Friday, September 27, 2024
Wolmania is back from hiatus. Apologies for taking last week off - I really prefer to disappoint you with my newsletter rather than my lack of newsletter.
Item 1: a link
The towns and cities of Europe are speckled with piazzas, squares, and other open public spaces. We take for granted that these public, open areas are part of the character of these tourist-friendly destinations. What Politico Europe tells us, however, is that many of these picturesque gathering places were despoiled for decades, used for one of humanity's worst activities: parking.
Look at this crap:
Many of these once-beautiful urban gems have been rescued from the scourge of the automobile but, astonishingly, holdouts remain:
In central Brussels, a 17th-century statue of Minerva overlooks a sea of parked cars that separate it from the medieval Church of Notre Dame du Sablon. Lille’s 500-year-old Rihour Palace is surrounded by vehicles, while people still park in Vienna’s imperial Heldenplatz. Even the Vatican’s Cortile del Belvedere — Bramante’s masterpiece of High Renaissance architecture — spends its days full of metal boxes.
The work continues.
Item 2: a list
Turkish Airlines American Destinations, Ranked:
- Havana
- New York City
- Los Angeles
- Bogota
- San Francisco
- Chicago
- Buenos Aires
- Miami
- Vancouver
- Sao Paulo
- Santiago
- Toronto
- Panama City
- Seattle
- Montreal
- Washington, D.C.
- Caracas
- Detroit
- Cancun
- Atlanta
- Denver
- Dallas
- Boston
- Houston
Item 3: a media recommendation
Señor Coconut - "Sweet Dreams"
Item 4: word of the week
Subvention
Have you noticed that ever since the Mayor took office, the city has been making enormous subventions for all these blond 6'4" real estate guys? I'm starting to think it's somehow related to the giant envelopes of cash dropped off at City Hall each week by someone who calls himself "Malmö's most generous man". I asked the Mayor for comment and he said "it's perfectly normal to delete all your text messages". Seemed like a bit of a non sequitur.
Item 5: a photograph
See ya!
Another amazing Wolmania. Come back next week and see if I can make it two in a row.
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