Sometimes, the articles of interesting in my lunchtime news reading form a common theme. Today is one of those days: the theme seems to be dealing with aged and aging things:
- From the “An Ode to Tom and Tom and Jess” Department: Tuesday evening, KNBC 4 said farewell to long-time anchor Paul Moyer with a video tribute. This is after they had previously said there would be no fanfare. Just as with print journalism, TV journalism is hurting, and we are moving away from the anchors who actually knew something about news. We’ve got the pretty anchors who pretend (such as those on KTLA, who are nowhere near Hal Fishman). The tribute pointed out how Paul was in the old model. I remember watching him when he debuted, and I’m glad they did the tribute.
- From the “Getting Off on Buses” Department: However, sometimes things that are retired return. The NY Times has an interesting article on how pull-cords are making a return to the city’s buses, replacing the yellow touch strips. Riders prefer them, and they are less expensive to install and maintain. Sometimes old technology is better.
- From the “Where’s Waldo” Department: Sometimes, however, old problems never get solved. Take for example the plight of the first child to be portrayed on a milk carton. He is still missing. Have you seen him?
- From the “A Bridge Over Troubled Styrofoam” Department: Then again, sometimes old problems get solved in innovative ways. Consider, for example, Tucker Blvd in St. Louis. It is near the river, and is actually built on a bridge for former electric rail cars. Initially, trains traveled through the tunnel and across the elevated bridge that crosses I-70, then to the McKinley Bridge and into Illinois. Passenger service stopped in 1958 because of competition with the automobile.In 2004, trains used the tunnel for the last time to deliver newsprint to presses at the Post-Dispatch. Only a few clues to the past remain — such as remnants of catenary wires and a small section of track. Now the city is attempting to remodel Tucker Blvd, and the bridge is deteriorating. They can’t just fill in the bridge with dirt, as that shifts and puts pressure on the foundations of the neighboring buildings (which cannot take it). So they are filling in the bridge with styrofoam blocks, which have structural stability. Foam has been used before by Utah DOT under I-15, and in Boston’s Big Dig project, which sent 3.5 miles of I-93 underground.
- From the “Old Things Live On, Part I” Department: Remember Circuit City? Well, they will live on online. The brand and the web site have been sold to SystemMax, who also owns Tiger Direct and the CompUSA brands.
- From the “Old Things Live On, Part II” Department: Remember the Ziegfeld Follies? I know, Circuit City was easier. Still, a piece of the Zigfeld Follies lives on: Doris Eaton Travis, at age 105 the last living Ziegfeld Girl. She started dancing at age 14, and who can still twirl around the dancefloor. She (not Gene Kelley) is the person who introduced the song “Singing in the Rain”. May she keep going on…
