I went to the UPS store Wednesday afternoon. That's what they call it. I don't know why "store" needs to be appended. Are you storing any UPS here? No? Shoot, I wanted to buy some UPS.

"Well hold on, we can ship something for you."

"Via UPS?"

"You betcha."

"That suggests you are a conduit to UPS, an intermediary, but in fact you are wholly owned, operated, managed, and regulated by UPS."

"That's correct."

"So it's more like a UPS Storefront."

"If that's what would make you happy."

This conversation did not take place, for which I am grateful. What did take place was a brief revelation of the cost of getting a small envelope to Boston by Friday, which was $47.00. That seemed like a lot. I decined. Went down the ecalator into City Center, where there was ACTUAL HUMAN ACTIVITY. A basketball demonstration - there's a tournament in town. A storefront long closed looked as if it had some retail activity - holy crow, the whole half of the ground floor shopping area is filled up with independent local merchants, presumably capitalizing on the BB tourney.

I talked to a fellow who made special pickles. I had four samples and wanted them all, and realized this was the first time I'd had asparagus and thought "I would now like more asparagus." I bought some. The next table had a fellow selling exquisitely presented confections - rich brown cupcakes. For dogs! The brand is "Must be Ruff," and we chatted about the product and his business. He got a State Fair booth for 2024, which is a big thing. I'm going to have him on my Lip Balm Revue show.

I bought a bag of the treats for Birch and walked back to the office with a lilt in my step, having had what we once called "an absolutely ordinary downtown shopping and seeing people."

Now to go give Birch a treat, and see what he thinks.

UPDATE: keen anticipation, and as soon as he got it he took it away to eat in case some pack of wild ravenous dogs showed up and he needed a good defensive position - his default mode for the Good Stuff.

Our weekly recap of a Wikipedia peregrination. Expect no conclusion or revelations, but if you've been with us since this started last year, you know . . . sometimes we learn interesting things.

		So! How do we get from here . . .
		. . . to there?

It’s not a long journey.

Betty Garrett was in town, doing a play.

Betty bio:

Betty Garrett (May 23, 1919 – February 12, 2011) was an American actress, comedian, singer and dancer. She originally performed on Broadway, and was then signed to a film contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. She appeared in several musical films, then returned to Broadway and made guest appearances on several television series.

Her mother married a traveling salesman named Curtis, but they split when he turned into a drunk. And so:

When Garrett was eight years old, her mother married the fiancé she had jilted in order to marry Curtis. They settled in Regina, Saskatchewan, where her new stepfather worked in the meat-packing industry. A year later, her mother discovered that her new husband was involved in a sexual relationship with his male assistant, so she and Betty returned to Seattle.

I’m just thinking that the stepfather never thought this would end up in an encyclopedia.

Well, Betty had a good career - Broadway, movies. Full stop when her husband was accused of being a Communist party member in the early 40s, which he was. Once his acting career was kaput, he became a real estate investor and landlord.

Smith's column included some of her doodles. Does this make you think of anything?

		It should; they certainly saw the reference.

Except it’s not a specific Thurber drawing. It’s just Thurberesque. Here I will say something that’s not particularly popular, and someone might say “you’ve no standing to criticize that, and you’re wrong, because they are beloved,” but: he wasn’t a great cartoonist. He had a style that worked for the lines, and yes yes we loved his dogs, but it wasn’t competent work. Part of the charm, it seems.

Can you visualize the head of the servant who’s saying that they’re having a bit of a time below stairs? I can, because it’s awful, and it always struck me as awful even when I was a kid.

The background is just amateur hour.

Wikipedia: "Dorothy Parker, a contemporary and friend of Thurber, referred to his cartoons as having the ‘semblance of unbaked cookies’".

The writing, of course, is the thing.

Over one hundred thousand souls. Big old pre-war tower for a town that had under 30K people in 1940.

Famous, among other things, for rose processing.

This looks permanent:

The little P indicates that’s been turned into a parking ramp. Or the one on the right was built as a parking ramp, but in a “traditional” style, and its neighbor was hollowed out.

As ramps go, you can’t beat this.

That’s the most ungainly church ever conceived by the mind of man; it’s the absolute opposite of “Church.” Fascinating decision. It’s like the Scrooge McDuck vault of souls.

I love the 50s styles but they don’t get the respect and preservation they deserve. I mean, no one would argue for preserving this.

And maybe you can see why.

Hmm

Peer up at the top. The what?

The Fair Foundation Building. Renovated now, and it looks nice inside.

This should be an easy search on Cinematreasures.

Actually, it wasn’t. But I did. A rather bitter entry:

The Tyler Theatre was opened on August 2, 1940 with Ann Sheridan in “They Drive By Night”. Operated by Interstate Theaters Inc., it was later taken over by Plitt Southern Theatres who closed it in 1982. Famous for producing beautiful “Tyler Roses”, the city of Tyler has let a cinematic rose die. The theatre has been gutted and converted into retail use.

No newer pictures exist on Streetview, and it’s looked like this since the first visit in 2008.

Very nice.

And - dare I say it - if that’s a ground-floor renovation, it works.

It was a brief style, due to economics, I think. Not a lot was built when this was the main expression of commercial modernity. If it's a 30s building. Could be late 40s, early 50s.

Ditto, but man, the ones they built were fantastic.

Finished in 1932.

Uncompromising, severe, utterly self-possessed. A sign of the new world to come. (It was not, in fact, to come.)

The bane: top-heavy civic buildings.

No one likes them.

Why did I clip this?

Oh! Nice. Well, better.

Shrieks of the Seventies, doesn’t it?

But it has a certain civic pride. You have to love the clock.

That’s one blunt piece of work, right there.

Sometimes the minimalism of the era just looks like an excuse not to try anything.

A fine post-war building, but what’s that painting? Or is it a painting?

Hmm:

The google information says it’s the “Wisenbaker Production Company,” and that it’s “permanently closed.”

It’s like a decal.

Absolute rote early 80s office building, and again: every city of a certain size should have one.

Only needs Crockett and Tubbs walking out, putting on their sunglasses.

Preferable to demolition, I suppose.

The scale of the door compared to the rest of the place is unnerving. What was this, a trampoline store?

I detect a trend, I do

Safe to say that the fashionable women who patronized this place found another store.

GET A ROPE

Eclectic designs: they may not always fit together, but they make for a more interesting street.

This should be easy.

The interior is much smaller than you might think.

Best stop there. Not bad, Tyler! Not bad at all.

That'll do! Back to Google Main Streets now.