The Allure of Ruins, Discourse Magazine, James Lileks, June 12, 2023

“No one said they’d last forever. But there wasn’t any reason to think they wouldn’t. Hanging out as teens, we never thought we’d outlive the mall.”

This is a fun, thoughtful piece not just on malls per se, but on why we find abandonment and decline so captivating in some way, and how it can almost be a sort of vice.

This is interesting too, though I’m not sure what it signifies:

No one feels bad about emptied strip malls or shuttered big-box retailers. But photos of any dead mall hit you right in the sternum because it seems as if the entire culture you knew in your youth is over. It’s not an irrational reaction. Indeed, that culture probably is gone.

And then there’s this, about Detroit, which I don’t agree with, but which may be explanatory as to why so many conservatives are so vaguely suspicious of building anything today (though he also then partially critiques this idea):

The old vocabulary of the buildings is no longer the vernacular. The classical styles speak of sophistication and skill, a rich and confident historicity that ties the American experience to the long parade of Western civilization, and we do not believe we could muster the will to do that again—or we believe we would not be allowed to praise it, since our history is full of sins.

And then this:

Now I live in Minneapolis, and shop at Southdale. It’s not doing great. It’s down to one anchor, a Macy’s squatting in the mansion built by the long-gone Dayton’s chain. Vacancies are noticeable. You will never find it on a ruin-porn site, though, because it is morphing into something people need. The old anchor store? A big shiny gym. The other anchor store? A nice supermarket might be moving in. The empty storefronts on the east wing? A government service center. It’s not the mall I remember, but it still offers up some useful places.

As it happens, this is exactly the kind of thing I think everyone needs to pay more attention to. What the second lives of these old landscapes will look like is a really important question. But it doesn’t give you any facile narratives.

The Long History of the Espresso Machine, Smithsonian Magazine, Jimmy Stamp, June 19, 2012

We were drinking espresso in Montreal, and my wife wondered, “Was coffee always espresso or did it have to be ‘invented’?” Which led me to wonder if espresso was a semi-automation of some older practice, or whether it depended on modern machinery. It turns out espresso is effectively impossible to make without steam power, which I sort of thought but didn’t know for sure.

As you might be able to tell from the precision of Illy’s description, good espresso is good chemistry. It’s all about precision and consistency and finding the perfect balance between grind, temperature, and pressure. Espresso happens at the molecular level. This is why technology has been such an important part of the historical development of espresso and a key to the ongoing search for the perfect shot. While espresso was never designed per se, the machines –or Macchina– that make our cappuccinos and lattes have a history that stretches back more than a century.

The first obvious forerunner of the modern espresso machine, was, not surprisingly, designed in Italy. And the story goes from there. Fun read.

11 of the Strangest/Coolest Items Available For Sale at Lakeforest Mall Auction, MoCo Show Staff, The MoCo Show, June 10, 2023

This Montgomery County, Maryland mall is selling off all its contents following closure, and there’s some pretty neat stuff in there, from a storage room full of Christmas decorations to hanging sculptures that need to be uninstalled by the buyers. Scroll through for pictures!

A Guide to White Asparagus, Institute of Culinary Education, Pamela Vachon, March 14, 2023

I always assumed white asparagus was a different variety or species from green—or, as I mistakenly remember reading somewhere (or maybe I really read it and they were mistaken), not actually asparagus at all but a superficially similar vegetable. In reality:

White asparagus is simply green asparagus that hasn’t seen the sun. It hasn’t been stripped of its color so much as the color development was never activated during its growth. White asparagus spears have either remained underground, often cultivated in mounds of dirt to promote their production, or have grown in complete shade, whether natural or man-made, that prevents photosynthesis from taking place. 

Where some vegetables need the sun in order to grow at all, asparagus is actually shade-tolerant, but a lack of sun prevents the development of chlorophyll, the compound which makes things green. Biologically speaking, white and green asparagus are basically identical, and share the same seasonal produce timeline. The primary difference between them is simply evidence of nature (green) versus nurture (white).

You learn something new every day!

Related Reading:

New and Old #73

New and Old #74

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