George’s slightly off-center view of the world
Places I remember
Ötzi was minding his own business, traveling through the Alps, when he was shot from behind. The arrow went deep into his shoulder. He fell against a rock and died, face down in the snow. He was dressed for his trek, wearing a menagerie of clothing: goatskin leggings, sheepskin loincloth, cow-leather shoelaces, brown-bear hat, sheep and goat coat. He carried a deerskin quiver. We don’t know what friends and family he left behind or if any search was made for him. Ötzi’s frozen remains were discovered 5,300 years later.
What Ötzi had for lunch that fateful day, and other interesting details, can be found here.
Portland’s Tilikum Crossing opened about a year ago. The bridge is open to buses, streetcars, light rail, bicycles and pedestrians. No truck or auto traffic. Walkers and bikers travel side by side, each with a designated lane. A guerilla artist apparently decided the symbols were lacking character, and so added some personality.
Turkish immigrant Hamdi Ulukaya bought a closed Kraft plant in New Berlin, New York. Chobani hired some of the ex-Kraft employees and launched his “Chobani” – derived from the Turkish word for “shepherd” – brand of yogurt in 2007. This Greek yogurt brand grew to be the largest-seller in the U.S. Near the end of 2012 Chobani opened a 300-employee plant in bucolic Twin Falls, Idaho. As we know, no good deed goes unpunished.
The Millennium Tower rises 645 feet above San Francisco’s South of Market neighborhood. Umm, make that 643 feet 8 inches. Since the building opened in 2009, it has sunk sixteen inches. Oh, and it’s tilting two inches at its base – fifteen inches at the top… so far. Anchoring it to compressed sand eighty feet below ground instead of bedrock a hundred feet deeper may not have been such a good idea. Owners of the 400 luxury condominiums – local hero Joe Montana is one – have filed a class-action suit against the developers. Of course the developers point the cause of the problem somewhere else: excavation for the adjacent Transbay Transit Center.
Along with the building itself, values of the residences are sinking: the asking price of a one-bedroom unit was recently slashed from $3.8 million to $3.6 million. So far there are no takers.
