Back So Soon?

[captainsblog]

Well, yeah, why not? I batchloaded all the pictures at once when I did the last one so this is easier.

Rochester day today. First, a couple of filings in two separate government buildings.  Both are having signage issues. This one, at Stop The First:



(That's the marble floor on the bottom of the marble wall. Apparently that's the bin for invisible confidential documents.)

And this one, at Stop the Second, which got built during another of Monroe County's marble fetish periods:



Still trying to figure that one out. Best I can up with it that it's Schrödinger’s Chair.

In between, though, two things of note. First, I spotted this fairly new mural, captioned You Are Not Alone:




It's on the north-facing outer wall of the Times Square Building, the Art Deco tower topped by the Wings of Progress, or, as one old friend of mine called it, “the one with the bunny ears."



Then, after seeing that, and before getting to the much more horrid Brutalist building hosting the chair, I did my first ever pre-trial conference from a bus stop. It went well.

----

One thing that won't be back anytime soon is a Super Bowl commercial that was already dividing the country it was meant to unite:

News breaking today that Bruce Springsteen was arrested for DWI last fall threatens to derail Jeep’s marketing push that makes use of the rock icon.

The reports of the Nov. 14 arrest come just three days after Springsteen appeared in a two-minute Super Bowl ad for the brand, called “The Middle,” in which he called for unity in the deeply divided country.

The brand shot the commercial in late January, and it remained active on Jeep's YouTube channel until early afternoon on Wednesday but was later pulled. The video had gotten more than 37 million views.

Asked if Jeep knew about the DWI before the ad shoot, a representative issues the following statement: “It would be inappropriate for us to comment on the details of a matter we have only read about and we cannot substantiate. But it’s also right that we pause our Big Game commercial until the actual facts can be established. Its message of community and unity is as relevant as ever. As is the message that drinking and driving can never be condoned.”

Even before the ad was pulled, I'd heard complaints from both sides. Those on the red side of the divide complained about being preached to, while more allied friends said they resented being asked to make peace with white supremacists and conspiracy theorists.

Me, I didn't see the commercial, but I see the sides.  I do think that some on the right, even some flying You Know Who flags, may be redeemable. I'd mentioned before a guy on my way to Sunday morning dog fun, who was flying a TRUMP 2020 flag right up to the Insurrection. He replaced it the weekend before the inauguration with an upside-down Betsy Ross flag; that lasted maybe a week before he came to enough senses to fly a modern day Old Glory proudly in its place (with a black-and-Blue Lives Matter-striped jobby below it).  I came to find out that Eleanor sees him at the store often; an older man, he is always nice to her, gives regularly and  generously to their periodic checkout-donation programs, and is caring for a seriously disabled spouse who he's afraid to leave alone at home for long. How he got the Koolaid slipped in his Metamucil, I don't know; but he's the kind of person Bruce was aiming that ad at, and I hope its message, if not its messenger, won't be completely lost in the madness of these moments.

ETA. I completely forgot the point about Bruce I wanted to make: in all the coverage of this commercial being pulled, I hadn't seen a single one referring to it as an example of "cancel culture." Apparently that's something that only happens to insurrectionists and anti-Semitic wannabe Jedis:
 

Maybe it's just as well I didn't add that, because at least one site- admittedly, a local-news Patch page- has used the CC reference about the Bruce Ban. It also mentioned something I hadn't seen: The U.S. Attorney's office in Newark will manage the case since it was on federal land.

Perfect. Maybe Joe will pardon him to make up for the cavalcade of war criminals, insider traders and friends and family absolved by FPT in his final weeks.  And throw a Presidential Medal of Freedom on him to counteract the ones handed out to Limbaugh and Devin Nunes. (oops- he already has one.)

Comments

I'll call your bunny ears and raise you one...

[dauntless_heart]

...Dolly Parton building. https://www.pinterest.com/pin/148618856427836404/

That's the P & G building in Cincinnati, my home town. :D

Re: I'll call your bunny ears and raise you one...

[captainsblog]

I kinda see it, but hers might be bigger.