When people move here, especially those with young children, a top question on their minds around this time of year is “When exactly is the mandated trick-or-treat time?” (Another popular query is “When the hell is the leaf collection time,…
Month: October 2006
The Main Avenue Tramway
Throughout the history of civic planning, there have been countless grand ideas and concepts which have never been carried out for various reasons- expense, impracticality, that sort of thing. If one were to go through the planning archives of this…
Friday Facts: Real Human Skin, Itchfinger Yardling, Hats Blocked
:: Number of businesses that still offer hat blocking: 3 :: Television pilots shot here: 11 :: How many of these which were picked up for a series: 1, “Colt & Hammer,” a police drama that ran as a midseason…
Creative Solutions in Dynamic Municipal Problem Solving: Sanitation Dept.
Ten years ago, the there was an initiative to install more trashcans in the Downtown & Central Corridor areas with a promise that they would be emptied by the Sanitation Department at least three times a day. After an initial…
Briefs- Views, Novotny, Ex-Lax
:: Best views in town… the top of the World War One Memorial tower in Baxter Park… the WKVD-AM hot air balloon at the zoo… the West Side Highway… from U-City park across the river into the Downtown… 22nd floor…
The Typesetters Club
This Friday, the Typesetters Club will once again be holding its annual banquet/dance at the downtown Hyatt, the first one they’ve held in six years. The club was founded in 1897 as a place for newspapermen to get together and…
Friday Facts- Illiteracy, Tetherballs and Nazis
:: Number of light bulbs used in the 30-foot-tall “YOU ARE NOW ALMOST HOME” sign on the Wendell Willkie Bridge: 20,016 :: Number of workers killed in construction of the massive sign in 1949: 3 :: Number of ex-Nazis given…
The tiny homes of Samson Heights
After years of deterioration, the Samson Heights area has seen a resurgence in recent years, as people move father down river, after having been priced out of the Downtown and surrounding areas. What in the mid-eighties was a run-down collection…
ASPIC’s 100th Anniversary
The American Society of Professional Industrial Chemists has a problem. No, it’s not that they’ll soon be observing their 100th anniversary; they’re rather happy about that. It’s just that they don’t know exactly where they should be celebrating the occasion.…
The Fleming Tower
Shortly after its construction in 1936, the Fleming Tower (800 block of Bradburn Street) became rather infamous for a rush of people repeatedly attempting to commit suicide from the top of its sixteen stories. Newspaper records show that, between the…