Compton, Bradbury, Beta exeunt

Dave McNair has the story at the Hook

size matters

Words ignored, its surface recorded the truck's turn right.

carelessness, Omnipotence

In my home town there have recently been several stories in the news on the topic of automobile drivers behaving badly. In some cases the bad behavior is the result of a momentary lack of attention. Truly, there are few motorists that would deliberately play bumper cars with people in wheel chairs.
But it is an observable phenomenon that drivers are transformed when they get behind the wheel.
Why do we allow the Automobile to rule? Some interesting listening on that topic:
Peter Norton speaks with Coy Barefoot about his article "Street Rivals: Jaywalking and the Invention of the Motor Age Street," published in the Journal of Technology and Culture. Norton discusses the transition from streets being pedestrian-oriented to becoming the domain of the motorcar, and whose interests were really being served. Norton is the author of a book called "Fighting Traffic, the Dawn of the Motor Age in the American City."

I have a part time volunteer job with the City picking up trash on the east side of town. The take averages about 20 gallons a week. This is a busy time of year. Diapers, happy meals, condom boxes, beer cans, cigarette packs, big gulps, candy wrappers, dead animals, lottery tickets.
Would love to know how many citations were issued in the City last year for littering. Time to do some remedial house-training with these kings of the road.

patronymics

don't forget, Forgit! A better last name than Crook for one engaged in the political sphere.

Compton House

124 Maury Avenue, Charlottesville, Virginia, still standing... The Hook has been following this property with stories and letters.

black and white

Dogs see in B&W? "Ask a scientist" answers that burning question...

silage

funding priorities

Mary lives at a T-intersection. Both Mapquest and Google maps suggest a route through the T for vehicles traveling in the southeast quadrant of Charlottesville. This is not the truck that struck Mary's house, this is a truck turning in Mary's front yard. There are signs asking tractor trailers not to use this route.

Close to a year and a half ago I posted regarding my neighbor Mary's harrowing experience. A pickup truck crashed into her house, in the dark of night. The hit from the truck destroyed her kitchen, cracked the foundation of her 100+ year old home, and forced Mary to relocate for months while the damage was repaired.
The driver of the truck backed the snout of his pickup out of the side of Mary's house, he drove 3/10ths of a mile west at which point his vehicle succumbed to injuries sustained in the frontal assault. The driver continued his movement away from the scene on foot.

Seventeen months later, the driver has yet to be sentenced.

The wheels of justice turn slowly, the wheels of the pickup turned fast.

Might our City Council consider directing additional funds into the traffic enforcement section of the Police Department rather than spending that money on surveillance equipment?

thirty three years

Migration Gallery's Invitational show We All Live in Bordertowns is currently open and runs through the end of December. Gallery owners, Rob and Laura, are blogging each day about one of the artists in the show.
In the spirit of eternal, dogged, relentless self promotion
Better yet, Stacey Evans John Grant Maggie Taylor