Rants

Tick Tock Tick Tock

Tuesday, February 24th, 2009

Is the American Dream running out of time? Downtown merchants across the country are saying “No!” by erecting over-sized, fake, olde-timey clocks. Pole-mounted timepieces, according to the Christian Science Monitor, are elevating shopping districts above their rivals in neighboring towns (at least until those towns get their own clocks). One businessman told the Monitor, “The [...]

Montana’s Attractions: Pawns In Cell Phone Chess Game

Tuesday, February 3rd, 2009

Has a cell phone company dared Montana to eliminate its roadside attractions? It sure sounds that way in Helena, Montana, where the legislature is considering banning the use of cell phones by drivers across the state. Hello cell phone lady! Am I distracting you? Montana has lots of empty space, and its open-ended speed limits [...]

A New Spirit of America?

Monday, January 19th, 2009

Last week, news reports noted that Barack Obama wax figures were being officially installed in Madame Tussauds around the globe (He was already in place in the Washington DC Tussauds). Madame Tussauds, Las Vegas In Amsterdam, for example, the wax George W Bush was given a set of luggage, and put on the street outside [...]

Pocket Change Can Add Up To Big Bucks

Thursday, January 1st, 2009

Nebraska’s “Chimney Rock” has reaped attendance benefits from being on the back of a quarter, according to the Scottsbluff Star-Herald (Although the coin didn’t call the rock by its original name). This kind of free advertising was surprisingly absent from the recent “50 States Quarter Program” — but now the states have a second chance. [...]

Amazing Similarities Between Lincoln and Santa Claus

Wednesday, December 24th, 2008

A recent swing through southern Indiana put us in the adjacent communities of Lincoln City — home of the Bronzed Foundation of Abraham Lincoln’s Boyhood Home — and Santa Claus. The physical proximity of two towns built around two triple-A American deities made us wonder. Is it mere coincidence? Aside from Lincoln and Santa’s eating [...]

Switch Opens: Echoes Of Eatertainment

Tuesday, December 23rd, 2008

Eating in a restaurant where the fun tops the food may have begun in tiki bars, developed an unhealthy popularity at Disneyland and World restaurants, and then veered into surreal excess in the 1970s with the opening of Casa Bonita. By the mid-1990s “eatertainment” was hot, with various companies selling “concepts” that could be internationally [...]

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