<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<rss version="2.0"
	xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/"
	xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/"
	xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"
	xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"
	xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/"
	xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/"
	>

<channel>
	<title>The City Desk &#187; Jonathan Morris</title>
	<atom:link href="http://thecitydesk.net/category/contributors/jonathan-morris/feed/" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
	<link>http://thecitydesk.net</link>
	<description>Fictional urbanism.</description>
	<lastBuildDate>Mon, 19 Sep 2011 19:30:17 +0000</lastBuildDate>
	<language>en</language>
	<sy:updatePeriod>hourly</sy:updatePeriod>
	<sy:updateFrequency>1</sy:updateFrequency>
	<generator>http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1</generator>
		<item>
		<title>Friday Facts: Narnia, Math, Linguistics, Lascivious Radios</title>
		<link>http://thecitydesk.net/2009/11/20/friday-facts-narnia-math-linguistics-lascivious-radios/</link>
		<comments>http://thecitydesk.net/2009/11/20/friday-facts-narnia-math-linguistics-lascivious-radios/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:19:49 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>The City Desk</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[David Andrews]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[education]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[friday facts]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jonathan Morris]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ordinances]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thecitydesk.net/?p=746</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[:: Median age of mathematics texts used in city public schools:  18 years :: Median tenure of mathematics teachers in city schools:  4.5 years :: Median SAT mathematics score, city schools (2008):  485 :: Percentage of 12th graders in city schools who know how ‘median’ differs from ‘average’:  38% :: A city ordinance passed in 1931 prohibited the hiring by city hospitals of any registered nurse “younger than nine years of age, regardless of experience or education.” State medical laws, which supersede municipal doctrine, mandate a minimum age of 21. :: The city’s official “Fictional Sister City” is Narnia, according to a 2001 mayoral edict. Prior to that, it had been Atlantis. :: Languages which have been banned within city limits over the years include, but are not limited to: French, Portuguese, Java, Tagalog, Mandarin, “variants of Basque,” English and “Anything even remotely Irish.” :: A Baltimore and Ohio Railroad “fight special” bearing more than a hundred boxing fans to the city for a series of welterweight title matches was met by special police at Central Depot on this day in 1927, to respond to complaints of illegal drink-mixing and gun sales on the Common Rate car. :: A short-lived [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://thecitydesk.net/2009/11/20/friday-facts-narnia-math-linguistics-lascivious-radios/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Friday Facts: The Honorable Harold Ramis, No Batmobiles</title>
		<link>http://thecitydesk.net/2009/07/24/friday-facts-the-honorable-harold-ramis-no-batmobiles/</link>
		<comments>http://thecitydesk.net/2009/07/24/friday-facts-the-honorable-harold-ramis-no-batmobiles/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 24 Jul 2009 13:43:21 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>The City Desk</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Count Film-Ula]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[friday facts]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jonathan Morris]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[museums]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ray Ingraham]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[violence]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thecitydesk.net/?p=624</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[:: On this day in 1889, boxer John Lawrence Sullivan punched Mayor John Overholt&#8217;s wife directly in the face, knocking her out instantly. No reason was ever given for the assault, and neither the mayor nor Sullivan ever chose to speak of it again. :: A 1971 city ordinance prohibits the display of the Batmobile (from the famously campy 1960s Batman television show) at any promotional event within city limits. :: Chief City Health and Hygiene Inspector “Guy” Fenimore celebrates his 57th birthday this week, making him the oldest individual to ever hold that office and, in fact, the only sitting Chief Inspector to ever reach fifty-seven. :: Other birthdays this week include television meteorologist Howard Tidleiver (43), outspoken former city ombudsperson Claire Dolan (57) and former late-night television host Count Film-Ula (age estimated at either 93 or 97). :: In a local poll conducted earlier this week, sixteen percent of respondents admitted to participating in physical conflicts stemming from disagreements over the best local pizza restaurant. :: The Doig Museum of Natural Science was forced to cancel its upcoming exhibit &#8220;The Beauty Inside the Human Body,&#8221; which was to feature the plasticized remains of actual cadavers, posed artfully to [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://thecitydesk.net/2009/07/24/friday-facts-the-honorable-harold-ramis-no-batmobiles/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Friday Facts: Charlie&#8217;s Angels Lunchboxes, Roadside Cabbage, Fake Squid</title>
		<link>http://thecitydesk.net/2009/06/12/friday-facts-charlies-angels-lunchboxes-roadside-cabbage-fake-squid/</link>
		<comments>http://thecitydesk.net/2009/06/12/friday-facts-charlies-angels-lunchboxes-roadside-cabbage-fake-squid/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 12 Jun 2009 13:47:27 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>The City Desk</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[construction]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[farming]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[friday facts]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jonathan Morris]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[museums]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ordinances]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[RJ White]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sex]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[zoo]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thecitydesk.net/?p=574</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[:: A City Council ordinance passed on this date in 1975 expressly prohibited the “display of images of a licentious, erotic, salient or pornographic nature, or which otherwise arouse the prurient interest for the sole purpose of titillation” on children’s metal lunchboxes. :: The Seventh of the Eight Great Zoo Hoaxes was committed on this day in 1968. :: Number of regular weekly Farmer&#8217;s Markets (regulated) within city limits: 12 :: Number of regular weekly Farmer&#8217;s Markets (regulated) within city limits three years ago: 4 :: Number of stands where it&#8217;s just guys selling produce streetside: At least 47 (according to a story this week by the Clarion-Journal) :: Number of these out of a station wagon: 10 :: Number of these out of a van: 22 :: Number of these out of an old ice cream truck: 1 :: Number of vacant lots/properties being used for farming, under the city&#8217;s new UrbanFarm program: 18 :: When First Amendment activists blocked a 1979 attempt by the City Council to pass an ordinance against the sale and display of shirts bearing the legend “FBI: Federal Breast Inspector,” the City Council successfully retaliated by passing a different ordinance requiring three-hundred hours of [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://thecitydesk.net/2009/06/12/friday-facts-charlies-angels-lunchboxes-roadside-cabbage-fake-squid/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Nice Work If You Can Get It: Fighting Faux Mormon Corn</title>
		<link>http://thecitydesk.net/2009/03/09/nice-work-if-you-can-get-it-fighting-faux-mormon-corn/</link>
		<comments>http://thecitydesk.net/2009/03/09/nice-work-if-you-can-get-it-fighting-faux-mormon-corn/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 09 Mar 2009 13:43:41 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>The City Desk</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[food]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jonathan Morris]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Nice Work...]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thecitydesk.net/?p=508</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[An occasional survey of jobs both unusual and extraordinary, and the people who make them happen. The company which employs Torbjorn Bruhn keeps this bookish, blond-haired, forty-two year old lawyer hopping -  even though it hasn&#8217;t produced a single product in more than thirty years. As the official &#8220;copyright bulldog&#8221; of the Hearth&#8217;s Delight estate, Bruhn&#8217;s responsibility is ensuring that the now-defunct local candy manufacturer&#8217;s copyrights and trademarks stay out of the public domain.  &#8220;The will (of Hearth&#8217;s Delight founder and Norwegian expatriate Magnus Halvurson) made it very clear; the sole responsibility of the executor is to use the resources of the estate to keep the intellectual property of the company intact.&#8221; Bruhn (employed by Halvurson&#8217;s grand-nephew and recipient of the Hearth&#8217;s Delight fortune, Howard Schmitt) says his closest call came when the California-based candy outlet and mall-staple The Sweet Factory began releasing Mormon Corn and Cinnamon Texans – familiar and popular Hearth&#8217;s Delight &#8216;Penny Candy&#8217; classics &#8211; under their own banner. &#8220;We put an end to that, tout suite,&#8221; says Bruhn – or did he mean &#8220;Toot sweet&#8221;? To maintain its copyright, the company releases fifty limited edition &#8220;Proof of Intent Packages&#8221; once every three years – plain cardboard [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://thecitydesk.net/2009/03/09/nice-work-if-you-can-get-it-fighting-faux-mormon-corn/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Nice Work If You Can Get It: Blowing Up the Auto Industry?</title>
		<link>http://thecitydesk.net/2009/02/19/nice-work-if-you-can-get-it-blowing-up-the-auto-industry/</link>
		<comments>http://thecitydesk.net/2009/02/19/nice-work-if-you-can-get-it-blowing-up-the-auto-industry/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 19 Feb 2009 11:30:24 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>The City Desk</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Jonathan Morris]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Nice Work...]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thecitydesk.net/?p=487</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[An occasional survey of jobs both unusual and extraordinary, and the people who make them happen. It’s an exciting time at Ridley Motors, headquartered in the Howard Street Anchor Architecture and Engineering Building just south of 63rd Ave. And no one knows it better than Departmental Head of Engineering (and great-grandson of Ridley Motors founder Thurgood Ridley) Dan Ridley. “Everyone’s talking about finding ways to cut down on fuel consumption, to cut back on emissions,” he says cheerily from his fifth floor office, which is littered with drafts, blueprints and documents at every level, “And that means all eyes are on Ridley Motors … and the Ridley Motors Montgolfier!” What Dan Ridley is so excited about is Ridley Motors’ first entry into the field of automotive technology, and its attempt to grasp a corner of the green vehicle market – the world’s first inflatable car. Weighing in at a modest 224 pounds – including its low-horsepower but otherwise traditional gas-burning internal combustion engine – the two-seat Ridley Montgolfier’s lightweight build allows it to garner a fuel economy in the 50-60 mile per gallon range. Built of 90% recycled material, the space-age rubber chassis of the air-filled compact can be deflated [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://thecitydesk.net/2009/02/19/nice-work-if-you-can-get-it-blowing-up-the-auto-industry/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>The Eight Great Zoo Hoaxes</title>
		<link>http://thecitydesk.net/2009/02/09/the-eight-great-zoo-hoaxes/</link>
		<comments>http://thecitydesk.net/2009/02/09/the-eight-great-zoo-hoaxes/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 09 Feb 2009 14:38:30 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>The City Desk</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[hoaxes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jonathan Morris]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[zoo]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thecitydesk.net/?p=492</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[It’s for no small reasons that our fair city is often called “The Home of Zoo Hoaxes.” What follows are the Eight Great Zoo Hoaxes, as determined by the Board of Directors of the Zoo Hoax Historical Society, an informal group that keeps track of this odd aspect of our city&#8217;s heritage. A Zoo In Every Home (1911) As an April Fool’s prank in 1911, the Sun-Recorder published an extensive series of articles and (cleverly doctored) photographs in its &#8220;Homes &#38; Gardens&#8221; section detailing what it believed would be the next great status symbol of the still-burgeoning Twentieth Century middle class – The Home Zoo. Where most rural homes and even quite a few urban ones were expected to keep chickens, goats and other small livestock on its property, the Sun-Recorder reported that popular mail-order outfit Sears &#38; Roebuck was offering for sale an entire series of zoo packages, including delivery and installation of cages suited for atrium, living room and kitchen, as well as guaranteed live delivery of lions, tigers, bears, elephants, monkeys and apes. The “Big Thing for 1911” prompted literally thousands of eager calls and telegrams to Sears &#38; Roebuck, primarily from outlying communities to which paper [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://thecitydesk.net/2009/02/09/the-eight-great-zoo-hoaxes/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Nice Work If You Can Get It: Larger Parking In Rear</title>
		<link>http://thecitydesk.net/2009/02/06/nice-work-if-you-can-get-it-larger-parking-in-rear/</link>
		<comments>http://thecitydesk.net/2009/02/06/nice-work-if-you-can-get-it-larger-parking-in-rear/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 06 Feb 2009 15:50:45 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>The City Desk</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Jonathan Morris]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Nice Work...]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thecitydesk.net/?p=485</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[An occasional survey of jobs both unusual and extraordinary, and the people who make them happen. Although his business card describes him as merely an engineer, Hank Beck’s assistants and partners have more colorful terms for his area of expertise. “Well,” he says, smiling under his dark, serious eyes, “Some of the interns took to calling it ‘rear-gineering,’ and that started to stick, although two of my immediate assistants have always called themselves ‘Derriere-gineers.’” What Hank does is civic engineering, applying science and industry to public places to insure that there’s always plenty of room to move, to advertise, to sell, to ship, to store – and most specifically, to sit. Hank’s lifelong expertise has been in the field of engineering public spaces to accommodate the ever-expanding American backside. “Some of it’s just better health, better nutrition, some of it is the current obesity epidemic, but the bottom line is that we’re all just a little bit larger than our grandparents and great-grandparents, and what was a comfortable seat for someone growing up in the Twenties or Thirties is going to be a tight fit for modern-day folks.” The bottom line, did he say? Hank sighs. “Yes, I suppose so.” [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://thecitydesk.net/2009/02/06/nice-work-if-you-can-get-it-larger-parking-in-rear/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Friday Facts: Impes, &#8220;Leapin&#8217; Lepean,&#8221; Debtors Prison</title>
		<link>http://thecitydesk.net/2009/01/23/friday-facts-impes-leapin-lepean-debtors-prison/</link>
		<comments>http://thecitydesk.net/2009/01/23/friday-facts-impes-leapin-lepean-debtors-prison/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 23 Jan 2009 14:42:37 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>The City Desk</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[budget]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[city council]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Craig Gaines]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Downtown]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[finance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[friday facts]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Holidays]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jonathan Morris]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[medicine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[prison]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[RJ White]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thecitydesk.net/?p=521</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[:: Mayor Cosgrove is expected to deliver to City Council on Monday her administration&#8217;s plan to make up the city&#8217;s now $728 million five-year deficit. :: Expected remedies: Rec Center  and library cutbacks, trash collection, city vehicle usage cuts, wage rollbacks, hiring freeze. :: The plaque on the Trade and Securities Building (43rd Ave and Roosevelt) remembers investor Tom Lepean, who on October 28, 1929, had made the decision to sell his sizable portfolio of stock and retire to a secluded wooded area. Although Lepean had been inspired by the book Walden, several scorned investors the following day – suspicious of Lepean’s timing &#8211; accused him of either benefitting from inside information of the coming stock market crash, or possibly engineering it. The legend of Lepean’s perspicacity exceeded public temperament, and the once-lucky investor was pushed out a 16th story window by a stenographic pool secretary whose father had been ruined in the Crash. :: Fast-Cash Plus, a national chain specializing in your-auto-title-for-easy-cash swaps, has opened an outlet in the Crestmoor Shopping Plaza, at 35th and Wallace Streets. That plot of land was the location of Munson Prison until 1938, which contained a sizable debtors prison wing. :: Alfred Garret, [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://thecitydesk.net/2009/01/23/friday-facts-impes-leapin-lepean-debtors-prison/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Nice Work If You Can Get It: The Man of a Thousand Theraputic Faces</title>
		<link>http://thecitydesk.net/2009/01/16/nice-work-if-you-can-get-it-the-man-of-a-thousand-theraputic-faces/</link>
		<comments>http://thecitydesk.net/2009/01/16/nice-work-if-you-can-get-it-the-man-of-a-thousand-theraputic-faces/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 16 Jan 2009 13:08:17 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>The City Desk</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[celebrities]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jonathan Morris]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Nice Work...]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thecitydesk.net/?p=489</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[An occasional survey of jobs both unusual and extraordinary, and the people who make them happen. Your average celebrity impersonator finds themselves working along the Las Vegas strip or in dinner clubs just outside the theater district, belting out pitch-perfect Lizas or Franks, sweating through motion-for-motion imitations of Rodney Dangerfield or Madonna. Not so for the versatile Kevin Coolidge, who boasts a near-limitless catalog of celebrity impersonations to his name and describes what he does as “Thera-personation.” Charging $50,000 for a single one-hour session or $120,000 for a series of three, the willowy and unassuming Coolidge says he offers far more than a campy stage show or tacky drag performance. “This is therapy at its most brutal and honest,” he tells us, sitting in what he calls his “professional space,” a loft apartment cluttered to the brim with books, clothing and wigs. “When you’re a celebrity, or really anyone in the news at any level, you find yourself under an almost intolerable amount of criticism. And your natural response, when you see nothing but negative news about yourself around every corner, is to give up on the real world and surround yourself with sycophants and yes-men, and all of this [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://thecitydesk.net/2009/01/16/nice-work-if-you-can-get-it-the-man-of-a-thousand-theraputic-faces/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Friday Facts: Budget Woes, FDR, Himmler Bay</title>
		<link>http://thecitydesk.net/2009/01/09/friday-facts-budget-woes-fdr-himmler-bay/</link>
		<comments>http://thecitydesk.net/2009/01/09/friday-facts-budget-woes-fdr-himmler-bay/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 09 Jan 2009 16:11:02 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>The City Desk</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[art]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[budget]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Count Film-Ula]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[friday facts]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jonathan Morris]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mabel Tripp Gardens]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[police]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[politics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[RJ White]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thecitydesk.net/?p=503</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[:: Estimated five-year city budget deficit awaiting Maribeth Cosgrove when she is sworn in as mayor on Monday: Over $650 million :: Portion of the city budget in ten years that will have to be paid for pension and benefits, according to current union contracts : 61% :: City union contracts up for renewal this year: Police, fire, administrative staff :: When asked during an informal poll, more than twenty percent of respondents believed that the most physically powerful American president was either Teddy Roosevelt or George Washington. Physically weakest American presidents selected by the majority of respondents included Martin van Buren, John Quincy Adams or George H.W. Bush (though, surprisingly, not Franklin Delano Roosevelt) :: The so-called “Gipsie Murals” were sand-blasted into obscurity on this day in 1960. :: Memorial services for Laura Bonnie Tripp will be held this Tuesday at the viewing promenade at Mabel Tripp Gardens, the public parks facility named after her great-grandmother. The 70-year-old was better known as a former Playboy pin-up girl and third wife of local late night horror show host Count Film-Ula. :: Until popular opinion forced the change in 1944, Mean Harbor had been originally known as ‘Himmler Bay.’ (It was [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://thecitydesk.net/2009/01/09/friday-facts-budget-woes-fdr-himmler-bay/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
	</channel>
</rss>

