what about the plastic animals?

Hell Awaits You!

How many categories apply to you?

Reconstruction of Hudson Street

It's pretty impressive that this sign has stayed up, virtually undisturbed, for twenty years.

Lock, Stock, and Steer

Who said Texas wasn't a scenic state?  This beautiful giant steer was outside the Sirloin Stockade on the south side of Lockhart.

Lost Our Lease

I was in the West Village yesterday afternoon when I saw this writing going on in the sky.  It was  part of a work of art called "The Sky Is The Limit/NYC" by Kim Beck.  The air was so dry and the subsidence so great that I suspect the skywriting disappeared a lot quicker than the artist wanted it to.

I took a bunch of photos so I could make an animated gif.  That image is after the jump so readers don't have a seizure here.

Aberdeen's Finest

The Olympic Inn of Aberdeen.  I stayed here solely because of the sign.  It turned out to be quiet, clean and had a slightly better than average continental breakfast.

Clam Guns!

They take their clam hunting seriously in Ilwaco, Washington.

Theo. F. Tone & Co. Coal

They've been demolishing the buildings at 125th Street and Frederick Douglass Blvd the past couple of months and last week that demolition was sped along when one of those buildings collapsed on to the BX15 bus.  Luckily, none of the 17 people who were hurt faced life-threatening injuries.

The removal of the buildings has uncovered two wall ads that are at least a century old.  Theodore F. Tone had a coal company at the docks of Manhattanville near where Fairway is today.  I couldn't find out much about Mr. Tone or his coal company.  There was a brief mention in an 1857 Times article that he had procured a business license.  Tone was one of the few people to speak out against the construction of the viaduct that would eventually connect Riverside Drive and Boulevard Lafayette.

A bit further down in that 1897 column of short articles in the Times was "Dropped Dead in the Street:  George Kramer, a liquor dealer of 322 East Sixty-fifth Street, between First and Second Avenues, yesterday afternoon, with his wife." 

Mr. Tone, the coal dealer, died at the age of 81 in 1908.  He was prominent enough that his death was noted by the Times but not so prominent that he got a full obituary.

I've put several other photos of the old signs on Flickr if anyone wants to take a look.

Secret Ingredient

Now you know why Papa John's pizza tastes so good!

I'll be back in a week.

Norse Sizzle, Avalon Bagdad

Just a few sights from around Portland.  Norse Hall was between the motel I stayed at and Voodoo Doughnut.  Sizzle Pie was just down the street from the motel.  It had only been open a couple of months. The pizza, salad and beer were all excellent. 

The Avalon Theatre is across from the original Stumptown Coffee, where I stopped in to get someone a birthday present.  The Bagdad is in the Hawthorne neighborhood, which seemed to be a hoppin' place.  Unfortunately, I was dead tired after walking all day and couldn't muster up the energy to explore.

One sight I didn't get to see in Portland was The Peculiarium, "a place of learning and terror".  It opened a week after I was there.  Clearly, I have to return.

Missing Felon

This photo is a couple month's old so there's a chance that Felon's been captured and reunited with his younger sister, Miss Demeanor.