At the rate we're going, we just might end up with a mayor who will sell
naming rights to the City: "Thank you for visiting Waltonbury!" Somehow
"So this is Waltonbury!!!" just doesn't have the same ring to it...
I am embarrassed to have been a UM Gopher. Time for a complete withdrawal
from TCF Bank - I don't recall them asking for my opinion... Thankfully I
have dual mascotship and hereby proclaim sole allegiance to the UMD
Bulldogs, completely renouncing my former rodent status. What's next, the
"Stillwater HS Budweiser Clydesdales" and the "Withrow Elementary
GameBoys"? Ach du lieber Gott! Vo ist biergarten?!
In other news, I picked up one of those St. Barishnakov, St. Dylan, St.
Paul, St. Jimmy Jam arts pamphlets yesterday at Supatra's. (And I saw
Jerry Blakey in his new shop! Pretty nice!) Not the card but the
tabloid-sized newsprinted thing. On the back are ads for lots of new
housing, including Island Station. Imagine my horror when I read something
like "two miles downstream from downtown, west by southwest." As an equal
opportunity critic, I have to say that anyone who assumes that all rivers
flow south all the time, or more specifically, anyone who does not know
what direction the Mississippi River flows through St. Paul, should NOT BE
ALLOWED TO DEVELOP ITS BANKS! When we go to Asia, we learn to pass
business cards appropriately, to avoid culturally offensive behavior, to
learn a little bit about their culture, but we don't seem to show the same
decency toward our own citizens. I went to IslandStation.com to see if it
contained the same gaff but I did not see it; only a bunch of other glaring
mistakes and omissions. It's a curse, I tell you... (The website IS
pretty cool, I must say.) "Mcbeal St."? I suppose behind that is "Alley
McBeal"?! "Degideos"? What lame connection does exist between our
neighborhood and the River is not even included on their map. (This
disconnection was a major point to come out of the Great River Park
charrette the other night. I wrote a "review" but it's painfully long and
in the Drafts folder...).
Call me petty, but these are the things that indicate that the people who
are creating the newest parts of our neighborhoods are out of touch and
will therefore be less likely to integrate the new with the old. In my
ongoing quest to save the world, I forced myself to sleep with one of the
architects involved with Koch-Mobil, I mean RiverBluff, I mean Victoria
Park, I mean God's Back Eighty, in order to extract some potentially useful
inside information. Anyway, I found out that although the developers (and
these are thought to be the good ones) have been in touch with residents
over the years, they still used the least-favorite house around for one of
their boards. So, this architect and I went on a date and photographed the
nice houses in the area in the hopes that the ultimate designs will be not
only sustainable but pleasing to the eye as well. My point is that you
have to feed these out-of-towners information whether they ask for it or
not. And if I have to keep sleeping with the enemy, I will, for you.
Speaking of Queen Victoria, here's a bit of trivia for you - while I was
home sick, I picked up and read a booklet from Chatsworth, a stately home
very near my ancestral lands and Dad's current house (Derbyshire). About
the time St. Paul was naming its streets, Queen Victoria visited Chatsworth
and it was the news of the world (she was that kind of girl...). I am
inclined to believe that this event is why both Chatsworth and Victoria
Streets were named such. Oxford and Avon are somewhat obvious, and Milton,
well, that is likely for John Milton (1608-1674):
"After the death of Charles I, Milton published THE TENURE OF KINGS AND
MAGISTRATES (1649) supporting the view that the people had the right to
depose and punish tyrants."
It is left to you, Gentle Reader, to imagine what our forefathers and
foremothers were thinking, or perhaps what they foretold, when they named
Milton Street Milton Street. Maybe the Mayor would put Milton's book on
the St. Paul Reads list if we asked politely.
Oh dear God! The mayor doesn't live at 666 Milton, does he?!
I tell you this bit of trivia because there is some issue with regard to
naming the streets of Victoria Park and I feel you should be made aware of
this. The "Jeffersonian grid" will be a bit kiddywompous (sp?),
unfortuntately (I was hoping for an Uppertownian sense of place, or
U'to'nian as we say), so that makes it a little more difficult to name
streets logically. But certainly none of us would appreciate suburban
names like, and I'm just guessing here, "Overlook Drive" or "Coyote Run."
Right? Let me make one thing perfectly clear - if anyone suggests renaming
Chatsworth Street to "Cheney Boulevard," there WILL be a bloody revolution!
So, it looks like a nice day for a beer. Tomorrow I will have the pleasure
of playing poker with Fitger's master brewer. Again, I do this selflessly
just for you, in an attempt to create a Fat Cat-type of pub in Brewerytown,
competitively serving regional microbrews to birdwatchers with far too much
money in their field bags. (The Fat Cat in Norwich is one of the best pubs
(beer-wise) in the northern Milky Way.) Carl will be able to tow them with
his trike into the flyway, once we get our connection to the River...
AMH, feeling like Roberto Benigni in "Life Is Beautiful" today... they're
not really going to kill us off, are they?
John Armstrong (1758-1843) Avenue
"Give my people plenty of beer, good beer and cheap beer, and you will have
no revolution amoung them." - Queen Victoria
PS Who was that St. Paul Place Name guy who was looking for stuff earlier?
Andrew M. Hine
Corporate Research Materials Laboratory
3M Center 201-1W-28
St. Paul MN
55144-1000
USA
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Tel: (651) 733-1070
Fax: (651) 737-5335
Lab 201-W110
"Dennis Tester"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]
ter.com> To
Sent by: [EMAIL PROTECTED],
[EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED],
forum.org [email protected]
cc
03/25/2005 11:51 Subject
AM RE: [StPaul] Re: Mayor Kelly and
City Attorney: Risking public
safety at PP
Please respond to
Dennis Tester
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]
ter.com>
"To suggest that "people" should avoid Good Friday suggests that Good
Friday is meaningful to those people and they should know better."
Yeah, you're right. Maybe we should just change the name of this city to
Comrade Paul.
Dennis Tester
Mac-Groveland
>----- ------- Original Message ------- -----
>From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>To: [email protected]
>Sent: Fri, 25 Mar 2005 -0800 (PST) 08:03:33
>
>
>>Maybe people should schedule their abortions on a
>day
>>other than Good Friday. That might help.
>
>Don't feed the troll, don't feed the troll, don't
>feed
>the troll... OK, just this once.
>
>Good Friday? What's Good Friday? I like Friday -
>does that mean every day is Good Friday. Is GF
>like
>Yom Kippur? How about Columbus Day? Summer
>Solstice?
> Flag Day?
>
>To suggest that "people" should avoid Good Friday
>suggests that Good Friday is meaningful to those
>people and they should know better. Either that or
>
>that they should avoid that day out of respect for
>the
>sensibilities of some other group of "people".
>
>Here in St. Paul, there are folks for whom GF
>doesn't
>mean much of anything. There are even people who
>don't have concern about what happens at a medical
>clinic on Ford Parkway. They're all citizens of
>St.
>Paul and their opinions count the same as the
>people
>who actually know what's so Good about Friday.
>
>On a happier note, I drove past the PP Highland
>clinic
>on my way to work this a.m. I'm pleased to report
>that neither group of demonstrators seems
>especially
>large or energetic. The police were there in
>(reasonable) force and seemed to have the situation
>
>well in hand. Their efforts and continued peace
>there
>is the most important thing in the world to me
>today.
>
>Kevin Marshall
>Frogtown (W1P4)
>St. Paul, Mn
>
>
>
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>
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