Let Them Fly Autogiros

Click for bigger to read the ad copy.

In the midst of the Great Depression, Fortune Magazine was advertising personal aircraft  (specifically the Pitcairn Autogiro) for the rich and richer. From a stash of 1930s magazines recently bound for the dustbin, but rescued at the last minute. More to come!

More Horrors of Travel

The Horrors of Travel

Click for big, you'll be glad you did.

From Harper's Weekly, September 23, 1865.

Turistas

My dad has been in town for a few days, and anytime we have visitors I'm reminded how nice it is to live in a city known to be a tourism destination. We don't normally live our lives within the tier of activities that most tourists are interested in seeing -- "Now, on your left is the bank we go to. On your right is a coffee shop where we had lunch once." -- so it's sometimes neat to reconnect with the kinds of activities that visitors typically do.

Here's one we actually do every year, whether we have visitors or not. The flower fields (ranunculus) in Carlsbad are a welcome harbinger of spring in a climate zone not known for its seasons. It's good to have an organic reminder that the season has clicked over to spring.

Ranunculai

This has a groovy 70s feel. I don't know why I like this photo, but I do.

Columbine

Our big touristy activity was visiting the Old Town State Park, which is essentially a San Diego history theme park. It's actually very well done in most places, not terribly cheesy or fakey (it is a little bit, but that's the nature of the beast). The gardens there are among the best features, including a lovely kitchen garden that I neglected to take any photos of. Things are nice and green and flowering, the result of a cool and relatively damp spring here in Southern California. Here's hoping we have another cool and pleasant summer like we had last year.

I've Been Right Here All Along

This is one of those "sorry I haven't written for a while" posts. It has been a busy late winter and early spring 'round here.

Mostly, I've been working to launch the San Diego Bike Union. We've got some exciting projects in the works to help promote the idea of bicycling for transportation and creating a more bike-friendly culture in San Diego.

Francis Moore in later life.
Courtesy National City Public Library

I've also been working on my ongoing writing projects and getting ready for my lecture next Wednesday, April 20 at San Diego State University on the creation of Civil War memory.

The lecture is entitled "Neither Historian Nor Novelist: Captain Francis Moore and the Making of Civil War Memory" and previews my forthcoming edited version of Moore's Civil War memoir (Northern Illinois University Press, Fall 2011). The lecture will be at SDSU on April 20 @ 7:30pm in LL430 (Malcolm Love Library).

I've also been adding bits and pieces to the Peugeot, which I'll write about later. Some time back we added a mid-1980s Univega mixte to the group, which replaces my wife's late 1970s Schwinn Suburban; more on that later.

I'll try to get back to blogging all of this busy-ness more often.