Some of my favorite places to visit are St. Paul, especially Grand Avenue and Como Park and Historic Ft. Snelling. The lakes in Minnepolis, be sure to ride the Como-Harriet streetcar by Lake Calhoun.

Outside of the Twin Cities there is the St. Croix valley and the Mississippi as it flows to south toward Iowa. The western state has beautiful prairies and fields of corn (maize). Duluth is one of my favorite places, especially Lake Superior. The Depot Museum has a great collection of locomotives. A short drive north is Two Harbors and the ore docks. Even farther north is Ely and the Boundary Waters Canoe Area -- chains of glacial lakes surrounded by pines and aspens.

It's a lovely state -- very much worth visiting and it has quite a bit of a French connection, historically speaking.

When the IDS building was erected, the Foshay Tower was the tallest building in Minnesota.  Folks would joke that the IDS building was the "box Foshay came in."

Built in the late 1920s, Foshay, and the economic problems it spawned, would become part of this hstory of the Great Depression.  It is a beautiful building with many Art Deco features.  It is in need of serious repair but a new owner promises it will be rebuilt to its original splendor.

"Remember the I35W bridge--who needs terrorists when there are Republicans"

Tellingly, Pelli designed his building to be just a bit shorter out of respect for Johnson's masterpiece.  In a profession known for its arrogant prima donnas, this was a VERY classy move.

"Remember the I35W bridge--who needs terrorists when there are Republicans"

What I hadn't forgotten was how pathetic 140 horsepower was in those times.  By the time I got to my hot-rodding days in the late 1960s, you could buy a Chevy Nova with 375 hp.  No tires or brakes or suspensions, mind you, but enough power to rotate the planet ;-)

My guess is that Chrysler bailed on the turbine engine when they actually discovered how expensive it would be to produce.  As my university professor of transportation technology reminded me one day when I was extolling the future of the Wankel engine, "Just remember, the easiest, most reliable machining operation is the production of a round hole.  Piston engines will be with us a long time."  Even now with CNC mills, machining turbine parts is still hideously expensive.

And they would never have fixed the fuel consumption problem.  Even after 45 years of expensive research since 1963, gas turbine engines are only fuel efficient in high-altitude uses where operating rotations are fixed for long periods.

But when I was bouncing along in my dad's Ford station wagon in the early 60s, I would dream of the silkiness of a turbine powered ride.  The technological optimism of those days was utterly intoxicating.

"Remember the I35W bridge--who needs terrorists when there are Republicans"

Ad astra per aspera

The jaggies in the sky are because I was working with a jpg and the compression screws up the manipulation possibilities.

LEP, still having that Paris stroll this morning?

Un roi sans divertissement est un homme plein de misères

the original feels quieter, and is closer to the true spirit of the demonstration :


Un roi sans divertissement est un homme plein de misères

funny, that's what i called it, 'wow'

i did a series of this girl's pic, but my imagewell uploader to flickr has stopped working and i can't find a way to do it any more, so just have stuff i already put there to choose from.

here's another pic, not photoshopped this time...

"Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do." Jim Hightower

too big to be a pony... not full grown yet.

this breed starts off different colours and all turn white over time.

and that pleases me...

they were imported as long ago as the roman empire and known for their hardiness and intelligence.

where is your grey from?

hope you're feeling better.

"Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do." Jim Hightower