DISQUS

I didn think you were tearing them down. Kewanee is probably on the better end of some Illinois small towns. A lot of small towns are like "Ghost Towns" (which I find sad). I know it sounds like a Mellencamp song, but I grew up in a small town, I went to school in a small town, and I find it sad to see them disappearing.

It would be interesting to see you views on small towns in a post in the future. I went to school in Kirksville, Mo and it was interesting to see how a Super Wal Mart transformed that town. In the age of bailout and stimilus, it is interesting what is being done to save small towns. Especially in a tech age as today when people could work from home in more affordable rural areas.

I found your description of Kewanee, IL being "economically depressed" kind of interesting. Having grown-up "downstate" and driven through many towns like this across the state, and I just called them small town. With Kewanee having Goods Department store, they seem to be on the better side of this term. It seems like most rural Illinois towns could be considered "economically depressed" these days. Kewanee atleast seems to have attracted a niche tourist market for their Goods department store. The store even boast a bed and breakfast where you can stay in the store overnight in a sample room. Rumor has it that Michael Jordan had even stayed theren when picking out furniture for his Highland Park house.

Unless these towns could find a niche market to attract people like a special resturant or store, or have been absorbed into a greater metropolitian area (like many towns in the Chicago area), most small towns these days could be considered "economically depressed". I would have to say that Standard City, IL/Nilwood, IL where my dad grew up would definately be classified under this title. They are like Illinois Ghost Towns.

Happy belated birthday! Steve!

Along the lines of the apps you listed, I noticed that Zinio.com has made some of their offering available for free on the web. I though you would appreciate this because of your librarian background and because of the real look and feel of the magazines they put out there. There is a hack to get it using the Safari browser and note 2 of the 16 selections are for more of a mature audience. However, try the link www.zinio.com/iphone on your Touch. You will get a different interface than if you try the link through Mozilla IE/Mozilla. You can access it in Safari by adding the develop option to the menu bar and then selecting the Iphone interface. I really enjoyed reading US News and Men's Health on this site. Would like to see more offerings in the future.