The Dead Mall Dispatch

August 1981: The new school year has arrived, so you head to Kinney’s Shoe Store in El Con Mall to get a […]

It’s 10:10 P.M. Lights come on in the lobby of the Sunken Six Theater, a blend of cool white and violet. From […]

In 1962, the Montgomery Ward at El Con Mall sold a Twin Winton Ranger Bear cookie jar. It’s the one I grew […]

The Inherited Signal If I could distill my childhood impressions of masculinity into a scent, it would smell like Old Spice cologne. […]

On April 16, 1965, the El Con Mall fountain was filled with 1,000 trout. The newspaper summoned the city with five words: […]

The Speedway Laboratory It was raining the night I bought my first Star Wars action figure. I was four years old, running […]

It’s 10:10 P.M. Lights come on in the lobby of the Sunken Six Theater, a blend of cool white and violet. From […]

Fuzzy Carpets and Gold Leaf: The Lost Art of the “Considered Detail” They say you can tell a lot about a person […]

The Digital Inadequacy This couldn’t be happening at a worse time. You’ve waited years for this promotion. Now that you have it, […]

The Killer in the Ring You’d think the scariest thing a matador faces in the bullring is the bull, right? Who wouldn’t […]

The Titanic Tsunami and the Missing Boat In December 1997, one of history’s great blockbuster movies sailed onto theater screens worldwide. I […]

Bringing the Outdoors In For much of my career, I have been a teacher; however, nature and the environment have always been […]