Just A Little Confused
I understand the idea of creating universally understandable signage, but sometimes a few extra words could help. If this truly means “don’t exit if the plane is on fire,” I don’t think I’m going to obey this sign.
2026
Quote of the Day
You are the main character…But there in the background, faint and out of focus, are the extras. The random passersby. Each living a life as vivid and complex as your own. They carry on invisibly around you, bearing the accumulated weight of their own ambitions, friends, routines, mistakes, worries, triumphs, and inherited craziness. – John Koenig from The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows
Oddball Nostalgia
I recognize how Gen-X it is of me to feel nostalgic upon the closing of a mall. Even this mall, which was past its prime the very first time I set foot in it a few years ago. But it harkens back to fond memories of a simpler youth. There was nothing better on the weekend than to ride bikes over to the Salisbury Mall, play free video games at Montgomery Ward, hit the bookstore, the arcade, the record store and Tony’s pizza all in one afternoon. Heck, I’d love to be able to do all of that in one place today.
But the Fox Run Mall in Newington, NH is on its last breath. I took a walk through it today out of morbid curiosity. The stores that remain (it might be at half capacity if you’re generous in counting what’s open) are moving out in January, for a planned demolition later this year. Walking the halls feels like you’re in something of a ghost town. Centralia, PA, in retail form. But for some reason they still plow the entire lot, including parking spaces that probably haven’t been used once in decades. Farewell Fox Run Mall, I wish I could have known you in better days.
Quote of the Day
We are creating a world where anyone, anywhere may express his or her beliefs, no matter how singular, without fear of being coerced into silence or conformity. – John Perry Barlow from A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace
It’s a shame it didn’t ultimately work out that way.
