Yearly Archives: 2009

Wings of Progress

Are they claws? Antennae? Batman? Rochester's Times Square building is best known for its Wings of Progress The building, commissioned in 1928 and built as the country plunged into depression, was meant to symbolize, along with the statue of Mercury across the street, Rochester's position as a technological and economic leader. The bank that built the tower fell in the bank runs of 1930, and it's held a variety of banks and offices ever since. Obviously, this is a building best left to tours, but if you get the opportunity, I would recommend seeing it. The basement, which was a…

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Slime

I'd just like to take this opportunity to let some people know how I feel about that UER meet this weekend. I don't know whether to call it discrimination, bad blood, or just bad luck, but it needs to be known that these people left me in Holley, 23 miles from Rochester, and it only gets worse from there. It started out like every other monthly meeting, with coffee and bagels and deciding where to go which is mostly bragging about what everyone else found. For once I had something to bring to the table, I've got some new drains…

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Physical Culture

While its earliest origins were as a home for injured Civil War veterans and an asylum for children, the Castle on the Hill gained its greatest notoriety as a Physical Culture spa, or 'healthatorium'. Led by the highly eccentric Bernar'r Macfadden, Physical Culture combined bodybuilding, ascetic fasting and a strict raw food diet. An incredibly prolific writer, Bernar'r wrote about 115 books, copies of which used to be stacked by the thousands in his publishing house (which burned down in 2006) behind the sanatorium. Guests here included most of Wall Street and Broadway in the '20s and '30s, at the…

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Introducing IOLA

Third meet of the UER season, and a chance to meet some new explorers. NeonTempest wanted to introduce us to this place, the Iola Sanatorium, to show us what "real exploring" was like. Which, to him, meant something like park a mile away with 12 people, and march right onto the grounds in the plainest sight possible. Just to take us straight downstairs into this. The whole point of going was these tunnels, blocked off with fresh new cinder blocks. So we get to try another entrance, going through this just to find more cinder blocks. By the time he's…

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Sykes Datatronics

You have dialed 716 458 8000, Sykes Datatronics' demonstration number for Comm-Net 3000. Press 1 for English. Нажмите 2 для русского. 日本人はを押してください 3. I'm sorry, 6 is not a valid option. Please hold. Comm-Net 3000 is a national leader in automated voice response systems. Press 4 to learn more. Press 5 to learn even more. Press 6 to learn more than you ever wanted to know. For all of the above, please stay on the line. I'm sorry, *HANG UP* is not a valid option. Please refer to the User Guide, or press 6 for an overview of all options…

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Buffalo Malt

A Monday afternoon skip class and explore trip with MidnightGenius from UER. Our first target was the giant grain elevators. Then this happened. While about to give up, we just happened to run into the Buffalo Malt tower. The place was pretty well trashed and gutted, but at least it was big Probably the most interesting thing about it was this thing on the roof, with thousands and thousands of glass tubes This was in the basement for some reason More crap photos here. I really need to get a proper camera and/or a bit of creativity.

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