First Lutheran Church in the St. Joseph neighborhood of downtown Indianapolis is no more. It suffered catastrophic losses early in the morning of Christmas Eve due to a fire, and while the firefighting crew battled the blaze formidably, it was not able to prevent the roof from caving in, or most of the doors and
I’m breaking all of my own rules these days. Averse as I am to including two analysis-free montages in a row, now I’m taking the violations a step further by featuring two consecutive articles that a) offer very timely content (likely to seem irrelevant in a few days) and b) carry heavily political undertones, though
Seen a flick at a single-screen theater lately? Ever seen a movie at a single-screen theater at all? Odds are strong—for any American over the age of 35 who grew up an urban cluster (basically any community over 5,000 people, per the Census’s revised definition—the answer is probably “no”. Some very remote small towns have
It’s Flag Day! And it’s kind of remarkable how, given my blog’s fixation with flags over the years (including some very creative flag reimagining), I’ve never really covered this 75-year-old holiday, commemorating the 247th anniversary of a distinct American flag. Yes, it was June 14th in 1777 that the Second Continental Congress adopted an official
Social critics have asserted for decades that American religiosity is in a state of decline. In recent years, they have grown more confident. And they certainly have evidence: churches are closing left and right across the country, a condition that accelerated during the peak of COVID-19 lockdowns. Additionally, polls show a reduced percentage of American
Never afraid to rouse the ire of urban activists by challenging their orthodoxy, I’m going to give it a try in what will remain my current stomping grounds at least a little while longer: Washington DC. Yes, even amidst all the eggheads around these parts, and despite a generally commendable urban fabric (most of DC
Walking along a sidewalk I’ve trod upon many times before, in front of a cemetery I even featured not so long ago, I came upon a little painted landmark that I had not previously noticed. From a distance I thought it was a power box indicative of buried cables in the area, since it’s increasingly
The subject of this article should win some sort of award for the longest one in the making, but, twelve years later, it has culminated in a major accomplishment: a certain landmark building now has an article permanently inscribed in the Digital Encyclopedia of Indianapolis, courtesy of yours truly. The structure is the former First
We have now reached, almost to the day, the point when the majority of US states, taking the lead from a national disaster declaration, began issuing safety precautions in an attempt to prevent the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), better known as COVID-19, the number attributing the year in which epidemiologists
The primary photo in this article features a landmark that is widely known to people in the greater Washington DC area, particularly those on the Virginia side of the river. But it isn’t significant or important enough to have any clout nationally or even outside the region. It’s a visual landmark in the sense that
First Lutheran Church in the St. Joseph neighborhood of downtown Indianapolis is no more. It suffered catastrophic losses early in the morning of Christmas Eve due to a fire, and while the firefighting
I’m breaking all of my own rules these days. Averse as I am to including two analysis-free montages in a row, now I’m taking the violations a step further by featuring two consecutive
Seen a flick at a single-screen theater lately? Ever seen a movie at a single-screen theater at all? Odds are strong—for any American over the age of 35 who grew up an urban
It’s Flag Day! And it’s kind of remarkable how, given my blog’s fixation with flags over the years (including some very creative flag reimagining), I’ve never really covered this 75-year-old holiday, commemorating the
Social critics have asserted for decades that American religiosity is in a state of decline. In recent years, they have grown more confident. And they certainly have evidence: churches are closing left and
Never afraid to rouse the ire of urban activists by challenging their orthodoxy, I’m going to give it a try in what will remain my current stomping grounds at least a little while
Walking along a sidewalk I’ve trod upon many times before, in front of a cemetery I even featured not so long ago, I came upon a little painted landmark that I had not
The subject of this article should win some sort of award for the longest one in the making, but, twelve years later, it has culminated in a major accomplishment: a certain landmark building
We have now reached, almost to the day, the point when the majority of US states, taking the lead from a national disaster declaration, began issuing safety precautions in an attempt to prevent
The primary photo in this article features a landmark that is widely known to people in the greater Washington DC area, particularly those on the Virginia side of the river. But it isn’t