Yes, that is a real road sign.
And where does River Styx Road go to? If you guessed “River Styx“, take two gold stars and advance to the next blue square.
We would also accept “the River Styx Bridge” as a correct answer.
As seen on the road…
July 14th, 2013(not) Fire.
July 14th, 2013I’m not 100% happy with the way these photos turned out, but it was a hard subject to photograph: I think it would have been hard even with the big camera instead of an iPhone. While they aren’t perfect, I think they’re interesting enough to post.
(Interior, Cleveland Arcade, downtown Cleveland, Ohio.)
I’ve been thinking about picking up one of the Olloclip lens kits
The Bridges of Cuyahoga County.
July 14th, 2013Well, just one bridge, really.
I keep thinking of these as “Egyptian”, but they’re not, really: they’re Art Deco.
These are a couple of the pylons, known as the “Guardians of Traffic”, at the ends of the Hope Memorial Bridge in downtown Cleveland. (AKA the “Lorain-Carnegie Bridge”.) We drove across this bridge several times, since it is the best route to the Westside Market. (“The bridge connects Lorain Avenue on Cleveland’s west side and Carnegie Avenue on the east side, terminating just short of Progressive Field.” Heh. My mother observed that everywhere we went in Cleveland, it seemed like we had to drive past Progressive Field. By the end of the trip, she was rather tired of it. In comparison, I think we drove past Browns Stadium twice, and Quicken Loans Arena once.)
The “Hope” in “Hope Memorial” is William Henry Hope, Bob Hope’s father. Mr. Hope was a stonemason who worked on the pylons when the bridge was built.
A reliable source tells me:
When the Cavs were in the playoffs, the city put Cavs sweatbands on the foreheads of the two closest to the Q, where the Cavs play.
There’s really no good place to park near the bridge and the pylons, so these photos were taken either with the iPhone camera or compact cameras, by myself and my mother, out of or through the windows of a moving rental car, while trying not to obstruct traffic. If I get a chance to go back and the weather is nice, I plan to get some better pictures with the big camera.
Happy Bastille Day, everyone!
July 14th, 2013Whether you’re eating Beef Bourguignon and drinking a good Burgundy, or storming a prison to get at the gunpowder inside, I hope your celebration is a happy one.
Ist das nicht eine schnitzel bank?
July 13th, 2013
Ja, das ist eine schnitzel bank!
Supreme lager, always!
(Poster found on wall at Great Lakes Brewing Company, Cleveland, Ohio.)
Related:
Important safety tip. (#17 in a series)
July 12th, 2013I shouldn’t have to say this, should I? People aren’t this stupid, are they?
Apparently, they are. So, safety tip:
If it is hot enough to fry an egg on the pavement, for the love of Ghu, please use a pan.
Dead lawyers don’t lie.
July 12th, 2013Sergei L. Magnitsky was convicted yesterday of tax evasion by a Russian court. Mr. Magnitsky was a lawyer: his client, William F. Browder, was convicted as well.
This isn’t ordinarily the sort of thing I’d bring up, but there are a couple of interesting points:
- Mr. Magnitsky was a prominent critic of the Russian government, and was arrested shortly after he accused officials of stealing $230 million in government funds.
- Both Mr. Magnitsky and Mr. Browder were convicted in absentia. Mr. Browder is currently in London.
- Mr. Magnitsky was convicted in absentia because he’s dead. He died four years ago in prison, after being refused medical care.
(Subject line hattip. My linking to this should not be taken as implying any endorsement of the content.)
40 years ago…
July 12th, 2013…I spent a lot of time in this tree.
(Yes, I can be a little sentimental at times.)
Here. Have another lizard.
July 12th, 2013Or, technically, another view of the same lizard.
What can I say? I like lizards.
Back on the chain gang.
July 12th, 2013Sorry about the radio silence for the past few days. I’ve been spending a lot of time with family, and kicking around the Cleveland area.
Our flight got in around 7 PM last night, and it was 10 PM by the time I got home. I’m trying to get caught up, and hope to have more substantial reports and some photos up over the weekend.
In the meantime, have some music.
(Man, wasn’t Learning to Crawl a great album? “Back On the Chain Gang”, “My City Was Gone”, “Middle of the Road”…)
Teaser.
July 8th, 2013I’m waiting until I get back to edit and post photos. (As a side note, geotagging photos is a PITA on Ubuntu, compared to Apple’s iPhoto.)
We (that is, my mother, aunt, uncle, and I) were trying to get a good view of the tall ships at the Port of Cleveland. Which we couldn’t do yesterday, because the good views required $10 a car for parking plus $14 a person. However, my mother and I went back downtown today and took some photos.
I’ve been thinking a lot about firefighters recently. There was the West incident, and then the Houston Fire Department lost four people fighting a fire in a crack motel. Then there was Arizona. And it isn’t clear to me if any firefighters were lost in Quebec.
We stumbled across this yesterday while we were out, and I wanted to go back and photograph it. I’m happy with the way this photo came out.
Cleveland Fallen Firefighters Memorial, Cleveland, Ohio.
Interesting thing about this memorial: it was designed by Luis Jiménez, who also started building the sculpture. Mr. Jiménez was a popular and well-regarded sculptor. While he was working on the Firefighters Memorial, he was also working on the “Blue Mustang” sculpture for the Denver International Airport. In the process of building that sculpture, part of it fell and fatally injured Mr. Jiménez, and the memorial was completed by other people.
What’s the point of having a lizards tag if you can’t abuse it?
July 7th, 2013
Winking Lizard, Macedonia, Ohio.
Travel day.
July 6th, 2013Blogging will be airplane and rental car bound until the late afternoon.
At least the Motel 6 has free wifi.
Today’s bulletin from the Department of WTF…
July 5th, 2013Random notes: July 5, 2013.
July 5th, 2013Everton Wagstaffe and Reginald Connor are serving time for the kidnapping and murder of Jennifer Negron. Ms. Negron was 16 years old when she was murdered.
The main witness against the two men was a crack addicted prostitute who was “forcibly detained by the authorities in a hotel until she testified”.
Is this our old friend Louis Scarcella? Is the Brooklyn DA reinvestigating this case?
No. And no.
One. Out of 750. And three wrongful convictions.
(Explained.)
This sucks. I’ve wanted a good telescope for much of my life, even though I find it hard to use one with glasses and I really am not able to stay up late in order to do observational astronomy. Still, I’m sad to see the market shrinking, even though the technology gets better and better.
Verizon has a great idea for Fire Island. As you might have guessed, the island got the crap beat out of it by Sandy, and the phone system was devastated.
Sounds great, right?
Not mentioned in the article: Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS) over copper works when the power is out. Will Verizon’s wireless system? The cell towers may have battery backup or generators, but do the home receivers?