1924 was the last time a presidential candidate won the election without winning a former Confederate state. John W Davis won the 11 states of the Confederacy plus Oklahoma in that election while incumbent Calvin Coolidge won every other state sans Wisconsin, which went to local progressive hero Robert La Follette, thus creating one of the cleanest regional maps of an election that you could dream up: the South v. Everybody Else

Taken from the Washington Sailing Marina grounds on a brief departure off the Mt Vernon Trail while biking

Irrationally upset that the piece about our local jazz culture that Baltimore Magazine just ran calls 10 Light Street "the New York-style Bank of America building." 10 Light Street is older than the Chrysler and the ESB!! I'm going to start calling it the "Baltimore-style Empire State Building." Is Camden Yards a "Yankees-style ballpark" now too? Midtown Manhattan does not have a monopoly over Art Deco

1.77 billion pounds of sugar refined every year and it's still so beautiful

Sorry to all the people who followed me here for train and urbanism talk but since I took my now-permanent hiatus from Twitter at the holidays my heart hasn't been in it. It's been a film and music and poetry sort of start to the year. I'll get back to it eventually. Here is a picture of a pretty building from last weekend to sate you

Last New Year's Eve I took the Atlantic City Line to the beach and was struck by this view - a real commentary on the state of American urban environments and their long neglect and wild quote unquote renewal

Mt Vernon Place United Methodist Church looks so good in the rain

truly amazing how much of Nassau County is preponderance detached single family houses when it has a huge 24/7 commuter rail system going through it