New Year's Eve 2017 at the dear departed Blue Danube, 2439 N High. Seems like a world ago.

In 1963, Thurber Village Shopping Center on Neil Ave at Buttles opens. Dedicated by humorist James Thurber's widow. The mall was anchored by Big Bear grocery store and this fruit and vegetable clock presided over the produce section until the early 2000s. The veggie clock eventually arrived at the Third Ave Giant Eagle Market District, near the former grounds of the Big Bear Warehouses, where it still keeps time 60 years later.

Old-school, tail-dragging dinosaurs inhabit a display in the Orton Hall Geological Museum. Likely from the 1979-84 museum renovation. (Ceratosaur having a meal and sauropod might be older. From the 1960s?) Beloved by generations of schoolchildren, the geological museum was established way back in 1894. It is currently undergoing another renovation and these now vintage saurians will probably be replaced with something reflecting current scholarship.

Word comes down this week (1/25/2023) that another High St landmark might fall to developers and be replaced by yet another cheaply built, 5-story, nominally PostModern apartment block with asymetric widows and random aluminum panels on the facade, and $1,700/month one-bedrooms. The Bier Stube, 1479 N High, a true dive bar, beloved by generations of patrons, with a carefully curated CD jukebox, and a hand-painted portrait of Woody Hayes opened way back in 1966. But we're getting a Cinnabon up the street and a 4th Starbucks in the neighborhood so that's just as good, right?

"Love Is Love" mural on wall of 52 E. 5th Ave. Painted in late 2022. At a time when reactionary forces are again lashing out in hatred, it's wonderful to see this simple sentiment expressed so beautifully.

The changing face of Weinland Park. New young, thin, stylish, affluent, leisure-rich, pale clipart neighbors coming to the Fourth and Fifth rising on E 5th Ave.

A Darth Vader mask, snapshots, a North High Polar Bears pennant, a sign referencing a 1974 Burger King ad, and the bar's first dollar from back in 1968 behind the bar at The Stube. Whatever bland, beige, franchised, corporate trash takes The Stube's place at 1479 N High won't have this accumulation of 55 years of local history, local color, personality, and memories and our city will be less for it.

1909 RPPC of no-longer extant E 12th Ave home of Madge and her family, posing on the front porch on a sunny afternoon. Madge distresses about not having any Columbus views to send to her cosin Blanche in Delaware OH so she sends this instead with her address and an invite to visit. Love the smiling kid, her bow, and her hoop.

Dirty Dungarees, 2586 N High, laundromat, live music venue, and bar. The first Dirty Dungarees opened down on E 11th in 1986. The current location opened in the late 1990s. In recent years it has been a popular spot for local and touring punk and hard rock acts.

Exams done. Semester at an end. Graduation Sunday. Last Tuesday night, the Class of 2023 enjoyed its Senior Bar Crawl. One final night in all the old spots.

Of all the old campus buildings that I wish had survived to the present-day, the one I wish had survived the most is the old Botany Building. View from the 1910 Makio.

Goth AF and had a creepy greenhouse around the back that Morticia Addams would've felt right at home in.

Irises blooming in spring at Mirror Lake.