The Horror

Here is a horrifically entertaining way to kick off your Halloween day: James Howard Kunstler’s “Eyesore of the Month.” October’s Eyesore is a drive-thru ATM machine in Caseyville, Illinois. Kunstler writes:

The Ionic columns are a nice touch. What I like best is that only two
of them are required to hold up the massive roof of the structure. It’s
like a magic trick. Children love magic. . . and the American people
are uniformly very childlike, so this is perfect for them. The
mysterious green metallic object in the traffic circle is another nice
touch, lending an appropriately ominous note to the scene.

Of course, for a real dose of terror, you’ve got to read his weekly column…

When
historians glance back at 2007 through the haze of their coal-fired
stoves, they will mark this year as the onset of the Long Emergency –
or whatever they choose to call the unraveling of industrial economies
and the complex systems that constituted them. And if they retain any
sense of humor – which is very likely since, as wise Sam Beckett once
averred, nothing is funnier than unhappiness – they will chuckle at the assumptions that drove the doings and mental operations of those in charge back then (i.e. now).