Alabama gets a lot of tornadoes. (An AL.com article reminded me of this recently, with a severe forecast for the upcoming 2015 secondary tornado season.) [embeddoc url=”https://www.acanuckamuck.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Improved_Average_Annual_Tornado_Reports.pdf”] It’s in the central U.S., a region stretching from Texas in the west to the Appalachian foothills in the east, and from the Gulf Coast in the south, up to the Great Lakes in… Read more →
Category: Alabama
Walking, running & cycling in Birmingham
So, you’ve just arrived in the city and you’re a regular walker, runner or a cyclist? Awesome! Here’s a few things to get you oriented. Places to walk, run or ride: As an industrial city that matured in the 1920s, and that then experienced white flight to the suburbs in the seventies and eighties, this region is built for people who have… Read more →
The Machine in Alabama politics
“The first rule of Fight Club is: You do not talk about Fight Club. The second rule of Fight Club is: You do not talk about Fight Club.” — Tyler Durden, in the 1999 film, Fight Club. The same rule applies to The Machine. The Machine consists of representatives from 28 white fraternities and sororities (out of 65) at the University of… Read more →
Birmingham transit – a trail of tears
When I married, moved to Birmingham, and returned to school, my original plan was to take the bus to and from my suburban apartment to the downtown UAB campus. I was a heavy transit user in Toronto, using the city buses and subway when my destination was too far to reach easily on my bike. In my inner west end… Read more →
Fair weather drivers
Southerners are fair weather drivers. They get timid when it rains, and snow? Forget it. As a northerner, it took me a while to understand why everyone gets very excited leading up to winter storms. Grocery stores are cleared out of bread, eggs and milk. Batteries? Good luck. And getting your hands on salt, sand, snow melters or traction aids?… Read more →
Welcome to the ‘ham
Birmingham, that is. So, you’ve come here from outside the U.S. You want to get a grip on why things work the way they do here. Stick with me, baby, we’ll walk your newcomer butt through the essential intricacies of this town. There’s lots you don’t know, and no one is going tell you, because, to them, it’s so obvious. Read more →