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Yellow caution bumper stickers: not just a safe driving strategy. Now a meme.

It’s time to confess: I’m beholden to my most successful blog posts, which sometimes feature a subject I don’t really care all that much about, but hey—if it gets good engagement and stimulates conversation, why not explore it again?  That’s precisely the case with those yellow caution bumper stickers (or perhaps they’re magnets?) that have

Westwood Kmart: the company closes another. And then there were two.

All too frequently, what I expect to be a “small” subject ends up blowing out of proportion.  For example, the last two articles took significantly more time and effort than I expected.  The research bore fruit, and I struggled to constrain my analysis to a mere 1,500 words.  Now I’ve finally found a subject that

Streetery of Wheaton Mall: a dining concept that pedestrianizes a garage?

Throughout the life of this blog, I’ve come down hard on malls.  And I’ve done this, not because I fundamentally dislike them—they’re a paradigm for consumerism in the automobile era, whether we wanted it or not—but because malls in general have shown a diminishing ability to adapt to the shopping patterns of the last twenty

North Fillmore in Arlington: a street whose traffic flow changes mid-block.

The expansive, oddly shaped downtown district of Arlington, Virginia (it’s a county, even though it feels like a city) features some unusual intersections, which no doubt confuse motorists and pedestrians who are unfamiliar with the area.  These intersections were nowhere near as precarious back in the day, when most of the area consisted of low-slung

Drive-thru pharmacy: a tactic to prevent merchandise shrinkage…by shrinking?

From soup to nuts, pharmaceuticals are facing no end of scrutiny these days.  Whether it’s based on their ability to dodge regulatory oversight, the tendency for pharma developers to purchase political influence (these first two factors obviously go hand-in-hand), their correlation to various widespread drug dependencies, or their often indirect but undeniable role in organized

Vintage retail video: is Kmart in 1999 better than anything today?

After inadvertently stumbling across some vintage footage of shopping culture from yesteryear, I couldn’t help but ask myself: Is it reasonable, at this point, to compare the revolution in how we consume goods with the old cliché of a boiling frog?  How much longer before we the frogs feel the temperature climbing?  Using any vintage

Novice Driver bumper stickers earn some much-needed sardonic sass.

I hate to keep revisiting this subject, but gosh darn it, the first time I did, it became one of my most popular articles.  I still get new responses every few weeks.  And the phenomenon itself just won’t go away; in fact, it seems to be getting worse.  Or better, if you agree with the

Front step fracas: why would a doctor’s office impede wheelchairs?

I’m supportive of almost all efforts to improve the accessibility of public spaces and commercial buildings to those with access and functional needs.  Whether blind, deaf, mobility impaired, or some other characteristic that impedes one’s ability to get around in situations that 95% of us take for granted, I’m hard pressed to find much to

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