WAIW: This Might Blow Your Mind

Where Am I Wednesday!

Fifty points to the first person to identify where this photo was taken.

Answer will be given on Thursday.

WAIW: Things Worth a Solitary Dime

Where Am I Wednesday!

Fifty points to the first person to identify where this photo was taken. (Ten bonus points for each of the three things that you can name that are worth a solitary dime.)

Answer is after the jump.

11° and Snow

11° and snow. This is what Dallas woke up to this morning. It's like Christmas morning. It's how we know the Packers were here and left a lump of coal in Jerry Jones's stocking and flew home to the frozen tundra of Lambeau Field.

A bonus photo is after the jump.

WAIW: Saigon Central

Where Am I Wednesday!

Fifty points to the first person to identify where this photo was taken.

Answer is after the jump.

WAIW: Super Bowl XLV

Where Am I Wednesday!

Fifty points to the first person to identify where this photo was taken.

Answer is after the jump.

POTD: The Glare

---

"Off shiny glass wall,
Death ray pierces rooftop screen,
Aimed at Nasher's art."
—h/t ChatGPT

This bonus photo-of-the-day was taken in the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas. Almost twelve years after it first appeared, "The Glare" is still there. "The Glare" is the sun's reflection off the shiny glass facade of Museum Tower next door and down through the Nasher Sculpture Center's "delicately calibrated roof screen", thereby endangering the art within its galleries. This photo shows three metal sculptures by Mark di Suvero. Behind them, on the wall, you can see "The Glare" and the shadows of the roof screen. The dispute over how to fix the problem, and who should pay, remains unresolved a decade after the problem was first discovered.

WAIW: Neighborhood Mural

Where Am I Wednesday?

Fifty points to the first person to identify where this photo was taken. This fence is a great improvement over the usual, boring, weathered fences seen all over Richardson. To this homeowner, I say "Well done."

Answer will be given on Thursday.

POTD: Portrait and Cityscape

This photo-of-the-day is from the Meadows Museum at SMU in Dallas. It shows two paintings in the exhibit "In the Shadow of Dictatorship: Creating the Museum of Spanish Abstract Art".

Fifty points if you can say which painting is a portrait and which a cityscape. Extra credit for knowing which person the portrait is of and which city the cityscape is of. Muchisimo puntos if you know the model in the middle.

WAIW: WWJD

Where Am I Wednesday!

By itself, a sign in a restroom asking patrons not to flush paper towels down the toilet is unremarkable. It's that "WWJD" appended at the bottom that caught my attention and made me smile. As I imagined Jesus contemplating how to use a flush toilet, my smile only grew broader.

Fifty points to the first person to identify where this photo was taken.

WAIW: R2-D3 and R2-D4?

Where Am I Wednesday!

Fifty points to the first person to identify where this photo was taken.

Answer is after the jump.

WAIW: Traffic Stopper

Where Am I Wednesday!

Fifty points to the first person to identify where this photo was taken.

America's "Third Places"

It's odd how something that you notice for the first time suddenly seems to be everywhere. How did I ever miss it? One example is the word "chocolaty". I noticed the package for Girl Scout Tagalongs® cookies (by the way, the best Girl Scout cookie) describes them as "Crispy cookies layered with peanut butter and covered with a chocolaty coating." I wondered why they didn't say "chocolate coating". Looking at the ingredients, I realized the answer is because the cookies don't contain any chocolate. They use various chemicals that taste "chocolaty." Once I was aware of this, I now see "chocolaty" on lots of products that I previously would have called "chocolate."

Likewise, I had never heard the term "third place" until a week ago. (Actually I had, but it had a different meaning. I'll get to that in a postscript). Then I heard "third place" three times in a week.

Morris Ice House Gets Respect from Google

In May of 2019, when I first wrote about the Morris Ice House in old downtown Richardson, now called the "CORE" (you know, like New York has the "Big Apple", Richardson has the "Core"), I noticed that on Google Maps, the Morris Ice House was labeled "Rinky Dinky Building." Offended, I immediately submitted a correction to Google Maps. Of course, I was ignored. (Remember, our motto here is "Not Being Listened to Since 2006.") Or so I thought.

POTD: Ice Storm of 2023

Today's photo-of-the-day is from Richardson, Texas.

Bonus photos after the jump.

WAIW: Will Alter to Suit

Where Am I Wednesday!

Fifty points to the first person to identify where this photo was taken.

Answer is after the jump.

WAIW: Life on the Road

Where Am I Wednesday!

Fifty points to the first person to identify where this photo was taken.

Answer is after the jump.

Joyful and Triumphant

O come all ye faithful
Joyful and triumphant
O come ye o come ye
To Bethlehem
Come and behold Him
Born the King of angels

"Joyful and Triumphant." I've heard those words sung in that Christmas carol since childhood. But recently at a church concert these same words were belted out by a church choir at the top of their lungs singing songs I have never heard before. Not just one song. The whole concert was one of Christian triumphalism sung loud and proud. To me, Christmas carols never sounded quite so, well, contrary to Christian humility. But that could just be me.

WAIW: The Staff of Hermes

Where Am I Wednesday!

Fifty points to the first person to identify where this photo was taken.

Answer is after the jump.

POTD: Windsurf

Today's photo-of-the-day is of unidentified riders on the Windsurf ride on the Midway at the State Fair of Texas in Fair Park in Dallas. Despite appearances, the photo is upside right.

If you haven't caught the State Fair yet, you have only one more day to do so. It closes today.

All photos from the 2022 State Fair of Texas can be found on Google Photos.

POTD: Caricature Artists

Today's photo-of-the-day is of a caricature artist at the State Fair of Texas in Fair Park in Dallas.