Robert Pence

I was told by someone in Amtrak operations at the time that they regretted those Italian departure boards from day one because of the maintenance they required. I agree, though, that they were fascinating to see and hear.

I love those, especially the one of the kid playing in the snow, with the ghost-like images of the buildings rising behind.

Not bad for a housing authority development. I'm not a big fan of the utilities and junction boxes in the front yards, but it's better than poles and wires all over the place.

That's been the fate of malls and "festival marketplaces" in other Union Stations and other large public spaces. They're food courts with all the same chains as everywhere else, and vendors selling kitsch and useless tourist crap. Union Station in Indianapolis bankrupted two or three successive operators and sucked up a few million in city money between 1986 and 1997, before closing after Circle Centre opened and siphoned off the last small dribbles of business from it. AFAIK, now it is home to a hotel and various other offices, an Amtrak station with a paltry amount of service, and a Greyhound Bus station with slightly more service. A sad way to end up, for a station that once served about 200 trains per day.

Oakland is wonderful. I was fortunate to see inside some of the country rooms, and they're very well done. Entering the Cathedral of Learning sometimes is like stepping into another realm.

The area where I grew up in Indiana is sort of on a line between the parts of the state settled by people who came from West Virginia via the Ohio River and migrated northward from Kentucky and Southeastern Ohio, mainly Scots-Irish, and those of mostly Swiss descent, who came from Pennsylvania through northern or central Ohio. The two groups overlap, but are still distinct from one another after more than 150 years of settlement. If there's any geographic marker that could be considered a dividing line, probably it's Indiana 218 that runs east-west from Berne, near the Ohio Line, through Warren. The distinctions are mostly among farmers and rural families; in the towns and cities the dialect is fairly neutral. South of that line the dialect has Appalachian characteristics and those even show up in the English spoken by the Amish in the area. The dialect usually involves a sort of twang similar to that of rural Kentucky, and for that matter, much of rural Southern Indiana. wire = war or wahr box = balks fence = fince pen = pin, etc. North of 218 the dialect is mostly neutral, although there are special terms that carry over among some of the older people, and I can remember some of those from when I was a kid, from people who are gone now. a car/automobile was a machine. a bicycle was a wheel a sack or bag was a poke an umbrella used for protection against rain was a bumbershoot One pronunciation that I think was shared by both groups, both north and south of State Road 218, was "warsh" for wash. I've heard that in Pennsylvania, too. Some said "wrench" for rinse. You warsh and wrench your clothes, and then hang 'em on a war to dry. Our fourth-grade teacher pronounced the "oo" in "food" like the "oo" in "wood." She was adamant that hers was the correct pronunciation, but I don't think it caught on among any of her students.

Just east of Fort Wayne is a smaller incorporated municipality called New Haven. Despite being an area native I have failed to assimilate much of the local dialect, and I persist in calling it "New HAven," as two distinct words with the emphasis on the first syllable of Haven. The local heritage pronunciation, even among many younger people, is "NOOhaven" pronounced as one word with the emphasis on the flattened-out first syllable.

Consider yourself fortunate she doesn't smack you. I would! :wink: My mom nagged that one out of me when I was a teenager. That's a speech mannerism, not a feature of an accent. I don't take exception to occasional use, but when I hear people who are writers or especially, broadcast journalists, insert it three times per sentence, I want to reach through the radio and slap them. Even on public radio I hear guests and sometimes hosts who fill more air time with "y'know," "uummm-ahh," and "and-and-and" than they do with communication. Another gripe is the ubiquitous "is-is." My biggest pet peeve is, is people who, y'know, ummm-ahh, waste my time by, ummm, filling their, ahhh, speech, y'know, with, ummm-ahh, meaningless noises, and-and-and I-I just want totell them, y'know, "Untilyoufigureoutwhatyou'retryingtosay, STFU!" :whip:

Did they mean "average" or "typical?" If it's average, then by the time you factor in station stops, the peaks could well be in the range of 45-50mph. I don't know what the actual was in San Francisco where they ran the PCC cars (pre-Boeing era) through the Twin Peaks Tunnel, but it was damn fast.

That and the ice cream from Young's Jersey Dairy. :-)

Wonderful photos!

Philadelphia's 30th Street Station ranks high, too. It's of a later style, moving toward a blend of Art Deco and Classical, and away from Beaux Arts. The entire massive structure, along with the adjacent post office, sits on trunnions to allow for expansion and contraction, supported 30 or 40 feet above a large rail facility.

I don't need all that newfangled stuff. My 78's and my crank-up Victrola are plenty good enough for me. :whip: :wink:

Who knows ? Maybe ...

I've only been in a Circuit City store once, with my aunt to buy a new television. The salesperson knew nothing about the television sets he was selling, but once my aunt made her selection, he sure pushed the extended warranty, which she declined on my advice. Extended warranties on electronics usually are a poor way to spend money; if the stuff doesn't fail within the manufacturer's warranty, usually a year, it probably will outlive the extended warranty. Big-box store buildings are often crap. It's not likely that there are new tenants lined up, and after a couple of years with no heat/no maintenance it'll be vandalized and in such bad shape that code enforcement can condemn it. The city can order it razed as a public hazard, and probably take possession of the property to settle unpaid taxes. My only beef with Best Buy is when I walk in and the store is reverberating from the subwoofers in the car audio department. I despise that attention-seeking crap because I have to put up with it passing my house and rattling the dishes, and when I'm around it in that intensity in the stores, it physically makes me want to run. I can buy electronics on-line, disc media at Staples across the road from Best Buy, and appliances at Lowe's, next door to Staples. I don't really need Best Buy. I should email or write their customer service and tell them why, but the amount of money that people my age would spend there is insignificant compared with what the whippersnappers spend on toys designed to annoy us. Best Buy could follow Circuit City down the hopper, and I wouldn't shed many tears. We had a couple of very capable local electronics stores with good customer service, before those guys came to town and ran them out of business.

Not really, if you're doing urban photography. That lens has a nice, wide range that works well in a lot of situations, and the built-in image stabilization conteracts the effects of vibration or camera shake when you're working at long focal lengths. Also, the image stabilization lets you shoot in lower light, using slower shutter speeds, than might be the case with non-stabilized lenses. If you're going to do night photography, of course, a tripod is always a nice thing to have around. The prices have become more affordable on compact ones that don't weigh a ton, and there are pocket-sized ones that can be set up on a railing or post or other flat, stable surface. For a day of street photography, you don't need anything more than the camera and a good zoom, and maybe an unobtrusive backpack to stash it in when you're going into forbidden territory. I prefer not to carry anything that's conspicuously a camera bag, because I think those things fairly shout "Steal me!" to experienced, knowledgeable thieves.

Gorgeous shots. Of all those, the Colony Hotel neon appeals to me the most.

I can't imagine it costing that much; there must be some cozy deals with all the wrong contractors. Where entire streets or blocks are involved, an experienced crew of three or four guys with a skid loader, dump truck, and prefab steel forms can put in a lot of quality sidewalk in a few days. I've seen some fast work even where they had to tear out old deteriorated or non-code sidewalks. Two years ago I had 25 feet of 80-year-old retaining wall replaced by a reputable, licensed contractor. He removed the old wall and dug out the old footer, and poured a new footer 2 1/2 feet below grade and a new 8-inch-thick wall, with rebar, 2 feet above grade for under $2K. It's a nice-looking job, carefully finished, and he hauled away all the rubble. I was there for the pouring, and I know he didn't cut any corners.

Krispy Kreme is OK, but if I had my druthers, I'd choose for a pastry I have to pay for at Heyerly's Bakery in itty-bitty Ossian, Indiana, over a free one from Krispy Kreme.

That camera is in good hands. The image stabilizer is a very useful feature on a long lens; it makes it possible to hand-hold shots that used to require a tripod; excellent choice.

Think Spring!

I read a commentary once about the gay bar scene that probably applies to the straight bar scene as well. The author said that a successful bar owner learns how to maintain an atmosphere that creates the illusion that his customers have a chance of meeting Ms/Mr Right, but with sufficient level of distraction that there's really little chance of that happening. If a couple hook up, they leave. You want them to hang around and keep buying drinks until last call, when they can settle for the trick of last resort, someone they won't like waking up next to in the morning light. I realized I had aged out of the bar scene early in the disco era, when it became all about putting on a show - wardrobe, dance, etc. - and the noise level became overwhelming. I couldn't deal with strobe lights at a certain frequency, either; they threw me into major sensory overload, and on one occasion I had to cover my eyes and ask a friend to lead me out the door. The final straw was entering a bar and overhearing a lil' twink say to his friends, "Oh, look. My dad is here." I should have taken him by the ear, stood him up, lectured him about staying out past his curfew, and marched him out. I thought better of it, though, because I didn't want him showing up the next day on my doorstep, suitcase in hand.

I know. I'm sorry; it just gets me so excited that once I've started, it's difficult to stop. :oops: My outside thermometer said -10, and I've only been outside to retrieve my newspaper. The colder the temps and the deeper the snow, the farther my paper will be from the porch. When the weather gets like this, I guess I should consider myself lucky that it was even on my property. :| Awesome news! Considering your eye for the urban scene and the excellent shots you've been getting with a good point-and-shoot, I'm looking forward to seeing what you do with that. You may want to get into printing to unleash the full capabilities of it!

It's good to know that masses of people of different ages, ethnicities and ideologies can still come together to protest injustice. Your photos capture the energy and vitality of the protest; good work, and thanks for adding your presence.

Wonderful thread to start my morning! It made me smile, from the market's bright colors at the beginning, to the friendly pooches at the end! :clap: