Saturday, June 9, 2012

disasters of colorado springs


Somehow, this isn't quite the label that one would want to have, though Alice wore it well.  She was talking at a symposium run by the local library here in Colorado Springs on Disasters of the Pike's Peak Region - obviously enough, the collapse of Building and Loan Societies in 1931/2.  This was far from the only problem to hit this benighted place, though - we heard about floods, fires, and (given the size of the military here) what happens to people returning with PTSD.  I suspect the paper that really made an impact was one on landslides, landslips, subsidence - moral: be very careful where you build a house in the Springs.  Or indeed - the message of the whole conference would seem to be - why ever would you live in a place where so many bad things happen.

To my mind, that ought to extend to contemporary downtown (and indeed, one of the speakers devoted herself to memorializing some of the notable buildings that have been torn down and replaced by impersonal junk).  For - who could ever bear to sit in a cocktail lounge (and of course, I speak as someone who can rarely be persuaded out of drinking a cocktail) decorated with large red and black lamps like this?


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