After Saturday’s house cleaning adventure, Sunday just had to be a play day, so Anne and I went biking in the Park.  Although the sun was brightly shining, temperatures in the low forties and a north wind made things a wee bit on the cool side.  It was good to get out, even though we both had aches and pains from our previous day’s house cleaning exertions.

Today’s header shows Steinberg Ice Rink.  Like the Winter Olympics, Sunday was Steinberg’s last day too.  Unlike Vancouver, Saint Louis this winter has been cooler then usual.  We are supposed to be having highs in the fifties at this time of year, but instead we are running about ten degrees cooler than that.

Anne took this picture of the Saint Louis Science Center’s hyperboloid of one sheet structure.  I like the way that the shadow cuts across it, bisecting the structure.  This particular building is the James S. McDonnell Planetarium.

James S. McDonnell or old man Mac or more simply Mac, was the founder of the McDonnell Aircraft Company.  McDonnell Aircraft or McAir as it was also known first acquired Douglas Aircraft and became know as McDonnell Douglas Corporation.  Later McDonnell Douglas was itself acquired by Boeing.  When I first moved to Saint Louis, I worked at McAir and I can recall Mac coming over the PA system with his signature opening line, “This is Mac addressing the team.”  We were all teammates back then.

Mac was a believer in the occult.  He named all of this airplanes after supernatural beings or practices, Demon, Banshee, Voodoo and of course the Phantom.  First the Air Force and then the Navy called a halt to this practice and mandated more prosaic names like Eagle and Hornet.  Undeterred, Mac detailed one of his scientists to research the psychic sciences.  He did so until the old man’s retirement.  I met this guy years later.

The original plan for Sunday’s ride was fifteen miles and then lunch at the Velocity Cafe.  When it became time for lunch we exited the Park at De Baliviere, only to find, horrors of horrors, the Velocity Cafe has closed.   After we recovered from our shock, we backtracked to the Central West End and headed to the Majestic for lunch instead.  The Majestic has been open since 1961, so it is better able to weather this economic storm than the much newer Velocity Cafe was able to.  Anne and I got nineteen miles.