The US observed Thanksgiving just over a week ago. For me, that was my 10th anniversary as a My Little Pony fan. I remember it like yesterday, but my then best friend came to Philly to celebrate the holiday. We shared a common love of cartoons and in fact first met in the Powerpuff Girls fandom. Anyway, on this occasion she had me sit down and watch the first two episodes of the series online. We also watched the then all new episode The Mysterious Mare Do Well.
My first impressi
As many of you know, I am an avid lover of pets and that includes those that have made a name for themselves online. I only learned about it today but Bailey died on December 9 due to kidney problems. He was 14. Who’s Bailey?
Cats are fickle creatures. Many don’t like kids and just learn to tolerate them. But Bailey truly loved his little human friends. And while I’ve seen a strong bond between cats and children before, Bailey took it to a whole new level. Check out this tribute
It’s been awhile since I did one of these mall blogs. But the choice for this month is easy. Burlington Center Mall has been in a state of decline for about a decade now. It seems the end is now in sight. The Burlington County Times reports that the mall may now be in the process of shutting down for good. http://www.burlingtoncountytimes.com/news/20171201/2-nonprofits-asked-to-leave-burlington-mall-amid-potential-closing
Burlington Center opened in the Philadelphia suburb of Burlington To
One of America's last surviving multipurpose arenas from the cookie cutter era is nearing the end of a long, remarkable run. Making its debut in 1961, DC Stadium was home to the NFL's Washington Redskins and Major League Baseball's Washington Senators. It was renamed in honor of Robert F. Kennedy in 1969 after he was assassinated while running for president. In 1972 the Senators moved to Arlington, TX and became the Rangers. But it was Washington's NFL team that had the longest and most succ
The Schuylkill Mall: 1980 to 2017.
The doors can be closed any day now, so if you're near Frackville, PA, I suggest you visit as soon as possible. This mall is symptomatic of the economic decline of the Pennsylvania coal region more than the current trend away from mall shopping. The mall was one of several planned and built by Crown American in largely rural areas near Interstate highway exits. Another one, the Shippensburg Mall, is also along I-81. That mall is very weak and possibly
The Pontiac Silverdome opened in 1975. in Pontiac, Michigan. For the next 26 years the venue was home field to the NFL's Detroit Lions. It also hosted the Detroit Pistons for a time as well as several college and minor league teams. But personally the Silverdome became a favorite of mine as it was the site of Wrestlemania III.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jL-SxOAJfQo
It's hard to believe that 30 years have passed since March 29, 1987. It's one of the few Wrestlemanias I can still r
It looks like we are bidding farewell to TWO NFL venues this winter. The first to close was Qualcomm Stadium which began life as an MLB/NFL cookie cutter to house the Padres and the Chargers together. But multipurpose stadiums fell out of favor by the 1990s and so the Padres moved to the friendly confines of Petco Park in downtown San Diego. Meanwhile, the Chargers soldiered on in the aging arena. Qualcomm's last Super Bowl was hosted in January 2003. It was made clear that if the NFL was going
Atlantic City has been taking it on the chin lately. A lot. In the span of about a decade this NJ resort town has gone from being the East Coast's Gambling Mecca into a nosedive of plunging revenue and casino closures. What went wrong? Competition emerged, and lots of it. Every neighboring state now boasts casinos of their own. The town that once inspired the game of Monopoly once had a monopoly in the casino industry. But now that they're no longer the only game they're once again seeking to re
To change things up a bit this month, I've decided to look at other buildings who's days are numbered. One very much worth a look is Atlanta's Turner Field which was home to Major League Baseball's Braves since 1997. But this facility was first born as Centennial Park for the 1996 Summer Olympics. Give credit where credit is due...most new purpose built arenas for the Olympics are left to rot once the games end. But this was one case where they managed to give the stadium an immediate new life b
Baltimore is an interesting city I started visiting back in the 1990s. It had a relatively new rail transit system with a subway line and a light rail service reaching out from the center of the city. Two of those lines terminated near enclosed malls. Those were Owings Mills and Hunt Valley and today both are defunct. Hunt Valley has long since been replaced with a lifestyle and power center and this article focuses solely on Owings Mills.
It opened in 1986 to great success and included upsc
For July's entry I've decided to stay in the Keystone state. Century III Mall is in the Pittsburgh suburb of West Mifflin. It was built on a former slag pile and opened its doors in 1979 and it was an immediate success. But the good times didn't really carry over into this century. By 2010 the mall was in a downward spiral of declining sales and stores. Other malls like South Hills Village or brand new outdoor shopping centers like the Waterfront were siphoning away shoppers. After several years
First off, sorry for not posting a dead mall blog in May. I've been super busy lately. Anyway, the choice for June's mall was an easy one. Even though it closed July 1, 2015, I haven't been inside Granite Run for over a year. My last visit was May 30 of last year which was also Modell's (a sporting goods chain) last day there. There weren't many tenants left by that point, a dozen at the most. But amazingly, the fountain was still running as were all the escalators. In fact, I made several visit
Talking Kitty fans are mourning the loss of Gibson Cash who succumbed to a bladder infection on April 3. He was one of the main characters in the popular Youtube series along with Sylvester and Shelby. I've watched these videos almost from the beginning and I remember when Gibson was a tiny kitten. It was fun watching him grow up and change over the years. A few months ago, Steve adopted a stray female kitten he named Random. Cats mature fairly quickly though and since Gibson was never fixed,
This is the first of what may or may not be an ongoing series for me. But I've been on a mall kick lately and I'm focusing on dead and dying malls in particular as they may not be around much longer. To start things off, I am posting a little feature on the colorful Forest Fair Village which is also called Cincinnati Mills and Cincinnati Mall. It has had several name and ownership changes through the years since it opened in 1989. To my knowledge it has never been fully occupied although it did
Hi everybody. I know I haven't been here much lately. In fact, this is my first visit to the forum in about two weeks. But life has been pretty hectic lately. Really it all started about a month ago when I learned that my aunt had suffered a stroke and was having a very difficult time. Then I was informed she wasn't expected to make it and was getting in-home hospice care. A few days later I was told the sad news. I think her son put it best when he said "God couldn't let us keep her forever."
Hard to believe but it's been three whole years since memeber #9332 signed up. I remember it like it was yesterday. I was hunkered down at home as superstorm Sandy was attacking the East Coast. But luckily my power and internet access held up and I was able to make history by joining MLP Forums.
OK, OK, melodrama aside, I was expecting this to be just another message board. A fun place to hang out and discuss the intricacies of this fascinating cartoon. But the forum has become so mu
While there's a seemingly endless variety of feline oriented content on Youtube, there are three guys I keep going back to again and again.
The first is The Mean Kitty. His cats Loki and Sparta never cease to keep viewers amused with their endless antics. This one where he offers to sell one of his cats as an April Fools' prank serves as a great introduction for those new to the series. "Middle part!"
This next one is probably my favorite of the three. This is Steve Cash and he c
Hi everyone. Effective immediately I am stepping down from the position of moderator. Long story short, holding an official capacity on this forum requires regular participation and an ongoing investment of time and energy. An investment that, due to circumstances beyond my control, was nonetheless lacking on my part. Faced with that, resignation was the only realistic choice available.
As my time on staff draws to a close, I wanted to say thank you to the team for the opportunity to serve
OK, OK. Based on what I posted the last two years on the 1st of April, you're probably expecting some kind of outlandish story. But I'm dealing with a big time case of writers block right now. So if you were hoping to learn about Artemis secretly being my son, the clandestine organization I started with Sterling Crimson, or the love triangle with Sir Hugoholic and Sugar Cube, you're going to be disappointed.
Instead I want to take a little walk down memory lane. Personally, I liked 201
October 29, 2012 was a day I made a life changing decision. OK, that might be a slight exaggeration. Nonetheless, that was the day I joined MLP Forums and it has made a lasting impact on me. And to think I mainly joined because I was stuck at home and bored due to Hurricane Sandy. It feels like I've only been here a few months, wow! And all this time you thought October 29 th was just National Cat Day!
This place has been amazing. I made more and closer friends than I ever dreamed when I
For the first day in Oakland, Jaime and I had separate agendas. For me, it was an opportunity to check out San Francisco ’s vast rail transit system by riding BART, Muni, and Caltrain all day. My roommate, on the other hand, was going to check out some stores close to the hotel. The first thing you notice about California is the terrain. There are huge swaths of perfectly level land (all developed) interrupted at random by ginormous hills and mountains. You can thank plate tectonics for that. Th
Wow, what a trip I just had! 12 days away from Philly with my roommate. I am exhausted but it was so much fun! Until January I didn't know what my big trip for this year was going to be. But once it was announced that Botcon, a major Transformers convention, would be returning to Pasadena for what seems like the 32nd time, the choice became very clear. To get out there, my roommate and I took Virgin America airlines to San Francisco via a connection in Los Angeles. And for the return flight, we
Seven weeks of regular testing settles it. I have hypertension. Over the last couple of years or so I would throw out an uncharacteristically high reading. But for the most part I stayed in the safe, healthy range.
It looks like my genes have finally caught up with me. My mom had to take medication to control her blood pressure as long as I could remember. And my dad needed to take it for a time later in life. Anyway, I will continue with the regular screenings until after my upcomin
I don't know what's causing them but for the last two or three nights in a row I've been having these weird dreams. Last night was the worst one yet. I was inside this huge house one evening. There was a knock at the door and three men, dressed as police or other officials, were standing outside. I opened the door and instead of talking to me they nonchalantly walked in without saying a word. I asked the last one, "Hey, what's going on?"
He raised a gun, pointed it at my face and BANG!
I
I thought I'd write a brief blog to say hi and to let everyone know one of my cats, Drift, was examined yesterday. He's doing fine but two separate vets said he had a heart murmur and it needed to be investigated by a specialist. So my roommate and I took him to be evaluated at a veterinary hospital.
Since he knows he's going to the vet anytime he's put into the cat carrier, he was not a happy camper and meowed pitifully for awhile. He quieted down before we got there and, as usual, he was
