So, I'm on this art deco kick, and I'm walking through downtown to get lunch. I notice that the county jail is a very nice retro deco building. A little deco light, mostly in brick, with a forced perspective wall. Looks very nice.
I walk past the R J Reynolds building. This building was built in '28 or something, the deco heydays. It has lots of supurflous engraving around the door, and gergous modling over the ground floor windows. It is also the model for the Empire State building. It was designed by the same firm. The R J R building was built first, and isn't as tall, but looks just like the Empire State building.
I notice a mural in the lobby and figure I will just look around. I go in and see that they have an exhibition hall in the lobby. I'm sure it has lots of silly tobacco stuff, but I'm interested in the deco architecture.
The tubby, rent-a-cop at the front desk tells me the hall isn't open to the public since Sept. 11. ***? This is R J Reynolds. A company that won't be around to employ my children. In a building that isn't the best of terrorist targets in Winston-Salem. There is, after all, the Wachovia and BB&T corporate headquarters in much larger buildings just a few blocks away. But this is Winston-Salem, which isn't even the best target in North Carolina (Charlotte is bigger, but we have several military bases and a nuclear reactor). And North Carolina by far is not the best state to target.
Am I carrying a bomb? No. Then let me look at the freaking architecture. The rest of you pansy whimps can go cower in fear just because someone told you to.
