When the hunger's all that holds you together, who do you want by your side?

[sovay]

Somerville is planting trees! The city took out so many in the last few years because of the emerald ash borer, I am glad to see they are making good on their promise to make up the numbers. On our street we counted one Jefferson elm—a cultivar I hadn't known existed, descended from one tree on the National Mall with a natural resistance to Dutch elm disease—one Red Sunset maple, one October Glory maple, and one Wildfire sweet gum, which spatch not unreasonably thinks sounds like a strain of weed. All were fluttering with little labels as in an arboretum and tagged with QR codes exhorting the passerby to adopt the tree. I feel protective about the little elm already.

strange_complex provided invaluable assistance in deciphering the ghost sign on the side of the Knights of Malta Hall on Medford Street, which we now believe to have belonged to a "Sheraton Upholstering Co." I couldn't photograph it without the rustier, more overgrown end of the sign flattening out in the late afternoon sun, but Rob was confident about the triple circle of the G-C-O. Thrashing around in the badly scanned archives of the Boston Globe confirmed the address.



I will have to go back for a better portrait of the building itself, with its green bronze pediment and red brick and sandstone arches; it was built in 1896 and it probably won't get knocked down by the GLX, but they said that about the Reid & Murdock Warehouse, too. a_reasonable_man found a wonderful photo from the 1920's or '30's when it housed the Fisher Business College and the street-level retail had not all been bricked up.

Rob took another plague-masked portrait of me when we got home. I changed over from my leather jacket last week because the weather was finally warming; this afternoon was hot as summer. People walk around in masks and gloves and sleeveless shirts. I am trying to figure out if it is even possible for me to walk safely to the sea.



choco_frosh bought me a digital copy of the Mountain Goats' Songs for Pierre Chuvin (2020), a lo-fi Panasonic album with classical themes as in the earliest days of the band, and I am enjoying it very much.

Comments

[asakiyume]

I really like your t-shirt as well as your plague mask. And good work, all of you, on finding out what the building was and what the sign said. That kind of detective work is excellent.

And may the little trees flourish. The elm must be a fighter.

[troisoiseaux]

the Mountain Goats' Songs for Pierre Chuvin (2020), a lo-fi Panasonic album with classical themes as in the earliest days of the band, and I am enjoying it very much.

!!! I hadn't realized TMG had new music out!!!

[sovay]

!!! I hadn't realized TMG had new music out!!!

Neither had I, until choco_frosh mentioned it! It looks from the liner notes as though it came together very suddenly.

[sovay]

I really like your t-shirt as well as your plague mask.

Thank you! The plague mask is my father's handiwork and if photographed in profile I really look like a beak doctor. The T-shirt came from a women's festival on the Cape that I have never attended, but I like its mermaid.

And good work, all of you, on finding out what the building was and what the sign said. That kind of detective work is excellent.

It was fun! I wish I could find more information about the company, but I just get random hits from the Globe archives when I try. The owner died in 1972. I can't tell if the ivy's been growing all that time.

And may the little trees flourish. The elm must be a fighter.

It survived the original blight. I'll take the sympathetic magic.

[troisoiseaux]

It looks like the album is on Spotify, so I'll have to check it out!

[lilysea]

Somerville is planting trees!

Oh, yay! ^_^

[jjhunter]

Yay, new trees! Variety of new trees! It looks like Somerville's Urban Forestry division has Tree Planting Maps; if I were still living on that side of the river, I would be very tempted to go visit every one of the newly planted trees this summer.

[sartorias]

Huzzah for more trees!

Lovely picture.

[sovay]

Oh, yay!

It makes me so happy.

[julian]

I appreciate your attention to history. (Also, nice picture from the 20s. (or 30s.)

Also, I did not know about Jefferson Elms! Thank you.

[sovay]

It looks like Somerville's Urban Forestry division has Tree Planting Maps; if I were still living on that side of the river, I would be very tempted to go visit every one of the newly planted trees this summer.

I love that this city has an Urban Forestry Division. I look forward to the 2020 map.

[thistleingrey]

There's a lot of sweetgum in CA for some reason, and in L.A. not much maple, such that I thought as a child that the former was the latter based on descriptions in novels. :/ Where I am now, there's both, though the maples tend to be A. palmatum, ultimately imported from E Asia.

Nice aesthetics with the shirt, lapel pin(s?), and mask!

[sovay]

Huzzah for more trees!

The maples have fragile little leaves already. The elm is still barely budding. I don't think I've ever been able to observe one through the year at close range. I am looking forward.

Lovely picture.

Thank you.

[sovay]

I appreciate your attention to history. (Also, nice picture from the 20s. (or 30s.)

Thank you. I think it happens if I get interested in anywhere.

(I know that most of the shops would be shuttered if they existed now, but I also like the way the end of my street looked a century-ish ago. It's a lot more empty lots and garages at the moment. And the GLX.)

Also, I did not know about Jefferson Elms! Thank you.

You're welcome! It makes me happy to know they exist.

[sovay]

There's a lot of sweetgum in CA for some reason, and in L.A. not much maple, such that I thought as a child that the former was the latter based on descriptions in novels.

That makes sense to me, especially if both are fiery in autumn. I'm not sure I know what sweetgum looks like without research, so I am looking forward to this one.

Nice aesthetics with the shirt, lapel pin(s?), and mask!

Three lapel pins and a safety pin, because apparently I avoided that fad of armor-plating your backpack with buttons in high school only to decorate my jackets in adulthood. Thank you!

[thisbluespirit]

Oh, cool detective work on the sign!

[shewhomust]

I had not known there was a resistant strain of elm: that's got to be good news!

[cmcmck]

Love that old sign!

I've taken so many of those myself over the years.

[strange_complex]

I'm glad to hear you've made further progress with the ghost sign, and am happy to have helped! Just from the photo, I think you and Rob are probably right about the ending of the second line.

[oracne]

Ghost signs are one of my favorite things about cities.

[sovay]

Oh, cool detective work on the sign!

Thank you! It was definitely a group effort.

[sovay]

I had not known there was a resistant strain of elm: that's got to be good news!

I think so! Like the blight-resistant chestnut project. I hope they're planted outside the U.S.

[sovay]

Love that old sign!

Thank you!

I've taken so many of those myself over the years.

Ghost signs are important to me.

[sovay]

Ghost signs are one of my favorite things about cities.

I'm really missing not being able to visit some of my favorites right now.

[sovay]

I'm glad to hear you've made further progress with the ghost sign, and am happy to have helped!

Thank you!

Just from the photo, I think you and Rob are probably right about the ending of the second line.

I'm glad to know what it is. And glad that it stuck around when other signs didn't, too.