Monthly Archives: February 2019

Time Flies, Things Change

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Something I found today in the usual way, by not looking for it. Best to look at it full screen. After a moment the details sharpen up and wow.

In only one viewing I didn’t notice any obvious mistakes, though the thing is quick and a creation of this detail must have some. And certainly you can quibble about the difference between an “advanced culture” and an “embryonic civilization” and an “advanced civilization.” What’s history for if not to quibble over?

None of that matters. It’s fascinating to watch. It’s as if the wonderful Historical Atlas of the World came to life and with much more detail (and a soundtrack).

Just from one go-around, a few takeaways. As far as the ancient civilizations of the Near East are concerned, for example, the Romans are just a bunch of Johnny-come-latelies. As anyone from Europe would be.

Then there’s the Mongols. I know about their meteoric rise, but to see the Mongol presence on the map expand like a balloon attached to a helium tank makes it all the more impressive. No wonder it’s Chinggis Khaan International Airport.

Also, note the world population count — an educated guess in all pre-modern times — in the 14th century. Down it goes with the arrival of the Black Death.

This map must represent a lot of work. Whoever Ollie Bye is, I applaud his efforts.

Geezer Mail

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Got a paper catalog in the mail today, one that comes periodically despite the fact that I’ve never ordered anything from it, not once in however many years I’ve been on the mailing list. The merchant must be waiting patiently, hopefully, like a dog under the dinner table waiting for some food to fall its way.

It offers DVDs. I look at it and always see a few movies I’ve never heard of and probably won’t ever see. Not that I dismiss old movies, or black-and-white movies, or subtitled movies out of hand, though I hear that some people do. Rather, there isn’t enough time to see everything, or even everything worth seeing.

Besides, my attitude toward DVDs is rent, not buy.

Speaking of the passage of time, when I opened the catalog this card fell out.

Catalogs are increasingly geezer mail, and if you need any evidence of that, look no further.

Life Jackets on the Titanic

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Got an unexpected press release today from a place I visited a while ago, the Titanic Museum Attraction.

Branson, Mo. Feb 5. 2019 – For the first and only time, the largest assemblage of remaining RMS Titanic life jackets will be on exclusive display March through June 15 at the Titanic Museum Attraction in Branson, Missouri. A new dimension in “Living Titanic Exhibits” will showcase seven of only 12 known Titanic life jackets beginning March 1 in Branson.

One detail: Branson ought to stand alone in datelines. Just my opinion. AP, the arbiter of such style points, disagrees. The list of cities that take no state in datelines is fairly short, according to the AP.

Besides Branson, I’d definitely add Orlando to that list, along with Austin, Birmingham, Buffalo, El Paso, Fort Lauderdale, Nashville, and some others.

“This is a stunning, world exclusive exhibit that we’re extremely proud to bring to Branson and to millions of our Titanic followers,” said Mary Kellogg, president, COO and co-owner of Titanic Museum Attractions. “There are only 12 KNOWN Titanic life jackets left in the world. For the first time, seven of these priceless artifacts will be at Branson’s Titanic Museum Attraction.”

All-caps KNOWN in the original. True, it is a fact that I didn’t know until now, but the emphasis is too much.

Wonder where the other five are. Private collections, including at least one held by an eccentric Japanese billionaire? The Greenwich Maritime Museum? The Maritime History Archive in St. John’s, Newfoundland? Someplace even more obscure?

The release also offered some quotable facts about the sad state of emergency preparedness on that doomed steamer, specifically about its life jackets.

There were enough life jackets to protect the 2,208 passenger/crew on board Titanic… but not enough lifeboats to save them all.

Life jackets were made of hard cork and canvas, proving dangerous for many forced to jump into the water.

So not only did a lack of lifeboats fail the passengers and crew, so did relatively primitive materials science. Guess cork was the best available material in 1912. It floats, after all.

I wish the Titanic Museum Attraction well with its life jacket exhibit, though I probably won’t make it to Branson to see them. But I might go if the museum promised an exhibit of surviving deck chairs from the Titanic. You know, those that were famously re-arranged.

Adding Shape to Flat Illinois

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Spotted today under construction here in the northwest suburbs: some hills.

I like to think that anyway. The land could use a little more contour. But I suspect there will actually be an addition to a nearby major medical complex built on this site. Think of it as a physical manifestation of the aging population bulge of which I am a younger member.

St. Paul Square, Sunset Station & the SP 794

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Four years ago, I wrote: “One fine thing about South Texas in February is that it isn’t northern Illinois in February.” Then I called northern Illinois “septentrional,” to use a 10-dollar word that ought to be used at least occasionally.

Anyway, it can be cold in San Antonio in February, but just as often it’s pleasantly cool — good temps for a walk.

Four years ago I visited San Antonio’s Eastside Cemeteries Historic District. I also took a look at the nearby St. Paul Square, an area that flourished in pre-Interstate years because of its proximity to San Antonio’s main passenger train station.
The area has enjoyed some recent revival as a retail and entertainment center. The aforementioned train station is Sunset Station, vintage 1902 and redeveloped in the 1990s as an entertainment complex.

The last time I’d been at the station was when it was still a station, 25 years earlier. I caught an Amtrak train — the only train still using the station in 1990 — that took me to Los Angeles, where I changed trains for San Francisco.

Next to the renovated station: Southern Pacific 794.

“She was built in 1916 by the Brooks Locomotive Works in Dunkirk, NY, for the Texas and New Orleans (T&NO) Railroad, which was a subsidiary of the Southern Pacific Railroad,” says the San Antonio Railroad Heritage Museum. “She was transported to Texas as parts and was assembled in Texas, and then was operated for forty years while being based in San Antonio. 794 was used for freight service as well as passenger service.”

With steam obsolete by the 1950s, the SP donated a fair number of locomotives to various entities, including the San Antonio Chamber of Commerce in the case of the 794. From 1957 to 1999 the locomotive stood in Maverick Park just north of downtown on Broadway. Then it was moved to Sunset Station.

Since Broadway was the way we usually went downtown, by car or bus, I saw it often. Then I noticed, probably during an early 2000s visit, that the 794 was gone. Maverick Park still looks strangely empty without it, 20 years later.