This Land is Your Land, 2004 edition

O Woody, where art thou?

Da coach may run for da Senate from Illinois. The Draft Ditka movement is gathering steam.
Update - July 15 - Ditka decided not to run after all.

Atomic radio controlled cuckoo clock

I visited the new downtown Seattle Public Library today, to pick up a book on hold. It has no parking, so I had to park in a pay lot ($7 for the hour I was there). The building is short (11 stories) compared to its neighbors. I rode the chartreuse escalators to the top, where people were standing around staring at the modern looking chairs and asking each other if they were comfortable. They seemed ok to me, but like everyone else I had a quick sit and then got up. I took the elevator down to the first floor and stood in a long line to get my book, spending the time looking at all the unfinished concrete walls.

The new library got a nice writeup from architectural critics, in the New Yorker, and elsewhere, and that seems to have been the goal. It's not a terrible building, but it's not very welcoming either. It's not as nice as the Vancouver, BC library, nor the fairly new King County regional library in Bellevue, nor nearly as nice as the New York Public Library, nor the old Chicago Public Library. It makes me wonder if the flattering articles from New York-based critics are really a subtle put-down.

It gave me similar feelings to the EMP - a striking building, but not a very pleasant one to visit, and I don't feel much interest in a return visit.