Wapsi Square Forum

OK... I was wrong. The "Spoiled Princess" rule, isn't really a rule.

The actual rule is "Never stand by Monica Villarreal when cool weather approaches."

And, Gyrrakavian wins yesterday's office pool. You can pick up your winnings at the office, once they've plowed and salted the sidewalk.

http://wapsisquare.com/comic/that-four-letter-word/

Beat me by a moment.

Snow, snow never changes.

AA yes the wonderful snow of Minnesota. Even 30 years later it still causes me to shutter. But all i can say is i tried to warn the oldest son not to move his family up there from Cali. This is their first fall and are happily waiting for the winter to come. Nono Mickey you lived in the Dakotas, its different here. We know just what its going to be like, we vacationed at Big Bear this last winter to get a good idea. Oh nonono we wont need a block heater we have indoor parking. I just hope they dont run into Monica on their way for morning coffee.

The shopping mall was invented in Minnesota - because there are (on average) only 126 good shopping days in a year.

Okay but everything about Atsali and Nadette is just adorable on this page, I love those two so much

There it is.

Dave wrote:The actual rule is "Never stand by Monica Villarreal when cool weather approaches."

I think the rule is more like: never stand close to Monica, while discussing how nice the pre, or post winter weather is. Unless you're Jaqui.

(The links are all consecutive, in the comic... I didn't have time to search for more examples)

The other rule is, don't taunt the weather.

But winter is a safe season.

(So I did take the time, after all. But I don't have time to find the last one I was looking for, where Monica and Jin are on the island, and they discuss how the weather attacks Monica personally...)

yep the weather god just loves 'messing' with Monica...
It was Shelly's fault for being 'overconfident' - she had not noticed the ice patch...

AnotherFairportfan wrote:The shopping mall was invented in Minnesota - because there are (on average) only 126 good shopping days in a year.

The shopping mall was invented in Mesquite TX, with the draw that "they airconditioned the sidewalks!" It was torn down a few years ago because building such a large structure and making it last a long time wasn't as well understood then as it is now and the structure was getting dangerously shabby. It was quite the thing when it was new.

EDIT: we were both wrong, Wisconsin was first https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shopping_mall Big Town in Mesquite didn't open until 4 years later.

Opus the Poet wrote:

AnotherFairportfan wrote:The shopping mall was invented in Minnesota - because there are (on average) only 126 good shopping days in a year.

The shopping mall was invented in Mesquite TX, with the draw that "they airconditioned the sidewalks!" It was torn down a few years ago because building such a large structure and making it last a long time wasn't as well understood then as it is now and the structure was getting dangerously shabby. It was quite the thing when it was new.

EDIT: we were both wrong, Wisconsin was first https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shopping_mall Big Town in Mesquite didn't open until 4 years later.

The next sentence after the one that mentions the Wisconsin one says

The idea of a regionally-sized, fully enclosed shopping complex was pioneered in 1956 by the Austrian-born architect and American immigrant Victor Gruen.[20] This new generation of regional-size shopping centers began with the Gruen-designed Southdale Center, which opened in the Twin Cities suburb of Edina, Minnesota, United States in October 1956. For pioneering the soon-to-be enormously popular mall concept in this form, Gruen has been called the "most influential architect of the twentieth century" by Malcolm Gladwell.

From the Wikipedia article on Southdale:

Southdale Center, colloquially known as Southdale, is a shopping mall located in Edina, Minnesota, a suburb of the Twin Cities. It opened in 1956 and is one of the oldest fully enclosed malls, and the first climate-controlled one, in the United States.

which, i'd say, makes it the first true modern mall.

And, as i said, it was built in response to the tendency for the weather in the Twin Cities to not be particularly salubrious for shopping roughly two-thirds of the year.

And the reason i know about it, and that "only-126-days-of-good-shopping-weather" is that i just ran across an online piece about it, in honour of its sixtieth anniversary last Friday. (Which i can't find now.)

EDIT: to fix brain fart.

And Wikipedia describes the Northgate Mall, north of Seattle, as "one of the first post-war, suburban mall-type shopping centers in the United States" when it opened in 1950.

--FreeFlier

Also, Valley Fair (with 55 stores and services at its peak) is one-level, opened with six stores, and was 265,000 square feet at its peak, whereas Southland is three-level, 800,000 square feet at opening (1,300,000 these days) and opened with 72 stores.

This is Valley Fair in 2012:



This is Southdale (date unknown, but the Saturn display says it had to be pre-2009)

FreeFlier wrote:And Wikipedia describes the Northgate Mall, north of Seattle, as "one of the first post-war, suburban mall-type shopping centers in the United States" when it opened in 1950.

--FreeFlier

That article says that Northgate wasn't even partially enclosed until 1962, while Southgate was fully enclosed from the beginning.

The "Miracle Mall" concourse had been partially enclosed with a "SkyShield" structure in 1962. This was replaced in 1973-1974, with the mall corridor being fully enclosed.

It was originally a bunch of stores built in one place, with a central (open walkway), single floor, basically just a big open-air shopping center:



Southgate was the first modern fully-enclosed, multi-story mall that designed that way from the beginning.

Nah, I much prefer Nicolette Mall!
http://wapsisquare.com/comic/a-warning/

illiad wrote:Nah, I much prefer Nicolet Mall!
http://wapsisquare.com/comic/a-warning/

FTFY.

Nicolet Avenue is named for one of the early French explorers who visited the convergence of the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers.

FreeFlier wrote:And Wikipedia describes the Northgate Mall, north of Seattle, as "one of the first post-war, suburban mall-type shopping centers in the United States" when it opened in 1950.

--FreeFlier

i went there a lot to see movies at the theater while i was in the Navy up in Everette, that is, until they tore it down. but while it was still there i was told by some native Seattlites that the Northgate mall was the first Mall to have a movie theater attached (or maybe just on the lot but in a separate building/ or whatever)

I'm not sure about the accuracy of that statement though...

scantrontb wrote:

FreeFlier wrote:And Wikipedia describes the Northgate Mall, north of Seattle, as "one of the first post-war, suburban mall-type shopping centers in the United States" when it opened in 1950.

i went there a lot to see movies at the theater while i was in the Navy up in Everette, that is, until they tore it down.

Tore what down?

Northgate is still there, as is the much-closer Everett mall.

scantrontb wrote: . . . but while it was still there i was told by some native Seattlites that the Northgate mall was the first Mall to have a movie theater attached (or maybe just on the lot but in a separate building/ or whatever)

I'm not sure about the accuracy of that statement though...

The Northgate Theater was a separate building . . . Everett and Alderwood malls put them in the mall itself, though eventually the theater at Everett Mall moved out to the west, then back in . . .

--FreeFlier

jwhouk: thnx

FreeFlier wrote:Tore what down?

Northgate is still there, as is the much-closer Everett mall.

oh yeah i know the MALL is still there, but they tore down the theater a long time ago to remodel the whole mall as a more modern /upscale place. the new theater is ridiculously expensive now... i went there ONCE, and for a matinee on a weekday it was like 12 or 13 bucks JUST for the ticket for a regular 2D movie... sorry, i'll go to the Commons Mall theater for 8.50 or to the 2-buck theater across the street from the Commons Mall when i see a movie now-days, (especially since i live there in Federal Way now )

FreeFlier wrote:

scantrontb wrote: . . . but while it was still there i was told by some native Seattlites that the Northgate mall was the first Mall to have a movie theater attached (or maybe just on the lot but in a separate building/ or whatever)

I'm not sure about the accuracy of that statement though...

The Northgate Theater was a separate building . . . Everett and Alderwood malls put them in the mall itself, though eventually the theater at Everett Mall moved out to the west, then back in . . .

--FreeFlier

right... i was referring to the statement that the N.G.M. possibly had the first movie theater ON THE LOT itself, rather than the theater just being "near-by" the Mall on separate property like others in that era. and THAT was what i wasn't sure about...

on a slightly tangent topic: from your knowledge of the area's malls, etc... are you local(-ish) to Washington?

scantrontb wrote: . . . on a slightly tangent topic: from your knowledge of the area's malls, etc... are you local(-ish) to Washington?

I could tell you that, but then I'd have to kill you.

Wolf-who-watches wrote:

--FreeFlier