Thomas Lowry's Ghost
Gold Medal Flour wallet
I lost my wallet on the bus Monday morning. I’ve been feeling like most of me was missing for the past few days.But through perseverance and excellent customer service, Metro Transit retrieved it for me today…with absolutely nothing missing. And kudos to whomever turned it into the lost and found. You literally made my week.The cosmos smiled at me today…and I needed that really bad. Thank you. (PS: how cool would it be to have a Gold Medal Flour wallet?)
(image via MHS Visual Resources Database)

Gold Medal Flour wallet

I lost my wallet on the bus Monday morning. I’ve been feeling like most of me was missing for the past few days.But through perseverance and excellent customer service, Metro Transit retrieved it for me today…with absolutely nothing missing. And kudos to whomever turned it into the lost and found. You literally made my week.The cosmos smiled at me today…and I needed that really bad. Thank you. (PS: how cool would it be to have a Gold Medal Flour wallet?)

(image via MHS Visual Resources Database)

GPOYW, Thomas Lowry Monument from 1947 edition.
(image via MHS Visual Resources Database)

GPOYW, Thomas Lowry Monument from 1947 edition.

(image via MHS Visual Resources Database)

archantiques:

“The Mighty Met,” a victim of urban renewal. Think of what the Gateway District (Washington, Nicollet, and Hennepin Avenues) would look like now if that building was still there!

Here is an illustrated journey of the iron balustrade sections that come from the Metropolitan Building… now we have some of them here. The interior of that building was truly something breathtaking and unique. Own a piece of history. The demolition of the Met is often pointed to as the watershed moment that sparked the preservation activism efforts here in Minneapolis and even around the United States. A two-day demolition sale is the real reason why these balustrades are still floating around- but they are STILL VERY VERY RARE. You can never expect to just run upon one of these at just any old salvage place. These are museum-grade examples of the ironwork that graced the Metropolitan and other Minneapolis buildings built in the late 1800s. The slanted rail is from the stairway sets. How cool is this though? 

As one of my heroes Larry Millet, former architectural critic (that was a thing!) for the St. Paul Pioneer Press once observed: That was the largest act of civic vandalism ever done in Minneapolis. Forever saddened that I never got to see that building.

GPOYT, I have her a day earlier this week edition.

GPOYT, I have her a day earlier this week edition.

Stretch & Z Super Bowl special, 1992. Guest appearances by John Gallos and former Gov. Arne Carlson. One of my favorite shows of all time.

Pray for the dead. Fight like hell for the living.
Mary “Mother” Jones (PS: if can, text ‘REDCROSS’ to 90999 to donate $10 to the relief effort in Moore, Oklahoma)
What a terrible news day

Losing my wallet sounds petty right now. Tell me something good.

The Doors keyboardist Ray Manzerek passed away today at 74. Here’s audio of ‘Light My Fire’ performed at the old Minneapolis Auditorium in 1968.

Lake Harriet Pavilion tornado damage, 1925.
If you haven’t heard yet, Moore, Oklahoma; a suburb of Oklahoma City, was just decimated by an F-4 tornado. My thoughts are with her citizens.
 (image via MHS Visual Resources Database)

Lake Harriet Pavilion tornado damage, 1925.

If you haven’t heard yet, Moore, Oklahoma; a suburb of Oklahoma City, was just decimated by an F-4 tornado. My thoughts are with her citizens.

(image via MHS Visual Resources Database)

Happy birthday to the late, great Joey Ramone; born on this day in 1951. Here’s The Ramones playing at the State Theater in 1978.