The Underground Invasion

Since I've given up photographing Orange Coneheads, and by extension, all things alien for Lent, I want to thank Lady Styx for all of these pictures.

With heightened awareness, due perhaps in part to the events of 9/11/2001, we all have been keeping a watchful eye out for things best described as unusual or abnormal.


Dare we enter the subterranean world of the aliens that roam freely beneath our feet? What lurks down there? Is your courage sufficient to find out? This rusty portal looks so innocent and so quiessent and so little used by man or beast but...


...do the Aliens amonst us, pop up here and there to breathe what we must assume to be to them "foul and evil smelling" air? I cannot identify this critter, perhaps my edition of "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe" is outdated?

Or is this simply a screen placed on an entrance to the horrorfying abyss to keep them in, or us out? Have they or have we succeeded?


Carelessly broaching the surface, we see here a not-so-rare Wrinkled Black Beatlejuicean Worm. Tim Burton is not the only one that is deeply disturbed.


What are the Aliens doing with all the water they are taking from us? Do they need it to fuel their spaceship(s)? Or is this even more sinister? Are we humans to be deprived of the very fluid of life and die a lingering dessicating death? Or will the the Aliens unleash a flood like the world hasn't seen since Noah?

Hmm... perhaps if I were you, I'd start building an Ark and storing away some of that Perrier.

Really Old World - Rambo and Regar

Rambo and Regar - Globe Knitting Mill - Front


Rambo and Regar - Globe Knitting Mill - Back

The Schuyllkill River Bike Path passes this behind this impressive looking building between the Norristown train station and the Pennsylvania Turnpike bridge.

The listing from the National Register of Historic Places says this:

Also known as Rambo & Regar Globe Knitting Mills
660 and 694 E. Main St., Norristown
Architectural Style: Italianate
Period of Significance: 1875-1899, 1900-1924, 1925-1949, 1950-1974


Close up

The Rambo and Regar Knitting Mill was founded in the mid-1880s when Joseph Rambo partnered up with H. R. Regar. The two later built their mill at 700 East Main Street, where thousands of Norristown residents were employed over the years -

This mill produced "Hosiery", tight-fitting garments worn directly on the feet and legs. Most are made by knitting methods. Whether they made "nylons" or socks, I've not determined. I just admire the building each time I walk past it.

While walking past this building on Valentines Day, my mind played the song "Babe" song by Dennis DeYoung.

Babe, I'm leaving, I must be on my way
The time is drawing near
My train is going, I see it in your eyes
The love, the need, your tears
But I'll be lonely without you
And I'll need your love to see me through
Please believe me, my heart is in your hands
And I'll be missing you.

You know it's you babe
Whenever I get weary and I've had enough
Feel like giving up
You know it's you babe
Giving me the courage and the strength I need
Please believe that its true
Babe, I love you.

You know its you babe
Whenever I get weary and I've had enough
Feel like giving up
You know it's you babe
Giving me the courage and the strength I need
Please believe that it's true
Babe, I love you.

Babe, I'm leaving, I'll say it once again
Somehow try to smile
I know the feeling we're trying to forget
If only for a while
But I'll be lonely without you
And I'll need your love to see me through
Please believe me, my heart is in your hands
And I'll be missing you
Babe, I love you.

Frankly, My Dear...

As of February 15, 2008 at 8:00 AM
Steps: 1,313,090
Miles: 558.98


Margaret Mitchell - (1900-1949)

Margaret "Peggy" Mitchell was born on November 8, 1900 in Atlanta, Georgia. Her father was a historian and lawyer, and her mother was a suffragist. When she was 15, she wrote, "If I were a boy, I would try for West Point, if I could make it, or well I'd be a prize fighter - anything for the thrills."


Margaret Mitchell's greatest contribution to literature was her "Gone With the Wind," which she began writing in 1926 and published in 1936. At the time of its publication, the book sold more copies than any other American novel in literary history. The story centers around the life and times of Scarlett O'Hara, a Southern woman. Mitchell was awarded the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award.

The novel has such gems has:

"Death and taxes and childbirth! There's never any convenient time for any of them."

"The south produced statesmen and soldiers, planters and doctors and lawyers and poets, but certainly no engineers and mechanics. Let Yankees adopt such low callings."

Source

The novel was made into a very long movie. The man who directed "Gone with the Wind", Victor Fleming, is also credited with the other immortal classic released in 1939: The Wizard of Oz.


Being a Yankee Engineer, I suppose I should take offense, But as Clark Gable so aptly put it, Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn!

Hall of Fame - The Georgia Peach

As of February 14, 2008 at 8:00 AM
Steps: 1,294,288
Miles: 551.12


Tyrus Raymond Cobb
Born: December 18, 1886 Narrows, Banks County, Georgia
Died: July 17, 1961 Atlanta, Georgia

The eldest of three children, he grew up in Royston, Georgia, under the watchful eyes of his father, who was a schoolteacher, principal, newspaper publisher, state senator, and county school commissioner who urged Ty to study. When Ty went off to play professional baseball, his father sternly warned him, "Don't come home a failure."

Had a career batting average of .367.
Won 12 batting titles, including 9 in a row from 1907 thru 1915.
Third all time in stolen bases with 892.
Second in runs scored with 2,245.
Second in career hits with 4,191.
Batted under .320 only once in his career.
Batted over .400 three times.

"A ball bat is a wondrous weapon."
-- Ty Cobb

"I recall when Cobb played a series with each leg a mass of raw flesh. He had a temperature of 103, and the doctors ordered him to bed for several days, but he got three hits, stole three bases, and won the game."
-- Grantland Rice

Cobb's earnings were invested wisely, mostly in General Motors and Coca-Cola stock, which made him very wealthy and probably baseball's first millionaire.

Source