"it has been suggested . . . just now. we just suggested it."

jesus christ. this is question four on the rnc's new "2009 future of american health survey."

this was obtained by the washington independent, who has the complete survey, which is predictably full of leading and unfounded questions. also at the end they ask you for money.

the reasoning actually makes a fair amount of sense

Samoa is about to become what's believed to be the first nation since the
1970s to order its drivers to switch from one side of the road to the other.
That's spawned an islandwide case of road rage. Opponents have organized two of
the biggest protests in Samoan history, and a new activist group -- People
Against Switching Sides, or PASS -- has geared up to fight the plan.

(wallstreetjournal)

detroit six

detroit's eastern market is a gaint, historic market district that's been around since 1891. it's got some fantastic signs:

they have a vegeta-bull too!

detroit five

museums!



this is motown studio a, where every motown hit was recorded up to1971. magic! the instruments are reportedly all original, although i doubt benny benjamin had his drums set up that way. if you're ever indetroit, absolutely go to the motown museum, it is amazing.


the henry ford is a giant, awesome museum in dearborn. it's the biggest museum i've ever been to, and though it's centered arounda massive car collection, it's got tons of other stuff too. lots of american cultural history and ephemera. this is the car j.f.k. was shot in. what's kind of strange is that from the other perspective, this car is sitting in frontof a giant neon sign from the early days of mcdonalds; it seems like it would demand a more solemn presentation, but that's in keeping with this museum's delightfully morbid bent.


it doesn't stop there. here's the car reagan was getting into when he wasshot. in fact, the bullet that hit him ricocheted off the car's bulletproof glass and into reagan's chest.


just in case you thought this museum couldn't go any further, here is the main event: the chair lincoln was sitting in at ford's theatre when john wilkes booth shot him. i never would have expected a rocking chair!


ahh, this is cool. read about it below.


why can't we just make these again? that's a sweet-looking car.


here's another cool thing the henry ford museum had: one of r. buckminister fuller's dymaxion houses. here's a video of fuller introducing his design. "we are living in a spheroidal universe, around a spheroidal world, not a cubical sugarlump."

here's the ceiling at the national arab-american museum in dearborn, michigan. this is a really nice new museum. i was the only person there on a friday morning. 33% of dearborn's residents are of arab ancestry, the highest percentage of any sizable american city.

. . . yep.

by the way, did it seem odd to you that there was a rear top on the kennedy car? it seemed weird to me, and i heard other people at the museum say the same thing. i just decided to look it up now, and it seems the car was revamped and rearmored after kennedy's assassination, and was used by johnson, nixon, ford and carter before being retired. how weird! it seems like as president, for any number of reasons, you wouldn't want to drive around in the car a former president had been assassinated in.

detroit four

downtown ann arbor, looking very pretty.


belle isle park is detroit's central or golden gate park. it's located on an island in detroit river.   it's kept up pretty nice relative to the rest of detroit.




statue of james scott.  from friends of belle isle: "james scott was an eccentric gambler and controversial socialite. he bequeathed a $500,000 grant to build a fountain on belle isle along with a life-sized statue of himself."


heading west on the 94.


ypsilanti, michigan.

detroit three

these next three are from cass avenue, just south of the wayne state campus.

here are some photos of the abandoned massive packard plant on the east side of detroit. these buildings, which used to produce luxury cars and wwii fighter engines, were built between 1907 and 1909 and have been abandoned since 1956, when packard merged with studebaker. these were the first steel-reinforced concrete buildings in the world.

and finally, we have the granddaddy of detroit ruins, michigan central station. the station, and the office building that rises from it, were built in 1913 and within a decade fell into underuse. its designers had assumed a majority of travelers would arrive via streetcar, failing to recognize the increasing popularity of automobiles. amtrak took over the terminals in 1971 and provided a brief boost, but they pulled out of the station in 1988. since then its been the focus of several redevelopment schemes (casino, police headquarters, trade center) which have never materialized. in april the city council voted to demolish it but was sued by a preservationist. there is a 1987 video here with pictures of the building in its prime. this building is huge and scary and beautiful. it's the craziest thing i have ever stood in front of.

detroit two

this is the largest tire in the world! it was originally a ferris wheel at the 1964 n.y. world's fair.



east grand avenue in the new center area, down the street from motown hq.

eastern market door.



in the mexicantown neighborhood. detroit has several charmingly named historical ethnic neighborhoods: mexicantown, greektown, poletown.

detroit one

i took a bunch of pictures in detroit and will be posting them over several entries for the next couple of days. here's the first batch. there's more exciting stuff (abandoned buildings) coming later, i promise!

the bay model

we went up to the bay model in sausalito last weekend. the 2-acre model was built in 1956 to test out engineering projects. now it's operated as an educational facility.

here's a short video about the model. apparently it was built to test a plan to dam san francisco bay on both sides of the golden gate and create two giant freshwater lakes and 20,000 acres of new land. crazy!

honestly, i didn't learn all that much. i mostly just took pictures and enjoyed feeling like a giant. this place is getting almost $9 million in stimulus money. it's pretty run down inside, and the museum installations need an update.