Dear trick-or-treaters,

Why don't you ever come to my door? I've got lots of candy for good boys and girls. Bwahahah!

corner view: exotic

Exotic is a matter of perception. When I lived in China, my colleagues couldn't believe that I was taking pictures of people buying cabbage, hair salon signs, and mah-jongg players -- all very ordinary things to them. Like most people, I guess, I don't think of my hometown as being that exotic either. However, when I have foreign guests visit me, I'm always fascinated by the exotic things they find on my streets:

(1) Squirrels....the bane of my existence; hours of delight for my friends:

 (2) Fire hydrants. "You really have them? They aren't just in the movies?"

(3) Why all the fire hydrants? Because our houses are made of WOOD!

(4) Drive-thrus. Yes, I've taken foreign guests through the fast-food drive-thrus and the bank drive-thrus so that they could go home and say that they had done it. Here's one you might not have expected: a dry cleaning drive-thru.

(5) Farms. When my friend from NYC visited, we had to find a field and a large grocery store for her -- two things they don't have in her Manhattan neighborhood.

(6) Antiques. My Chinese students are fascinated by these family hand-me-downs. Since their grandparents had to dispose of their old furniture or be persecuted for holding on to manifestations of traditional thinking during the Cultural Revolution, my 19-year-old students have never seen antiques in homes. (P.S. I just learned that the nickname of the houseplant in this picture is "Mother-in-Law's Tongue.")

I'm really looking forward to seeing other interpretations of exotic this week for Corner View. Why don't you hop on for a ride around the world?

Lawrence sheds

Lawrence: Where "I'm taking you to the woodshed" is a truly risky proposition.

The house with this shed is on sale. Who would want to deal with this structure in the backyard?

Help! I need an intervention! I can't stop taking pictures of scary-looking sheds.

 As long as the mice stay in these sheds and not in my basement, that's good enough for me.

Front porches!

If one is good, isn't a double one better?

Half-wrap.

And here, the granddaddy of them all, the full wrap:

Art deco love

Fire Department!

Office building

Elementary school. I want to give them an anonymous donation of art deco address numbers.

Two of the best things I've ever seen for sale at a flea market. (Florence, Italy).

Coolest fence ever?

I can't believe I wasted my time trolling around my neighborhood searching for cool fences, when possibly the coolest one ever was just across the river.

The homeowner caught me taking this picture and was proud to tell me that the fence is made out of the insides of pianos. How cool is that? (Answer: very)

Dear white picket fences,

A white picket fence done right! Love every cottage-y inche (<-- that's the English spelling) of you.

And another one done right!

And a third done right. If you are going to have a white picket fence, put colorful flowers in front of it, I say.

And one just kind of undone.

Centennial Park

A few weeks ago another town asked that we donate our submarine-launched Polaris missle to a park and museum that they are building. People were outraged, OUTRAGED, I say, by such an outrageous request. Anyway, I felt it was time to check out the missle in person. It's definitely an odd centerpiece for a park (although, I guess cannons are equally odd, now that I think about it). I wouldn't mind donating it to the other town, except for the fact that it would leave us defenseless against the Commie submarines lurking in the Kaw River.

Here it is, in all its phallic glory. Now I understand why all the men in town were so upset about the possibility of having this taken away.

I was pleased to see this skate park, because I had always wondered if Lawrence had one.

This park also hosts a disc (frisbee) golf course. I thought it was a joke and was surprised to see three different people (on a Thursday morning) out practicing. I even saw one guy stretching before he got to the first tee. I wonder if they have caddies? It probably wasn't cool to take my dog out in the middle of their frisbee course, but someone had to rid the park of squirrels, right?  Certified squirrel-free:

fence variety

Why did I start creeping around the alleys in my neighborhood, camera in hand? Well, I don't like my boring panels of fencing, and was looking for a different design. Man, did I hit the jackpot. Who knew that there could be such a variety in fences?

Now, all I want to do it see what is so worth blocking the view.

Do you have a favorite?

Corner view: October

When I was a kid -- 30 (or so) years ago -- decorating for Halloween meant carving a pumpkin a few days before the 31st and putting a candle in it. Now, it's a whole other world. A few samples from my corner of the world:

I saw the dad setting these up. I have to say, he seemed a lot more interested in it than his son did.

These decorations look more friendly than scary.

I hope these are Halloween decorations and not unwanted guests!

For a little less scary look at October throughout the world, visit Francesca's website for more corner views.