GCrites

I was thinking (while driving, of course) that one reason there may be lots of highly vocal rail opposition at this time is that the U.S. government is preparing GM for it's IPO. It's certainly in the government's best interest for GM's IPO to go well. All this talk about improving our rail system could lower interest in GM.

Looks like David Stern's plan for the NBA. I'm pretty sick of the anti-small market bias that exists in most major professional sports and the way many people in those cities act like they're entitled to championships. Some of those cities listed don't even support an NFL team (Boston doesn't look at the Patriots as their team since they moved to Foxboro) and Atlanta teams aren't often any good.

This all seems like it happened a really long time ago because the riverfront area has seen so many projects since then. It's affecting people's perception.

I like Church's. Remember that short period when some White Castles had Church's in them? Maybe some still do.

I call Panera Pantera.

You know, though my folks are 71 and 68, they have been exclusively car and airplane travelers. I think my mother rode a train once. I suppose that's a consequence of post-WWII Ohio.

The Chicken District could use some of these places.

The military has always known the efficiency and strategic advantages of rail. Driving each Humvee individually would tie up many servicemen and women for the day. I'm pretty sure that most Humvees, if they even make it back from Iraq, are going to show at least some damage. I know a guy who used to work as a machinist at the facility where they armored Humvees. He said the lifespan of a Humvee in Iraq is about six months.

^The city just doesn't have the infrastructure in place yet for large scale reductions in commute times, and everything is still very spread out.

When I hear the term "iron horse" I think of Harleys, not trains.

What really matters for Europe is that Gramarye has decided against visiting Barcelona.

They may only be temporary as bus stops are known to be.

I think you might confusing the Great Western Shopping Center, an earlier outdoor center that opened around 1956 about one mile east of Westland Mall, with an earlier version of the Westland Mall. Westland Mall was originally built in 1969 as an outdoor center too. It was anchored by Sears, Lazarus, and JC Penney. These anchors and other smaller stores focused on an exterior courtyard. Westland Mall was renovated in 1982 and the exterior courtyard was enclosed to the conditions documented in the earlier photos. I remember some of this from memory but got the specific info from this page of the Columbus Messenger website. Ah, yes. The large tanks in the upper left of the Sphinx photo give it away.

Before it was Westland Mall, it was the Great Western Shopping Center, an outdoor facility boasting models of the Eight Wonders of the World in the parking lot. It opened in the '50s, so this complex actually had a longer lifespan than it would appear. I think a lot of the shoppers were lured by Grove City and Hillard-Rome Road (Wal-Marts!) in addition to Tuttle.

Indeed. Insurance for the masses has created generations of price-insensitive health care customers. Back in the cash or Lodge-covered health care days, the focus was on providing low-cost yet satisfactory care.

Thanks! The article turned out very well. The phone was ringing a lot before the OSU game started.

^Whoa, that's a fireball!

No, the cost is shifted. I'm not totally up on the specifics, but I know employers aren't writing checks to an insurance company. Can someone explain how the Canadian health care system is funded?

One of the main problems with NAFTA as opposed to the EU or other regional agreements is that they don't have the massive differences in wealth and regulations as you cross their borders that we do. They don't have a Third World country bordering their richest country. In the EU, nations get slowly poorer as you head east. Here, you can just cross a line and drastically reduce your expenses. Jobs went to Mexico. In the case of Canada, they have nationalized health care, so companies doing business there aren't directly saddled with shelling out 30% more per employee like we are. Jobs went to Canada.

I didn't even know that mark-to-market went away.

^ They may not have a choice anyway due to energy issues.

I bet Robert Plant wouldn't have been against trying it on some of that hard-to-digest solo stuff of his. Today, auto-tune is the sound of conformity.

That article may have up-played the pollution aspect. While people in that age bracket do think pollution issues are important, I think the main things that are on their minds is "driving sucks, dude" and "walking rules". I imagine the writer was mainly looking for a quick way of explaining it, but didn't quite grasp what's on their minds or used their own view on the issue.

You see bars called "The Office" sometimes. I can think of one in Columbus and one in Huntington. These days, though, not as many people work in offices. I'd simply call my bar "Work". "Sorry honey, I'll be at Work late." "I always get hammered at Work." "No, Ocifer, I just left Work." "I get laid every time I go to Work." "Man, I can't wait to go to Work!"

^That area turned into a serious mess during that last round of sprawl.