At 11:26 AM 11/16/1999 EST, MetHistory wrote:
>Here's your assignment: tell us one of three

Okay, okay, Mr. Sit Down Strike....  My churchmouse attitude is merely a
facade, if in the right mood...  In fact, I've been carrying on long
e-conversations today with co-workers on topics ranging from the proper
radar unit to use on an archaeological site to the practice of maple
sugaring by the Menomini and how it relates to ethnography, so my mind
(much more in-tune to architectural history) is a bit stretched to the
limits (and all before noon!), but here goes...

>a) the best thing you ever saw on the way to work

How about the best thing I NEVER saw on the way to work?  There was a
wonderful, abandoned "Deco-esque" theatre (likely part of a '60s
revival/remodel) in a sad state of disrepair on the street that I
habitually travel on in a run-down part of Minneapolis...  Recently, I was
out of town for an extended period of time.  When I returned, it had been
stripped down to its ca. 1910 appearance: brick colonade with stone
ornamentation, et cetera.   My colleagues (all archaeologists) told me how
the ca. 1960 facade had been slowly stripped away and that they were doing
the same to the interior -- as true to building archaeology as you can get,
I would think...  Alas, I missed it...

>b) the stupidest thing you've ever done with a window

How about the stupidest thing my former landlord ever did with a
double-hung window:  replaced a full window screen with an upper storm
window and lower screen, so that there would be absolutely no air
circulation in my third-floor apartment...  He also painted/nailed my
transom windows shut to further deter my ability to breathe this summer...
My new apartment's windows are even more of a mystery to me, though:  a
fixed upper sash above a horizontally sliding lower sash with friction
locks...

>c) what you guess is the controlling force governing how high ivy
>   can grow on a building.

My guess:  the ivy's fear of heights...

There, S.D.S., an answer for all three.  And my third post of the week --
already over my self-imposed limit...

Sign me, the churchmouse