Secrets of the City

I wish it were prettier. But whatever, good for them for finishing it on time.

it’s not like they finished it early just for our benefit. they reaped an extra $27 million bonus for finishing early.

Is it safe to cross?

Is it safe to cross?

Speaking of “bridge to nowhere,” anyone hear Betty McCollum speak today? People I was in the car with when we were listening to it on MPR were like, “HUH?”

What was the “huh” in reference to? I did not hear the speech.

It is safe to cross, partially because of my company. Yay us!

Ooh, goodie. Rainbow in the Quarry. Here I come!!!

christin, you’re a woman after my own heart…

and don’t forget the Target!!!!

The best part of it supposedly connecting Mpls and St. Paul is that Randi Kaye was the one who said that. Of all the CNN correspondents to get that wrong, Randi Kaye messed it up. Brilliant.

I think it’s a beautiful bridge; beautiful in its simplicity and lines. It’s certainly 1000x better-looking (and better-constructed, we hope) than the bridge it replaces.

Long spans can be made into monuments and grandiose architectural wonders. Keep the short spans simple. Small and simple is beautiful, just like small houses can be.

Is it safe to cross?

I just hope that the net result is I-94 between Cedar and 280 looking a bit less like a Road Warrior movie.

Anyword on when or if the Broadway exit at 280 will reopen?

Oh! I am so excited and looking forward to long, leisurely shopping exercusions to Rainbow in the Quarry, lingering over their produce and bulk sections and taking my sweet time in the freezer aisle because there is a lot less people trying to bump me out their way with their carts.

Oh yay!

Can we walk across it because the Washington Ave bridge is unsafe?

There are police inside it as we speak ticketing any bicyclists who do not dismount.

I just walked across it and my blood pressure shot through the roof. I don’t know if it is a developing phobia or I am just irate about the situation…

Isn’t a trip inside my brain fascinating?

Ooh, goodie. Rainbow in the Quarry. Here I come!!!

Me, too! It’s my preferred place to do late night grocery shopping. But I’ve found that my cart is run into there far, far more often than anywhere else by persons oblivious to the world around them.

douglas…sounds like you may have had an encounter with the ghost of John Berryman.

I actually get a little panicked every time I cross the Washington Ave bridge. That would be a hell of a fall. It killed Berryman.

Oh SNAP.

Jinx.

plus it’s really dangerous at sunset as the Weisman can totally blind eastbound traffic.

This is just a bad thing to have written about you:
Berryman’s life was dominated by suicide.

But I hate that bridge, too. Whenever a car used to come flying up that ramp headed west I envisioned the bus swerving and flying through the guard rail and into the river.

MNspeak jinx update:
I owe Josie and Amber each a coke
Josie owes Ang a coke
Cat owes douglas a coke
Max owes aliecat a coke
And new today, grote owes Max a coke
Please keep me informed if any of these debts are settled.

I am so excited and looking forward to long, leisurely shopping exercusions to Rainbow in the Quarry, lingering over their produce and bulk sections and taking my sweet time in the freezer aisle because there is a lot less people trying to bump me out their way with their carts.

Uhm, what? long? yes. Leisurely? No. fewer people bumping into you? I don’t think so.

I like the store, it has a decent meat counter, and the co-ed quotient is very high, but damn, every time I’m there, it’s crowded and all of the check out lines are 4 or 5 deep with full shopping carts.

In lieu of coke, I will accept sigle-malt small batch scotch, or any good Irish whiskey.

no…I posted first…Max owes me a coke. but I will instead accept a “THe Good, The Bad and The Ugly” from Barrio. suck it, sparber.

Oh, well, in comparision to Cub on Lake Street, Rainbow across the bridge is a lot less crowded which says a lot about the crowdniess level of Cub on Lake Street. We’re talking throngs of humanity.

@Kevin – Now you have to also worry about the pedestrian part collapsing on your bus.

Distraught poets will have to work pretty hard to jump off it now. They would have to first climb a 7 foot high fence to get to the edge.

I heard Berryman flapped his arms as he fell, which was seen by a few students on the bridge that snowy January morning. Instead of a suicide note, he went for visual comedy.

Which reminds me: I wonder if they’ve found David Foster Wallace’s 84-page footnoted suicide note yet.

everyone keeps asking “is it safe to cross?”

but I want to know something more important: does it blend?

I actually talk about the WAB in an upcoming article on blogging. I use it as a metaphor.

In lieu of coke, I will accept sigle-malt small batch scotch, or any good Irish whiskey.
»» Submitted by »»» msparber at 3:56 PM on September 15

I’d never picture max as the type who’d turn down some good nose candy.

taking my sweet time in the freezer aisle

oh do tell more, christine, do tell more.

A metaphor for what Kurtis? Crumbling infrastructure? Disaster caused over reaction? It’s all fun and games until someone loses an eye? What?

no…I posted first…Max owes me a coke. but I will instead accept a “THe Good, The Bad and The Ugly” from Barrio. suck it, sparber.

Nice try, hair helmet. It’s whoever says “jinx” first. Them’s the rules.

I spoke more to the intertextuality of the sanctioned and unsanctioned art and text that sprawls across the bridge (and did so more in the pre-Yudoff days of Campus Beautification).

Also, It’s whoever says “jinx” first. Them’s the rules. … er, JINX buy me a scotch.

“Jesus Redeems Souls — For hundreds a fabulous prizes!” That is my favorite pre-Yudof graffiti on the bridge. I wonder how the “Paint the Bridge” will go with those parts now blocked off. I’m guessing we’re stuck with the current crop of adverts for a while.

“Don’t pay the Berryman,
‘Til he makes to the other side.”

Berryman – I heard he loved the Golden Gophers but he hated all the drawn out winters. If that was the only criteria to jump off the bridge it would look like a lemming hoard come March of every year.

DFW RIP! Why couldn’t it have been Robert Ludlum or Stephen King?

Whoops Ludlum is already dead. Oh well. I’m still calling for Stephen King’s suicide.

I just drove over the new 35W bridge. Felt a little apprehensive just before I got there — no rational reason for it, it just felt strange to drive into the area a little more than a year later.

The bridge itself is nice (the fancy LED lights were off) and offers a good vew of the downtown skyline. Media everywhere, helicopter hovering above.

Helicopters above, media everywhere…were you in a white Bronco?