The urban sprawl continues, of which I am a part of course, having built a home in the ‘burbs. That’s inevitable I suppose. But the thing that gets me is the big-box stores. Especially Wal-Mart. Whatever you believe about its effects on the economy, and workers, there’s just no denying that those stores are just big ugly eyesores. They’re huge, it’s like a football field of crap in there. Whatever happened to having a second story? I mean when you build a home, there’s no more expensive one to build than a bungalow (I’m told that’s because of the larger roof and foundation which tend to be the expensive bits), that’s why most homes have a second story. What’s the matter with a second story on a Wal-Mart and having some frigging architecture, instead of looking like a factory? I’m not saying that Wal-Marts should look like the Taj Mahal, but since they take up so much of the available space, wouldn’t it help everyone if they were nicer to look at? It might make going there a little more enjoyable, instead of feeling like I’m herding my family towards the rendering plant.

Anyway, you know there’s too many of these things when you can’t even have a decent plane crash without hitting one. I mean, come on. You fall out of the sky, and can’t manage to miss hitting one. I wonder what the math is on how many square miles of the Earth is covered by Wal-Mart stores. It’s a sad state of affairs.