Big Box Fun

Yes, yes, Thanksgiving. But first, THIS.

From this article in Atlas Obscura. And yes, apparently, the breakaway wall slid back into place when the shop was shut. Hardly anybody seems to do this sort of thing any more, and it’s a big shame. I get that a lot of commercial and residential architecture has just devolved to big boxes and some sort of mistaken Poundbury aesthetic (see also: Poundbury itself), but why can’t we have fun? I’m not asking for total Archigram¹, but maybe we could do something a little differently every now and again?

Coincidentally, we spent a large part of Saturday at a ridiculous supermarket that has a monorail. Why does it have a monorail? Because the owner thought it’d be cool (and one was going cheap). It helps that it’s a shop where you can get anything from actual three feet sugar canes to Cadbury’s chocolate directly important from the UK, but the sense of over-the-top Midwestern excess in the interior and exterior decoration makes it like no other supermarket you’ve ever been to.

Anyway, Thanksgiving! Perhaps the most subdued Thanksgiving I’ve had since emigrating, maybe? Fewer people, no guests at all, and a low single-digit number of desserts. Am I ill? Yes, actually, we’re all ill. But we put together a solid dinner, even with a little, Official Agent of Chaos running around, demanding to be entertained, preferably with the Stick Song². And, although the hazelnut aero filling collapsed, I know exactly why that happened, so I’m still on track to create The Aero Bar That They Said Shouldn’t Be Made this Christmas.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Ian Pointer (@carsondial)

I think that’s the best bourbon pecan pie I’ve ever made, too. Thin crust, filling thrown together at 22:00 Wednesday evening without a recipe…not bad at all. Of course, without a recipe, I can never truly recreate it…sigh

December awaits. The temperatures have started plummeting to -8ºC as if to get us in the festive season…snow on the ground too!

starts playing Slade at 00:00:01