It's Better in Wyoming.

I once dated a girl who worked for the Laramie Boomerang .  She was at least partially responsible for allowing to be printed a photo of a giant stone pyramid as a stand-in for Arnold Schwarzenegger's image--a mistake which made it onto the Headlines segment of the Leno show. Today the Tonight Show received from me this headline and pic, from today's online edition of the Boom.  I'm optimistic.

“The current business model and economic efficiency is based on the consumption of fossil fuel. They can ship stuff cheap, so they can grow it in Ecuador, or Mexico really inexpensively, throw it on a plane, fly it to California, throw it on an 18-wheeler, drive it across the continental United States, and dump it in Kansas City because gas is cheap. Will that business model persist in the long term? No; but will it persist for the next 15 years? Yeah, probably.”  -- Nate Storey, of Bright Agrotech

I've got a bit of a one-track mind.  Usually, if I'm working, I tune out song lyrics, TV, whatever noise is happening in the background.  But the Avetts can pierce right on through.  I've been thinking a lot about story-telling lately and about what it means to tell a "true" story.  Today it's these lines that pull me out of my grading haze and make me feel alive: Last night I dreamt the whole night long I woke with a head full of songs I spent the whole day I wrote them down but it's a shame Tonight I'll burn the lyrics Cuz every chorus was your name

As if you needed even more evidence that it's better in Wyoming: If you can't read that fine print (and I do mean fine), here's what it says: 3 warm unopened budlights with cardboard carrying box.  Easy access hole ripped in top.  been sitting in a garage for a while.  Must be 21

oh, amazon, you know me so well.  while i was searching for books about higher ed assessment, you encouraged me to check out the clothing over at doubleju .  which is awesome, really, for all kinds of reasons.  i DO want to wear the emotion, oh i DO!

Goodbye, Old Mill Inn .  Even though you haven't served me a decent meal in years, I'll miss you. I didn't know I could feel sadness about the loss of a building in Newcastle.  Corner Bar: gone.  Old high school: gone and gone.  Frank's station: mostly gone.  Old Gerty Burns Elementary: converted to senior center. Somehow, though, the Old Mill must've stood for something, to me, in a way that none of those other buildings did, in a way that I've never even realized.. I dunno why, but I feel a little hole in my heart.

The Core of Discovery page says this about the Gateway Arch: "A visit to St. Louis isn’t complete without standing at its base and playing professional photographer."  Thanks, Core of Discovery, for making me feel like a lemming.  Eff you, man. Saint Louis Front Page reports these additional details about the arch: The Jefferson National Expansion Memorial Park was established on the banks of the Mississippi River, on December 21, 1935, to commemorate the westward growth of the United States between 1803 and 1890. Cost for the $30 million national monument was shared by the federal government and the City of St. Louis.  The park features theGateway Arch, designed by architect Eero Saarinen who won the design competition in 1947. The stainless steel structure rises 630 feet high from a 60-foot foundation and spans 630 feet at ground level. Its classic weighted catenary curve sways 1/2" - 1" in 20 mph wind. The Arch weighs 17,246 tons. Nine hundred tons of sta...