part of in an online newsgroup, I was moved to take the following photos.

As Al Stewart said:

In the village where I grew up
Nothing seems the same
Still you never see the change from day to day
And no-one notices the customs slip away

Now all the voices were fading, each on his own trajectory, some to Mars, others into farthest space. And Hollis himself… He looked down. He, of all the others, was going back to Earth alone.

“So long.”

“Take it easy.”

“So long, Hollis.” That was Applegate.

The many good-bys. The short farewells. And now the great loose brain was disintegrating. The components of the brain which had worked so beautifully and efficiently in the skull case of the rocket ship firing through space were dying one by one; the meaning of their life together was falling apart. And as a body dies when the brain ceases functioning, so the spirit of the ship and their long time together and what they meant to one another was dying. Applegate was now no more than a finger blown from the parent body, no longer to be despised and worked against. The brain was exploded, and the senseless, useless fragments of it were far scattered. The voices faded and now all of space was silent. Hollis was alone, falling.

They were all alone. Their voices had died like echoes of the words of God spoken and vibrating in the starred deep. There went the captain to the Moon; there Stone with the meteor swarm; there Stimson; there Applegate toward Pluto; there Smith and Turner and Underwood and all the rest, the shards of the kaleidoscope that had formed a thinking pattern for so long, hurled apart.

And I? thought Hollis. What can I do? Is there anything I can do now to make up for a terrible and empty life? If only I could do one good thing to make up for the meanness I collected all these years and didn’t even know was in me! But there’s no one here but myself, and how can you do good all alone? You can’t. Tomorrow night I’ll hit Earth s atmosphere.

I’ll burn, he thought, and be scattered in ashes all over the continental lands. I’ll be put to use. Just a little bit, but ashes are ashes and they’ll add to the land.

He fell swiftly, like a bullet, like a pebble, like an iron weight, objective, objective all of the time now, not sad or happy or anything, but only wishing he could do a good thing now that everything was gone, a good thing for just himself to know about.

When I hit the atmosphere, I’ll burn like a meteor.

“I wonder,” he said, “if anyone’ll see me?”

The small boy on the country road looked up and screamed. “Look, Mom, look! A falling star!”

The blazing white star fell down the sky of dusk in Illinois. “Make a wish,” said his mother. “Make a wish.”

Needless to say, his was not a "terrible and empty life".

But I got mine yesterday!

Since I reviewed their 50th Anniversary Tour show in Atlanta, I've been waiting for the accompanying album That's Why God Made the Radio.

I am happy to report that it is a "real" Beach Boy's album, much moreso than 1992's lackluster and Brian-less Summer in Paradise which heretofore had been the group's swan-song. The songs are all new, and Brian is fully involved. Is every one a gem? No, but that's never been the case even on Pet Sounds.

If you don't want to risk the whole album, splurge $0.99 for the incredibly catchy Isn't It Time or The Private Life Of Bill And Sue.

OK, reactions to the holiday weekend's new theme ranged from "meh" to "hate hate hate", so I'm retrenching.

I still do want a 3 column theme, but I will either try to modify andrea (the current theme) or continue my search.

If you've been hitting "reload" off and on this morning, you will have noticed a number of new blog themes come and go.

I believe I like this one, and if I don't find any problems with it, I will probably be keeping it for a while (though I will most likely update the default image and background that came with it).

Here's one for you history buffs!

I ran across this 1907 City Directory when I was googling for "926 Gervais". As it turns out, Google has been working with libraries to digitize public domain books they might have in their holdings, and somehow or other this one was found at UV.

You can download the whole directory here. It is in PDF format, but you may need the latest version of Acrobat Reader to make it open correctly.

More sample pages after the jump. Also, remember that this is a historical document and that it follows the unfortunate mores of its times.

Read the rest of this entry »